Oracle Cloud Applications

Fusion

Update Policy
Enterprise Operational Policy

February 2020
Copyright © 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates
Confidential: Public
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview 1
Prior to Go Live 1
Once You Go Live 1
Software and Hardware Update Types 2
Quarterly Updates 2
Vertex Updates (Tax and Address Files) 3
Infrastructure Updates 3
Monthly Maintenance Packs 4
Exception Updates 6

Additional Update Information 7

Planned Outages 7
Exceptions to Update Practices 7

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 7

OVERVIEW
This paper applies to Enterprise operational policy holders. Find your Cloud Service operational policy on the Overview tab
on the Service Details page in the Applications Console.
We periodically provide software and hardware updates for your environments to:
 Introduce new features/functions
 Address reported issues
 Provide infrastructure updates
This paper describes update policies and practices that apply to all Oracle Cloud Applications (Fusion) customers. You
should also check the Cloud Policies and Guidelines (Doc ID 1989081.2), particularly the Service Descriptions and Hosting
and Delivery Cloud Policy documents.

PRIOR TO GO LIVE
If your business is not live and not in production, consider requesting the Concurrent Maintenance option to keep your
production and non-production environments at the same update level.
The benefits of keeping your environments at the same update level during your initial implementation using concurrent
maintenance are:
 Updates are applied to all environments at the same time.
 Setup and extensibility can be easily migrated from a non-production environment to your production
environment.
 Fulfillment of environment refresh requests is easier to schedule and fulfill because the source and target
environments are at the same update level. (A prerequisite for environment refresh requests is that source and
target environments are at the same update level.)
You’ll need to plan your Concurrent Maintenance end date for the last day of the month prior to your go-live month. For
more information about Concurrent Maintenance, see My Oracle Support article Doc ID 1646394.1.

ONCE YOU GO LIVE

If your business is live on Oracle Cloud, updates are applied to your environments on a predefined schedule – they’re first
applied to non-production environments and then to production environments two weeks later, depending on the type of
update. This gives you time to test the updates and identify and report any issues before the updates are applied to your
production environment.

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SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE UPDATE TYPES
We provide the following software and hardware updates:
 Quarterly Updates
 Vertex Updates (Tax and Address Files)
 Infrastructure Updates
 Monthly Maintenance Packs (optional)
 Exception Updates
You’ll receive communication about these updates via the standard notification process.

Quarterly Updates
There are four feature/function updates each calendar year. We’ll send a notification to let you know which month within
the Quarterly Update period you’ll receive your update.
Note: Quarterly Updates are mandatory. You can’t skip or reschedule them.
Quarterly Updates may include:
 New and enhanced features/functions
 National Language Support (NLS) updates for all installed language packs
 Fixes for reported issues with Oracle Cloud Applications
 Fixes for reported issues with Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI). The
middleware updates are sometimes referred to as P4FA updates
Note: If you’re a Payroll customer processing payroll for the US, UK, or Canada, you’ll receive Quarterly Updates in February,
May, August and November. You may need more frequent updates to support legislative changes. See the Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQs), “What if I’m processing payroll for the US, UK, or Canada?” section for more information about
Statutory/Legislative updates.

Mandatory or optional Mandatory

Delivery schedule Non-production environments: First Friday of your Quarterly Update month. Exception is the
Middle East, where the update is applied on Thursday.
Production environments: Third Friday of your Quarterly Update month. Exception is the
Middle East, where the update is applied on Thursday.

Planned outage times
Your outage start time is based on your maintenance region. If you don't know your
maintenance region, look at your Welcome letter or the Applications Console Details page.
 Americas – Friday 21:00 CST/CDT
 Europe – Friday 21:00 BST/GMT
 Middle East – Thursday 21:00 GST
 Asia Pacific – Saturday 00:00 AEST/AEDT
To review the latest outage times, see My Oracle Support article Doc ID 1681146.2.

Readiness material and You'll receive advance notice of Readiness material, which describe the new features/functions
documentation in upcoming updates. 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 Quarterly Update.
For more information on the details of known and resolved issues in the Quarterly Update,
review the specific Cloud Applications Functional Update papers from My Oracle Support article
(Doc ID 1603154.1).

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Vertex Updates (Tax and Address Files)
Vertex Updates occur monthly and apply to US and Canada tax rates, calculations, and address validations. If your business
operates outside of the US and Canada, you’ll receive these updates because you may need to validate US and Canadian
addresses for employees or trading partners who have residences or businesses there.

