Bring Your Own License (BYOL) Option Moved for Provisioning and Cloning

During provisioning or cloning the Bring Your Own License (BYOL) option is moved to advanced options in the Configure the database area.

See Choose Bring Your Own License Option While Provisioning or Cloning for more information.

Blocking Sessions Metric

The BlockingSessions metric shows the number of current blocking sessions.

See Available Metrics: oci_autonomous_database for more information.

Control Lockdown Profile Errors

Autonomous Database uses lockdown profiles to restrict certain database functionality and features. The LOCKDOWN_ERRORS parameter allows you to suppress lockdown profile errors.

See LOCKDOWN_ERRORS for more information.

NVIDIA GPU Compute Capabilities with Oracle Machine Learning Notebooks

Oracle Machine Learning Notebooks offers support for NVIDIA GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) compute capabilities. The GPU capabilities in OML Notebooks allow you to run advanced machine learning algorithms such as deep learning models, transformers (embedding models) for generating vectors, and small LLMs.

The GPU feature is enabled for Autonomous Database instances with Transaction Processing or Data Warehouse workloads with 16 ECPUs or more specified for the OML application.

GPU resources are not available on Always Free or Autonomous Database for Developers instances.

See Enable GPU Compute Capabilities in a Notebook through the Python Interpreter for more information.

Customer-Managed Encryption Keys

In addition to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Vault, Autonomous Database can be configured to use encryption keys with the following key providers:

• Azure Key Vault
• AWS Key Management System (KMS)
• Oracle Key Vault (OKV)

See Manage Encryption Keys on Autonomous Database for more information.

Select AI with Hugging Face

Autonomous Database can interact with AI service providers. Select AI supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI Service, CohereAI, Google Gemini, Hugging Face, and OCI Generative AI.

This feature supports having LLMs work with Oracle database by generating SQL from natural language prompts. This allows you to talk to your database.

See Use Select AI for Natural Language Interaction with your Database for more information.

Zero Trust Packet Routing

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Zero Trust Packet Routing (ZPR) protects sensitive data from unauthorized access through intent-based security policies that you write for resources, such as an Autonomous Database on a private endpoint, that you assign security attributes to.

See Use Zero Trust Packet Routing on Autonomous Database for more information.

Select AI with Anthropic

Autonomous Database can interact with AI service providers. Select AI supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI Service, CohereAI, Google Gemini, Hugging Face, and OCI Generative AI.

This feature supports having LLMs work with Oracle database by generating SQL from natural language prompts. This allows you to talk to your database.

See Use Select AI for Natural Language Interaction with your Database for more information.

Data Studio Enhancements

The Data Studio is updated with new features and changes in the following areas:

• Data Load in Data Studio- Public APIs for Data Load Live Feed:

  The LiveFeed Data Studio feature now has public PL/SQL APIs.

  See DBMS_LIVE_FEED Package Reference for more information.

• Data Studio Settings Changes:
  • Support for non-Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Cloud Services

    Data Studio now supports loading and linking to data in AWS and Azure. In addition, it supports AI Profiles from AWS and Azure.

  • Support for Policy checking in Data Studio

    Data Studio utilizes many OCI services to enrich your experience. If your OCI credential is missing policies, these features fail, typically silently. The Data Studio Settings UI now allows you to test your credential and see which features are likely to work, and which require missing policies.

  • Improved Day-one user experience

    Several improvements around Settings experiences have been added, so users are successful in their tasks.

  See Data Studio Settings for more information.

• Data Studio Analysis- Explain query using AI:

  The Data Analysis tool already had AI support to generate SQL from a text prompt. You can now utilize AI to explain the SQL queries the tool generates in text format.

  See Generate Natural Language explanation from SQL Query using AI Explain for more information.

• Data Studio Analysis- Vector Search for Text:

  You can use Oracle AI Vector Search capabilities to search for relevant text from your source data on a specific column. The Vector Search helps quickly locate and match data that is similar to the text you provide as your search input.

  See Vector Search in the Data Analysis Tool for more information.

Migrate Applications from Non-Oracle Databases to Autonomous Database

You can translate SQL statements written for a non-Oracle SQL database to Oracle SQL in your Autonomous Database.

See Migrate Applications from Non-Oracle Databases to Autonomous Database for more information.

Autonomous Database 23ai Available in the Paid Tier

See Provision an Autonomous Database Instance and Clone an Autonomous Database Instance for more information.

