Re: Oracle Licensing on VMware

From my own encounters with LMS about running Oracle on VMWare:

• you need to license all cpu's in the physical machine (empty sockets are not to be included)
• you need to license all physical machines in the vcenter cluster (DRS rules are not a valid way to limit the number of physical servers to be licensed, regardless vmware states about this)

The reasoning for the first is that VMWare is regarded as soft partitioning.
The reasoning for the second is that, according to the processor definition, you install the Oracle software on all physical servers in the same vcenter cluster (yes, that is what they told me)

Not sure if this last reasoning will uphold in court, but unless you are prepared to go to court over this, you better follow it.

As always, you should ask Oracle (LMS) about the licensing rules and have them confirm it in writing (and signed in blood)

regards,

-- 
Freek D'Hooge
Uptime
Oracle Database Administrator
email: freek.dhooge_at_uptime.be
tel +32(03) 451 23 82
http://www.uptime.be
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On vr, 2013-10-11 at 10:46 +0000, Niels Jespersen 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

> 

> 

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> 

> 

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