Software and Hardware Update Types
We provide the following software and hardware updates:
• General Availability Releases (3x per year)
• Maintenance Packs (monthly / 6 Maintenance Packs per release)
• Platform Updates (monthly)
• Hot Fix Updates (as needed)
• Infrastructure Patching (quarterly)
You will receive separate notifications with timing details prior to the maintenance.
General Availability Releases
There are three feature/function General Availability releases each calendar year, and each General Availability release is supported for 12 months. Once in production, you will have a certain amount of flexibility to schedule the General Availability release first for testing, then for production. Note that you will always need to take the next General Availability release prior to the end of life of your current production release.
Note: General Availability Releases are mandatory. You cannot skip a General Availability release.
General Availability Releases may include:
• New and enhanced features/functions (generally provided as 'opt-in')
• New and Updated language packs
• Fixes for reported issues with Oracle Utilities Cloud Applications
• Fixes and updates of the other bundled services which are part of the cloud subscription, such as the Utilities Testing Accelerator.
Mandatory or Optional
Mandatory for Fast Lane Customers
 
Optional for Cutover / Production Lane Customers
Delivery Schedule
General Availability releases are delivered three times per year.
 
Please refer to the Oracle Utilities Release Calendar for details.
Environment Update Plan
During implementation / Customers on fast lane, General Availability releases are scheduled promptly at General Availability, first to non-production environments, then to production.
 
As go-live approaches, you can stay on your current General Availability release to stabilize for final acceptance as long as you are on the fifth or sixth maintenance pack (see Monthly Maintenance Packs for more information about maintenance packs).
 
Once in Production after go-live, we recommend scheduling uptake of the next General Availability release for testing between the fifth and sixth maintenance packs. This will give you time to perform quick regression before uptake to production (see Monthly Maintenance Packs for more information about maintenance packs).
 
Non-production early adopters (remaining non-production environments): First Maintenance window (typically first Saturday) of the month.
 
Production environment and late adopters: Second Maintenance window (typically third Saturday) of the month or next maintenance window.
Planned Outage Times
Outage times are according to the Planned Maintenance Times section.
Readiness Material and Documentation
You will receive advance notice of Readiness material, which describe the new features/functions in upcoming releases. This material is published on the Oracle Cloud Readiness site at least 30 days prior to update availability. This Readiness material along with the documentation will help you prepare for the features/functions introduced with each new release.
Note: When a new General Availability release level is introduced into a test environment, it is not possible to refresh that environment from Production until Production has also been updated. Many customers schedule a refresh of the test environment just prior to taking the next General Availability release.
Monthly Maintenance Packs
Monthly Maintenance Packs (MP) contain fixes for reported application issues and are provided for the first six months including the General Availability release (remember that releases are supported for 12 months). For the first four months of the release, maintenance packs contain roll-ups of all available fixes for Fast Lane customers. After that point for the next two months the maintenance packs on a release will include only fixes for critical/blocking issues faced by customers either live or soon going live.
Monthly maintenance packs are mandatory while in the Fast Lane (when your cloud service is not yet in live production). This means that there is only support for hot fixes on the latest maintenance pack during the first four months of a General Availability release.
When go-live is approaching, you have the option to choose a monthly maintenance pack level at which to 'freeze' and stabilize for final acceptance. The freeze can last up to two months, then there will be a mandatory 'catch-up' after go-live to the latest monthly pack. The first allowable freeze level is the fifth maintenance pack for the release, and the last possible is the sixth maintenance pack.
After going live, we require you to move up to the final (sixth month) maintenance pack for your current release and from that point forward only hot fix updates will be provided to minimize change in the live system, if needed.
The fixes provided in each monthly maintenance pack are documented in My Oracle Support.
Mandatory or Optional
Mandatory while in Fast Lane.
 
Optional to temporarily freeze on a maintenance pack for go-live (up to two months), followed by mandatory 'catch up'
Delivery Schedule
Maintenance Packs are prepared for the first weekend of each calendar month (with rare exceptions for holidays).
Environment Update Plan
Non-production early adopter environments: First Maintenance window (typically first Saturday) of the month or subsequent maintenance windows.
 
Production environment and late adopters: Second maintenance window (typically third Saturday) of the month or subsequent maintenance windows.
Planned Outage Times
Outage times are according to the Planned Maintenance Times section.
Readiness Material and Documentation
Documentation for the included fixes can be found in My Oracle Support. (Doc ID 2616460.1).
Platform Updates
The Oracle Utilities cloud services utilize a Kubernetes-based microservice architecture, and this platform provides services such as networking, monitoring, logging, etc. On a monthly basis we will provide platform updates, which do not in themselves alter the functionality of the service. These platform updates are installed at the same time as the maintenance packs and are also applied in months when no new maintenance pack is provided.
Mandatory or Optional
Mandatory
Delivery Schedule
First weekend of each month regardless if accepting application patching to the environments.
Environment Update Plan
All Non-production environments: First weekend of the month.
 
Production environments: Third weekend of the month (may adjust in certain months due to holidays).
Planned Outage Times
Outage times are according to the Planned Maintenance Times section.
Readiness Material and Documentation
N/A
Hot Fix Updates
You may need a Hot Fix Update when you encounter an unexpected issue that disables a business-critical process and no workaround exists. You must raise the hot fix request through the Service Request (SR) you opened when you initially reported the problem. We approve hot fix requests on a case-by-case basis.
Several criteria must be met to request and receive a hot fix Update, including:
• A resolution is available
• No workaround exists, or you believe that a proposed workaround is not acceptable
• You submitted an update to the existing SR explaining how the reported problem severely impacts a key business process.
• You are on a maintenance pack that is eligible for a hot fix, as described in Monthly Maintenance Packs (otherwise the patch will be made available to you as part of a new maintenance pack).
If you're approved to receive a hot fix update, Oracle Support will explain the type of update you will receive and the timing for applying it. Hot fix updates are cumulative in nature, thus may contain multiple fixes available only on the latest Maintenance Pack. Hot fix releases are always applied to a selected non-production environment first for validation, then to production.
Mandatory or Optional
Functional fixes are Optional.
 
Exception: Oracle declares a patch is critical and mandatory.
Delivery Schedule
Hot fix updates are delivered after approval, coding and testing.
Environment Update Plan
For all environments, the next available hot fix window after agreed upon with customer success manager (CSM).
 
Note: Hot fixes will always be applied to non-prod environment first and after validation., applied in the Production environment.
Planned Outage Times
Outage times are either as outlined in the Planned Maintenance Times section or as negotiated depending on the criticality.
Readiness Material and Documentation
Documentation for the included fixes can be found in My Oracle Support (Doc ID 2616460.1).
All hot fix updates are rolled up and included in the next monthly maintenance pack.
Infrastructure Quarterly Patching
Oracle provides hardware, database, network, and operating system updates periodically to keep your environments optimized and secure. Infrastructure quarterly patching does not typically involve any downtime.
Mandatory or Optional
Mandatory
Delivery Schedule
Quarterly or as needed.
 
Cloud Operations will communicate the specific dates for each quarter prior to patching.
Planned Outage Times
Downtime is not planned for infrastructure patching.
Readiness Material and Documentation
N/A
Note: Infrastructure patching can create 'blackout periods' during which some environmental activities such as refresh or new environment provisioning cannot occur. Oracle will advise on dates of these periods.