Update for Oracle-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity Database Links

Autonomous Database support for Oracle-managed heterogeneous connectivity with database links for Azure, the two optional parameters include: auth_method and domain to support NTLM/AD authentication.

Autonomous Database support for Oracle-managed heterogeneous connectivity with database links for Snowflake, the optional parameters include: role, schema, and warehouse. These values specify a different schema, role, or warehouse value, other than the default.

See Create Database Links to Non-Oracle Databases with Oracle-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity for more information.

OCI Full Stack Disaster Recovery

You can enable the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Full Stack Disaster Recovery on Autonomous Database.

See Use OCI Full Stack Disaster Recovery with Autonomous Database for more information.

Updated Object Storage URL Format using Dedicated Endpoints for commercial (OC1) realms

Autonomous Database supports Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage URI formats for commercial (OC1) realms.

See Import Data Using Oracle Data Pump on Autonomous Database and Move Data with Data Pump Export to Object Store, for Oracle Data Pump examples.

Pre-Authenticated Request (PAR) URL Enhancements

Pre-Authenticated Request (PAR) URL enhancements include:

• Bind variables are supported when generating a PAR URL and when accessing data. See Use Pre-Authenticated Request URLs for Read Only Data Access on Autonomous Database for further information.

• Request a PAR URL that uses HIGH, MEDIUM or LOW service-level guarantees and resources when accessing an object or SQL statement. See Generate a PAR URL for a Table or a View and Generate a PAR URL with a Select Statement for details.

• The expiration time and access count for a PAR URL can be extended. See Generate a PAR URL for a Table or a View and Generate a PAR URL with a Select Statement for details.

Use RESULT_CACHE Hint to Cache Data for a Cloud Links Consumer

You can enable caching on a data set consumer to cache the results of a query or for a query fragment that accesses Cloud Link data.

See Enable Caching for a Cloud Link Consumer for more information.

See DBMS_CLOUD URI Formats for further information.

Text Indexing and Search on JSON Files in Object Storage

You can build a JSON search index on documents residing in files stored in Object Storage, which allows you to search fields in your JSON documents using JSON_TEXTCONTAINS, and use wildcards in your search.

See Use JSON Search on Documents in Object Storage for more information.

Documentation Addition: Go Application Connection Information

You can connect Go applications to your Autonomous Database instance either with a wallet (mTLS) or without a wallet (TLS).

See Connect Go Applications to Autonomous Database for more information.

Database Actions Data Studio Updates

Autonomous Database 23ai Available in the Paid Tier

Autonomous Database with Oracle Database 23ai in the Paid tier is available in all commercial public cloud regions except the following regions: South Africa Central: Johannesburg: (JNB), Brazil Southeast: Vinhedo (VCP), Canada Southeast: Toronto (YYZ), Colombia Central: Bogota (BOG), Saudi Arabia Central: Riyadh (RUH), Singapore West: Singapore (XSP), Spain Central: Madrid (MAD) and Switzerland North: Zurich (ZHR).

See Provision an Autonomous Database Instance and Clone an Autonomous Database Instance for more information.

Elastic Pool Usage Details in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Usage Report and in OCI_USAGE_DATA View

You can obtain a detailed breakdown of elastic pool usage in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure usage report and this information is also shown in the OCI_USAGE_DATA view.

See About Elastic Pool Billing for more information.

Documentation Addition: Provide Steps to Reduce Latency for Database Connections with Autonomous Data Guard

Provides information on the steps to take to configure an Autonomous Data Guard standby environment to reduce latency for database connections when you connect after a failover or after a switchover (when the standby becomes the Primary).

See Steps to Reduce Latency for Database Connections for Databases with Autonomous Data Guard for more information.

Bring Your Own License (BYOL) Input Option for BYOL Flexibility

Enable the option BYOL ECPU limit to select the BYOL flexible license option.

See Choose Bring Your Own License Option While Provisioning or Cloning and Choose Bring Your Own License on Autonomous Database (ECPU Compute Model) for more information.

Automate Creation of OCI Credentials using a Cloud Shell Script

Use the Cloud Shell to run a script that creates OCI Native Credentials and Auth Token in your Autonomous Database.

See Example: Create OCI Native Credentials and Run in Autonomous Database for more information.

When you want to configure an Autonomous Database to use a private endpoint and you also want to allow connections from allowed public IPs or public VCNs, you can select the Allow public access option. This adds a public endpoint for a database that is configured on a private endpoint.

