Collected from various source only for my self for answering the questions about oracle licensing .----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: What is the difference between Oracle Standard Edition and Oracle Standard Edition One?
A: There are two differences. Firstly, Oracle Standard Edition One can only be licensed on servers that have a maximum capacity of 2 processors (CPUs). If your server has a maximum capacity of 3 processors or more then you will have to purchase Oracle Standard Edition (or if it has a maximum capacity of more than 4 processors, you will have to purchase Oracle Enterprise Edition). Secondly, Oracle Standard Edition One does not support clustering whereas Oracle Standard Edition includes Oracle Real Application Clusters.
Q: I only use 2 processors on my server, but it can support 4 processors. Do I still need to purchase Oracle Standard Edition rather than Oracle Standard Edition One?
A: Yes. Your eligibility to use Oracle Standard Edition One is not determined by how many processors are in place or in use, but by how many processors the server has capacity for.
Q: I would like to cluster my servers. Which license level should I choose?
A: This depends on how many processors there are in your cluster. If you have 4 or less then you can purchase either Oracle Standard Edition or Oracle Enterprise Edition licenses. If you have 4 or more processors in total across the cluster then you must choose Oracle Enterprise Edition. Oracle RAC (Real Application Clusters) is a licensing option for Oracle Enterprise Edition.
Q: Are there any minimum order requirements when purchasing Named User database licenses?
A: Yes. The minimum order requirements vary depending on which database product you select. These are:
Standard Edition One - 5 Named User Plus licenses per server or the total number of actual users, whichever is greater.
Standard Edition - 5 Named User Plus licenses per server or the total number of actual users, whichever is greater.
Enterprise Edition - 25 Named User Plus licenses per processor or the total number of actual users, whichever is greater.
Personal and Lite Editions - 1 Named User Plus license or the total number of actual users, whichever is greater.
Q: Do I need to buy Named User Plus or per Processor licenses?
A: If you select the Named User Plus licensing option then you must license all the users who are using the Oracle Database, as well as all non-human operated devices accessing the Oracle Database. An example of a non-human device would be a sensor that connects to a database. If a human-operated device such as a bar code scanner connects to the database then all humans operating these devices need to be licensed. If the Named User Plus population is likely to be very high, it would be more cost effective to license per processor. Where it is impossible to quantify the user population (such as in an Internet environment), then you must license per processor.
Q: My server contains multi-core processors. How do I price this?
A: For Standard Edition and Standard Edition One, the number of cores can be ignored (an occupied socket is equivalent to one processor for these editions). For Enterprise Edition, each core of a multi-core chip is priced using a "licensing factor". These licensing factors are as follows:
Sun UltraSPARC T1 - 0.25
AMD/Intel - 0.5
All other multi-core processors - 0.75
Single core processors - 1
Therefore if you have two dual-core AMD Opteron processors, the cost will be 0.5*4*list price. Two four-core UltraSPARC T1 processors will cost 0.25*8*list price.
Q: Do multi-core processors affect the processor limits on Oracle Standard Edition and Oracle Standard Edition One?
A: No. Oracle Standard Edition can only be used on servers that have a maximum capacity of 4 processors (CPUs), regardless of the number of cores. In a RAC environment, this limitation applies to the whole cluster (i.e. the total number of processors in the cluster must be less than or equal to 4).
Oracle Standard Edition One can only be used on servers that have a maximum capacity of 2 processors.
Q: Can you offer me a discount on Oracle list prices?
A: Yes. Please contact us with your requirements and we will advise you on the level of discount we can offer.
Q: Once I have placed my order how long will I have to wait for my license details?
A: Your order is logged with Oracle who then issue us with a license number for you. This process can take up to 10 business days.
Q: What are your payment terms?
A: Payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date (subject to approval). For larger orders or maximum discounts, payment-on-order is required.
Multi-core Processors: Impact On Oracle Processor Licensing
Q: How does Oracle price its software?
A: For its technology products, Oracle has two primary pricing models. Customers can choose between Named User Plus and Per Processor pricing models based on their specific needs. Named User Plus is ideal for organizations with discrete and countable user populations. For uncountable populations, processor licensing is required. The Processor pricing model is based on the number of processors a customer has installed and the number of those processors that the customer has operating. This model is easily measured, a fact that makes costs transparent for our customers.
