What's New : Release Schedule of Current Database Releases

What's New

The most recent changes will be highlighted with a "New" or "Updated" icon to help you quickly identify the modifications.  (For a history of modifications, see the Change Record Table at the bottom of the document.)

New 

·   August 2021: Oracle Database 21c (21.3) released on Linux.

·       June 2021: Oracle will use best effort to support the Oracle 12.1.0.2 Database on Microsoft Windows until July 2022. See Table 1

·    May 2021: Oracle Instant Client 19.10 released on Linux on ARM

May 2021: Oracle is not planning to release 21c on IBM AIX Power Systems and IBM Linux on System Z

Oracle is mindful of the unprecedented economic and business disruption our customers faced in 2020. We decided to not promote our Database 20c Preview version to General Availability. Instead, we incorporated all of the 20c functionality into the 21c release and made 21c available initially in our Autonomous Database Free Tier so that all can test drive the new features and enhancements for free.

Oracle recommends the following upgrade options:

• For product longevity and patching, Oracle strongly recommends upgrading to 19c which is the Long Term Release with a support end date of April 30, 2027 (or April 30, 2024 if you choose not to pay Extended Support fees or purchase a ULA).
• If you are currently running 11.2.x/12.1.x you will need to upgrade to the terminal release (i.e. 11.2.0.4/12.1.0.2) for the DB Release you are running and then continue the upgrade process by upgrading to the 19c.
• If you are currently running 12.2.0.1 or 18c, you should upgrade to 19c without delay.  18c is in Sustaining Support.

For questions related to certification combinations and Lifetime Support agreements with other Oracle products like Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle JD Edwards, Oracle PeopleSoft, and Oracle Siebel, please contact your Oracle Account Representative.

Patching End Dates for Roadmap

Release	Patching End Date	Notes and Exceptions
21cInnovation Release	April 30, 2024	Error Correction / Patching is available until April 30, 2024 21c is not eligible for Extended Support (ES) Only quarterly Release Updates (RUs) are provided for 21c. Release Update Revisions (RURs) are limited to Long Term Releases.
19c Long Term Release	April 30, 2024 with no ES/ULA April 30, 2027 with ES/ULA	Premier Support (PS) ends April 30, 2024, Extended Support (ES) fees will be required beginning May 01, 2024 through April 30, 2027 Error Correction / Patching is available through April 30, 2027 with paid ES. Without paid ES, patching is only available until April 30, 2024
18c Innovation Release	Jun 30, 2021	Error Correction / Patching was available until Jun 30, 2021. 18c is now in Sustaining Support. 18c is not eligible for Extended Support (ES)
12.2.0.1	March 31, 2022 (Limited Error Correction from Dec 1, 2020 through March 31, 2022)	Error Correction / Patching is available until Nov 30, 2020 Limited Error Correction (Sev 1 and Security Updates only)    See Note 161818.1 for details. 12.2.0.1 is not eligible for Extended Support (ES)
12.1.0.2 Terminal Release	Jul 31, 2022 with paid ES, ULA, or EBS waiver	Premier Support (PS) ended Jul 31, 2018 and one year of free Extended Support (ES) was in effect until July 31, 2019. ES fees or a ULA was required beginning 01-Aug-2019 through 31-Jul-2022. Without paid ES or ULA, patching ends 31-Jul-2019.   We have a global ES uplift fee waiver in place for E-Business customers, see details and dates of expiration see: Extended Support Fee Waiver for Oracle Database 12.1 and 11.2 for Oracle E-Business Suite (Doc ID 2522948.1) or Technical Support Policy Document. * One additional year (01-Aug-2021 through 31-July-2022) has been added to the 12.1.0.2 DB Extended Support time frame with the following exceptions: Apple Macintosh platform patching end date (Error Correction end date) is July 31, 2021.  Microsoft Windows platform exception has changed.  Regardless of the version used to run the 12.1.0.2 Database, Oracle built the 12.1.0.2 Database on Microsoft Windows 2008  This platform reached end-of-life support on January 14, 2020. However, we will make reasonable efforts to deliver patches for the Database 12.1.0.2 on Windows until July 2022, as long as our tooling continues to function.
12.1.0.1	Aug 31, 2016	Error Correction / Patching has ended for this release 12.1.0.1 is not eligible for Extended Support (ES) 12.1.0.1 was the last release of Standard Edition (SE) and Standard Edition One (SE1)
11.2.0.4 Terminal Release for 11.2	Dec 31, 2020 (with paid Extended Support or ULA Extended Support or EBS Waiver) Dec 31, 2022 (with Market Driven Support) Dec 31, 2021 for the OpenVMS platform	Premier Support (PS) ended 31-Jan-2015 and one year of free Extended Support (ES) was in effect until Dec 31, 2018. ES fees or a ULA was required beginning Jan 1, 2019 through Dec 31, 2020. At the end of ES, Market Driven Support (MDS) will be available for two additional years. See https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/ds-mds-database-11g-r2.pdf Oracle has a global Extended Support Uplift Fee waiver in place for E-Business customers, see details and dates of expiration see: Extended Support Fee Waiver for Oracle Database 12.1 and 11.2 for Oracle E-Business Suite (Doc ID 2522948.1) or Technical Support Policy Document. Gen 1 and Gen 2 ExaCC, OCC DBCS, OCI DBCS,OCI ExaCS and ODA had 3 additional months of Extended Support. The end of Extended Support for 11.2.0.4 databases on these platforms was: 31-March 2021. New instances could be created up until the end of extended support; however, Oracle makes no commitment that any 11.2.0.4 DBCS instances will continue to run after the end of Support. Market Driven Support is only available for the following Database Cloud Services: Gen 1 and Gen 2 ExaCC, OCC DBCS, OCI DBCS (non-PSM), OCI ExaCS.  New instances can be created up until the end of Market Driven Support.  Oracle makes no commitment that any 11.2.0.4 DBCS instances will continue to run after the end of MDS support. Market Driven Support is not available for PSM-based OCI DBCS, OCI-C DBCS and OCI-C ExaCS. 11.2.0.4 is the terminal release on OpenVMS. During calendar year 2021, customer will receive Severity 1 Fixes and Security Updates for no additional fees beyond standard Premier Support costs. Coverage does not extend to new certifications, third-party products, or any Java/JDK functionality including Java components embedded in the database. Coverage also excludes any updates related to cryptography and network encryption. This offering does not include standard Security Patch Updates (SPUs).

