What’s New for Oracle Autonomous Database Serverless

Here’s a summary of the noteworthy Oracle Autonomous Database additions and enhancements.

You can also visit the What's New Videos for announcements and details on new Autonomous Database features.

• September 2023
  
• August 2023
  
• July 2023
  
• June 2023
  
• May 2023
  
• April 2023
  
• March 2023
  
• February 2023
  
• January 2023
  

September 2023

Feature	Description
Use Select AI to Generate SQL from Natural Language Prompts	Autonomous Database can interact with AI service providers including: OpenAI and CohereAI to provide access to Generative AI capability from Oracle Database that uses Large Language Models (LLMs). One way LLMs can work with Oracle database is by generating SQL from natural language prompts that allow you to talk to your database. See Use Select AI to Generate SQL from Natural Language Prompts for more information.
Elastic Resource Pools	Use an elastic resource pool to consolidate your Autonomous Database instances, in terms of their allocation of compute resources, and to provide up to 8 times cost savings. See for more information. See Use and Manage Elastic Resource Pools on Autonomous Database for more information.
Autonomous Database Free Container Image	Use the Oracle Autonomous Database Free Container Image to run Autonomous Database in a container in your own environment, without requiring access to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console or to the internet. See Use the Oracle Autonomous Database Free Container Image for more information.
ECPU-based Databases with Transaction Processing Workload Type Support per-Gigabyte Increments of Storage	You may now provision, clone, and scale using Gigabyte (GB) increments of storage for ECPU-based Autonomous Databases provisioned with the Transaction Processing workload type. The minimum storage allowed for an Autonomous Database instance in ECPU compute model with Transaction Processing workload is 20 GB. See Provision Autonomous Database for more information.
Google Analytics Support for Database Links with Oracle-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity	Use Autonomous Database Oracle-managed heterogeneous connectivity to create database links to Google Analytics. When you use database links with Oracle-managed heterogeneous connectivity, Autonomous Database configures and sets up the connection. See Create Database Links to Non-Oracle Databases with Oracle-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity for more information.

August 2023

Feature	Description
DBMS_SHARE Package	You can use the subprograms and views in the DBMS_SHARE package to share data with external systems. See DBMS_SHARE Package for more information.
Logical Partition Change Tracking (LPCT)	Logical Partition Change Tracking enables you to create logical partitions on base tables. It evaluates the staleness of the base tables for individual logical partitions without using a materialized view log or requiring any of the tables used in the materialized view to be partitioned. Logical Partition Change Tracking provides the capability to leverage the user-supplied logical partitioning information of base tables of materialized view for a more fine-grained, partition-level tracking of stale data for both refresh and rewrite purposes. While classical Partitioning Change Tracking (PCT) relies on the physical partitioning of tables, LPCT has no dependency on tables being physically partitioned; you can use LPCT with both partitioned and nonpartitioned tables. See Logical Partition Change Tracking and Materialized Views for more information.
Update OCPU to ECPU Compute Model	You can update an Autonomous Database instance from the OCPU billing model to the ECPU billing model. See Update to ECPU Billing Model on Autonomous Database for more information.
Choose Backup Retention Period with ECPU Compute Model	With the ECPU billing model you have the option to select the backup retention period for automatic backups, with a retention period between 1 day and up to 60 days. See Edit Automatic Backup Retention Period on Autonomous Database for more information.
AWS Glue Data Catalog Integration	Autonomous Database allows you to synchronize with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Glue Data Catalog metadata. You can query data stored in S3 from Autonomous Database without having to manually derive the schema for the external data sources and create external tables. See Query External Data with AWS Glue Data Catalog for more information.

July 2023

Feature	Description
Track Table Changes with Flashback Time Travel	Use Flashback Time Travel to view past states of database objects or to return database objects to a previous state without using point-in-time media recovery. See Tracking Table Changes with Flashback Time Travel for more information.
Database Actions Quick Links	Database Actions on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console provides quick links to select Database Actions cards or to select the Database Actions Launchpad. See Access Database Actions as ADMIN for more information.
Object Storage and REST Endpoint Management	DBMS_CLOUD supports a number of preconfigured Object Store and REST endpoints. DBMS_CLOUD also allows you to access additional customer-managed endpoints. See DBMS_CLOUD Endpoint Management for more information.
detectfieldorder DBMS_CLOUD Format Option	The detectfieldorder format option specifies that the fields in external data files are in a different order than the columns in the table. Specify this option with DBMS_CLOUD.COPY_DATA, DBMS_CLOUD.CREATE_EXTERNAL_TABLE, DBMS_CLOUD.CREATE_EXTERNAL_PART_TABLE, or DBMS_CLOUD.CREATE_HYBRID_PART_TABLE to detect the order of fields using the first row of each external data file and map it to the columns of the table. See DBMS_CLOUD Package Format Options for more information.
Vault Secret Credential Objects	You can create vault secret credentials with secrets stored in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Vault. You can use vault secret credentials to access cloud resources or to access other databases (use vault secret credentials anywhere where username/password type credentials are required). See Use Vault Secret Credentials for more information.
Export to Directory with DBMS_CLOUD.EXPORT_DATA	Export files as text or as Oracle Data Pump dump files to a directory. See Export Data to a Directory for more information.

