1. SecureFiles and Large Objects Developer's Guide
  2. Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2)

Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2)

The following are changes in Oracle Database SecureFiles and Large Objects Developer's Guide for Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2).

New Features

  • Support for Network File System (NFS) protocol

    See Introducing Network File System (NFS) for more information.

  • Collation with LOB data types

    The  default and the only supported collation with LOB data types is USING NLS_COMP. Table columns with data type BLOB, CLOB, and NCLOB have USING NLS_COMP as default collation value and specifying any other collation value will throw an error.

    See Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for more information.

  • Support for Distributed LOBs

    You can select a persistent LOB from a remote table into a local LOB variable and use it in SQL statements, DBMS_LOB and OCILob API 

    See Distributed LOBs, for more information.

  • Support for TO_CLOB (BFILE/BLOB), TO_BLOB (BFILE), and TO_CHAR (BFILE/BLOB) operators.

    See Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for more information.

  • Support for Database File system (DBFS) POSIX File locking feature.

    See Database File System (DBFS)— POSIX File Locking, for more information.

  • The following SQL functions on lob columns are enabled for predicate evaluation in Exadata cell server.

    • LENGTH

    • SUBSTR

    • INSTRM CONCAT

    • LPAD

    • RPAD

    • LTRIM

    • RTRIM

    • LOWER

    • UPPER

    • NLS_LOWER

    • NLS_UPPER

    • NVL

    • REPLACE

    • REGEXP_INSTR

    • TO_CHAR.

Deprecated Features

List of deprecated features in Oracle® Database SecureFiles and Large Objects 12c, Release 2 (12.2)

The following list of features is deprecated in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), and may be desupported in a future release.

Security Update for Native Encryption

Oracle provides a patch that you can download to address necessary security enhancements that affect native network encryption environments in Oracle Database release 11.2 and later.

This patch is available in My Oracle Support note 2118136.2.

The supported algorithms that have been improved are as follows:

  • Encryption algorithms: AES128, AES192 and AES256
  • Checksumming algorithms: SHA1, SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512

Algorithms that are deprecated and should not be used are as follows:

  • Encryption algorithms: DES, DES40, 3DES112, 3DES168, RC4_40, RC4_56, RC4_128, and RC4_256
  • Checksumming algorithm: MD5

If your site requires the use of network native encryption, then you must download the patch that is described in My Oracle Support note 2118136.2. To enable a smooth transition for your Oracle Database installation, this patch provides two parameters that enable you to disable the weaker algorithms and start using the stronger algorithms. You will need to install this patch on both servers and clients in your Oracle Database installation.

An alternative to network native encryption is Transport Layer Security (TLS), which provides protection against person-in-the-middle attacks.

See Also:

Desupported Features

The following feature is desupported in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2):

  • Desupport of Advanced Replication

    The Oracle Database Advanced Replication feature is desupported in its entirety from Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) release.

    See Also: