Re: Oracle License Audit

From: Niall Litchfield <niall.litchfield_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 12:54:36 +0000
Message-ID: <AANLkTimGwCa_cnD_tC5MHBhr5_DRLSES_EiALodhr8ds_at_mail.gmail.com>



Howard

Jason is exactly right about the process. It's worth taking a good deal of time and effort to get the spreadsheet exactly right (which isn't necessarily straightforward) as:

  1. Oracle will make an initial judgement as to how much you are likely to owe them :( even before they come out and audit you (I suspect they partly make that judgement to determine whether its worth doing the audit).
  2. You make a legalese (suspect it may not actually be legal but wouldn't gamble) declaration to the effect that this is an authorized official communication from your company.

<blatant commercial>
My employer - and of course other Oracle Partners as well - can help with the license management/filling out the spreadsheet etc etc, as well as potentially discounts on any licenses Oracle decide you need. If you do want to get a partner involved, now before the spreadsheet goes back is the best time.
<blatant commercial>

As Norman says the implications of getting licensing wrong can be significant - I'd certainly start by checking the DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS or similarly named view. Internal use of the feature *can* be ignored though sometimes you have to convince the sales/audit guy that you aren't using the feature Oracle is :( .

On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 10:48 AM, jason arneil <jason.arneil_at_gmail.com>wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have been through a similar process in the past year. It entailed filling
> in a spreadsheet declaring all Oracle products in use, including number of
> cpus/cores, servers, and options.
>
> Oracle sales then compare this with what licenses you actually have
> purchased.
>
> cheers,
>
> jason.
>
> --
>
> http://jarneil.wordpress.com
>
> On 2 Mar 2011, at 09:31, Howard Latham wrote:
>
> > We have just had a letter in Which Oracle Invite themselves to audit our
> licenses.
> > Does anybody know what this entails?
> > It's particularly inconvenient as our DR site is kicking us out in 30
> days in favour of the London Olympics.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Howard A. Latham
> >
>
> --
> http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>
>
>

-- 
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
http://www.orawin.info

--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
Received on Wed Mar 02 2011 - 06:54:36 CST

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