1. Platform Guide
  2. Changes in This Release for Oracle Database Platform Guide

Changes in This Release for Oracle Database Platform Guide

Describes new and deprecated features of Oracle Database and provides pointers to additional information.

Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2)

The following are the changes in Oracle Database Platform Guide for Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2):

Parent topic: Changes in This Release for Oracle Database Platform Guide

New Features

The following features are new in this release:

  • Windows Resilient File System

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), Oracle supports Resilient File System (ReFS). ReFS is a new Windows local file system that is more reliable and scalable. ReFS helps prevent the corruption of file metadata occuring in standard NTFS volumes making data inaccessible. ReFS uses checksums for file metadata, and an allocate-on-write method to update data which, minimizes the risk of corruption.

  • Windows Direct NFS Client Supports All the Accepted NFS Path Formats

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), Windows Direct NFS Client supports all widely accepted NFS path formats including both Windows style and UNIX style NFS paths.

    See Also:

    File I/O Enhancements

  • Support for Windows Group Managed Service Accounts and Virtual Accounts

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), support of Group Managed Services Account (gMSA) and Virtual Accounts for installing an Oracle Database provides additional options to create and manage database services without passwords. The gMSA is a domain level account that can be used by multiple servers in a domain to run the services using this account. Virtual Accounts are auto-managed.

    See Also:

    Using Oracle Home User for an Oracle Database and Oracle Database Client

  • Oracle Database Instance Management as a Microsoft Management Console Snap-In

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), administrators can perform basic Oracle Database administrative tasks such as create, edit, delete, start, and shutdown of Oracle Database instances using Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in.

    Windows administrators can also perform Oracle administration tasks in MMC’s graphical user interface.

    See Also:

    About Administering an Oracle Database Instance Using Microsoft Management Console Snapin

Parent topic: Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2)

Deprecated Features

Parent topic: Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2)

Desupported Features

The following feature is desupported for Oracle Database 12c release 2 (12.2):

  • Desupport of Advanced Replication

    Advanced Replication is desupported in Oracle Database 12c release 2 (12.2).

See Also:

Oracle Database Upgrade Guide for a complete list of desupported features

Parent topic: Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2)

Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1)

The following are the changes in Oracle Database Platform Guide for Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1):

  • New Features
    The following features are new in this release:
  • Deprecated Features
    The following feature is deprecated in this release, and might be desupported in a future release:
  • Desupported Features
    The following features previously described in this guide are no longer supported by Oracle.

Parent topic: Changes in This Release for Oracle Database Platform Guide

New Features

The following features are new in this release:

  • Support of Oracle Home User on Windows

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1), Oracle Database supports the use of Oracle Home User, specified at the time of installation. Oracle Home User is used to run Windows services for the Oracle home. Oracle Home User is associated with an Oracle home and cannot be changed post installation. On a system, different Oracle homes can share the same Oracle Home User or use different Oracle Home User names.

    Oracle Home User can be a Windows built-in account or a Windows User Account. For enhanced security, Oracle recommends that the standard Windows User Account be chosen as the Oracle Home User for Oracle Database installations. The primary purpose of Oracle Home User is to run Windows services with Windows User Account. This user account (Oracle Home User) must be a standard Windows user account (not an Administrator). Windows User Account can be a Local User, a Domain User, or a Managed Services Account.

    Group Managed Services Account (gMSA) and Virtual Accounts are the new options for Oracle Home User.

    Note:

    See the Microsoft documentation for more information about different types of Windows user accounts.

    This release has also introduced a new Windows utility called the Oracle Home User Control. This is a command-line tool that displays the Oracle Home User name associated with the current Oracle home and updates the password for the Windows User Account (used as Oracle Home User).

    See Also:

  • Oracle ASM File Access Control on Windows

    Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) File Access Control restricts the access of files to specific Oracle ASM clients that connect as SYSDBA. An Oracle ASM client is typically a database, which is identified as the user that owns the database instance home.

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1), Oracle supports the use of standard Windows User Account instead of Local System Account to run Oracle Database services that lets you use separate users for different Oracle databases. This release also supports Oracle ASM disk group file-level access control and privilege separation.

    The Oracle ASM File Access Control feature helps to replace the current user with a new user and allows the user to change ownership, group membership, and permissions of a file while the file is open by one or more Oracle ASM clients. This release onwards, the Windows User Accounts used as Oracle Home Users are restricted from directly accessing Oracle ASM storage devices and can be accessed through the Oracle Database services that have sufficient privileges to run that service.

    Oracle ASM disk group users now manage ASM disk group user replacement with new ASMCMD commands and SQL statements.

    See Also:

  • Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Express 12c

    Oracle Database 12c introduces Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Express 12c, a web-based management tool built into Oracle Database without any need for special installation or management. Using Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Express 12c, you can perform basic administrative tasks such as user, performance, memory, and space management. You can also view performance and status information about your database.

    See Also:

  • Support of Oracle Home User for Oracle Net Services

    Oracle Database 12c supports Oracle Net services such as Oracle Listener, CMADMIN, and CMAN Proxy Listener to run under Oracle Home User account specified during Oracle Database installation. In earlier releases, Oracle Net services ran under the high-privileged, Windows built-in Local System Account (LSA).

    See Also:

  • Securing External Procedures

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1), a LIBRARY object can be defined using either an explicit path or a DIRECTORY object. You can also use the CREDENTIAL clause to specify the operating system user.

    See Also:

  • Support for Separation of Database Administration Duties

    Oracle Database 12c provides support for separation of database administration duties for Oracle Database by introducing task-specific and least-privileged administrative privileges that do not require the SYSDBA administrative privilege. These new privileges are: SYSBACKUP for backup and recovery, SYSDG for Oracle Data Guard, and SYSKM for encryption key management.

    See Also:

Parent topic: Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1)

Deprecated Features

The following feature is deprecated in this release, and might be desupported in a future release:

Windows NTS Authentication Using the NTLM Protocol

The NTS authentication adapter no longer supports the use of the NT LAN Manager (NTLM) protocol to authenticate Windows domain users. Thus the NTS adapter cannot be used to authenticate users in old Windows NT domains or domains with old Windows NT domain controllers. However, local connections and Oracle Database services running as a Windows Local User continues to be authenticated using NTLM. A new client-side sqlnet.ora boolean parameter, no_ntlm (default value is FALSE) allows you to control if NTLM can be used in NTS authentication. When the parameter is set to TRUE, NTLM cannot be used in NTS authentication.

Parent topic: Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1)

Desupported Features

The following features previously described in this guide are no longer supported by Oracle.

  • Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control

  • Oracle COM Automation

  • Oracle Objects for OLE

  • Oracle Counters for Windows Performance Monitor

  • Raw Devices

See Also:

Oracle Database Upgrade Guide for a list of desupported features

Parent topic: Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1)