The Legacy Obituaries

Notices of desupport & departureOracle Database → AzureTuesday, 29 September 2026The Coroner’s ReportsAbout this paper

Oracle Multimedia

pre-11.2 · datatype · deprecated 18c · desupported 19c

Survived, partially.

✓ certified by the mortician

In life

Oracle Multimedia, earlier called interMedia, supplied object types such as ORDImage, ORDAudio, ORDVideo and ORDDoc together with PL/SQL and Java APIs for storing, describing and processing media inside the database. It was installed as the ORDIM component under the ORDSYS schema and included medical imaging (DICOM) support.

Migrations care because tables with these object-typed columns cannot be moved as they are. The payloads are LOBs wrapped in object types, and the processing methods (thumbnails, format conversion, metadata extraction) must be rebuilt outside the database. Oracle's own guidance, even before any Azure move, is to store media in plain SecureFiles LOBs and process it with external tools.

The 12.1 and 12.2 Upgrade Guides deprecate parts of the feature (DICOM support, the Java APIs). The 18c Upgrade Guide deprecates Oracle Multimedia as a whole and the 19c guide desupports it (notice dated April 2019): the implementation is removed, the objects and packages remain but raise errors when used, and Oracle Locator is not affected. The 26ai guide adds that the ORDIM component is removed during the upgrade.

Cause of departure

Desupported in Oracle Database 19c after deprecation in 18c. Oracle names SecureFiles LOBs plus external media processing as the successor.

Obituary

Oracle Multimedia, born before 11.2, stored images, audio, and video as ORDImage and related object types. It also handled in-database metadata extraction and processing, a respectable workload for a datatype.

Deprecated in 18c and desupported in 19c, it yielded to SecureFiles LOBs plus external media processing. Azure offers no equivalent in-database media type, while FILESTREAM and FileTables are unavailable on Azure SQL Database and Managed Instance.

It is survived by Azure SQL Database, where its binary payload lives on partly in varbinary(max), though its methods do not. Azure Blob Storage and Data Lake Storage Gen2 preserve it only by workaround, with references and metadata retained relationally and processing moved elsewhere.

Survived by

Azure SQL Database partial effort M

Applies to Oracle 11.2, 12.1, 12.2, 18c

The binary payload of Multimedia objects fits varbinary(max), which SSMA already uses for BLOB and BFILE, and full-text search can index varbinary documents through filters. There is no FILESTREAM or FileTable in Azure SQL Database or Managed Instance, so very large media is better kept in Blob Storage with a reference; the Multimedia methods themselves have no equivalent.

  • Map ORDImage.source.localData to varbinary(max) and the descriptive attributes to scalar columns.
  • Keep files above a few megabytes in Blob Storage and store the URL instead.
  • Rewrite calls to Multimedia methods (process, setProperties) in the application tier.

Complications

major FILESTREAM data and FileTables are not supported on Azure SQL Managed Instance or Azure SQL Database, and a backup containing FILESTREAM filegroups cannot be restored to Managed Instance, so large media must use varbinary(max) or external Blob Storage.
· microsoft T-SQL differences between SQL Server and Azure SQL Managed Instance

Azure Blob Storage / Data Lake Storage Gen2 workaround effort L

Applies to Oracle 11.2, 12.1, 12.2, 18c

Oracle Multimedia stored images, audio and video as ORDImage and related object types with in-database metadata extraction and processing; it was desupported in 19c, so the content usually sits in BLOBs or BFILEs already. Azure has no in-database media type: the pragmatic pattern is to move binaries to Blob Storage or Data Lake Storage and keep a path, content type and extracted metadata in relational columns. Processing (thumbnails, format conversion) moves to application code or Azure Functions.

  • Extract media payloads and their ORDImage metadata attributes (mime type, height, width, length) from the source tables.
  • Upload binaries to a container with a hierarchical namespace, using the primary key in the path.
  • Replace the object column with a URL or path column plus the metadata columns.
  • Regenerate derived assets with Azure Functions triggered by blob uploads.
  • Secure access with SAS tokens or Entra RBAC instead of database grants.

Notices of correction

  1. oracle Deprecated Features in Oracle Database 18c · Upgrade Guide 18c, E88788-13, Dec 2021 · read 2026-09-26
  2. oracle Oracle Database Changes, Desupports, and Deprecations (Upgrade Guide 19c) · Upgrade Guide 19c, E96252-82, Aug 2026 · read 2026-09-26
  3. oracle Deprecated Features in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) · Upgrade Guide 12.2, E86577 · read 2026-09-26
  4. oracle Oracle Database Changes, Desupports, and Deprecations (Upgrade Guide 26ai) · Upgrade Guide 26ai, G43570-12, updated Jul 2026 · read 2026-09-26
  5. microsoft SSMA for Oracle: Project Settings (Type Mapping) · SSMA for Oracle, page updated 2026-08-27 · read 2026-09-26
  6. microsoft T-SQL differences between SQL Server and Azure SQL Managed Instance · page updated 2026-09-09 · read 2026-09-26
  7. microsoft Compare SQL Database Engine features: Azure SQL Database vs Azure SQL Managed Instance · page updated 2026-09-09 · read 2026-09-26
  8. microsoft Azure Data Lake Storage overview (built on Blob Storage) · page updated 2026-07-03 · read 2026-09-26
  9. microsoft Azure Functions overview · page updated 2026-09-21 · read 2026-09-26

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Oracle Multimedia — Legacy Obituaries