Re: Hyperthreading - Oracle license

From: <dimensional.dba_at_comcast.net>
Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:59:27 +0000
Message-ID: <407767837.2176159.1357653567697.JavaMail.root_at_sz0118a.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net>

The general definition for the licenses is found in http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/databaselicensing-070584.pdf

" The number of required licenses shall be determined by multiplying the total number of cores of the processor by a core processor licensing factor specified on the Oracle Processor Core Factor Table which can be accessed at http://oracle.com/contracts. "

Hyperthreading does not add cores to the calculation, it adds threads not covered by the licensing. If they really wanted to charge for the threads then they would have to have a cheaper overall license or account for the threads at half price of the base cores, since that is about what you get in performance from the system in comparison to an absolute 16 core server to an 8 core server plus 8 hyperthreads.

You can follow the second link to get to the processor table http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/contracts/processor-core-factor-table-070634.pdf

You can also look at your actual Oracle contract which has the same definition as in the first link but normally adds the wording Physical Cores.

You can also reference the Intel website http://cache-www.intel.com/cd/00/00/01/77/17705_htt_user_guide.pdf

"Hyper-Threading Technology boosts performance by allowing
multiple threads of software applications to run on a single processor at one time, sharing the same core processor resources."

The chip manufacturers actually own the definition of core.

• Original Message ----- From: "Bill Zakrzewski" <bill_at_intactus.com> To: "ORACLE-L L" <oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Sent: Tuesday, January 8, 2013 5:06:16 AM Subject: Hyperthreading - Oracle license

All -

I have been searching the oracle website to see how Oracle handles "hyperthreading" in their processor license, but no luck. I have a server with 2-quad core CPUs or 8 cores, it also has hyperthreading turned on so it appears there are 16 cores. When licensing the server, does oracle work off of the 8 cores or 16 cores? If anyone has a document or link it will be appreciated.

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

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

Received on Tue Jan 08 2013 - 14:59:27 CET