Release Updates and Requirements for Upgrading Oracle Database

Before starting upgrades, update your new release Oracle home to the latest Release Update (Update).

The software for new Oracle database releases contains a full release that includes all the latest updates for your Oracle database release at the time of the release.

To protect your Oracle database estate from new AI-enabled threats, Oracle strongly recommends that you upgrade the major version of your databases to either Oracle Database 19c or Oracle AI Database 26ai. Oracle also strongly recommends that customers apply very recent quarterly Release Updates (RUs) to their databases. For more information about these recommendations, see Recommendations to Help Protect Oracle Databases from Emerging AI-enabled Security Threats (PNEWS3015):

Recommendations to Help Protect Oracle Databases from Emerging AI-enabled Security Threats PNEWS3015

My Oracle Support provides detailed notes about how you can obtain the updates, as well as tools for lifecycle management.. For example:

Assistant: Download Reference for Oracle Database/GI Update, Revision, PSU, SPU(CPU), Bundle Patches, Patchsets and Base Releases KA958 (formerly My Oracle Support note 1227443.1) contains a list of Oracle Database PSU/BP/Update/Revision known issues. This note provides information about all known issues notes for Oracle Database, Oracle Grid Infrastructure, and the Oracle JavaVM Component (OJVM).

Database PSU/BP/Update/Revision - Known Issues Primary Note KB260868 (formerly My Oracle Support Note 1227443.1) provides known documents for Oracle Patch Set Updates (PSUs) and Release Updates (Updates), which are in addition to any issues listed in the patch READMEs.