OCI Database Management deprecations - MySQL HeatWave monitoring, SQL Performance Watch and Vulnerability Detection and Patching end in January 2027

#The three changes

All announced on 29 January 2026, all obsolete on 29 January 2027:

After the obsolete date, expect the features to stop working. Dashboards go blank, and alarms built on their data stop firing.

#1. Which do you use?

MySQL HeatWave monitoring. Check whether Database Management is enabled for any MySQL DB system:

oci mysql db-system list --compartment-id $C --all \
  --query "data[].{name:\"display-name\", id:id}" --output table

Then look in the console under Observability & Management > Database Management > MySQL for managed DB systems, and check whether any alarms or dashboards use Database Management metrics for MySQL.

SQL Performance Watch. Look for comparison jobs or saved analyses in Database Management for your Oracle databases, and ask DBAs whether release or patch testing relies on them.

Vulnerability Detection and Patching. Check whether DBAs use Database Management's view of missing patches and patch recommendations for fleets.

#2. Replace MySQL HeatWave monitoring

Options:

• OCI Monitoring service metrics for MySQL DB systems (CPU, memory, connections, storage, replication) stay available independently of Database Management. Build alarms on those.
• Performance Schema and sys schema queries for statement-level analysis:

SELECT DIGEST_TEXT, COUNT_STAR, ROUND(SUM_TIMER_WAIT/1e12,1) AS total_s,
       ROUND(AVG_TIMER_WAIT/1e9,1) AS avg_ms, SUM_ROWS_EXAMINED
FROM performance_schema.events_statements_summary_by_digest
ORDER BY SUM_TIMER_WAIT DESC LIMIT 15;

• A Prometheus mysqld_exporter with Grafana, if you already run that stack.
• A third-party database monitoring tool your organisation already licenses.

Recreate the alarms you actually used, not every chart.

#3. Replace SQL Performance Watch

If you used it to catch SQL regressions after upgrades or patches:

• SQL Performance Analyzer (Enterprise Manager, part of Real Application Testing licensing; check what you're entitled to).
• Without that: capture a SQL Tuning Set before the change and compare plans and elapsed times afterwards, or use SQL Plan Management to keep known-good plans.

#4. Replace vulnerability detection and patching

• Fleet Maintenance in Enterprise Manager, as Oracle suggests, for on-premises and mixed fleets.
• For OCI Base Database and Exadata Database Service, the services' own update and patching features show available patches per DB system or VM cluster.
• Keep a simple report of database versions against the latest Release Update so gaps are visible:

SELECT banner_full FROM v$version;
SELECT patch_id, action, status, description, action_time FROM dba_registry_sqlpatch ORDER BY action_time DESC;

#5. Clean up

Once replacements are live, disable the deprecated features in Database Management, remove dashboards and alarms that depend on them, and update runbooks.

#Checklist

• Each of the three features: used or not, by whom
• MySQL HeatWave alarms rebuilt on Monitoring metrics or another tool
• SQL regression testing approach agreed (SPA, SQL Tuning Sets or SPM)
• Patch visibility moved to Fleet Maintenance or service-native patching
• Old dashboards and alarms removed
• Complete before 29 January 2027

#Sources

• OCI Service Change Announcements - Database Management