Oracle DB license analysis

The main one is a Database Enterprise Edition. This is the main flagship product if you like, allows the use of options, so there are a variety of options that you can attach to that Database Enterprise Edition. It requires a core factor calculation so we have to look at the overall size of the server in terms of the number of cores and there are minimums associated with it as well.

* Basically, to licence Oracle database, there are two licensing metrics. Processor and Named User Plus. A Processor metric is basically looking at the size of the server; Named User Plus obviously is the number of named users that you need. For processor licensing, what we have to do is look at the number of processors or sockets and cores on the box and then calculate how many licenses we need.

Standard Edition

Standard Edition is a basically smaller footprint of database, the code is the same, the underlying part of the database is the same and they are very much compatible. But Standard Edition it’s more a licensing restriction, that you can’t use options with it apart from a couple of exceptions. The size of the server is restricted to a maximum of four sockets and again, you only count sockets.

Standard Edition 1

Then there is Standard Edition 1 and this is very similar but restricted to two sockets. So the server must not have any more than two sockets and must not be capable of any more than two sockets. The Standard Edition box must not be capable of any more than four sockets. There’s also a couple of other editions, personnal edition and so forth, but we’re not going to cover that today.

Calculating a Named User Plus Licence Metric

With a Named User Plus, we have to look at how many people are actually accessing the system and you do have to take account of interfaces and devices and so on, but essentially a named user is somebody who has been given a login. Doesn’t matter whether they’re logging in at any one time or not, just that they’ve been authorised to use the system and have a log in. They would count as a Named User Plus and you have to count up how many people are accessing your system and then you have to take account of the user minimums. We’ll talk about that when we talk about the calculation of processors.

Calculating the Processor Licence Metric

What is a processor? How do we calculate it? Most servers have got a number of sockets and each of those sockets will have processors plugged into them. Now for Standard Edition and Standard Edition 1, you have to count the number of sockets the box is capable of. If you for example, have a box that has four sockets, it can’t have any more, then you could license that for Standard Edition. If you plug processors into two of those sockets, then you would need to buy two processor licenses for that server. If you’ve got a smaller box only capable of two sockets and you plug both of those sockets in, you could have Standard Edition 1 or you could have Standard Edition, and in that case you would need two processor licenses.

Enterprise Edition

For Enterprise Edition, again you have to look at how many processors are plugged into the sockets. There is no restriction on sockets for Enterprise Edition. So what you have to count is the number of cores. If, in our example, we’ve got two processors plugged in, irrespective of the number of the sockets and each of those processors is capable of four cores, we have eight cores in total for that machine. You then apply a core factor and that core factor table is available from Oracle, you can download it.

Summary

Just to summarize:-

You would licence Enterprise Edition by Processor or Named User Plus, you count the number of cores and multiply it by the core factor to work out how many processors.
You calculate the number of processors and multiply it by 25 to work out your minimum Named User Plus, alternatively it’s your actual number if it’s higher.
For Standard Edition, it’s a maximum of four sockets that the box is capable of and you count the number of occupying sockets to work out how many processor licenses you need.

Useful Links:

-- http://madora.co.uk/oracle-licensing-beginners-start/

-- http://madora.co.uk/5-fatal-mistakes-of-oracle-licensing-rules/