Oracle database - The most common license compliance issues seen

Presentation Richard Spithoven
Oracle Database
Most commonly encountered
license compliance issues!

Introduction
Richard Spithoven
Director / Partner b.lay
2013 – present
Regional Director
Oracle EMEA – LMS Europe South
2009 – 2013
Principal Licensing consultant
Oracle Europe, Middle-East & Africa
2005 - 2009

Understanding your license entitlements
• Ordering Document(s)
• License Agreement (SLSA/OLSA/OMA)
• Program Documentation
• Support Maintenance Renewals
• Technical Support Policies
• Online Licensing Documents
• Online Guideline Documents
1
2
Agenda
No technical restrictions or license keys!

Most common license compliance issues
• Hardware Infrastructure
• Software Installation
• Software Configuration
• Software Usage
• Non-Technical
3
4 Conclusions
• How to handle your database licenses?
• Some final takeaways…
• Questions?
Agenda

I. Understanding your license entitlements (1/7)
OF OLSA
SR
SP1 PD10g BP
SR SR
SP2 PD11g
SR SR
Time
In order to understand what your real license entitlements are,
a number of documents and sources need to be reviewed,
analyzed, understood and maintained on a regular basis.
These sources include:
- Order Form (OF)
- License Agreement (OLSA, SLSA or OMA)
- Support Renewals (SR) – Subject to change
- Support Policies (SP) – Subject to change
- Program Documentation (PD) – Subject to change
- Online License Documents (BP) – Subject to change
- Online License Guidelines (BP) – Subject to change

 Order Form states which Oracle programs have been purchased :
2 Processor – Perpetual - Oracle Database Enterprise Edition
2 Processor – Perpetual – Tuning Pack
Order Form refers to License Agreement (e.g. NL-OLSA-03122012) which defines the terms and conditions under which
the usage rights have been obtained and under which terms and conditions the software can be used:
Processor shall be defined as all processors where the Oracle programs are installed and/or running. Programs licensed on a processor basis
may be accessed by your internal users (including agents and contractors) and by your third party users. The number of required licenses
shall be determined by multiplying the total number of cores of the processor by a core processor licensing factor specified on the Oracle
Processor Core Factor Table which can be accessed at http://oracle.com/contracts. All cores on all multicore chips for each licensed program
are to be aggregated before multiplying by the appropriate core processor licensing factor and all fractions of a number are to be rounded up
to the next whole number. When licensing Oracle programs with Standard Edition One or Standard Edition in the product name, a processor
is counted equivalent to an occupied socket; however, in the case of multi-chip modules, each chip in the multi-chip module is counted as one
occupied socket.

Processor definition refers to Oracle’s Processor Core Factor table as published online to determine what “ Core Factor”
needs to be applied for a specific Server Model / CPU type combination to calculate the required number of “ Processor”
licences
Examples:
Sun Fire T1000 Server – 2 CPU - 8 Cores/CPU – 1.0 Ghz UltraSparc T1 =
2 CPU x 8 Cores x 0.25 = 4 Processors
HP Proliant DL 380 – 2 CPU – 10 Cores/CPU – Intel Xeon =
2 CPU x 10 Cores x 0.5 = 10 Processors
Running Oracle Licenses in the Oracle Cloud?
If you deploy “on-premise” licenses in the Oracle Cloud, the following ratio of
Processor licenses to Oracle Compute Units (OCPU) applies:
1 Processor licenses = 2 OCPU’s
25 Named User Plus licenses = 1 OCPU
Source:
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/contracts/processor-core-factor-table-070634.pdf

License Agreement refers to Oracle’s Program documentation as published online to let end-users understand what
specific products/components are included in a certain software program and what conditions are applicable for the use of
these software components/products as part of a license and therefore allowed to be used:
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition includes the following products/components:
JServer Enterprise Edition, interMedia, Objects Option, Networking Kit, Objects for OLE, Advanced Replication Option, Distributed Option,
Parallel Query Option, (including bitmap indexes and parallel bitmap-star query), SQL*Plus, Visual Information Retrieval and Workflow. For
OS/390 implementation, use of either Access Manager for CICS or Access Manager for IMS/TM is included.
Diagnostics Pack includes the following products/components:
Management Connectors for: Remedy Help Desk, Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, HP ServiceCenter/HP Service Manager, HP
OpenView Operations, IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console, Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, CA Service Desk.
Tuning Pack usage requires the licensing of Diagnostics Pack Source https://docs.oracle.com

