| Oracle Database | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Oracle Corporation |
| Initial release | 1979; 46 years ago (1979) |
| Stable release | |
| Written in | Assembly language,C,C++[2] |
| Type | Multi-model database |
| License | Proprietary[3] |
| Website | www |
Oracle Database (commonly referred to asOracle DBMS,Oracle Autonomous Database, or simply asOracle) is a proprietarymulti-model[4]database management system produced and marketed byOracle Corporation.
It is a database commonly used for runningonline transaction processing (OLTP),data warehousing (DW) and mixed (OLTP & DW) database workloads. Oracle Database is available by several service providerson-premises,on-cloud, or as a hybrid cloud installation. It may be run on third party servers as well as on Oracle hardware (Exadata on-premises, onOracle Cloud or at Cloud at Customer).[5]
Oracle Database usesSQL for database updating and retrieval.[6]
Larry Ellison and his two friends and former co-workers,Bob Miner andEd Oates, started a consultancy called Software Development Laboratories (SDL) in 1977, laterOracle Corporation. SDL developed the original version of the Oracle software. The nameOracle comes from the code-name of aCentral Intelligence Agency-funded project Ellison had worked on while formerly employed byAmpex;[7] the CIA was Oracle's first customer, and allowed the company to use the code name for the new product.[8]
Ellison wanted his database to be compatible withIBM System R, but that company'sDon Chamberlin declined to release its error codes.[9] By 1985 Oracle advertised, however, that "Programs written forSQL/DS orDB2 will run unmodified" on the many non-IBM mainframes, minicomputers, and microcomputers its database supported "Because all versions of ORACLEare identical".[10]
Oracle products follow a custom release-numbering and -naming convention. The "ai" in the current release, Oracle Database 23ai, stands for "Artificial Intelligence". Previous releases (e.g. Oracle Database 19c, 10g, and Oracle9i Database) have used suffixes of "c", "g", and "i" which stand for "Cloud", "Grid", and "Internet" respectively. Prior to the release of Oracle8i Database, no suffixes featured in Oracle Database naming conventions. There was no v1 of Oracle Database, as Ellison "knew no one would want to buy version 1".[11][9] For some database releases, Oracle also provides an Express Edition (XE) that is free to use.[12][13]
Oracle Database release numbering has used the following codes:
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| Oracle Database Version | Initial Release Version | Initial Release Date | Terminal Version | Marquee Features | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latest version:Oracle AI Database 26ai (LTR) | 23.26.0 | Starting with Release Update 23.26.0, released in October 2025, Oracle Database 23ai is replaced by Oracle AI Database 26ai. Applying Release Update 23.26.0 to an existing Oracle Database 23ai deployment converts it to Oracle AI Database 26ai without requiring a separate database upgrade or application re-certification[14] | |||
| Supported: Oracle Database 23ai (LTR) | 23.4.0 | From Release Update 23.26.0 onward, 23ai is replaced by Oracle AI Database 26ai[15] On May 2, 2024, Oracle Database 23ai[16] was released on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) as cloud services, including OCI Exadata Database Service, OCI Exadata Database Cloud@Customer, and OCI Base Database Service. It is also available in Always Free Autonomous Database. Oracle Database 23c (previously released in 2023) was renamed to Oracle Database 23ai (23.4) due to the significant additional engineering effort to add features that bring AI capabilities to the data in Oracle Database. Oracle Database 23c (23.2 and 23.3) was released in 2023: April 2023 (Linux) Oracle Database Free - Developer Release[17]September 2023 Oracle Database on Base Database Service[18] | AI Vector Search[19] (includes new Vector data type, Vector indexes, and Vector SQL operators/functions), JSON Relational Duality,[20] JSON Schema Validation, Transactional Microservices Support, OKafka, Operational Property Graphs, Support forSQL/PGQ, Schema Privileges, Developer Role, In-database SQL Firewall, TLS 1.3 Support, Integration with Azure Active Directory OAuth2, True Cache for mid-tier caching, Readable Per-PDB Standby, Globally Distributed Database with active-active RAFT-based replication, Real-time SQL Plan Management, Priority Transactions, SQL Syntax Simplification, Schema Annotations, Data Use Case Domains, Column Value Lock-free Reservations | ||
