Oracle Licensing
By Graham Keitch
Oracle offers a choice of flexible licensing for their Database products...
Found In: Licensing, Database | Published: 03/12/2010 | Last Revision: 01/03/2011
Summary
Oracle offers a choice of flexible
licensing for their Database products, including perpetual and term options. In addition to the usual Full Use license, there are cost-effective Application Specific Full Use and Embedded Software Licenses for third party applications that deploy Oracle technology. There is also a licensing model for cloud computing. In addition, the Enterprise Edition has a number of add-on Options which carry their own licensing requirements. The two most common approaches for licensing Oracle are per named user or processor. In both cases, the hardware specification plays an important role in determining the license type and quantity required. There are specific rules that relate to development and testing, virtualisation and availability. Oracle does not provide ‘off the shelf’ upgrades so it’s important to take a longer term view of your requirements. Support and access to earlier and later database releases are provided by Product Updates and Support. Please contact a
Grey Matter Oracle Licensing Specialist for assistance in accessing the options. For Oracle MySQL, please see the Buyers Guide
here… Types of license
Full Use (FU) licenses are unrestricted licenses that may be used for development, testing and running any of your applications.
Application Specific Full Use (ASFU) and Embedded Software License (ESL) are cost-effective licenses for third party ISV applications that deploy Oracle technology. Their use is restricted to that single application only. In the case of ESL, there are restrictions to the functionality presented to the end-user as outlined in the Oracle Embedded Charter. Please contact Grey Matter for assistance with ISV licensing.
Non-collaborative development and testing by an individual doesn't require licensing for pre-deployment, non-production and non-commercial use cases. Licenses are required for any commercial aspect of the development process such as sales demos, training etc. Likewise, on-going development and testing of an existing system requires licenses where additional users or servers are involved. Grey Matter can help you assess options that help to minimise licensing overheads or extend the functionality of the test environment to maximise ROI.
Flexible perpetual, term and finance options
Term licensing and finance is available to lower initial outlay and minimise risk where future requirements are uncertain. These are useful for business start-ups and short term projects that need to keep costs down until properly established. Term licenses are available for 1 to 5 year periods. When the term expires, the user may purchase a further term or new perpetual license. The cost of term licenses is determined as a percentage of the cost of a perpetual license as follows:
Please contact Grey Matter for details about this and the available finance options.
Hardware considerations
Hardware processing capacity is taken into account when licensing Oracle.
Standard Edition One licenses may be used on a server with the capacity to support no more than two processors.
Standard Edition licenses may be used on a server or CLUSTER with the capacity to support no more than four processors.
Enterprise Edition does not place constraints on the hardware specification. A factor is applied to the processor count to provide a ‘discount’ when multi-core processors are being used. This can lead to confusion as processor architectures become more complex, Oracle provides a matrix that details the more common processor models with the discount factor that is to be applied in each case.
If possible, please to talk to Grey Matter about Oracle licensing before you purchase your hardware, as we could help you choose the most cost effective optimum configuration.
Processor licensing
For Standard Edition One and Standard Edition, a license is required for each occupied socket (installed physical processor). The number of cores is irrelevant.
Enterprise Edition requires a license for each processor. In the case of multi-core, the core count after discount determines the number of licenses required.
Named User Plus licensing
A Named User Plus license is required for every individual human and non-human user (device) that connects either directly or indirectly to the database. This type of license does not accommodate sharing or concurrent usage.
Standard Edition One and Standard Edition both require a minimum of 5 Named User Plus licenses per organisation, not CPU or server. This is similar to Microsoft SQL Server CALs.
Enterprise has a minimum of 25 per CPU or ‘discounted’ core count.
Named User Plus covers multiple servers provided the minimum user count is met per server. For Enterprise, four separate servers each with one single-core processor require a minimum of 100 Named Users (25x4) even if only 70 users access the servers. This is more economic than buying 70 licenses for each of the 4 servers (i.e. 280).
Database Options
The Enterprise Edition of Oracle Database has a number of add-on Options and Management Packs that extend availability, performance and scalability. While the licensing for these is generally straight forward, please seek advice from a Grey Matter Oracle Licensing Specialist if you’re considering Database Options. In most cases, these add-ons are licensed using the same metric chosen for the database but there could be exceptions if the architecture is complex.
Partitioning and virtualisation
Oracle only recognises certain technologies such as Solaris ‘capped’ Containers or Oracle VM as a valid way of restricting processing power to an integer number of cores to economise on licensing. Soft partitioning (e.g. VMware) is not recognised which means all CPUs must be licensed regardless of whether they are being used or not. It is advisable to speak to a Grey Matter Oracle Licensing Specialists before purchasing licenses for virtualised instances of Oracle.
High availability
Clustered failover allows a secondary node to take over when the primary in the same cluster fails. This is active / passive and doesn't require additional licensing provided the failover node isn't active more than ten days per calendar year. Regardless of cluster size, this concession is limited to two database servers only, ie one live and one locally mirrored failover copy.
Any other arrangement where additional databases are current and actively being maintained (eg hot standby or remote mirroring) requires each server to be licensed using the same licensing metric.
Authorisation and installation
Oracle licenses are not registered as part of the install routine. Instead, the end-user is required to sign an Online License and Service Agreement (OLSA) at the point of purchase. To facilitate this, Grey Matter arranges for Oracle to e-mail the OLSA direct to the end-user.
Media is available for purchase although most users download the software from the Oracle web site. In many cases, the software will be installed already as part of a development project. Signing the OLSA allows the customer to purchase Full Use licensing and transition to the deployment / commercial phase.