Ordering Document typically includes Software Updates License & Support (Support Maintenance)
which is annually renewed through a Support Maintenance Renewal and which refers to
Oracle’s Technical Support Policies, published online.
Software Updates License & Support includes:
Technical Support : support, bug fixes/patches etc.
Software Updates: right to make use of the latest release
Technical Support Policies define:
License Set, Matching Service Level Policy,
Repricing following reduction of licenses, Reinstatement Policy
Source: http://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/057419.pdf
Release Premier
Support
Start Date
Premier
Support
End Date
Extended
Support Date
Standard Edition 2
(SE2) 12.1
Sep-2015 Jul-2018 Jul-2021
Standard Edition One
(SE1) 12.1
Jun-2013 Aug-2016 Not Available
Standard Edition
(SE) 12.1
Jun-2013 Aug-2016 Not Available
Enterprise Edition
12.1
Jun-2013 Jul-2018 Jul-2021
11.2 Sep-2009 Jan-2015 Jan-2018
11.1 Aug-2007 Aug-2012 Aug-2015
10.2 Jul-2005 Jul-2010 Jul-2013
10.1 Jan-2004 Jan-2009 Jan-2012

Oracle’s Application Licensing table as published online (BP document) provides an overview of Oracle’s licensing rules
and restrictions for the use of specific Oracle Applications (e.g. E-Business Suite) with specific Oracle Technology
programs (e.g. Oracle Database)
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/application-licensing-table-070571.pdf
Oracle’s Server Partitioning Policy as published online (BP document) determines what licensing rules and mechanisms
should be applied in case virtualization technologies are being used (which is subject to change)
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/partitioning-070609.pdf
Oracle’s Disaster Recovery Licensing Policy as published online (BP document) dictates what licensing rules and
mechanisms should be applied in case different DR scenario’s are being used (which is subject to change)
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/data-recovery-licensing-070587.pdf

Oracle’s Data Transfer Policy as published online (BP document) clarifies how to license environments in which data is
being transferred to and/or from the Oracle software through automated batches, flat files or multiplexing environments
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/data-transfer-licensing-070590.pdf
Oracle’s Database Licensing Policy as published online (BP document) clarifies how to license the Oracle Database
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/databaselicensing-070584.pdf
The amount of documents/sources of information
that need to be read, understood and maintained
should not be underestimated!

II. No technical restrictions or license key!
 All Oracle software can be downloaded without any restrictions.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/indexes/downloads/index.html
For all (acquired) Oracle software which does require a license key,
golden license keys can be freely download from Oracle’s License Codes website
http://www.oracle.com/us/support/licensecodes/index.html
Any download of Oracle Database software will include more features/functionalities
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition Options (e.g. Partitioning, Advanced Compression)
Oracle Database Enterprise Management Packs (e.g. Diagnostics Pack, Tuning Pack)

III. Compliance Issues – Hardware Infrastructure
 License Minimums
Independent of the amount of actual users, there is always a license minimum
you need to comply with, including:
Oracle Database Edition: License Minimum
Oracle Database Standard Edition ONE 5 Named User Plus
Oracle Database Standard Edition 5 Named User Plus
Oracle Database Standard Edition TWO 10 Named User Plus per Server
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition 25 Named User Plus per Processor
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition Options 25 Named User Plus per Processor
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition Management Packs 25 Named User Plus per Processor
- Per Processor refers to Oracle’s definition of “Processor”
- Per Server refers to Oracle’s definition of “Server”
- Historical license metrics (e.g. NU, CD, NUMS, NUSS have different license minimums!)
2 CPU – 10 Cores/CPU
Intel Xeon

 Incorrect Processor Counts
Many different factors can have an impact on HOW
you need to count the number of “Processors” including:
- Server Model
- Number of CPU
- Number of Cores per CPU
- Type of CPU
- Purchase Date of the hardware
- Configuration of the hardware itself (virtualization, logical partitioning)
10 CPU – Single Core
Intel Xeon

