Tag Archives: 12.2.0.1.0

Oracle 12.2.0.1 On-Premises soon available

It seems that Oracle brings us the new release with the first “spring rays”. Tonight Oracle has Updates the MOS Note 742060.1 Release Schedule of Current Database Releases. It now includes as well sections for Oracle public cloud releases, on-premises engineered systems as well on-premises server releases. In particular the section on-premises server release has now a release date for Oracle 12.2.0.1. According to this, Oracle 12.2.0.1 will be available for Linux x86-64, Solaris SPARC and Solaris x86-64 by mid of march. For the other platforms like Windows, AIX etc we have to wait until Q2. As posted earlier the documentation for the new release is available since a couple of weeks. There is no reason not to start with the engineering work for the new release.

By the way, there are some other changes as well on this MOS Note. The attentive reader has seen, that Oracle has again extended their Free Extended Support for 11.2.0.4 until Dec 31, 2018. Unfortunately there are some contradictions with other MOS Notes like 161818.1 and 1067455.1. On these notes the Free Extended Supports ends earlier. You probabely should clarify your support status before planing to keep your 11.2.0.4 production database until end of 2018.

Some references and links to MOS Notes:

Oracle 12 Release 2 Documentation available

Oracle just released the documentation for Oracle 12c Release 2. It seems that most of the new security features are available as discussed in my presentation at DOAG SIG Security in Düsseldorf on the 18th of october. See docs.oracle.com for the documentation bookshelf.

Yet a short summary of new security features

Encryption

  • TDE Tablespace Live Conversion
  • Fully Encrypted Database
  • Support for ARIA, SEED, and GOST Encryption Algorithms in TDE
  • TDE Tablespace Offline Conversion

Enforcing Application Security in the Database

  • RAS Session Privilege Scoping
  • RAS Column Privilege Enhancements
  • RAS Schema Level Policy Administration
  • RAS Integration with OLS

Improving Security Manageability, Administration, and Integration

  • Oracle Virtual Private Database Predicate Audit
  • Oracle Database Vault Policy
  • Oracle Database Vault Simulation Mode Protection
  • Oracle Database Vault Common Realms and Command Rules for Oracle Multitenant
  • Privilege Analysis Enhancements
  • Privilege Analysis Results Comparison
  • Redaction: Different Data Redaction Policy Expressions
  • Redaction: New Functions Allowed in Data Redaction Policy Expressions
  • Redaction: Additional Data Redaction Transformations
  • Automatic KDC Discovery When Configuring OCI Clients
  • Automatic Provisioning of Kerberos Keytab for Oracle Databases
  • Role-Based Conditional Auditing
  • Inherit Remote Privileges

Improving Security Posture of the Database

  • SYSRAC – Separation of Duty for Administering Real Application Clusters
  • Transparent Sensitive Data Protection Feature Integration
  • Requiring Strong Password Verifiers by Default

Improving User Authentication and Management

  • Automatic Locking of Inactive User Accounts

Modernizing Network Authentication and Encryption

  • Kerberos-Based Authentication for Direct NFS

There is much more just on security. The full list of new features is available in the New Features Guide 12c Release 2 (12.2). In particular the new features for TDE are worth, having a closer look. So let’s discuss the good, the bad and the mad….

If you plan to take a training have a look at the Trivadis Training. We will announce a Trivadis Oracle Database 12c Release 2 Techno Circle as soon as the software for 12c Release 2 is officially released.