Karlen & Paco (and others), In case it is helpful in your decision making, we have an early guide for migrating from Oracle to Postgres using the Ora2Pg tool:
https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSPACE/DSpace+Oracle+to+PostgreSQL+migration This guide was kindly created by staff at Université Laval, who recently & successfully performed this migration and took down some detailed notes This guide has been linked now from the deprecation notice as well as one of two known options for this migration: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/8214 Sincerely, Tim On Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at 3:05:52 AM UTC-5 [email protected] wrote: > Hello Tim, > > In my answer I explained to Karlen, and to the rest, that she is not > alone, although it is true that the community of dspace users that works > with oracle seems to be small and we have been too quiet :-/ > > It is clear that it has not been an impulsive decision, during this time > we have communicated to our institution the news about this issue. As I > commented, for those of us who want to work in house, it is some more > complex in this situation > > Thanks Tim for all the work, we keep in touch > > Paco Martínez > > El miércoles, 22 de junio de 2022 a las 0:29:33 UTC+2, Tim Donohue > escribió: > >> Hi Paco, >> >> This decision was not made lightly. Back in Dec 2021, I sent a plea >> across all DSpace mailing lists for anyone willing to help us with Oracle >> support: >> https://groups.google.com/g/dspace-community/c/nXNMVBY_CJo/m/WbvtpXm2CQAJ >> We received no offers of help. Out of over 2,000 mailing list members, we >> received a total of 2 responses (one was Karlen), and both of those >> individuals said they'd prefer if DSpace kept Oracle Support, but they had >> no developers to help with that effort. >> >> Three months later after receiving no offers of support or help, Steering >> made the difficult decision to drop Oracle support starting in mid 2023: >> https://groups.google.com/g/dspace-community/c/nXNMVBY_CJo/m/4pu7WKdUAgAJ >> >> While I feel for those who are impacted, I don't see any way to continue >> Oracle support as DSpace has no developer resources available to do so. >> None of our most active volunteer developers or most active service >> providers use Oracle. As we've witnessed, Oracle support has been an >> ongoing problem for DSpace for a long time (simply from that same lack of >> reviewers, testers and bug fixers). >> >> Sincerely, >> >> Tim >> >> On Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at 4:59:50 AM UTC-5 [email protected] wrote: >> >>> Hi Karlen, Tim and rest of the group, >>> >>> We are in a similar situation at the Universitat Politècnica de >>> València because the university only works with ORACLE. Our developer IT >>> (jvribell) has worked on DSpace 7 and oracle (in development space). He >>> was working to sent the changes so that code could be reused ( >>> https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC7x/Release+Notes), but with the >>> latest news that he will only be able to continue working with PostgreSQL >>> we don't think it makes sense. >>> >>> We are now planning the future, we want to be able to continue >>> managing it ourselves to develop functionalities so we need some time to >>> jump to PostgreSQL but a year is not enough time I'm afraid. In Spain, >>> at least, there are several institutions in the same case, the problem is >>> different because in most cases they have outsourced maintenance, so their >>> adaptation will be less traumatic >>> >>> Regards >>> >>> Paco Martínez. RiuNet <https://riunet.upv.es/> >>> >>> Universitat Politècnica de València >>> >>> >>> El miércoles, 15 de junio de 2022 a las 17:52:28 UTC+2, Tim Donohue >>> escribió: >>> >>>> 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 >>>> <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 >>>> >>>> <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]. >>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dspace-community/c42fc344-21a5-4312-b257-ea2fa60b00aen%40googlegroups.com >>>> >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dspace-community/c42fc344-21a5-4312-b257-ea2fa60b00aen%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>> . >>>> >>> -- 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. 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