The Oracle Internet Directory (OID) has not been fully phased out from Oracle's product line, but its usage and emphasis have significantly declined in favor of more modern and cloud-compatible identity services.
📜 Historical Timeline of Oracle Internet Directory (OID)
Oracle RDBMS Version |
Status of OID |
Notes |
Oracle 8i (1999) |
✅ Introduced |
LDAP v3-compliant directory service used for storing user identities and DB configurations. |
Oracle 9i – 11g |
✅ Actively supported |
Widely used with Enterprise User Security and Oracle Identity Management. |
Oracle 12c |
✅ Supported but de-emphasized |
Oracle promoted Oracle Unified Directory (OUD) for new deployments. |
Oracle 18c / 19c |
⚠️ Still supported but aging |
Marked as legacy in many deployment architectures. |
Oracle 21c |
⚠️ Available but not enhanced |
Oracle Identity Cloud Service (IDCS) takes precedence. |
Oracle 23c / 23ai |
❌ Not a core component |
OID is no longer promoted, and new identity integrations rely on IDCS, OUD, or OAuth 2.0/OIDC providers. |
✅ Final Notes
OID is not officially deprecated as of Oracle 23c, but it is:
- No longer actively developed for cloud-native environments.
- Not included in most modern cloud-enabled Oracle RDBMS stacks.
- Superseded by:
- Oracle Identity Cloud Service (IDCS)
- Oracle Unified Directory (OUD)
* For new deployments, Oracle recommends using IDCS or OUD, especially for integration with:
- Autonomous Database
- OCI IAM
- Federation via OAuth2 / SAML / OpenID Connect
🚨 Conclusion:
Oracle 23c effectively phases out Oracle Internet Directory in favor of more modern, scalable, and cloud-native directory solutions—but OID is still available for legacy support.
In a continuing effort to fully integrate Oracle with the Internet, Oracle has introduced a new product called the Internet Directory. The development of the Oracle Internet Directory stems from an earlier product called OracleOffice.
This tool comes as part of Oracle's Enterprise Edition (release 8.1.6 and higher).
The Oracle Internet Directory tool lets you store all your database data in a file system that is accessible to your users just like any other files.
For example, your sales representative can open and view a file of customers using his favorite text editor even though the customer data resides in the database.
Without Internet Directory, your sales representative would have to write an SQL query, or ask you to write it for him, in order to access the file. Look through the slide show below to see how the Internet Directory works.