See Use a Private Endpoint with Public Access Allowed for more information.

TCP Fast Open (TFO) to Connect Clients to Autonomous Database

Use TCP Fast Open (TFO) connections when your application is sensitive to network latency and you want to decrease the network latency between your application and the database. TFO connections can improve application performance by decreasing network latency for client connections.

See Use TCP Fast Open (TFO) to Connect Clients to Autonomous Database for more information.

Oracle APEX 24.1

Autonomous Database uses Oracle APEX Release 24.1.

See Create Applications with Oracle APEX in Autonomous Database for more information.

Documentation Addition: Load Data from Google Cloud Storage

Provides an example for loading data into an Autonomous Database instance from Google Cloud Storage.

See Load Data into Autonomous Database from Google Cloud Storage for more information.

Shrink Storage for Tables with LONG Columns

Autonomous Database shrink operations will succeed for tables with LONG columns.

See Shrink Storage for more information.

Cross Tenancy Autonomous Standby

You can add a cross tenancy Autonomous Data Guard standby database. This creates an Autonomous Data Guard standby that resides in a different tenancy. The cross tenancy standby can be in the same region (local) or in a different region (cross-region)

See Use a Cross Tenancy Autonomous Data Guard Standby Database for more information.

Oracle Spatial AI Features for OML

Oracle Spatial AI is a set of capabilities in OML4Py for detecting patterns and making predictions from geospatial data. It includes features for end-to-end workflows, including spatial machine learning pipelines.

See About Oracle Spatial AI for more information.

YouTube Support for Database Links with Oracle-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity

Use Autonomous Database Oracle-managed heterogeneous connectivity to create database links to YouTube. When you use database links with Oracle-managed heterogeneous connectivity, Autonomous Database configures and sets up the connection.

See Create Database Links to Non-Oracle Databases with Oracle-Managed Heterogeneous Connectivity for more information.

Data Transforms Updates

Data Transforms is updated with new features and changes in the following areas:

• Export and Import Objects

  You can move Data Transforms objects such as projects, connections, data loads, data flows, workflows, and schedules from a Development environment to a Production environment.

  See Export Objects for more information.

• Variables

  You can now create variables and use them as steps within data flows and workflows.

  See Create a Variable for more information.

• Purge jobs

  Data Transforms allows you to purge older jobs to keep the repository clean and optimize performance.

  See Create and Manage Jobs for more information.

• Load Views to target servers

  In addition to tables, Data Load allows you to load views from the source server. Views are stored as tables in the target server.

• Support for the new Object Storage URL format

  Data Transforms includes support for the Object Storage URL format when you create an Object Storage connection.

  See Create an Oracle Object Storage Connection for more information.

• OAuth 2.0 support for NetSuite connections

  You can now use OAuth 2.0 authentication to connect to Oracle NetSuite data sources.

  See Create and Use an Oracle NetSuite Connection for more information.

Multiple Peers for Cross-Region Disaster Recovery

With the ECPU billing model, you have the option to create one or more cross-region standby databases for Autonomous Data Guard and multiple cross-region Backup-Based Disaster Recovery peers.

See Use Standby Databases with Autonomous Data Guard for Disaster Recovery and Use Backup-Based Disaster Recovery for more information.

Table Format with PAR URLs

You can access PAR URLs with a browser and view the returned data in table format.

See Use PAR URLs to Access Data and View in Table Format for more information.

Cross-Tenancy Access for IAM Users to Autonomous Database

Identity and Access Management (IAM) cross-tenancy user access to an Autonomous Database instance is similar to a single tenancy scenario except that tenancy information is required for mappings and token requests and a policy is required in both tenancies to allow this cross tenancy database resource access

See Accessing a Database Cross-Tenancy Using an IAM Integration for more information.

External Calls with a Customer-Managed Wallet

When your Autonomous Database instance is on a private endpoint you can use a customer-managed wallet with procedures in UTL_HTTP, DBMS_LDAP, UTL_SMTP, or UTL_TCP. You can also use a customer-managed wallet when the scheduler sends SMTP email notifications for various events related to scheduler jobs.

See Make External Calls Using a Customer-Managed Wallet for more information.

Allow Different ACLs on Cross-Region Disaster Recovery Peer

You can independently modify network ACLs on a remote disaster recovery peer database.

See Manage Remote Peer Network ACLs and Update Remote Peer Network ACLs for a Backup-Based Disaster Recovery Peer for more information.

