Identify Your Oracle Database Software Release

To understand the release nomenclature used by Oracle, examine the following example of an Oracle Database server labeled "Release 10.1.0.1.0".

Oracle Database continues to evolve and can require maintenance, Oracle periodically produces new releases. Not all customers initially subscribe to a new release or require specific maintenance for their existing release. As a result, multiple releases of the product exist simultaneously.As many as five numbers may be required to fully identify a release. The significance of these numbers is

Release Number Format

                      

Note:

Starting with release 9.2, maintenance releases of Oracle Database are denoted by a change to the second digit of a release number. In previous releases, the third digit indicated a particular maintenance release.

Major Database Release Number :  The first digit is the most general identifier. It represents a major new version of the software that contains significant new functionality.

Database Maintenance Release Number :  The second digit represents a maintenance release level. Some new features may also be included.

Application Server Release Number :  The third digit reflects the release level of the Oracle Application Server (OracleAS) .

Component-Specific Release Number : The fourth digit identifies a release level specific to a component. Different components can have different numbers in this position depending upon, for example, component patch sets or interim releases.

Platform-Specific Release Number :  The fifth digit identifies a platform-specific release. Usually this is a patch set. When different platforms require the equivalent patch set, this digit will be the same across the affected platforms.

Checking The Current Release Number :  To identify the release of Oracle Database that is currently installed and to see the release levels of other database components we are using, query the data dictionary view product_component_version. A sample query follows.(We can also query the v$version view to see component-level information.) Other product release levels may increment independent of the database server.

SQL> select * from product_component_version;

PRODUCT                                                  VERSION     STATUS

--------------------------                         -----------  -----------

NLSRTL                                                     10.2.0.1.0   Production

Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition           10.2.0.1.0   Production

PL/SQL                                                     10.2.0.1.0   Production

It is important to convey to Oracle the results of this query when we report problems with the software .

Enjoy          J J J