[May 24, 2010 update: added additional information to the Extended Support section, and corrected the implications for patch requests for 10.2.0.4] Regular readers know that Premier Support for the Oracle 10gR2 Database ends in July 2010, a scant few months from now.  What does that mean for E-Business Suite environments running on this database? The Oracle E-Business Suite is comprised of products like Financials, Supply Chain, Procurement, and so on.  Support windows for the E-Business Suite and these associated applications products are listed here: The Oracle E-Business Suite can run on a variety of database releases, including 10gR2, 11gR1, and 11gR2.  Support windows for database releases are listed here: Looking at those two documents together, you’ll see that:
  • Premier Support for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i ends on November 30, 2010
  • Premier Support for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 ends on January 31, 2012
  • Premier Support for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 ends on May 31, 2014
  • Premier Support for Oracle Database 10.2 (a.k.a. 10gR2) ends on July 31, 2010
[Note: These are the Premier Support dates as of today.  If you’ve arrived at this article in the future via a search engine, you must check the latest dates in the Lifetime Support Policy documents above; these dates are subject to change.] It’s a bit hard to read, thanks to the layout restrictions of this blog, but the following diagram shows the Premier and Extended Support windows for the last four major database releases certified with Apps 11i:  
database-support-windows.png
Do the EBS Premier Support dates trump the 10gR2 DB date? No.  Each of the support policies apply individually to your combined EBS + DB configuration.  The support dates for a given EBS release don’t override the Database support policy. It might be useful for me to break an example down in more detail: your E-Business Suite Release 11i environment will be eligible for Premier Support up to November 30, 2010, but your 10gR2 database will be eligible for Premier Support only up to July 31, 2010.  Therefore, let’s assume that you’re still running Apps 11i on 10.2.0.4 DB on August 1st, 2010.  On that date, your Apps 11i code will be covered by Premier Support.  Your 10.2.0.4 DB will be covered by Extended Support. The differences between Premier and Extended Support coverage are summarized here (see the Lifetime Support Policy document for the product of your choice for a more detailed discussion of these coverages):
 

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First year of Extended Support fees for 10gR2 waived Regular readers may recall that fees for the first year of Extended Support for the 10gR2 database are waived.  There is nothing that customers need to do to remain fully supported other than keep your support contracts current.  Higher fees for Extended Support will start August 1, 2011 for most platforms.  This is formally documented in two different places, for those of you who appreciate convergent validation: There is an effort underway to lobby the Server Technologies group to update their Lifetime Support Policy document with that information, too. What should EBS customers running 10gR2 do? Given that the clock for Premier Support is running out on both EBS 11i and the 10gR2 database this year, I’d recommend that EBS 11i customers start planning upgrades to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 immediately.  If you’re in that boat, as part of that upgrade, you should also consider whether you wish to upgrade your database to either 11gR1 or 11gR2.  If your Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 environment is running on the 10gR2 database, you should start planning to upgrade your database either to 11gR1 or 11gR2 immediately. 11gR2 will give you the longest support window, but has relatively fewer EBS customers on it than 11gR1.  If you opt for 11gR1, plan to use 11.1.0.7, since 11.1.0.6 is no longer eligible for Premier Support under the Server Technologies Group’s support policies for previous patchsets. Here’s a summary of our EBS database certification roadmap from my EBS Certifications snapshot from April 2010 (which you should review, if you haven’t already done so):   certification roadmap as of April 2010″ class=”mt-image-center” height=”273″ src=”/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2025/10/ebs_database_roadmap.png” style=”text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0pt auto 20px;” width=”500″> Where can I find EBS database upgrade information? DB 10.2.0.5 certification for EBS underway As you can see in the roadmap diagram above, the terminal release for the 10gR2 database line is expected to be the 10.2.0.5 patchset.  It’s expected that you will need to be on this patchset level to request 10gR2 fixes during the Extended Support support window. Customers running 10.2.0.4 will be able to request patches for that patchset for one year from the April 30, 2010 release of the 10.2.0.5 patchset.  Customers running 10.2.0.4 can continue to do so without any disruption until May 1, 2011. Our certification of 10.2.0.5 with the E-Business Suite is underway now.  Oracle’s Revenue Recognition rules prohibit us from discussing certification and release dates, but you’re welcome to monitor or subscribe to this blog for updates, which I’ll post as soon as soon as they’re available.    DB 11.2.0.2 certification for EBS underway To head off the inevitable follow-up questions:  the latest 11gR2 database release certified with the E-Business Suite is 11.2.0.1 today.  We’re working on our certification with 11.2.0.2 right now.  As for dates, the same disclaimer above applies here; I can’t share any projected certification dates for 11.2.0.2, either.  Stay tuned to this blog for updates. Related Articles
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