Change History (2020 -2021)

Date	What Changed?
13-Aug-2021	Oracle Database 21.3 released on Linux with a patching end date of April 30, 2024
08-Jun-2021	Oracle will use best effort to support the Oracle 12.1.0.2 Database on Microsoft Windows until July 2022.  See Table 1 above.
03-Jun-2021	Added Market Driven Support is not available for PSM-based OCI DBCS, in 11.2.0.4
05-May-2021	Oracle Instant Client 19.10 released on Linux on ARM
04-May-2021	Oracle is not planning to release 21c on IBM AIX Power Systems and IBM Linux on System Z (Added link to Doc ID 2766930.1 05/06/2021)
16-Dec-2020	Updated Table 1 11.2.0.4 Market Driven Support bullet for Database Cloud Services
08-Dec-2020	Updated Roadmap, Added 21c information
23-Nov-2020	Changed end date for 18c from June 08, 2021 to June 30, 2021 to match contract date requirements.
12-Oct-2020	Added OpenVMS Itanium Support dates that will extend their support until Dec 31, 2021.  See Table 1 - 11.2.0.4 section above.
02-Sep-2020	Added additional information around 11.2.0.4 DBCS and Market Driven Support. See Table 1- 11.2.0.4 section above.
03-Aug-2020	Because 12.2.0.1 LEC applies to all on-prem and DB cloud services, removed the following from 12.2.0.1 bullet points: 'Limited Error Correction applies to Gen 1 ExaCC, OCC DBCS, and ODA (UPDATED)'.  Added a comment that MDS does not apply to DBCS (This comment was removed 02-Sep-2020) Amended 12.1.0.2 EXS extension to specifically call out the Windows exception end date is the 'Patching/Error Correction end date'.  In certify, the EXS date for Windows platforms will still show as July 31, 2022 due to a tool limitation but patching (including bundles) will stop July 31, 2021.
10-Jun-2020	Added Long Term and Innovation release definitions, added updated Premier and Extended Support dates for 19c, added terminal release for the Solaris x86-64 bit platform, clarified the 12.2.0.1 additional 3 months of support for Gen 1 ExaCC, OCC DBCS, and ODA has been absorbed into Limited Error Correction window.
15-Apr-2020	Added Limited Error Correction for 12.2.0.1 from Dec 1, 2020- until March 31, 2022
23-Mar-2020	Gen 1 ExaCC, OCC DBCS, and ODA will have 3 additional months of support life. The end of life dates for databases on these platforms is: 11.2.0.4: 31-March 2021 12.2.0.1: 28-Feb-2021
Jan 28, 2020	Restructured original document, removed older releases that are no longer covered under Premier or Extended Support, removed unnecessary information contained in other documents, Added estimated release dates for annual release 20c.