Re: standby and Oracle licensing

This is actually (surprisingly) straight-forward. Probably one of the few things related to oracle Oracle licensing that is...

The thing to understand here is the difference between a "failover" and a "standby".

With a "failover" database server you (might) have installed Oracle database software in anticipation of the future need to move disks (or restore backups) containing a database after your "primary" server has failed. Under normal circumstances, there is NO Oracle software running on this server at any time.

With a "standby" server, the software is not only installed, but (usually) running. A database is (usually) present, although it may not be open.

Okay, so, within some restrictions, your "failover" server need not be licensed. Oracle corp. understands that the software is pre-installed only as a precaution (and to speed recovery) in the event that you might *someday* need it. As I understand the rules, the N (is N=10?) days for which you may use this without purcahsing licenses should actually be read as "N days or parts thereof". If you startup your failover instance for 30 minutes, that counts as "1 day". If those 30 minutes happen to span midnight (localtime, I presume) it is actually "2 days".

In contrast, standby databases must always be licensed. You must use the same "metric" for the standby as you do for the "primary" database. That is, if the primary database is licensed for Named Users Plus, then the standby database must be licensed under the same rules. If the primary database is licensed by CPU, then so must be the standby. There is a chance that with Named User licensing, your production licenses may be sufficient to cover the standby. Not so with CPU licensing.

There you go. Perfectly clear. ;-)

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. And I am not *your* lawyer. Read your license agreement. Understand it. If you are not comfortable that you understand your license adequately, obtain qualified legal counsel. DO NOT RELY ON *ANYTHING* I (or anybody other than your lawyer) TELL YOU.

• Original Message ----- From: David <thump_at_cosmiccooler.org> Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 11:16 am Subject: standby and Oracle licensing

> I am under the impression that a physical standby DB is licensed
> under the
> EE license for the primary and there is no additionl costs to run the
> standby. We are be told now this is not true by Oracle sales and they
> sent us a doc:
>
> Failover: Nodes are configured in ?cluster? with the first
> installed node
> acting as a primary node. If the primary node fails, one of the
> nodes in
> the cluster acts as the primary node. In this type of environment,
> Oraclepermits licensed Oracle Database customers to run the
> Database on an
> unlicensed spare computer for up to a total of ten separate days in
> anygiven calendar year. Any other use requires the environment to
> be fully
> licensed. Additionally, the same metric must be used when licensing
> thedatabases in a failover environment.
> ? Standby: One or many copies of the primary database are
> maintained on
> separate server(s) at all times. These systems are configured for
> disasterrecovery purposes. If the primary database fails, the
> standby database is
> activated to act as the new primary database. In this environment, the
> primary and the standby databases must be fully licensed.
> Additionally,the same metric must be used when licensing the
> databases in a standby
> environment.
>
> What is your understanding of this?
> "cluster" "failover" "standby"
> They are really cuttign off their nose here again.
> --
> ..
> David
>
>
> --
> http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>
>
>

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