June 2023

Feature	Description
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Signing Key Based Authentication for Oracle Data Pump Import	Oracle Data Pump import using impdp supports credentials created using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure key based attributes. See Import Data Using Oracle Data Pump on Autonomous Database for more information.
Configurable Automatic Failover Data Loss Limit for a Local Standby Database	For Autonomous Data Guard you can specify an automatic failover data loss limit between 0 and 3600 seconds. Autonomous Data Guard performs automatic failover to a local standby database when a local standby database is available and the system can guarantee either the default zero data loss RPO or up to the data loss limit you specify. See Automatic Failover with a Standby Database for more information.
Oracle Workspace Manager	Oracle Workspace Manager provides an infrastructure that enables applications to create workspaces and group different versions of table row values in different workspaces. Use Oracle Workspace Manager to version-enable one or more user tables in the database. See Using Oracle Workspace Manager on Autonomous Database for more information.
Automatic Failover Begin and Automatic Failover End Events	The AutonomousDatabase-AutomaticFailoverBegin and AutonomousDatabase-AutomaticFailoverEnd events are generated when an automatic failover begins and ends. These events are only be triggered if you are using Autonomous Data Guard. See About Critical Events on Autonomous Database for more information.
Operator Access Event	The OperatorAccess event is generated when operator access is detected for the database. Autonomous Database operations team never access your data unless you explicitly grant permission through a Service Request for a specified duration. See Information Events on Autonomous Database for more information.
Built-in Tool Availability Service Level Objective (SLO)	Oracle will use commercially reasonable efforts to have the listed built-in tools meet the Availability objectives as defined in Service Level Objective (SLO) documentation. See Availability Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for more information.
CMU-AD with Active Directory Servers on a Private Endpoint	There are now two options for configuring Autonomous Database with Centrally Managed Users (CMU) with Microsoft Active Directory: Active Directory (AD) servers publicly accessible: the Active Directory servers are accessible from Autonomous Database through the public internet. Active Directory (AD) servers reside on a private endpoint: the Active Directory servers reside on a private endpoint and are not accessible from Autonomous Database through the public internet. See Use Microsoft Active Directory with Autonomous Database for more information.

May 2023

Feature	Description
Oracle APEX 23.1	Autonomous Database uses Oracle APEX Release 23.1. See Creating Applications with Oracle APEX in Autonomous Database for more information.
Google BigQuery Support for Database Links with Oracle-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity	Autonomous Database support for Oracle-managed heterogeneous connectivity to create database links to Google BigQuery. When you use database links with Oracle-managed heterogeneous connectivity, Autonomous Database configures and sets up the connection. See Create Database Links to Non-Oracle Databases with Oracle-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity for more information.
Log File Options for DBMS_CLOUD	DBMS_CLOUD provides format parameter options for logging customization: enablelogs, logprefix, logdir, and logretention. See DBMS_CLOUD Package Format Options for more information.
RESULT_CACHE_MODE Parameter is Modifiable at Session and System Level	Set the RESULT_CACHE_MODE parameter to specify which queries are eligible to store result sets in the result cache. Only query execution plans with the result cache operator will attempt to read from or write to the result cache. See RESULT_CACHE_MODE for more information.
Stripe Financial Views	Stripe is an online payment processing and credit card processing platform for businesses. The Stripe views allow you to query views created on top of Stripe APIs with DBMS_CLOUD to get Stripe information such as products, invoices, plans, accounts, subscriptions, and customers. See Stripe Views on Autonomous Database for more information.
Oracle GoldenGate Parallel Replicat (Integrated Mode)	Integrated Parallel Replicat (iPR) supports GoldenGate replication apply for procedural replication, Automatic CDR, and DML handlers. See Deciding Which Apply Method to Use and About Parallel Replicat for more information.
Persistent Messaging in DBMS_PIPE	The DBMS_PIPE package has extended functionality on Autonomous Database to support persistent messaging, where messages are stored in Cloud Object Store. See Use Persistent Messaging with Messages Stored in Cloud Object Store for more information.
Access Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Logging Data with Autonomous Database Views	Using the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Logging Interface you can access log data from an Autonomous Database instance, in relational format. You can query log data in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure across all compartments and regions. See Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Logging Interface Views for more information.