 Server Virtualization through VMware (Soft Partitioning)
VMware vSphere 5.0
Oracle’s Processor definition requires that Oracle software be licensed "where the Oracle programs are installed and /or
running ". When end-users use a storage area network ("SAN") or other shared storage device, the installation of the
software resides on the shared storage Therefore, all VMware servers that point to the shared storage where the Oracle
programs are installed are required to be licensed.
If there is only one shared storage device within the given cluster, then all VMware nodes pointing to the single storage
where Oracle programs are installed must be licensed. All VMware servers from the shared storage where Oracle
software is installed must be licensed, even if those servers reside in different VMware clusters or outside of the VMware
cluster(s) altogether. Therefore, an isolated VMware node that is pointing to the shared storage also requires Oracle
licenses as the Oracle software installation resides on the shared storage device and could potentially run on that server.

VMware vSphere 5.1 and higher
With vSphere version 5.1 and higher, an end-user is
required to license all the physical servers from the
entire VMware environment (vCenter Server Instance),
including across datacenters, where the vm running
Oracle may be moved to (via vMotion) as the end-user
has the ability to easily move the vm running Oracle to
any server where VMware software is installed.
As the Oracle installation is accessible across the
VMware environment, through ease of migration, the
entire environment needs to be licensed. Because of
the ease with which customers can enable and disable
vMotion, the policy applies regardless of whether
vMotion is enabled or disabled.

 Server Virtualization through Oracle VM
• Oracle VM is typically positioned as an alternative for VMware
• Oracle VM can ONLY be used as a “Hard Partitioning” technology (through which the number of cores which are
required to be licensed can be limited) in case specific cores are allocated as per the following documents:
Oracle VM Server for x86,
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/vm/ovm-hardpart-168217.pdf
Oracle VM Server for SPARC
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/vm/ovm-sparc-hard-partitioning-1403135.pdf

 Server Virtualization through IBM LPAR
• IBM LPAR is an Oracle approved “Hard Partitioning” technology BUT
• End-users often forget to “cap” their LPAR’s or don’t know how to calculate the required number of licenses:
• End-users often forget that IBM’s Live Partition Mobility (which allows end-users to migrate partitions from
one physical server to another physical server) requires both the source and the destination server to be
licensed.
IBM Partitioning Licensing Calculation Rules
LPAR with dedicated CPUs 1. For all the Dedicated LPARs add the respective Entitled Capacity (EC) together to get the number of physical
CPUs /cores running Oracle Database. Multiply the EC by the processor factor to determine the number of
licenses required.
Physical Shared-
Processor Pool
1. Count each capped LPAR’s Entitled Capacity (EC).
2. Count each uncapped LPAR’s Online Virtual CPUs (OVC).
3. Add the EC and OVC together to get the Total CPUs.
4. Compare the Total CPUs to the Active CPUs in Pool for the Physical Shared-Processor Pool and record the
smaller values as the number of CPUs.
5. Multiply the result by the processor factor and round up to determine the number of licenses required.
Multiple Shared-Processor Pools 1. Repeat step 2.1 to 2.4 for each Shared-Processor Pool.
2. Add the number of CPUs for each Multiple Shared-Processor Pool together to get the total number of CPUs
to license.
3. Compare the total from 3.2 to the Active Physical CPUs in System, and record the smaller value.
4. Multiply result by the processor factor and round up to determine the number of licenses required.

 Disaster Recovery and High Availability
• Oracle’s software needs to be licensed in almost every situation, including DR solutions!
SANSAN
Standby:
Both servers need to
be fully licensed and
with the same metric
Remote Mirroring:
Both servers need to
be fully licensed and
with the same metric
SAN
Failover: (Exception Rule!):
- Two servers clustered, one SAN
- Maximum 10 days per Calender Year
- Required to switch back once failure resolved

III. Compliance Issues – Software Installations
 Oracle software is required to be licensed once the software is installed (independent of
if it’s being used)
(Oracle software is deemed to be installed once Oracle’s executable’s, binaries, and/or DLL’s can be found on a (shared) disk or disk array)
 End-users often
 Don’t know how to determine the installed software.
 Don’t have software inventory tooling in place.
 Did not roll out their software inventory tool on their entire IT infrastructure
 Do rely upon a software inventory tool which is not capable of identifying Oracle
Database software in a complete and accurate manner

