Re: Disaster Recovery solutions for Oracle...

It has just been pointed out to me that the OLSA (the "standard" Oracle license agreement) no longer contains the provisions it used to contain regarding "Disaster Recovery" sites.

I am sure that it used to be the case that you could maintain a DR site, and not have to license any Oracle software, providing the Oracle software was not running. (This would have precluded standby databases, or even increment-recovery with RMAN, by the way.)

It appears that now, any Disaster Recovery server on which Oracle software is installed (regardless of whether the software is *used*) must be fully licensed.

You can *probably* still manage to avoid license costs if -- for example -- you have a tape or disk containing a *backup* of your Oracle software at the DR site, but the moment you load / install that software on a server (e.g., to test your disaster recovery) it seems you now need a full license.

If this is correct (and it seems to be) then there is no longer any reason (that I can see) to use Block-Level replication in preference to Data Guard.

I am not sure when exactly this changed. Probably in the last two years, but I don't read the OLSA nearly as often as I used to, so its hard to be sure. Note, by the way, that I was unable to dredge up an OLSA that applies to either the United States or Canada. The best I could do was the United Kingdom.

The OLSA *does* still contain this provision, though...

*Testing: For the purpose of testing physical copies of backups, your license for the Oracle Database (Enterprise Edition or Standard Edition) includes the right to run the database on an unlicensed computer for up to four times, not exceeding 2 days per testing, in any given calendar year.*

Perhaps this is just a rewording of the provision I am sure I remember for "disaster recovery testing", but it does seem to be less permissive than I recall it to be.

And this just leads me back to what I pretty much always say on this subject...

When it comes to license agreements, *do not accept my word on anything*. And don't accept anybody else's, either. Get the license agreement, *read*the license agreement, and if necessary, hire a lawyer to help you
*understand* the license agreement.

On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 9:58 PM, Mark Brinsmead <pythianbrinsmead_at_gmail.com>wrote:

> drdb? Yes.
>
> Or you can (depending on your hardware) do block-based remote replication
> with your disk arrays.
>
> Block-based replication will tend to require more network bandwidth, but --
> done right -- you can save money on Oracle licenses at the DR site. The
> cost of Oracle licenses can sometimes pay for a LOT of bandwidth.
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 3:35 PM, Masha Gurenich <gurenich_at_gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> wow, that's the good one too!!
>> nice.
>>
>> thank you!
>>
>>
>>
>> 2011/5/23 Uwe Küchler <uwe_at_kuechler.org>
>>
>>> Laimutis,
>>>
>>> if you want to go for filesystem-mirroring solutions to implement HA,
>>> you might have a look at Linux's drbd. See: http://www.drbd.org/
>>>
>>> A large European hosting provider uses Linux and drbd to provide a
>>> low-cost (yet robust) HA solution to their customers.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Uwe
>>>
>>>
>>> On 23.05.2011 10:25, Laimutis.Nedzinskas_at_seb.lt wrote:
>>> >> Jorgensen, Finn
>>> >> You can do what everybody did before DG was available (i.e Oracle 7 &
>>> 8) :
>>> > write your own set of scripts that ships archivelogs to the standby
>>> server
>>> > where you have a database in mount mode and another script that looks
>>> for
>>> > archived logs to arrive and then performs recovery.
>>> >
>>> ...
>>> > Does there exist some pure man's file system metro-mirroring solutions?
>>>
>>> --
>>> http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Cheers,
> -- Mark Brinsmead
> Senior DBA,
> The Pythian Group
> http://www.pythian.com/blogs
>

-- 
Cheers,
-- Mark Brinsmead
   Senior DBA,
   The Pythian Group
   http://www.pythian.com/blogs

--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l