Re: Oracle License Question

Sridhar Ramalingam wrote:
>
> We have our oracle 7.1.6 running on a HP server and some clients on a PC
> who connect to oracle server via SQL*NET V2. If we have 20 different
> clients at any given time do we need 20 concurrent oracle licenses.
>
> -Sridhar Ramalingam

In general, it would be best to direct all licensing questions to your Oracle sales rep. Your agreement with Oracle may special clauses that change their normal business practices.

In answer to your question, you need enough concurrent user licenses to handle the maximum number of users actually connected at any one time. If you have a total of 20 users, but only 5 are connected at a time, you only need 5 licenses. If you have 200 users and 20 are connected at one time, you need 20 licenses.

Note that there are many 3rd party products that 'multiplex' users. Users would connect to the non-oracle software, and then that software would connect to oracle on behalf of the users, usually using some special account, not tied to the individual user. So, you might have 100 users connected to the non-oracle software, but there might be only 10 real connections to oracle. Oracle's standard license agreement include a clause that describes this, and indicates that you must count the 100 users, not the 10.

Hope this helps. Again, talk to your oracle rep.

-- 
Bob Swisshelm
Eli Lilly and Company
swisshelm_at_lilly.com