III. Compliance Issues – Software Configuration
 Database Edition
 Often the default installation procedure of the Oracle Database is chosen, resulting in the installation of the
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition whereas licenses for Standard Edition or Standard Edition One have been
obtained
 Not all Oracle Database Editions can be installed on any server:
 Oracle Database SE 1 can only be installed on servers with a max capacity of 2 sockets
 Oracle Database SE can only be installed on servers with a max capacity of 4 sockets
 Oracle Database SE 2 can only be installed on servers with a max capacity of 2 sockets
 Even if a server with 16 CPU Dual Core has a dedicated (capped) LPAR of 2 cores/sockets, still only the
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition can be installed on such an LPAR/server, since the CAPACITY of the
server is more then the allowed 2 or 4 sockets for any of the other database editions.

 Database Release
 Oracle’s Premier Support Service Offering includes “Technical Support” and Software Update Rights
 End-users deciding not to pay technical support maintenance (e.g since they move to third party support
suppliers like Rimini Street) do not have the right to make use of the latest version of the database software
programs, patches and/or updates.
 This requires end-users to keep track of what database version, bug-fixes and/or patches are installed on what
servers, which is typically hard to achieve for larger enterprise organizations.

 Database Enterprise Edition Options & Database Management Packs
 Oracle Database Enterprise Edition Options and Database Enterprise Managers are automatically installed with
the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition itself; usage of these features requires separate licensing.
 Because the Oracle Database Options and Database Enterprise Managers are installed, many DBA’s have the
perception that they can use these (since they are installed), without checking if there is a license available.
DBA’s may make use of a Database Option without being aware of it (e.g. default usage of data-pump can
trigger the usage of data-pump compression which is part of Advanced Compression and requires separate
licensing)
 Determining if a Database Option and/or Database Management Pack is really in use requires expert
knowledge; a distinction should be made between “system usage” and “licensable usage”.

• Named User Plus: is defined as an individual authorized by you to use the programs which are installed
on a single server or multiple servers, regardless of whether the individual is actively using the
programs at any given time. A non human operated device will be counted as a Named User Plus in
addition to all individuals authorized to use the programs, if such devices can access the programs. If
multiplexing hardware or software (e.g., a TP monitor or a web server product) is used, this number
must be measured at the multiplexing front end. Automated batching of data from computer to computer
is permitted.
III. Compliance Issues – Software Usage

• Legal Entities allowed to use the software
• Customer Definition limits which legal entities can make use of the software
• Hosting
• Rights Granted: Upon Oracle’s acceptance of your order, you have the limited right to use the
programs and receive any services you ordered solely for your internal business operations and
subject to the terms of this agreement, including the definitions and rules set forth in the order and
the program documentation.
III. Compliance Issues – Non Technical Compliance Issues

How?
Be pro-active and take
control yourself
Don’t wait until you get
audited by Oracle!
Perform regular
internal license
reviews
Determine your
license compliance
position
&
Mitigate financial,
operational and legal
risks.
IV. Conclusion – How to handle your database licenses?

Create an internal software
license management team of
multiple disciplines
(procurement, legal, DBA,
Infrastructure Managers,
Business Application
Managers, Outsourcers) with
C-level sponsorship and review
on a regular basis:
Make software license
management a priority at C-level
and budget for the proper
software license management
practice, tailored to the specific
needs of your organization.
• your real license
entitlements (incl. OD,
OLSA, SR, SP, PD, BP)
• your real deployment
and (licensable) usage
of the software
• reconcile your license
entitlements with your
license deployment and
usage in order to identify
and address software
license compliance
issues proactively!
IV. Conclusion – Some takeaways

① Oracle License Review or License Audit:
Answers to your Top 20 Questions
② Oracle Licensing Guide:
Your quick Oracle Licensing Guide
③ Oracle Unlimited License Agreements (ULAs):
An overview of the major risks you should be aware of
④ Oracle Pool of Funds Agreements:
An overview of the ins & outs of this type of agreement
⑤ Oracle Database
An overview of the most common license compliance issues
Further reading on www.b-lay.com

Questions?

Audit Support
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ULA Management
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License Optimization
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License Consulting
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SAM Tooling Maintenance
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