Mandatory or optional Mandatory

Delivery schedule Non-production environments: 18th of each month.

Production environments: 25th of each month.

Planned outage times No outage Required

Readiness material and The Vertex Calculation Guide is updated as needed and accessible from the Applications
documentation Console for US Payroll and Canada Payroll customers only.

Infrastructure Updates
We provide hardware, network, and operating system updates periodically to keep your environments optimized.

Mandatory or optional Mandatory

Delivery schedule Typically, quarterly or as needed

Planned outage times
Outage times can happen on the 2nd or 4th weekend of any month but are typically applied
once a quarter. End times will vary based on the scope of the updates. You’ll be sent a
notification when there is one scheduled.
Your outage times are based on the time zone for the maintenance region in which you’re
hosted. For example, if you’re an Asia Pacific customer, but your environment is hosted by a US
data center, this update outage will most likely coincide with the US Update time.

Readiness material and

Documentation not necessary
documentation

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Monthly Maintenance Packs
Monthly Maintenance Packs contain fixes for reported issues, which are included in the next Quarterly Update.
You might need Monthly Maintenance Packs if:
 Your software is not yet in production, and you want more frequent updates.
 You want updates more frequently than quarterly.
You can request to receive Monthly Maintenance Packs for one month or multiple months. Once you choose to receive
Monthly Maintenance Packs, you’ll continue to receive them until your specified end date. After you receive your last
Monthly Maintenance Pack, you’ll move back to your Quarterly Update schedule.
You can request Monthly Maintenance Packs using the Maintenance Profile option in the Action menu of the Applications
Console. You must have Service Administrator privileges to request Monthly Maintenance Packs.
Your request for Monthly Maintenance from the Applications Console is applied to all the environments for your
subscription. Submitting a request for your production environment automatically applies to your non-production
environments and vice-versa. You can verify the results of your request in the Applications Console Maintenance Profile for
each environment.
Important: Your request for Monthly Maintenance must be made by 17:00 US Pacific on the Friday 2 weeks prior to the first
Friday of the month in which you want to start, extend or stop monthly maintenance.
If you’re using Monthly Maintenance Packs, you’ll also receive National Language Support (NLS) updates for all installed
language packs.
If you request Monthly Maintenance Packs, it applies to all environments, with no exceptions.

Mandatory or optional Optional

Delivery schedule Non-production environments: First Friday of each month. Exception is the Middle East,
where the update is applied on Thursday.
Production environments: Third Friday of each month. Exception is the Middle East, where
the update is applied on Thursday.

When to submit your Submit your request by 17:00 US Pacific on the Friday 2 weeks prior to the first Friday of the
request month in which you want to start, extend, or opt-out of Monthly Maintenance.

Planned outage times Your outage start time is based on your maintenance region. If you don't know your
maintenance region, look at your Welcome letter or the Applications Console Details page.

 Americas – Friday 21:00 CST/CDT

 Europe – Friday 21:00 BST/GMT
 Middle East – Thursday 21:00 GST
 Asia Pacific – Saturday 0:00 AEST/AEDT

To review the latest outage times, see My Oracle Support article Doc ID 1681146.2.

Readiness material and You'll receive advance notice of Readiness material, which describes new features/functions
documentation in upcoming updates. This material is published on the Oracle Cloud Readiness site prior to
the update availability. This Readiness material along with documentation will help you
prepare for the features/functions introduced with each Maintenance Pack.
For more information on the details of known and resolved issues in the monthly
maintenance pack, review the specific cloud applications functional update papers from My
Oracle Support article (Doc ID 1603154.1).

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You should use the Applications Console to request Monthly Maintenance Packs, however if it’s necessary, you can log a
service request, entering these fields:

FIELD ENTER

Problem Summary Monthly Update Request

Problem Description Monthly Update Request. Choose the Cloud tab

Service Type Oracle Cloud Applications (Fusion) Service for which you’re
logging the SR

Problem Type Hosting Services

Question 1 I have a question about updates and maintenance …

Question 2 Monthly Updates

Complete all fields in the template appropriate for your request. You’ll need to provide a start and end date (Month/Year).
Once you reach your end date, only Quarterly Updates are applied from that point forward. If you want to change the end
date, submit a new request by 17:00 US Pacific on the Friday 2 weeks prior to the first Friday of the desired Monthly
Maintenance month.
Requesting optional Monthly Maintenance Packs will impact the available dates for scheduling environment refreshes or
require that an existing refresh be rescheduled. For more information, refer to Oracle Cloud Applications – Environment
Refresh Service Entitlement article on My Oracle Support (Doc ID 2015788.1)

