Re: Oracle Licensing on VMware

Read carefully the definitions of failover, standby and remote mirroring.  I believe that your VMware cluster could be accurately described as a failover cluster.

According to this document from Oracle, you may license only one of the physical VMware servers as long as the databases run for less than 10 calendar days per year on other physical servers. I'm not familiar with all the internals of vMotion (especially with DRS) but as long as you can somehow ensure that the databases comply with the 10 calendar day rule, you should not have to license the entire failover cluster -- or at least I think a strong argument can be made to this effect.

If you run more than 10 calendar days somewhere else then I think you will need to license it. Also, if you use any kind of software or hardware replication technology that allows failover to a remote cluster using different storage then this doc says that you always need to license the remote side.

-Jeremy

--
http://about.me/jeremy_schneider


On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 7:27 AM, Niels Jespersen <NJN_at_dst.dk> wrote:



> Thank you. I know that one. It only says you have to license the whole

> physical host. Nothing on VMware clusters with/without vMotion and

> with/without DRS.

> Regards Niels Jespersen

> Fra: Peter Gram Miracle A/S [mailto:pgr_at_miracleas.dk]

> Sendt: 11. oktober 2013 12:52

> Til: Niels Jespersen

> Cc: oracle-l_at_freelists.org

> Emne: Re: Oracle Licensing on VMware

>

> Hi

>

> I think you are looking for this document

> http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/partitioning-070609.pdf

>

>

>

>

> Best Regards / Venlig Hilsen

>

> Peter Gram

>

> Miracle Consulting<http://www.miracleas.dk>

> Borupvang 2c, 2750 Ballerup, Denmark

> Cell: (+45) 53747107 Home: (+45) 38745696

> Office Phone: (+45) 44668855 Office Fax: (+45) 44668856

> Mail: peter.gram_at_miracleas.dk<mailto:peter.gram_at_miracleas.dk>

> OakTable member<http://www.oaktable.net> <http://www.oaktable.com/>

> ----------------------------------------------------

> [https://sites.google.com/a/miracleas.dk/peter-gram/filer/peter_gram.png]

>

>

> On 11 October 2013 12:46, Niels Jespersen <NJN_at_dst.dk<mailto:NJN_at_dst.dk>>

> wrote:

> Hello

>

> We are running a few Oracle (11.2) databases on VMware. We have of course

> licensed all CPUs in the underlying physical machine.

>

> But where can I find official licensing rules regarding Oracle Database on

> VMware and other virtualization environments?

>

> The Licensing Information manual does not mention virtualized environments

> at all. Beyond that I have only found a paper named "Oracle Partitioning

> Policy" that more or less explains that you have to license the full host

> in case of "soft partitioning" like VMware.

>

> Nothing about VMware clustering, vMotion, DRS (Dynamic Resource

> Scheduling) and so on.

>

> I could, of course, ask my Oracle representative, but I prefer to read the

> official wording (if it exists) in solitude before that.

>

> Regards Niels Jespersen

>

>

> --

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

>

>

>

> --

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

>

>

>



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