Is Oracle Database 12.2 really Oracle Database 13.1?

 

I wrote a post a few months ago where, amongst other things I mentioned my views on Oracle database versions, releases and patchsets. To summarise my points.

  • What we used to know as releases (12.1, 12.2) are now so big they are essentially new major versions, despite what the version numbers suggest. That’s reflected both in the content and the time between them.
  • What we used to know as patchsets are now more similar to what we used to think of releases. Remember In-Memory Column Store was introduced in 12.1.0.2, and it’s now one of the headline features of 12.1. Hardly just a few bug fixes. 🙂

Something happened a couple of days ago that reenforced this in my head. I was asked a question about certification on Twitter. I answered and linked to this FAQ. To be on the safe side I did a quick read through the FAQ to make sure it was still aligned with my views and checked some of the links, specifically to the certification page. While I was there I checked out the beta exams and I saw “1Z1-074: Upgrade Oracle DBA 11g/12c to 12cR2”. That’s right, an upgrade exam to take you to 12cR2. 🙂

We don’t normally get an upgrade exam between releases, although it did happen between 8 and 8i, which by version number at least was just a second digit increment (8.0 to 8.1).

On the one hand, there is a massive amount of new stuff in 12.2, which is more than worthy of making it 13.1 and therefore requiring a new certification. On the other hand, a lot of the functionality seems more evolutionary than revolutionary. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just the majority of the features feel like they are finishing off functionality that would have been in 12.1 if they had got it done in time. I may live to regret that statement as I delve more into 12.2. 🙂

For those who are yet to upgrade their 11g certification, you now have a choice of going to 12c then 12cR2, or directly to 12cR2. For those that already made the jump to 12c, you are going to get tested on the 12cR1 stuff again when you upgrade to 12cR2. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Author: Tim...

DBA, Developer, Author, Trainer.

9 thoughts on “Is Oracle Database 12.2 really Oracle Database 13.1?”

  1. Hemant: I know the feeling. I think a lot of people will be a bit annoyed with that. I think a lot of 11g OCPs would have made the jump directly to 12cR2 if they had known it was coming. Although I’m sure there are quite a few people who upgraded from older OCPs, that would still need to double-jump to get to 12cR2, since it is only from 11g upward.

    Cheers

    Tim…

  2. I’m one of those 7.3 OCPs who has taken the 9i, 10g and 11g upgrade tests and made the jump last year to 12c. I won’t mind retesting on 12cR1 as long as I don’t have to retest on 9i/10g/11g features like I did as part of last year’s 12c test. I just barely passed that part.

  3. Jim: Looking at the exam topics it looks like just 12.1 and 12.2 content, with a bias to 12.2 and a little bit of cloud thrown in.

  4. I’m a little late to the party I know, but…how annoying! I deliberately pushed myself hard to get my 12C OCP upgrade out of the way, thinking they would just update the existing 12c exam topics fairly soon, to account for R2 changes. I didn’t think for one minute they’d introduce a whole new 12cR2 OCP certification out of it. I too feel cheated somewhat. Thanks for the info though Tim, wouldn’t have know about this if it wasn’t for the post 😉

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