April 2023

Feature	Description
Oracle Spatial Features for Geocoding Address Data and Reverse Geocoding Location Data	Oracle Spatial on includes features for geocoding address data and for reverse geocoding longitude/latitude data to a street address. See Using Oracle Spatial with Autonomous Database for more information.
Kerberos Authentication for CMU-AD	You can configure Autonomous Database to use Kerberos authentication for CMU with Microsoft Active Directory users. This configuration allows CMU Active Directory (CMU-AD) users to access an Autonomous Database instance using Kerberos credentials.
User Defined Notification Handler for Scheduler Jobs	Database Scheduler provides an email notification mechanism to track the status of periodically running or automated jobs. In addition to this, the Database Scheduler also supports user-defined PL/SQL Scheduler job notification handler procedure. Adding a scheduler job notification handler procedure allows you to monitor scheduled or automated jobs running in your Autonomous Database. See User Defined Notification Handler for Scheduler Jobs for more information.
Database Links with Customer-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity to Non-Oracle Databases on a Private Endpoint	You can create database links from an Autonomous Database to an customer-managed Oracle Database Gateway to access Non-Oracle databases that are on a private endpoint. See Create Database Links with Customer-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity to Non-Oracle Databases on a Private Endpoint for more information.
Oracle Machine Learning Notebooks Early Adopter	Oracle Machine Learning Notebooks Early Adopter is an enhanced web-based notebook platform for data engineers, data analyst, R and Python users, and data scientists. You can write code, text, create visualizations, and perform data analytics including machine learning. Notebooks work with interpreters in the back-end. In Oracle Machine Learning, notebooks are available in a project within a workspace, where you can create, edit, delete, copy, move, and even save notebooks as templates. See Get Started with Notebooks Early Adopter for Data Analysis and Data Visualization for more information.
Salesforce Support for Database Links with Oracle-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity	Autonomous Database support for Oracle-managed heterogeneous connectivity to create database links to Salesforce databases. When you use database links with Oracle-managed heterogeneous connectivity, Autonomous Database configures and sets up the connection. See Create Database Links to Non-Oracle Databases with Oracle-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity for more information.
Snapshot Standbys for Cross-Region Disaster Recovery	A disaster recovery cross-region peer can be converted to a snapshot standby. This converts either an Autonomous Data Guard cross-region standby database or a cross-region Backup-Based Disaster Recovery peer to a read-write database for up to two days. See Convert Cross Region Peer to Snapshot Standby for more information.
Singleton Pipe in DBMS_PIPE	Singleton Pipe is an addition to the DBMS_PIPE package that allows you to cache a custom message. Using a Singleton Pipe you can send and retrieve a custom message and share the message across multiple database sessions with concurrent reads. See Caching Messages with Singleton Pipes for more information.
Migrate Databases Across Regions with Minimal Downtime Using Autonomous Data Guard	You may now terminate, as well as perform all other Primary database actions on a remote Autonomous Data Guard standby when it becomes the Primary database, after a switchover or after a failover. This enables you to use a remote peer for migrating your database to the remote region. See Using Standby Databases with Autonomous Data Guard for Disaster Recovery for more information.
Send Microsoft Teams Notifications	Use Microsoft Teams notifications. You can send messages, alerts, or the output of a query from Autonomous Database to a Microsoft Teams Channel. See Send Microsoft Teams Notifications from Autonomous Database for more information.
Send Email Using DBMS_CLOUD_NOTIFICATION	You can send email to a public SMTP endpoint using the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Email Delivery service. See Send Email from Autonomous Database Using DBMS_CLOUD_NOTIFICATION for more information.

