Database Upgrades – Flu Shots or Flu?

The new year is upon us and people are starting to ramp up their IT projects for 2017. Is a database upgrade on  your list of projects? Unless you’re running Oracle 12.1.0.2 across the board in  your data center, it should be!

I was answering some Oracle upgrade questions today when it occurred to me that database upgrades are either a Flu Shot or a Flu decision. I see people all the time that refuse to upgrade their Oracle databases on a regular basis. I still field questions from people running Oracle 10.2, or (shudder) 9i, or (VERY BIG SHUDDER) 8i! Things are working great, database upgrades are a big pain to perform, so they leave it alone. Then the next thing they know, they are lagging very far behind. So what does this have to do with the Flu?

Every year, you can get a flu shot. Sure, you get poked with a needle and experience some pain. You may even have a few minor flu-like symptoms causing you some discomfort. But people put up with the flu shot and all its complications because getting the flu itself is so much worse.

If you upgrade regularly, its like getting a flu shot. At my company, they were running Oracle 11.1.0.7 when I started working here. I upgraded everything to 11.2.0.2 (skipped 11.2.0.1) and then to 11.2.0.3 and then to 11.2.0.4 and then to 12.1.0.2 (skipped 12.1.0.1). Yes, each upgrade had its share of pain points, but they were minor compared to upgrading from 9.2 to 12.1.0.2. Such a big upgrade is like getting the flu. Keeping regular with your database versions is like getting the flu shot.
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You should either be running Oracle 12.1.0.2 in  your data center across the board or making plans to do so. Notice I said “in your data center” and that’s because 12.2 is only available in the cloud as I write this. Oracle currently supports 11.2.0.4 and 12.1.0.2 for on-premise deployments. But 11.2.0.4 is currently on free Extended Support and that free period expires in less than 5 months. It can take that long to roll the upgrade through development, into test, and into production, and sort out any issues you have.

So begin upgrade plans today. Work towards getting all Oracle databases running the 12.1.0.2 version in your data center. If you’re upgrading to 12.1.0.2, then you can only perform a direct upgrade from 10.2.0.5, 11.1.0.7, 11.2.0.2 or later, or 12.1.0.1 otherwise direct upgrade is not supported.

Once you get to 12.1.0.2, look at how your organization can benefit from regular flu shots. If 12.1.0.3 is released,  you can be sure that it will be on my radar to move towards.