Let me do a quick Friday rant. Many of you can easily ignore this. But regardless of whether you are a colleague, a friend, a customer, a partner or just exploring AutoUpgrade because it is the coolest small tiny little tool Oracle has to offer, don't use AI to build your AutoUpgrade config file, please! AI models are great ...

Thanks to all the people (Jeff, Daniele, Lothar and others) who alerted me about this topic. Some of you had even created their own fix already. So, this is about an issue which happens only if you have no JAVAVM installed in your database or PDB but you still apply the OJVM Bundle on to of the Oracle Database 19.30 Release Update.

This is a ground-breaking new release of AutoUpgrade, and the team worked hard to release it last weekend. This means for you that you should renew your AutoUpgrade tools as The February 2026 release of AutoUpgrade (26.2) is available now for download. 1..2..3..4..5..0 ... In case you wonder about this cryptic headline, no worries. Stefan Panek from TK smiled at me yesterday and said: "You've picked one of the best possible MOS note numbers in the new portal!".

Many of you mailed us asking why AutoUpgrade does not download 19.29 or 19.30 RUs anymore. Others just noticed that the RUs got pulled without further communication visible. And a few people informed me about an issue with the 19.30 RU when you don't have OJVM configured but install the OJVM bundle. So, what has happened to the 19.29 and 19.30 RUs??

Today, a customer sent me a workaround for the misbehavior they were seeing with the Conflict Checker Tool in the Support portal. They use oradiff to check whether a given fix they have a one-off right now is included in a future Release Update (RU). This works nicely, but I have a recommendation for an even easier check (thanks Rodrigo!).

We have a lot of information in our seminars and blogs about Transportable Tablespace migrations. And since we have the M5 scripts for RMAN incrementally rolled forward backups and new RMAN functionality which avoids the spare storage, life has gotten so much easier. Now, some good news from the authors of the M5 scripts: Transportable Tablespaces with M5 scripts support now 26ai…

This was a long wait - and finally, it's there - Oracle AI Database 26ai is available for download on-prem. And as you may remember our announcement from Oracle AI World, Oracle AI Database 26ai replaced Oracle Database 23ai. What is available? You can download now the Linux version of Oracle AI Database 26ai Enterprise Edition, 23.26.1.0.0, from the usual sources as a Gold Image include the RU or as a separate RU.

Your chance to sign up NOW! We are going to run Full Day Oracle AI Database 26ai Upgrade Workshops in Copenhagen, Munich and Berlin. And this is NOT a repeat - it is the 2nd edition of the workshop you may have attended last year in spring with brand-new content, new features. As usual, zero marketing - just tech…

Happy New Year to all of you at first. And just at very short notice a quick announcement for next week in case you are in the Sydney area in Australia. This is Your chance: Full-day Upgrade to 26ai Workshop in Sydney on Jan 20, 2025 has still a few open seats, and you could join, I'd be happy to see and meet you there.

Many of you have read my blog post from October during Oracle AI World in Las Vegas about Oracle AI Database 26ai replacing Oracle Database 23ai. But the main question remained: When is it available on-prem on non-Oracle hardware? It's December now, and Christmas is coming soon, it is time for presents. Yes, finally ... Oracle AI Database 26ai is going to be available on non-Oracle hardware…

You will find a good number of datapatch posts on my blog. And with Oracle AI Database 26ai from RU 23.26.0.0.0 onward (the October 2025 RU), we introduce a new functionality when you run datapatch: A kill-switch terminates blocking sessions during patching. What is changing? From Oracle AI Database 26ai onwards by default the invocation of datapatch will terminate any session currently holding a requested KGL X lock (Kernel Global Lock), an exclusive lock on an SQL or an PL/SQL procedure.

OracleNotes

It's October - and while the leafs keep falling on the northern hemisphere, the October 2025 Release of AutoUpgrade (25.6) is available. Get it now - and find the list of features and fixes below. How to download it? As usual, that’s very simple. You either download it via the well-known MOS Note: 2485457.1 – AutoUpgrade Tool or you…

We'll do it another time. This is your chance in case you missed our session on Tuesday: Marco Polo 806, Level 1 Upgrade to Oracle AI Database 26ai: Best Practices and Customer Experience We collided with the delayed keynote of Larry Ellison, and obviously attending the keynote was way more important than our talk. Therefore, if you couldn't show up but still want to learn about the…

Larry Ellison announced Oracle AI Database 26ai  today in his keynote at Oracle AI World conference in Las Vegas. And I am pretty certain you may want some clarification on what this means exactly.…

As I said multiple times, we have the best and most knowledgeable customers out there. Julian Frey is one of them, and there is a good and legit reason why he is an ACE Director since (I think) two years. Julian alerted me the other day about an ORA-43907: Potential behavior change with Oracle RU 19.28.0. And I guess, some of you would like to learn about this, too.

Oracle OpenWorld had been renamed to Oracle CloudWorld, and it got rebranded to Oracle AI World this year. And we PMs, Alex, Daniel, Rodrigo and myself look forward to see you there. It's a perfect opportunity to touch base, discuss your migration challenges, your patching fun - and upgrades certainly, too. You not only can grab a sticker…

Summer season is almost over. And in between Oracle AI World in Las Vegas in October and now, there is one chance to meet us for a Full Day Upgrade / Migration / Patching Workshop in Prague on September 17, 2025. There are still some seats open, so please find the details below. When and why should you attend?

AIOUG OC Yatra 2025 is over, and I somehow recovered as well. As I wrote here, it was (again) an incredible experience with all those wonderful people (you!!) and those crazy speakers (us!) - and I learned a lot again. Still, I had no clue that Database and Developer evangelist and video wizard Connor McDonald would react to my friendly nagging 🙂

YouTube video by Oracle Database Upgrades and Migrations

Learning something new every day is the best part of my job. And as you can see and read on the blog, thanks to YOU, I learn a lot. This one I learned from Johannes Ahrends at my workshop for ora2know in Munich in early July this year. Were you aware of the two hidden columns in CDB-Views? I confess honestly: I wasn't.

This time the AutoUpgrade team did magic and included so many great new features and useful enhancements into the new version of AutoUpgrade. So, please note: The August 2025 version of AutoUpgrade (25.4) is available for download. You should refresh your current versions, especially when you use it for patching, and especially if you attempt to do in an RAC (Real Application Clusters) environment. 

I really love our customers. Many people are so super-smart. A few weeks ago I delivered a full-day hands-on workshop for ora2know in Munich and some (positively) crazy people fly in very early morning from the other end of Germany to attend. Others catch a train at night time (which is the bigger adventure in Germany these days). I feel really grateful since this was also a pay-for-it workshop.

I just returned the other day from the most strenuous trips I do once a year: The AIOUG Oracle Community Yatra tour. 6 cities in 9 days. It's a wild ride with flights and bus transfers in between, monsoon rain, heat and nasty mosquitos - but it is still one of the most exciting trips I do. So, let me r…