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Exception Updates
You may need an Exception Update when you encounter an unexpected issue that disables a business-critical process and
no workaround exists. You must raise the exception request through the SR you opened when you initially reported the
problem. We approve exception requests on a case-by-case basis.
Several criteria must be met to request and receive an Exception 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
If you’re approved to receive an Exception Update, Oracle Support will explain the type of update you’ll receive and the
timing for applying it. Exception Updates may contain multiple fixes from different product lines.

Mandatory or Optional Optional

Delivery schedule Non-production environments: Exception Updates are applied on Friday. Check the SR
where you raised the exception request for the exact date. In the Middle East, Exception
Updates are applied on Thursday.
Production environments: Friday, one week after the update is applied to your non-
production environment. In the Middle East, Exception Updates are applied on Thursday, one
week after the update is applied to your non-production environment.
Important Note: If your non-production Exception Update is scheduled for the first Friday of
your Quarterly Update month, we’ll apply the Exception Update to your production
environment on the 3rd Friday of the same month. This follows the same schedule as your
Quarterly Update.
If you have a strong business justification, you can request an Exception Update be applied to
your production environment on a different schedule than the one described here. Contact
Support to request schedule changes using the SR where you raised the exception request

When to submit your Work with Support to ensure your request is received in time to meet your timeline.
request

Planned outage times Your outage start time is based on your maintenance region. If you don't know your
maintenance region, look at your Welcome letter or the Applications Console Details page.
 Americas – Friday 21:00 CST/CDT
 Europe – Friday 21:00 BST/GMT
 Middle East – Thursday 21:00 GST
 Asia Pacific – Saturday 00:00 AEST/AEDT
To review the latest outage times, see My Oracle Support article Doc ID 1681146.2.

Readiness material and

No documentation is provided for Exception Updates.
documentation

Keep in mind that Exception Update introduces:

 Differences in update levels between your environments. You may need to reschedule any Environment Refresh
that is planned.
 Additional potential outages may be required due to additional updates required to complete the original Exception
Update request
All Exception Updates are included in the next Quarterly Updates and Monthly Maintenance Packs.
Note: Exception Updates may contain multiple fixes from different product lines. Oracle doesn’t provide documentation for
Exception Updates.

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ADDITIONAL UPDATE INFORMATION

Planned Outages
Outage times are defined to minimize disruption to your business. We’ll send you advance notification with outage details,
including impacted environment and outage start and end dates.
If you have an implementation partner, add them as a notification contact in the Applications Console, so they can receive
notices of your outages and can plan their work accordingly. For more information, see Managing Contacts for Service
Notifications.

Exceptions to Update Practices

We make every attempt to limit update-related outages and exceptions to the update schedule defined in this paper.
However, there may be an occasional need to vary from this schedule for various reasons, such as:
 Unscheduled, emergency updates to address a critical problem affecting all customers
 Extending a planned outage time for an update
We’ll make every attempt to forecast these special cases and provide you with advance notifications.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS)

Why can’t I skip the Quarterly Updates?
We need to ensure all customers have the latest critical code updates and features/functions. Therefore, Quarterly Updates
are mandatory. Without these critical fixes, the stability of your cloud environment can be affected.
Can I combine multiple Quarterly Updates into a single maintenance window?
No. You have to uptake the Quarterly Updates in the month you’re assigned based on your Quarterly Schedule.
Why do the non-production and production environments get Quarterly Updates and Monthly Maintenance Packs
two weeks apart?
This gives you time to perform testing before changes are introduced to your production environment. If your business is
not yet live in production, the Concurrent Maintenance option allows your environments to be updated together on the non-
production schedule, to keep them in synch for critical implementation activities. For more information about Concurrent
Maintenance, review the following My Oracle Support article (Doc ID 1646394.1).
How do I know what version I’m on?
The Maintenance Completion notification tells you what version you’re on. You can also find the Version number on the
Cloud Portal Overview page.
How can I tell what month I’ll receive my Quarterly Update?
We’ll send a notification to let you know what month you’ll receive your Quarterly Update. If you are a Service Administrator,
you can also view your Quarterly Update Schedule using the Maintenance Profile option in the Action menu in the
Applications Console.
Where can I find instructions for using Cloud Portal to request Monthly Maintenance?
You can find detailed instructions in the Help Center by using the Help for This Page option in the Contact Menu. Here is an
example of the information you’d find for Modifying the Frequency of Your Service Maintenance.

