Lifetime Support and Support Policies - Oracle Enterprise Manager Overview (Doc ID 1595197.1)

Keeping your Enterprise Manager (EM) environment maintained with the confidence requires forward planning as well as access to all the required information. This article will clarify the major points and timelines regarding various levels of support, timeframe and exceptions for Enterprise Manager products and provide pointers to additional useful information.

There are 3 major policies that outline the support timeframe and the level of support for Enterprise Manager products:

• Lifetime Support policies
• Technical Support Policies
• Enterprise Manager Error Correction Policy

So let's review the policies one by one:

Lifetime Support Policy
The current standard rule for Enterprise Manager products for Lifetime Support is

• 5 years of Premier Support
• 3 years of optional Extended Support for additional support uplift fee
• Indefinite Sustaining Support

This policy is applicable to major release versions such as 10.2g, 11g 12c, 13c etc and is documented in the brochure Lifetime Support Policy: Oracle Technology Products. Also, page 7 is where the relevant Enterprise Manager and acquired EM related products definitions begin.

Extended Support is an option for customers who may require new patch updates and fixes for critical issues after Premier Support ended. Extended Support may not always be offered and if offered, attracts an uplift charge to the normal support fee. Security Patch Updates (SPUs) and Patch Set Updates (PSUs) are still available during Extended Support, however patchsets are no longer created. One of the major benefits of Extended Support is that critical issues/bugs can still be reported to development and if required and feasible, a patch will be created to resolve the issue. Such a patch is usually created on top of the terminal patchset of the major release.

If a customer does not require Extended Support, Sustaining Support will be available automatically after the Premier Support period ended. Customers can access and download any pre-existing patches and updates except the ones that are created during the Extended Support stage as long as Extended Support is still active. During Sustaining Support phase, customers can still log Service Requests to get help resolving issues, but Sustaining Support does not include 24 hour commitment and response guidelines for Severity 1 Service Requests as outlined in the Oracle Software Technical Support Policies brochure.

Any patches that are created during the Extended Support period will only be accessible to those customers who have a valid Extended Support contract. Once the Extended Support period ends, all existing patches will be made available to customer as part of Sustaining Support.

Note, when planning an upgrade, it is worthwhile checking out the Lifetime Support Policy: Oracle Technology Products for a current release that will provide the longest possible Premier Support timeframe. The document is updated on a regular basis and the page footer indicates the month of the last update.

Oracle Software Technical Support Policies
As the name already stipulates, the Oracle Software Technical Support Policies outlines the details of the Technical Support policies, support terms, severity definitions and in detail what customers can expect during the 3 support stages. These policies need to be reviewed in conjunction with the Lifetime Support Policy document.
The document is updated on a needs basis and the page footer indicates the month of the last update.

It also includes any exceptions to the Lifetime Support policy stages.

Enterprise Manager Software Error Correction Support Policy (Document 209768.1)
This policy outlines the methods and policies how Oracle provides error correction support, meaning patches in general.

One of the major dates to take note of is the Error Correction or patching end date. From that date forward, Oracle does not provide patches, PSUs or bundles for the previous patchset release. The patching end date of a patchset is determined by the release date of the next patchset and the "grace period rule". The grace period is the period of time following the release of a patchset where Oracle creates new fixes for both the new and previous patchset, allowing customers time to plan for and install the new patchset. The grace period rule starting with Enterprise Manager 12.1.0.1 and continuing through EM 13.x is

• First patch set after a base release: one year to install the first patch set while receiving fixes for the base release
• Second and later patch sets: one year to install while receiving fixes for the previous patch set

Note, that the grace period applies, even if the product moves into Extended Support during that timeframe.

The patching end dates for each patchset as well as the release dates for each platform are available from Release Schedule of Current Enterprise Manager Releases (Document 793512.1).

As for interim patches, Oracle Support requires a customer business case in order to request an interim patch from Development. A business case should include the business impact as well as the operational and technical impact the issue is causing. If there is a workaround or the issue is resolved in the next patchset and that patchset is already available, customers also need to provide information why it is not feasible to apply the workaround or the next patchset.

Customers are not required to install the latest patchset or PSU to get an issue investigated by Oracle. However, fixes will usually only be created on top of the active versions for the time period. Therefore customers may be required to install a patchset that is within the maintenance timeframe in order to apply the interim patch that may have been created for that specific issue.

Exceptions
Based on customers' feedback and requests, Oracle may announce exceptions to the rules in order to allow customers a longer timeframe moving from one release or patchset to another. These exceptions are usually noted in any of the policy documents mentioned above and/or in Release Schedule of Current Enterprise Manager Releases (Document 793512.1) with references to other relevant articles outlining details of the exception.

• Enterprise Manager currently has no outstanding exceptions. All previous exceptions have expired.

Note that there are no versions of EM in Extended Support

Useful documents to bookmark:

• Lifetime Support Portal
• Lifetime Support Policy: Oracle Technology Products
• Oracle Software Technical Support Policies
• Enterprise Manager Software Error Correction Support Policy (Document 209768.1)
• Release Schedule of Current Enterprise Manager Releases (Document 793512.1)