| Supported: Oracle Database 21c (IR) | 21.1.0 | December 2020 (cloud)[21] August 2021 (Linux)[22] | Blockchain Tables, Multilingual Engine - JavaScript Execution in the Database, Binary JSON Data Type, Per-PDB Data Guard Physical Standby (aka Multitenant Data Guard), Per-PDB GoldenGate Change Capture, Self-Managing In-Memory, In-Memory Hybrid Columnar Scan, In-Memory Vector Joins with SIMD, Sharding Advisor Tool, Property Graph Visualization Studio, Automatic Materialized Views, Automatic Zone Maps, SQL Macros, Gradual Password Rollover | ||
| Supported: Oracle Database 19c (LTR) | 19.1.0 // 12.2.0.3 | February 2019 (Exadata)[23] April 2019 (Linux)[24] | Active Data Guard DML Redirection, Automatic Index Creation, Real-Time Statistics Maintenance, SQL Queries on Object Stores, In-Memory for IoT Data Streams, Hybrid Partitioned Tables, Automatic SQL Plan Management, SQL Quarantine, Zero-Downtime Grid Infrastructure Patching, Finer-Granularity Supplemental Logging, Automated PDB Relocation | ||
| Unsupported: Oracle Database 18c (IR) | 18.1.0 // 12.2.0.2 | February 2018 (cloud, Exadata)[25] July 2018 (other)[26] | 18.17.0 January 2022 | Polymorphic Table Functions, Active Directory Integration, Transparent Application Continuity, Approximate Top-N Query Processing, PDB Snapshot Carousel, Online Merging of Partitions and Subpartitions | |
| Unsupported: Oracle Database 12c Release 2 | 12.2.0.1 March 2017 | August 2016 (cloud) March 2017 (on-premises) | 12.2.0.1 March 2017 | Native Sharding, Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance, Exadata Cloud Service, Cloud at Customer | |
| Unsupported: Oracle Database 12c Release 1 | 12.1.0.1 | July 2013[27] | 12.1.0.2 July 2014 | Multitenant architecture, In-MemoryColumn Store, NativeJSON, SQL Pattern Matching, Database Cloud Service | |
| Unsupported: Oracle Database 11g Release 2 | 11.2.0.1 | September 2009[28] | 11.2.0.4 August 2013 | Edition-Based Redefinition, Data Redaction, Hybrid Columnar Compression, Cluster File System, Golden Gate Replication,Database Appliance | |
| Unsupported: Oracle Database 11g Release 1 | 11.1.0.6 | September 2007 | 11.1.0.7 September 2008 | Active Data Guard, Secure Files,Exadata | |
| Unsupported: Oracle Database 10g Release 2 | 10.2.0.1 | July 2005[29] | 10.2.0.5 April 2010 | Real Application Testing, Database Vault, Online Indexing, Advanced Compression, Data Guard Fast-Start Failover, Transparent Data Encryption | |
| Unsupported: Oracle Database 10g Release 1 | 10.1.0.2 | 2003 | 10.1.0.5 February 2006 | Automated Database Management, Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor, Grid infrastructure, Oracle ASM, Flashback Database | |
| Unsupported: Oracle9i Database Release 2 | 9.2.0.1 | 2002 | 9.2.0.8 April 2007 | Advanced Queuing,Data Mining, Streams, Logical Standby | |
| Unsupported: Oracle9i Database | 9.0.1.0 | 2001 | 9.0.1.5 December 2003 | Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), Oracle XML DB | |
| Unsupported: Oracle8i Database | 8.1.5.0 | 1998 | 8.1.7.4 August 2000 | Native internet protocols and Java,Virtual Private Database | |
| Unsupported: Oracle8 Database | 8.0.3 | June 1997 | 8.0.6 | Recovery Manager, Partitioning. First version available for Linux.[30] | |
| Unsupported: Oracle 7.3 | 7.3.0 | February 1996 | 7.3.4 | Object-relational database | |
| Unsupported: Oracle 7.2 | 7.2.0 | May 1995 | Shared Server, XA Transactions, Transparent Application Failover | ||
| Unsupported: Oracle 7.1 | 7.1.0 | May 1994 | Parallel SQL Execution. First version available forWindows NT.[31] | ||
| Unsupported: Oracle7 | 7.0.12 | June 1992 | Distributed 2-phase commit,[8] PL/SQL stored procedures, triggers, shared cursors, cost-based optimizer | ||
| Unsupported: Oracle 6.2 | 6.2.0 | Oracle Parallel Server | |||
| Unsupported: Oracle v6 | 6.0.17 | 1988 | 6.0.37 | Row-level locking,SMP scalability / performance, storing of undo in database,[8] online backup and recovery, B*Tree indexes,PL/SQL executed from compiled programs (C etc.). First version available forNovell Netware 386.[32] | |