Documentation Addition: Best Practices for Low Latency Connections

Provides information on steps you can take to reduce the latency for connections between an application and Autonomous Database.

See Best Practices for Low Latency Connections with Autonomous Database for more information.

Always Free with Oracle Database 23ai

The Oracle Database versions available for Always Free Autonomous Database are: Oracle Database 19c or Oracle Database 23ai.

See Always Free Autonomous Database for more information.

Autonomous Database Free Container Image with Oracle Database 23ai

The Oracle Database versions available for Autonomous Database Free Container Image are: Oracle Database 19c or Oracle Database 23ai.

See Use the Autonomous Database Free Container Image for more information.

Cross-Region Cloud Links

You can use Cloud Links in multiple regions, where the source region contains the data set's source database and one or more remote regions contain refreshable clones of the source database.

See Register or Unregister a Data Set in a Different Region for more information.

Test Workloads Against an Upcoming Patch

Using the workload auto replay feature you can automatically capture a workload from a production database that is on the regular patch level and replay the workload on a target refreshable clone that is on the early patch level. This feature allows you to test an upcoming patch by running an existing workload that is in production against a patch before the patch reaches production.

See Test Workloads Against an Upcoming Patch for more information.

Cloning Permissions

You can control and limit cloning operations on Autonomous Database with IAM permissions.

See Cloning Permissions in IAM Permissions and API Operations for Autonomous Database for more information.

Data Studio Updates

The Data Studio is updated with new features and changes in the following areas:

• Data Load Dashboard:

  A new Data Load Dashboard is available which displays summaries of the recent load jobs and their status and view details about the data you load.

  See The Data Load Page for more information.

• Sentiment Analysis and Key Phrase Extraction on text-based columns:

  You can now perform Sentiment Analysis and Key Phrase Extraction on the Data Load tool to analyze text-based data.

  See Use OCI Language Service Capabilities in Data Studio for more information.

• Data Load support to access Amazon Web Services (AWS) Glue Catalogs:

  The Data Load tool of Data Studio allows you to synchronize Autonomous Database with Amazon Web Service (AWS) Glue Data Catalog metadata.

  See Register AWS Glue Catalog for more information.

• Data Load support for registration and synchronization of OCI Data Catalogs:

  The Data Load tool enables you to register and synchronize OCI Data Catalogs to create external tables in Autonomous Database.

  See Register OCI Data Catalog for more information.

• Data Load support to load GeoJSON files:

  The Data Load tool supports loading GeoJSON files in Autonomous Database.

  See Use GeoJSON in Data Load for more information.

• Data Load support to enable loading into other schemas:

  The Data Load tool allows an ADMIN to create and load data into other schemas.

  See Loading Data From Local Files for more information.

• Enable Resource Principal using Data Studio:

  You can enable Resource Principals using Data Studio to authenticate and access Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources.

  See Manage Resource Principal using Data Studio for more information.

Manage Oracle Cloud Operator Access

Oracle Cloud Operators do not have authorization to access your data or any other information in your database schemas. When access to your database schemas is required to troubleshoot or mitigate an issue, you can allow a cloud operator to access your Autonomous Database schemas for a limited time.

See Manage Oracle Cloud Operator Access for more information.

Apache Iceberg External Tables

Autonomous Database supports querying of Apache Iceberg tables stored in Amazon Web Services (AWS) or in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage.

See Query Apache Iceberg Tables for more information.

Cloud Tables

You can create Cloud Tables where table data resides on Oracle managed Cloud Storage and the table data does not consume database storage.

See Use Cloud Tables to Store Logging and Diagnostic Information for more information.

Cloud Links Offload Targets Without Specifying Database IDs

Cloud Links support with the optional offload_targets parameter lets you specify that access is offloaded to refreshable clones. This parameter now supports the ANY keyword, where all data set requests from consumers are offloaded to a refreshable clone.

See Register a Data Set with Offload Targets for Data Set Access for more information.

Live Data Sharing Using Database Actions in Autonomous Database

Use Data Sharing to share data, as of the latest database commit, with Autonomous Databases in the same region. A Data Sharing recipient always views the latest data.

See Overview of the Data Share Tool for more information.

Updated Version of Autonomous Database Free Container Image

A new version of the Autonomous Database Free Container Image is available with updates and new features. Use the Autonomous Database Free Container Image to run Autonomous Database in a container in your own environment, without requiring access to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console or to the internet.

See Use the Autonomous Database Free Container Image for more information.

