Posted by So…the future is container databases ?
Cool ! I’ll create all my databases as container databases….I’m so happy….until
SQL> CREATE FLASHBACK ARCHIVE longterm TABLESPACE demo RETENTION 1 MONTH;
CREATE FLASHBACK ARCHIVE longterm TABLESPACE demo RETENTION 1 MONTH
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-65131: The feature Flashback Data Archive is not supported in a pluggable database.
It is documented but seriously….that’s not so flash 🙂
Learning is not a spectator sport 
Typical Oracle half-baked feature implementation. I much prefer using Postgres these days.
It does seem intuitive that some operations on 12c such as archive logging and flashback only apply to the physical database (CDB or non-CDB). The main issue with PDBs as I see it is in the licensing. Any PDBs after the first are not free. Whereas extra instances on the same host using the same Oracle version require no extra licenses. It makes PDBs look like a disingenuous ploy to increase the Oracle revenue stream. If I were still a practising DBA I would create each CDB with just one PDB inside. You’d get most of the benefits of PDBs without paying extra.