Q: Why did Oracle change its multi-core pricing?
A: The goal of Oracle's pricing and licensing strategy is to provide simple and flexible licensing models to meet our customers' needs. For the past several months, we have been working closely with our customers and hardware Partners to address the recent advancements in multicore processor chips. To meet these needs, Oracle is changing its licensing policy regarding multi-core chips. Our first change to address multi-core technology occurred in July 2005 and further changes as described below became effective on December 19, 2005.
Q: What is the new multi-core pricing and licensing model?
Oracle will continue to recognize each core as a separate processor; however, the processor definition has been amended when counting multi-core chips when determining the total number of processor licenses required. Prior to this update, there were two categories for processor licensing. With this update, we are introducing two additional processor categories. As a result, there are four categories for processor licensing. Each category has a unique processor-pricing factor, which is used to determine the total number of processor licenses required.
Oracle Processor Licensing:
Cores Processor Factor CPUs for SW Licenses
UltraSPARC T1 8 0.25 2
AMD/Intel 4 0.50 2
All other Multi-core Chips (IBM Pseries, SM USIV, etc.) 2 0.75 2
Single Core Servers 1 1.00 1
To find the total number of processors, which require licensing, for a Sun UltraSPARC T1 processor with 4, 6 or 8 cores at 1.0 gigahertz or 8 cores at 1.2 gigahertz for only those servers specified on the Sun Server Table which can be accessed at http://oracle.com/contracts, “n” cores
shall be determined by multiplying the total number of cores by a factor of .25. For the purposes
of counting the number of processors which require licensing for AMD and Intel multi-core chips, “n” cores shall be determined by multiplying the total number of cores by a factor of .50. For the purposes of counting the number of processors which require licensing for all hardware platforms not otherwise specified in this section, a multi-core chip with "n" cores shall be determined by multiplying "n" cores by a factor of .75. All cores on all multi-core chips for each licensed program for each factor listed below are to be aggregated before multiplying by the appropriate factor and all fractions of a number are to be rounded up to the next whole number. Notwithstanding the above, when licensing Oracle Standard Edition One or Standard Edition programs on servers with a maximum of 1 processor with 1 or 2 cores, only 1 processor shall be counted.
For example, an 8–way p5 570 Server from IBM is actually a 4-way dual core server. The server has four chips with 8 physical processors. Prior to our multi-core licensing changes, this server had a list license price of $320,000 (4*2 [cores] *$40,000).
Based on the updated licensing methodology, this IBM server’s software licensing fees will be $240,000 (0.75 * 8 *$40,000), which is a price decrease of 25%.
Other examples:
A Sun Fire T2000 Server with one 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC T1 processor (with 8 cores) will
require 8*0.25 = 2 Processor licenses
A Sun Fire T2000 Server with one 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC T1 processor (with 4 cores) will
require 4*0.25 = 1 Processor licenses with a total list license price of $40,000
An HP ProLiant DL145 G2 with two AMD Opteron 200 Series dual-core processors Model 280
will require 2*2*0.5 = 2 processor licenses with total list license fee of $80,000
Licensing our database software by processor is one of several choices we provide to our
customers. As mentioned earlier, other options include licensing per user and per employee. Oracle also offers the option of licensing its software on a perpetual or term basis (1-year, 2-year, 3-year, 4-year and 5-year).
Q: Do the multicore processor licensing changes impact how Oracle Database Standard
Edition and Standard Edition One are calculated?
A: Yes. According to the latest amendment to the hardware-licensing requirement for Database SE and SE One programs, the following policy applies:
Oracle Database Standard Edition can only be licensed on servers that have a maximum capacity of 4 single core processors cores. For multicore chips, the maximum number of cores per server is determined by multiplying the core processor licensing factors (as contained in the processor definition) by the number of cores. The result must be less than or equal to 4 and the total number of cores must be less than or equal to 8.
