What Oracle Enterprise Features Are You Using?
Beware, some Oracle Database features require the expensive Enterprise Edition…
Not that I would wish an Oracle audit on anyone or any business, but they are more common than you would think. The Global License Advisory Service (formerly the Licence Management Services Team) has a target for each team member at Oracle to audit customers — whether that customer target is nominated by GLAS or by your account manager, once targeted and approved for audit internally, usually an audit notification is sent out to a C-level executive of the customer…. This is when the alarm bells start ringing — and the usual questions get asked —
- Why has this happened?
- Where has this come from?
- Are we okay?
- Who is responsible?
- Which team has resource to do this?
- What do we do now?
All of those are valid questions when receiving an audit notification — it can be scary for some. But for us battle-worn individuals we have become immune to the scare tactics and I for one brush them off as just an exercise to do — like any other task. Not one you really want to do, or look forward to, but one that you just get on with, to get it done.
Primarily the more common audits for Oracle are technology-led — which means Database, Middleware (WebLogic/Application Server) and Business Intelligence (EPM/Hyperion/OBI).
But to give you a flavour of what an Oracle auditor will be looking for on an Oracle Database audit — I will explain the process. If we take an easy example (they are not usually easy!) that a customer has four physical servers, with Oracle Database Enterprise installed, each with a specification of 2 sockets and 8 cores — that would total 32 cores — which (if using Intel-based processors) equates to 16 processors in total that need to be licensed.
Now the interesting part — after ascertaining the quantity of database servers and the total core count, they will be digging in to see what features are in use…. what database features the customer was using — and which features require an Option or Pack license?
Well to answer that takes a bit of knowledge in licensing — some consultants can take a harsh view of usage and not exactly drill down to the feature usage and blindly believe what a SAM tool tells them. Personally I tend to look at the flags that come up when running a script that shows ‘possible’ enterprise features — this way I can research if an actual license is required. If you look at the below table you can see some features mapped to what Enterprise Option / Pack it is related to.
But beware just because a script shows multitenant in use — does not mean a license is required — as on this feature you are ‘allowed’ up to three (3) pluggable databases — so you need to do a bit of research…There are others that raise flags, that need research before committing to requiring a license. Additionally, it may depend on which version of the database you are running whether or not there are some extra or fewer inclusions — do your research!
But in our example — the customer had 16 processors to be licensed with Oracle Database Enterprise — well if they had used ‘Backup MEDIUM Compression’ for example — they would require the Advanced Compression Option for the same metric (either Named User Plus or Processor) and quantity — now they might not be using the Option on all instances on each server — but they would be looking at a number of processor licenses non-compliance. If you couple that with other regular Option and Pack usages like Partitioning, Tuning and Diagnostics — it can become very expensive very quickly.
SO how to find out your database feature usage — it is quite simple and as long as your DBA’s have the correct privilege, you can look at this database View — DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS — to find out your features usage. You may need specialised advice on how to read it, and I would advise you to seek reputable consultancy in this area before guessing that you have enough licenses or importantly the correct license.
In Summary
Customers must understand the usage of the database features and whether they require a license or not. I cannot stress that enough — empowering your DBA’s and SAM team on what your license allows but also what features trigger which license, is an important control measure to adopt.
Huge bills can be levied by Oracle, if they have proof that certain database features have been in use — they generally get the customer to run a script and share that back — if they find unintentional usage — they will bill for that, regardless of you actually knew that you really used it!
For historic, incidental use or test use, it may be able to negotiate a way out, but it would be much better to know your usage before any audit or scripts are run by Oracle.
You should always get verifiable and expert advice on Oracle technology and applications use — whether that is internal by experts or bringing in reputable consultants — I urge all Oracle customers to get this knowledge and support before any surprises pop up.
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About the author
Johnny Cree is an Oracle SAM Licencing Consultant here at Version 1.