Refreshable Clone Automatic Refresh Option

When you enable the automatic refresh option Autonomous Database automatically refreshes a refreshable clone with data from the source database.

See Refreshable Clone with Automatic Refresh Enabled and Edit Automatic Refresh Policy for Refreshable Clone for more information.

Invoke External Procedures

You can invoke external procedures written in the C language from Autonomous Database as SQL functions. You do not install external procedures on Autonomous Database. To use an external procedure, the procedure is hosted remotely on a VM running in an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Virtual Cloud Network (VCN).

See Invoke External Procedures as SQL Functions for more information.

Network File System (NFS) NFSv4 Support

You can attach a Network File System to a directory location in your Autonomous Database. This allows you to load data from Oracle Cloud Infrastructure File Storage in your Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) or from any other Network File System in on-premises data centers. Depending on the version of the Network File System you want to access, both NFSv3 and NFSv4 are supported.

See Access Network File System from Autonomous Database for more information.

Support for Regular Expressions in DBMS_CLOUD Procedures

The format option regexuri is supported with the following DBMS_CLOUD procedures: COPY_COLLECTION, COPY_DATA, CREATE_EXTERNAL_TABLE, CREATE_EXTERNAL_PART_TABLE, and CREATE_HYBRID_PART_TABLE.

See DBMS_CLOUD Package Format Options for more information

Encrypt or Decrypt Data

For greater security you can encrypt data that you export to Object Storage. When data on Object Storage is encrypted you can decrypt the data you import or when you use the data in an external table.

See Encrypt Data While Exporting or Decrypt Data While Importing for more information.

JOB_QUEUE_PROCCESSES Initialization Parameter

You can set the JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES initialization parameter. Setting this parameter to 0 disables non-Oracle supplied Scheduler jobs.

See JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES for more information.

Pre-Authenticated Request URLs Access Information

You can generate and manage Pre-Authenticated Request (PAR) URLs for data on Autonomous Database and Autonomous Database provides views that allow you to monitor PAR URL usage.

See Monitor and View PAR URL Usage for more information.

UTL_HTTP allows HTTP_PROXY Connections

With UTL_HTTP, when the Autonomous Database instance is on a private endpoint you can call UTL_HTTP.set_proxy and both HTTPS and HTTP_PROXY connections are allowed.

See Submit an HTTP Request to a Private Host and PL/SQL Packages Notes for Autonomous Database for more information.

Pre-Authenticated Request URLs for Read Only Data Access

You can generate and manage Pre-Authenticated Request (PAR) URLs for data on Autonomous Database.

See Use Pre-Authenticated Request URLs for Read Only Data Access on Autonomous Database for more information.

Replicate Backups to a Cross-Region Disaster Recovery Peer

You can enable replication of automatic backups from a primary database to a cross-region disaster recovery peer. Up to seven days of automatic backups are available in the remote region when this feature is enabled.

See Replicating Backups to a Cross-Region Autonomous Data Guard Standby and Replicating Backups to a Cross-Region Backup Based Disaster Recovery Peer for more information.

Select AI with OCI Generative AI

Autonomous Database can interact with AI service providers. Select AI now supports OCI Generative AI, Azure OpenAI Service, OpenAI, and CohereAI.

This feature supports having LLMs work with Oracle database by generating SQL from natural language prompts. This allows you to talk to your database.

See Use Select AI for Natural Language Interaction with your Database for more information.

ECPU Compute Model for all Workload Types

Autonomous Database offers two compute models when you create or clone an instance: ECPU and OCPU. Previously only the workload types Data Warehouse and Transaction Processing supported the ECPU compute model. Now all workload types support the ECPU compute model, including JSON and APEX.

See Compute Models in Autonomous Database for more information.

Manage Time Zone File Updates

Autonomous Database provides several options to automatically update time zone files.

See Manage Time Zone File Updates on Autonomous Database for more information.

Custom Kerberos Service Name Support for Kerberos Authentication

You can use a custom Kerberos service name when you configure Kerberos to authenticate Autonomous Database users. Using a custom service name you can use the same Keytab files on multiple Autonomous Database instances when you enable Kerberos authentication (you do not need to create and upload different Keytab files for each Autonomous Database instance).

See Configure Kerberos Authentication with Autonomous Database for more information.

Clone Database to Change Workload Type

You can create a clone of an Autonomous Database and select a different workload type for the cloned database.

See Clone Autonomous Database to Change Workload Type for more information.