RE: Practice of using chopt to disable database options

From: MacGregor, Ian A. <ian_at_slac.stanford.edu>
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:56:24 -0800
Message-ID: <FD1D618E4F164D4C8BA5513D4268174A01A1AA9135C7_at_EXCHCLUSTER1-02.win.slac.stanford.edu>



Perhaps they are apocryphal, but there are reports of people being in violation of their license agreements because they had not turned off an option even though the option was never used. During the installation there is a screen which allows you to pick your options. I've always turned off options for which we are not licensed unless it is for an Oracle Corp application such as Grid control.

The problem with the list shown by the installer is that it is not complete. I didn't now about chopt, I've alway used make to switch off unlicensed products not in the list. However occasionally there is a notice saying not to turn off certain options such as spatial. Also this is sometimes not done immediately.

My question is: If you have an option turned on and available for use, but the data show the option has not ever been used by anyone, is it a license violation???

Ian A. MacGregor
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory



From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org [oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of bill thater [shrekdba_at_gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2013 5:17 AM To: pete.sharman_at_oracle.com; niall.litchfield_at_gmail.com Cc: ORACLE-L; NJN_at_dst.dk; justin_at_n0de.ws Subject: RE: Practice of using chopt to disable database options

Typos, I think I've taught everyone to read typo;-), wish my body would work again,:-(.

sent from my Windows Phone
Bill"shrek" thater Oracle DBA
Shrekdba_at_Gmail.com
"one ping to rule them all

One ping to find them
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And in the mutex bind them!"



From: pete.sharman_at_oracle.com<mailto:pete.sharman_at_oracle.com> Sent: 11/13/2013 11:35 PM
To: niall.litchfield_at_gmail.com<mailto:niall.litchfield_at_gmail.com> Cc: ORACLE-L; NJN_at_dst.dk<mailto:NJN_at_dst.dk>; justin_at_n0de.ws<mailto:justin_at_n0de.ws> Subject: Re: Practice of using chopt to disable database options

Yup, totally agree, thanks Niall!

Pete

Sent while mobile, please excuse my typos!

On 13 Nov 2013, at 7:55 pm, Niall Litchfield <niall.litchfield_at_gmail.com<mailto:niall.litchfield_at_gmail.com>> wrote:

Just to add to this, in my view 'license compliance' is often pushed down to the DBA team when it is properly a financial management function for IT management. Certainly technology professionals need to be aware of the area of licensing, but an organization that relies on tech fixes alone for license management is quite likely to have a nasty surprise sooner or later. Pete's example is just one illustration of this, you'll need to engage support to determine what technically needs to be enabled to make things work, you won't engage them for license advice, that's an account management discussion.

On Nov 13, 2013 1:54 AM, "Peter Sharman" <pete.sharman_at_oracle.com<mailto:pete.sharman_at_oracle.com>> wrote: Sorry for being late to the party on this one, I’ve been travelling with the APAC OTN Tour and haven’t had as much time for looking at email.

Let me raise a caveat here.

PLEASE do not do this without checking with Support first. There are times where Oracle uses functionality internally that you do not need to be licensed for, and disabling that functionality can cause major problems. As an example, behind the scenes we use partitioning in the Oracle database for the EM repository. If you remove that partitioning functionality EM will not be happy, as a customer I know here in Australia found out when they relinked the kernel without partitioning. If my understanding is correct, a similar thing will happen in Database 12c if you relink without XDB, which EM Express uses.

Bottom line, just ask first. It won’t hurt to ask, and it may save you a lot of work.

Pete
<image001.jpg>
Pete Sharman
Principal Product Manager
Enterprise Manager Product Suite
33 Benson Crescent CALWELL ACT 2905 AUSTRALIA Phone: +61262924095<tel:+61262924095> | | Fax: +61262925183 | | Mobile: +61414443449<tel:%2B61414443449>



"Controlling developers is like herding cats."
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"Oh no, it's not, it's much harder than that!"
Bruce Pihlamae, long term Oracle DBA


From: Justin Mungal [mailto:justin_at_n0de.ws<mailto:justin_at_n0de.ws>] Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2013 12:18 AM To: NJN_at_dst.dk<mailto:NJN_at_dst.dk>
Cc: oracle-l_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Subject: Re: Practice of using chopt to disable database options

I've only ever turned features on, such as when customers licensed new features but they weren't enabled at the binary level.

You can also use make, as chopt became available with 11.2 and is simpler. See How to Check and Enable/Disable Oracle Binary Options (Doc ID 948061.1).

You can surely turn off features as needed. I'm not sure how common it is but I personally see nothing wrong with doing so.

-Justin

On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 7:08 AM, Niels Jespersen <NJN_at_dst.dk<mailto:NJN_at_dst.dk>> wrote: Hello all

I’m wondering whether it is common practice to use the program chopt (resides in $ORACLE_HOME/bin) to disable certain non-licensed database options (11g onwards) (on 12c you can even disable partitioning) .

The advantage being that disabled options cannot be inadvertently used (which may hit you license-wise later).

The disadvantage being (I think) that patches applied will not be applied to disabled options, which when later enabled will leave your oracle-home partly patched, partly unpatched.

We try to remember to do it immediately after install.

What do you do?

Regards Niels Jespersen

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Received on Thu Nov 14 2013 - 20:56:24 CET

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