| Unsupported: Oracle v5 | 5.0.22 (5.1.17) | 1985 | 5.1.22 | C2 security certification. Support fordistributed database systems[8] andclient/server computing. First version available forOS/2. Correlated sub-queries.[33] DOS version supportsextended memory.[8] | |
| Unsupported: Oracle v4 | 4.1.4.0 | 1984 | 4.1.4.4 | Multiversion read consistency.Halloween Problem solved. Improved concurrency.[8] First version available forMS-DOS[34][35] andIBM mainframe.[8] | |
| Unsupported: Oracle v3 | 3.1.3 | 1983 | Concurrency control, data distribution, andscalability. Re-written in C for portability to other operating systems, includingUNIX.[36][8] | ||
| Unsupported: Oracle v2 | 2.3 | 1979 | First commercially available SQLRDBMS. Basic SQL queries, simple joins[37] andCONNECT BY joins. Atomic role-level SQL statements. Rudimentaryconcurrency control anddatabase integrity. Noquery optimizer. Written inassembly language for thePDP-11[8] to run in 128KB ofRAM.[38] Ran on PDP-11 andVAX/VMS in PDP-11 compatibility mode.[8] | ||
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TheIntroduction to Oracle Database includes a brief history on some of the key innovations introduced with each major release of Oracle Database.
See My Oracle Support (MOS) noteRelease Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1) for the current Oracle Database releases and their patching end dates.
Prior to Oracle Database 18c, Oracle Corporation released Critical Patch Updates (CPUs) and Security Patch Updates (SPUs)[39] and Security Alerts to close security vulnerabilities. These releases are issued quarterly; some of these releases have updates issued prior to the next quarterly release.
Starting with Oracle Database 18c, Oracle Corporation releases Release Updates (RUs) and Release Update Revisions (RURs).[40] RUs usually contain security, regression (bug), optimizer, and functional fixes which may include feature extensions as well. RURs include all fixes from their corresponding RU but only add new security and regression fixes. However, no new optimizer or functional fixes are included.
In the market for relational databases, Oracle Database competes against commercial products such asIBM Db2 andMicrosoft SQL Server.[13] Oracle and IBM tend to battle for the mid-range database market on Unix and Linux platforms, while Microsoft dominates the mid-range database market onMicrosoft Windows platforms. However, since they share many of the same customers, Oracle and IBM tend to support each other's products in many middleware and application categories (for example:WebSphere,PeopleSoft, andSiebel SystemsCRM), and IBM's hardware divisions work closely[citation needed] with Oracle on performance-optimizing server-technologies (for example,Linux on IBM Z). Niche commercial competitors includeTeradata (in data warehousing and business intelligence), Software AG'sADABAS,Sybase, and IBM'sInformix, among many others.
In the cloud, Oracle Database competes against the database services of AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Increasingly, the Oracle database products compete againstopen-source software relational and non-relational database systems such asPostgreSQL,MongoDB,Couchbase,Neo4j,ArangoDB and others. Oracle acquiredInnobase, supplier of theInnoDB codebase toMySQL, in part to compete better against open source alternatives, and acquiredSun Microsystems, owner of MySQL, in 2010. Database products licensed as open-source are, by the legal terms of theOpen Source Definition, free to distribute and free of royalty or other licensing fees.
TheRosen Electronics Letter in February 1983 stated that Oracle was "the most comprehensive offering we've seen" among databases, with good marketing and substantial installed base encouraging developers to write software for it. The newsletter especially approved of the user interface, noting the "simplicity of setting up 'programs'—queries, data manipulation, updates—without actually programming".[41]
You should not get confused between Critical Patch Update (CPU) and Security Patch Update (SPU) as CPU terminology has been changed to SPU from October 2012.
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