Why do we not support using a newer version of the Oracle client with an older version of the database.

Products

• Data Loss Prevention Enforce
• Data Loss Prevention

Issue/Introduction

It is well known that Oracle supports the use of Oracle clients which are a newer version than that of the database, for example you may use an Oracle 19c client with and Oracle 12c database, it is backward compatible. However our documentation states that URT only support installations where the Oracle client and database are on the same version. This may cause a concern for some customers as they would like to use a newer version of the client to possibly address known vulnerabilities etc.

 

Resolution

While using sqlplus is backwards compatible with older Oracle versions, the URT also uses the data pump client. The datapump client is not backwards compatable as it only supports connecting to a database that is the same database version or higher.

A 12.1 data pump client can connect to a 12.1 or 19c database but a 19c data pump client can only connect to a 19c database.