Oracle Upgrade Support Entitlement - "A Real Life Case" for EBS customers upgrading databases from 11g to 19C

 Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well. Today, I want to share a summary of a recent discussion on my forum about upgrading from version 11.2.0.4 to 19C specifically in the context of an EBS R12.1.3 system. Here we will see the upgrade support entitlement in action.

Well, let's dive into the case;

the upgrade path in mind was to migrate 11.2.0.4 database from Linux 5.4 server to Oracle Linux 8 server and upgrade it to 19C on Oracle Linux 8 server.

So there was a requirement for EBS 11.2.0.4 database running on Oracle Linux 8 and that's created questions about the certification.

Certification tab on Oracle Support said ; 11.2.0.4 is certified with Oracle Linux 8 and EBS 12.1.3 was certified with 11.2.0.4. 

However; when we checked Oracle EBS 12.1.3 and Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 certification together as a bundle, the certification tab on Oracle Support didn't directly told anything about Oracle Linux 8 certification.

With this incomplete(or confusing) information, one might directly think the following;

Linux 8 is certified with Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 .
Linux 8 is certified with Oracle EBS 12.1.3.

This makes -> Linux 8 is certified with Oracle EBS 12.1.3 (with 11.2.0.4 database). 

So, a config like EBS 12.1.3 and Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 should run properly on Oracle Linux 8 that s for sure. 

But! when we checked the certification matrix for Oracle Applications (aka EBS) R12.1.3 and Oracle 11.2.0.4 database combination, we didn't see Oracle/RH Linux 8 listed, so maybe Oracle Linux 8 was not certified with Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 in EBS 12.1.3 context.

MOS note named Oracle E-Business Suite Installation and Upgrade Notes Release 12 (12.1.1) for Linux x86-64 (Doc ID 761566.1) was a reference. 

But that was also creating confusions there, cause there was nothing about such a restriction.

additional ref: https://blogs.oracle.com/ebstech/post/ebs-1213-migration-to-oracle-linux-8-and-red-hat-enterprise-linux-8-now-certified

Another ref: Requirements for Installing Oracle Database/Client 11.2.0.4 on OL8 or RHEL8 64-bit (x86-64) (Doc ID 2988626.1)

The only thing we see there was -> "Customers installing E-Business Suite 12.1.1 on the above operating systems using Rapid Install must upgrade the Oracle Database to 11gR2 (11.2.0.3 or higher for OL/RHEL 6, 11.2.0.4 for OL/RHEL 7 and SLES 12), 12c (12.1.0.1 or higher for OL/RHEL 6, 12.1.0.2 for OL/RHEL 7 and SLES 12) or 19c (for Oracle Linux/RHEL 7 and 8 and SLES 12) ...."

But this might be misleading and may not be an up-to-date information. Cause those products each, their own was certified with Oracle Linux.

Anyways;

Here is important information;

EBS 12.1.3 and Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 is a certified configuration (at least for using it some time before upgrading to 19C)

But! in order to make this work , you need to have Upgrade Support Entitlement. That 's the rule.. And, one of the justification for this is to be able to download patches that make this configuration work. 

An example is in relinking.. In order to fix the relink errors, you need a patch to fix the issue.

--> (Requirements for Installing Oracle Database/Client 11.2.0.4 on OL8 or RHEL8 64-bit (x86-64) (Doc ID 2988626.1), 

but ! you can download the patch only if we have “Upgrade support entitlement”.

Interesting fact.

This is the important thing and the main purpose of this blog post. So I hope, I cleared the doubts here. This is with the the help of my oracle forum, this is the benefit of it.. Of course, big thanks to my followers.

One last important note; Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11.2.0.4 is not supported on Oracle Linux 8. To install Oracle Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 11.2.0.4 on Oracle Linux 8, first install Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c and then install Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.4).