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Why can’t I access new features included in the Quarterly Update?
We deliver new features turned off by default. You need to turn new features on. See the Release Readiness content for
more information (https://www.oracle.com/readiness).
How do I know what is included in the Quarterly Updates to create a testing plan?
Review the following content:
 What's New documents included in Release Readiness content for each service
(https://www.oracle.com/readiness)
 Oracle Fusion Applications Known Issues and Update article on My Oracle Support (Doc ID 1603154.1)
 Functional Readmes for Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI) Updates article on My Oracle Support
(Doc ID 1573674.1)
Why can’t I request a specific downtime for when updates are applied?
We schedule predefined downtime windows for all updates, as it’s critical to time updates when the Oracle Cloud
Applications Operations team is available in your maintenance region time zone. You can find additional details for each
update type in the Software and Hardware Update Types section in this paper.
How do I know what maintenance region is assigned for my environments?
The region is automatically assigned based on the country identified in your Cloud Services agreement.
What do I do if an update does not address my reported issue?
Update the specific Service Request (SR) in My Oracle Support, indicating that the issue was not resolved after the
application of the update. Provide details of any changes in error messages or symptoms and screenshots as appropriate.
Does the update outage schedule still apply if my environment has more than one Cloud Service (for example, HCM
and Engagement)?
Yes. You’ll receive updates for all Cloud Services at the same time. If you receive an Exception Update that requires an
outage, your entire environment will be brought down and there will be no access to any of your applications during the
outage period.
How do Exception Updates affect a request for an Environment Refresh?
An Environment Refresh can only be performed when both the production and non-production environments are at the
same update level. If you’re not using Concurrent Maintenance, an Environment Refresh can only be scheduled during the
period after the production environment has received the Quarterly Updates (the third Friday of your Quarterly month) and
up until the next Quarterly Updates are applied to non-production environments (the first Friday of your Quarterly month).
For more details, see the My Oracle Support document - Environment Refresh Doc ID 2015788.1.
If you receive an Exception Update, your non-production environments will typically be updated differently than your
production environment and an Environment Refresh cannot be performed. Oracle Support will identify the impact of
Exception Updates on a scheduled Environment Refresh. We won’t apply Exception Updates to synch up environments for
an Environment Refresh.
How close to a Quarterly Update can I schedule an environment refresh?
The environment refresh for both source and target environments should not be scheduled 5 days before or 3 days after the
start of a Quarterly Update. Also, it should not be scheduled within a blackout period.
For more detailed information on environment refresh and its blackout periods, see the My Oracle Support document – Doc
ID: 2015788.1.
How will I know that my environments are at the same levels for an Environment Refresh?
After you submit an Environment Refresh request, we’ll determine whether or not your environments are at the same
update level and can receive an Environment Refresh on the date you request. If necessary, Support will identify the date on
which your environments should be updated to the same level so that you can reschedule your Environment Refresh.
How will I know if the update process changes?
This paper will be updated as changes occur and the changes will be communicated via the Applications Console and
Customer Connect.

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Can I request Exception Updates or Monthly Maintenance Packs because I always want the latest available fixes
applied to my environments?
Exception Updates are only approved on a case-by-case basis when you have a previously documented issue that is
severely impacting a key business process with no workaround. You can find additional details in the Exception Updates
section in this paper.
Monthly Maintenance Packs let you receive updates monthly, rather than quarterly. No additional approvals are required.
What if I’m processing payroll for the US, UK, or Canada?
We’re committed to ensuring that you’re kept current with legislative updates. If you, as a US, UK, or Canada Payroll
customer, are not current with legislative updates, your payroll may be inaccurate, and you may incur penalties and fines. To
ensure you’re current, you’ll receive Quarterly Updates in February, May, August, and November, and will also require
additional statutory/legislative updates. For more information on mandatory and recommended statutory/legislative
updates for Cloud Payroll, please refer to My Oracle Support for the Oracle Payroll Simplified Maintenance Policy (Doc ID
2501571.1).

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Update Policy - Enterprise

February, 2020