March 2023

Feature	Description
Cloud Links	Cloud Links provide a cloud-based method to collaborate between Autonomous Databases. Using Cloud Links you can access read-only data based on the cloud identities of Autonomous Database instances. The scope of collaboration can be the region where an Autonomous Database resides, individual tenancies, compartments, or particular Autonomous Database instances. See Using Cloud Links for Read Only Data Access on Autonomous Database for more information.
Backup-Based Disaster Recovery	Backup-Based Disaster Recovery uses backups to instantiate a peer database at the time of switchover or failover. For local Backup-Based Disaster Recovery, existing local backups are utilized and there are no additional costs. Cross-Region Backup-Based Disaster Recovery is also available and incurs additional costs. See Using Backup-Based Disaster Recovery for more information.
Documentation Addition: Oracle Machine Learning with Autonomous Database	Provides information on options for using Oracle Machine Learning with Autonomous Database. See Machine Learning with Autonomous Database for more information.
Export Data to Cloud Object Storage as Parquet	Use DBMS_CLOUD.EXPORT_DATA to export data as text. The text format export options are CSV, JSON, Parquet, or XML. See Export Data to Object Store as Text (CSV, JSON, Parquet, or XML) for more information.
Oracle Real Application Testing Capture and Replay	Use Capture and Replay from one Autonomous Database instance to another Autonomous Database instance. This enables you to compare workloads across different Autonomous Database instances. These Autonomous Database instances may vary at patch levels, database versions, or regions. See Using Oracle Real Application Testing for more information.
Availability Domain Information	You can obtain tenancy details, including the Availability Domain (AD) for an Autonomous Database instance. See Obtain Tenancy Details for more information.
Provision an Autonomous Database Instance and Save as Stack	The provisioning option Save as Stack allows you to create and deploy an Autonomous Database instance using Resource Manager. See Provision Autonomous Database and Overview of Resource Manager for more information.
Oracle Client for Microsoft Tools (OCMT)	Oracle Client for Microsoft Tools (OCMT) is a graphical user interface (GUI) native Microsoft Software installer (MSI) that simplifies ODP.NET setup and provides Autonomous Database connectivity to multiple Microsoft data tools. See Connect Power BI and Microsoft Data Tools to Autonomous Database for more information.
Long-Term Backups	You can create long-term backups on Autonomous Database with a retention period between three months and up to ten years. When you create a long-term backup you can create a one-time backup or set a schedule to automatically create backups that are taken weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually (yearly). See About Backup and Recovery on Autonomous Database and Create Long-Term Backups on Autonomous Database for more information.
Use Directories to Load Data with DBMS_CLOUD Procedures	As an alternative to an object store location URI, you can specify a directory with DBMS_CLOUD procedures to load or unload data from files in a directory, including directories created on attached network file systems. See Load Data from Directories in Autonomous Database for more information.

February 2023

Feature	Description
Maximum Storage Space Metric	The StorageMax metric shows the maximum amount of storage reserved for the database. See Autonomous Database Metrics and Dimensions for more information.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Vault Secret for ADMIN Password	When you create or clone an Autonomous Database instance or when you reset the ADMIN password, you can use an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure vault secret to specify the ADMIN password. See Use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Vault Secret for ADMIN Password for more information.
Inactive Connections Detected Event	The InactiveConnectionsDetected event is generated when the number of inactive database connections detected is above a certain ratio, compared to all database connections for the Autonomous Database instance. Subscribing to this event can help you keep track of unused connections. See About Information Events on Autonomous Database for more information.
Enable Automatic Time Zone File Updates	Autonomous Database lets you choose to enable the feature that automatically updates time zone files on your Autonomous Database instance. See Manage Time Zone File Version on Autonomous Database for more information.
Database Relocate and Failed Logon Events	The FailedLoginWarning event is generated when the number of failed login attempts reaches 3 * number of total users in the last three (3) hours. The InstanceRelocateBegin and InstanceRelocateEnd events are triggered when an Autonomous Database instance is relocated to another Exadata infrastructure due to server maintenance, hardware refresh, a hardware issue, or as part of a resource scale up. See About Critical Events on Autonomous Database for more information.

January 2023

Feature	Description
ECPU Compute Model	Autonomous Database offers two compute models when you create or clone an instance: ECPU and OCPU. The ECPU compute model is not enabled by default. If you want to create an Autonomous Database instance that uses ECPUs, file a Service Request at Oracle Cloud Support. See Compute Models in Autonomous Database for more information.
Configure Built-in Tools	Autonomous Database includes built-in tools that you can enable and disable when you provision or clone a database, or at any time for an existing database. See Managing Autonomous Database Built-in Tools for more information.
Configure a Custom Private IP Address for a Private Endpoint	You can configure a private endpoint when you provision or clone an Autonomous Database instance, or if your instance is configured to use a public endpoint you can change the configuration to use a private endpoint. Optionally when you configure a private endpoint you can enter a custom private IP address. Providing a custom IP address allows you to preserve an existing private IP address when you migrate from another system. See Configure Private Endpoints for more information.
Cross-Region Clone from Backup	Autonomous Database provides the option to create a clone in another region when you are cloning a database and you select Clone from a backup. In this case, you choose your preferred region to select the region where you want to create the clone. See Clone an Autonomous Database from a Backup for more information.
Send Slack Notifications	You can send slack notifications from Autonomous Database. This allows you to send messages to a Slack channel or send the results of a query to a Slack channel. See Send Slack Notifications from Autonomous Database for more information.