We are in the process of upgrading some databases and we are hitting a roadblock with one of our Vendors. We wanted to upgrade to 19 but are receiving pushback from them. They want us to upgrade only to 12.2.0.1 which is out of support 11/2020 with no extended support possible. 18C barely has any support left 6/2021. The correct move for us is to go to 19c but Vendor is fighting us saying they do not support 18 or 19 but they would support it if it was 12.2.0.2 or 12.2.0.3
I have been searching and I can find all kinds of blogs etc that show that 18c and 19c are extensions of the 12.2 databases with 19c being the terminal long term release but nothing 'official' from oracle directly.
https://sqlmaria.com/2019/02/13/oracle-database-19c-is-now-available/
Mike Dietrich's blog https://mikedietrichde.com/2019/01/30/how-long-will-oracle-database-12-2-be-supported/ shows that the MOS note 742060.1 was updated at some point to clearly say that 18c and 19c were 12.2.0.2 and .3 but that seems to have been removed again as has the lifetime support policy does not show what he shows in the blog.
The Vendor keeps throwing this one at us. https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocContentDisplay?_afrLoop=230477061184745&id=2285040.1&_afrWindowMode=0&_adf.ctr…
Q17: So 12.2.0.2 and 18c are essentially the same thing, correct?
A: No, they are not. You are going to confuse yourself if you only think of 18c as just a different marketing label for 12.2.0.2. You need to think of 12.2.0.1 as the terminal release of 12.2, and realize that there is no such thing as Oracle Database 12.2.0.2. Instead of 12.2.0.2, Oracle completely changed the paradigm for releasing Oracle Database software. That new paradigm is what is described in this document.
Has anyone seen an official document from Oracle directly that shows 18 and 19 are still part of the 12.2 family of releases? It is a waste of time for us to upgrade to a version that will be our of support in months.
Scott