Clarifying Oracle EPM Versioning

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Introduction
Even for EPM insiders, Oracle's versioning scheme for Oracle EPM can be confusing. With this post I
attempt to shed some light on this matter. This post will assume the latest version of EPM available at the
time of writing, which is 11.1.2.4.x. The rumour is that this is the last EPM 11.x version, in 2017 version 12.x
is expected. Essbase v12.x has recently been released embedded in the latest version of OBIEE.

Oracle EPM Versioning

Below a picture which explains the EPM versioning scheme:

Patches
The above versioning is based on RTM releases, but how to patches influence the version? There are
basically four kinds of patches:
PS (Patch Set)
Personally I consider this to be a Major release of Oracle EPM, although Oracle treats this as an a minor
release. Depending on your situation installing this PS involves either a in-place upgrade or a new install
which requires a migration of all (meta-) data.

A PS updates all components within EPM suite and potentially some or all embedded middleware
components. In addition the underlying architecture might change significantly, therefore a new design
may be required. This is why I treat a PS as a major release.

PSU (Patch Set Update)

This is a proactive maintenance release of a specific EPM software component. However in most cases
the PSU patch depends on PSU's for other EPM components. Each component can have their own PSU
version level. Typically PSU's for Essbase related components have a different version number from the
rest.

In the past Oracle released (to my best knowledge for EPM 11.1.2.2 and 11.1.2.3) a so called "Super
Patch", which is actually a set of PSU's and PSE's that patches multiple EPM components and Oracle
Middleware components in one go. Essbase and among some other components are not part of these
Super Patches. This method has been dropped since 11.1.2.4.

PSE (Patch Set Exception)

In case a serious defect is encountered that cannot wait to be addressed in a PS or PSU, a PSE is released.
These are EPM component, version and PSU level specific patches. A PSE doesn't change the version of
that component. Typically a PSE addresses a single or at best a few defects. Therefore it is recommended
to only install when you suffer from the defect(s) this patch fixes.

CPU (Critical Patch Update)

This is a patch specialized in addresses security related defects. Although the other patches might address
a security related defect, in most cases these patches focus on functional and/or technical defects. CPU's
are released each calendar month and published through as so called Oracle Critical Patch Update
Advisory. You can subscribe here in order to be informed of CPU released.

There has been allot of debate (also by me) whether to install the released CPU's or not. In short Oracle
advice's to install all released CPU's on all relevant components within the EPM suite (which includes all
Middleware components). However I do recommend to take in account the relevance of a CPU. However
this might be a nice subject for another post ;-)