When using RAC to cluster this limitation is mirrored in the cluster. It may be licensed on a single cluster of servers supporting up to a maximum of four single-core processors cores per cluster (2 2-way nodes, 4 1-way nodes, and 1 1-way and 1 3-way). For multicore chips, the maximum number of cores per cluster is determined by multiplying the core processor licensing factors (as contained in the processor definition) by the number of cores. The result must be less than or equal to 4 and the total number of cores in the cluster must be less than or equal to 8. For SE One programs: Oracle Standard Edition One may only be licensed on servers that have a maximum capacity of 2 single core processors cores. For multicore chips, the maximum number of cores per server is determined by multiplying the core processor licensing factors (as contained in the processor definition) by the number of cores. The result must be less than or equal to 2 and the total number of cores must be less than or equal to 4 Note that this change is retroactive and applies to all customers licensed for these programs previously.
Examples - For illustrative purposes only:
Sun Fire T2000 Server with one 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC T1 processor (with 8 cores) will require 8*0.25 = 2 Processor licenses. This model is eligible for licensing Database Standard Edition. It is not eligible for licensing DB SE One as the total number of cores on this server exceeds the maximum permitted, which are 4 for SE One.
Sun Fire T2000 Server with one 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC T1 processor (with 4 cores) will require 4*0.25 = 1 Processor licenses. This model is eligible for licensing Database Standard Edition One, as the total number of cores in this server is 4, which is the maximum permissible for licensing SE One.
Dell PowerEdge 2850 with two dual-core Intel Xeon Processors will require 2*2*0.5 = 2
Processor licenses. This model is eligible for licensing Database Standard Edition One.
HP ProLiant DL145 G2 with two AMD Opteron 200 Series dual-core processors Model 280
will require 2*2*0.5 = 2 processor license. This model is eligible for licensing Database Standard Edition One.
Q: Does that mean that Oracle’s software prices will increase for customers using dualcore processors?
A: No. Oracle’s software pricing per processor has not increased for customers using dual core processors. The effective price per processor has decreased. Many hardware industry experts state that dual core processors yield 1.5 to 1.75 times the performance of a single core processor, but do not yield twice the performance of single core processors. Oracle’s dual core pricing is a factor of 0.75 of a single core, which is effectively a 25% decrease for processor based licenses with the dual core technology. For Intel and AMD based multi-core chips this factor is 0.50 and for SUN’s UltraSPARC T1 multi-core chips this factor is 0.25.
Additionally, for the purpose of managing processor licenses, customers can also partition their servers and run Oracle on a subset of the processor cores within a server. This facilitates the customer’s ability to efficiently manage their software licenses and only pay for those that are employed for the purpose of running Oracle’s software. More information on Partitioning is located at http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/partitioning.pdf
Q: Does Oracle charge for multithreading or have specific pricing for multithreading?
A: No, Oracle does not charge for multithreading. A processor core is a set of one or more processor threads. The processor thread tracks execution of a software program thread. As a result, Oracle does not charge per number of threads.
Q: How do Oracle competitors (like IBM and Microsoft) treat pricing for multi-core chips?
A: There are slight differences in the manner in which each database software vendor handles dual core pricing and licensing. For example, IBM treats each core as a separate CPU for their eServer pSeries products. For Intel x86 servers, they license per socket. Microsoft, whose installed base is primarily licensed using their user based metric of “client access license” when licensing via the processor metric, like IBM also counts each socket, regardless of the number of cores. SQL Server does not run in Unix environments.
Q: How does the new pricing affect an existing customer?
A: All customers are eligible for the new licensing. No new contracts are regarded, nor are any migrations needed to take advantage of the new licensing changes.
Q: How does Oracle see licensing models evolving over the next couple of years?
A: Software licensing models evolve as IT environments continue to evolve. Driven by the propagation of n-tier architectures, our current licensing models grew from concurrent user, named user single server and named user multi-server licensing models to processor and named user plus models. As the software landscape continues to transform, we anticipate that software licensing will continue to transform along with it.
Some useful link:-
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/price-lists/index.html
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/contracts/processor-core-factor-table-070634.pdf
1) you can find information about about oracle license
select * from v$license;
2) you can find information about install products in your database
Select decode(detected_usages,0,2,1) nop,
name, version, detected_usages, currently_used, to_char(first_usage_date,'DD/MM/YYYY') first_usage_date, to_char(last_usage_date,'DD/MM/YYYY') last_usage_datefrom dba_feature_usage_statistics
order by nop, 1, 2
/
1 comment:
Nice post
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