[February 11, 2010 Update: Replaced outdated table with new table showing differences between support levels]
I’ve previously noted that E-Business Suite sysadmins need to monitor Oracle’s Support Coverage windows for different
parts of their environments.  Important milestones for the end of Premier Support for 11.5.7 and 11.5.8 are nearing.

Premier Support for the E-Business Suite will end for:
  • 11.5.7 on May 31, 2007
  • 11.5.8 on November 30, 2007.
What Does This Really Mean?

The following document is mandatory
reading for all Apps sysadmins: 
It contains specifics
about support coverage dates for E-Business Suite releases, Database
releases, and Fusion Middleware releases.  It also contains the
definitions for critical terms such as Premier Support, Extended
Support, and Sustaining Support.

Sustaining Support for these releases starts when Premier Support ends.  Under Sustaining Support, you’ll still be able to contact Oracle Support and get help with diagnosing your issues.  You’ll still have access to existing patches, workarounds, and Notes.

However, if you discover a new issue — one that needs a new patch — then you’ll first be advised to upgrade to a release that’s still in Premier Support status.   If you run into this situation, by the way, my advice would be to bite
the bullet and upgrade all the way to 11.5.10 with Consolidated Update 2 (CU2) or Release 12. 
There’s no real advantage in upgrading from, say, 11.5.7 to 11.5.9 at
this point.

Most importantly, you should remember this:
  • Sustaining Support doesn’t include new updates, fixes, security alerts, and critical patch updates.
If you’re still on either 11.5.7 or 11.5.8, I fervently hope that none of this is news to you, and that your upgrades are already under way.  Good luck!

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