Hi Karlen, Your understanding is (unfortunately) correct.
* DSpace Steering announced a deprecation of all Oracle Support, see this ticket: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/8214 Oracle will no longer be a supported database for DSpace as of mid 2023. * The reasons for the decision are listed on this ticket. But, basically, we no longer have any Oracle experts in our community developer team, and (as you've rightly pointed out) we've had great difficulty even getting Oracle to work properly with DSpace 6 (because of a lack of Oracle experts / developers). We asked several times on lists for help from others who wanted to continue to support Oracle, but no help was offered. * DSpace 5 and 6 both are similarly ending support in 2023 (on Jan 1 and July 1 respectively). https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSPACE/Support+for+DSpace+5+and+6+is+ending+in+2023 Together that means that as of midway through 2023, only DSpace 7 will be supported and only on PostgreSQL databases. Obviously, anyone can choose to still run older releases of DSpace, but no further bug fixes or security fixes will be available on those older releases. I realize this isn't great news if your university is only willing to support Oracle databases. But Oracle databases have become impossible for DSpace to continue support simply because the vast majority of institutions using DSpace also use PostgreSQL (I don't have exact numbers, but I'd roughly estimate that 95% or more use PostgreSQL. I do know that 100% of our core community developers/Committers use PostgreSQL). This results in that great void of Oracle experts in our community, which is how so many Oracle specific issues have occurred in past years & why they remain unsolved for so very long. If there are any other answers I can provide, let me know on this thread in the mailing list. Tim ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Karlen Chase <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2022 10:25 AM To: DSpace Community <[email protected]> Subject: [dspace-community] Re: NOTICE: Support for DSpace 5 and 6 is ending in 2023 For those of us using Oracle as a database, we cannot upgrade beyond v.5.10 without altering the source release code of v.7.x, which carried over a Flyway bug from v.6.x that impacts Oracle users. In my academic library, we have no in-house developers who can alter the code, are hosted on-prem, and central IT does not support PostgreSQL, so a database migration is not an option for me. Is my only option to migrate to a vendor-hosted DSpace v.7.x instance? Regardless, I know I have a migration of some kind in my future. I just want some bright-line confirmation here to report to my leadership. My understanding of the Flyway bug that has been part of the DSpace source release code since 2018, when v.6.0 was released (if memory serves, or at least, that's when I attempted to upgrade from v.5.4 to v.6.0 and ran into the Flyway bug), is that: (1) IF I could migrate my Oracle database to a PostgreSQL database, then I could upgrade to v.7.x. (2) BUT because central IT maintains the DSpace infrastructure at my institution and they support only Oracle databases, that means I must migrate to a hosted DSpace instance if my institution wishes to remain on DSpace for its IR. Please confirm my understanding above or tell me if I am overlooking a third option. Also, if anyone else is in the same boat as me--Oracle database user without in-house developers who can alter the Flyway part of the code, i.e., stuck on v.5.x, please let me know what you are doing or what steps your institution is taking to remedy your IR situation. Thanks very much! Karlen Chase Head of Institutional Repository Services UB Libraries State University of New York at Buffalo (University at Buffalo) On Tuesday, May 31, 2022 at 10:14:28 AM UTC-4 Tim Donohue wrote: Dear DSpace Community, The DSpace Steering Group announces that security support for DSpace 5.x and 6.x will end on the following dates: * DSpace 5.x: Support ends on January 1, 2023 * DSpace 6.x: Support ends on July 1, 2023 This means that after those dates: * That version of DSpace will be considered “end-of-life” (EOL) * Future minor releases of that major version will not occur * Bugs affecting those releases will not be addressed * Security vulnerabilities affecting those releases will not be addressed We recommend all institutions upgrade to DSpace 7 as soon as possible. As we realize that both DSpace 5.x and 6.x are still in wide usage throughout the community, we’ve attempted to answer all questions you may have on our wiki at https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSPACE/Support+for+DSpace+5+and+6+is+ending+in+2023 If your question is not yet answered on that page, please add it in the wiki page comments and we will ensure it is answered. Sincerely, The DSpace Steering Group -- All messages to this mailing list should adhere to the Code of Conduct: https://www.lyrasis.org/about/Pages/Code-of-Conduct.aspx --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DSpace Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. 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