Re: standby and Oracle licensing

  • From: MARK BRINSMEAD <mark.brinsmead@xxxxxxx>
  • To: thump@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 14:05:37 -0700

This is actually (surprisingly) straight-forward.
Probably one of the few things related to oracle
Oracle licensing that is...

The thing to understand here is the difference 
between a "failover" and a "standby".

With a "failover" database server you (might) have
installed Oracle database software in anticipation
of the future need to move disks (or restore 
backups) containing a database after your "primary"
server has failed.  Under normal circumstances,
there is NO Oracle software running on this server
at any time.

With a "standby" server, the software is not only
installed, but (usually) running.  A database is
(usually) present, although it may not be open.

Okay, so, within some restrictions, your "failover"
server need not be licensed.  Oracle corp. 
understands that the software is pre-installed only
as a precaution (and to speed recovery) in the event
that you might *someday* need it.  As I understand
the rules, the N (is N=10?) days for which you may
use this without purcahsing licenses should actually
be read as "N days or parts thereof".  If you 
startup your failover instance for 30 minutes,
that counts as "1 day".  If those 30 minutes
happen to span midnight (localtime, I presume)
it is actually "2 days".

In contrast, standby databases must always be 
licensed.  You must use the same "metric" for
the standby as you do for the "primary" database.
That is, if the primary database is licensed for
Named Users Plus, then the standby database must
be licensed under the same rules.  If the primary
database is licensed by CPU, then so must be the
standby.  There is a chance that with Named User
licensing, your production licenses may be 
sufficient to cover the standby.  Not so with
CPU licensing.

There you go.  Perfectly clear.  ;-)


Disclaimer:  I am not a lawyer.  And I am not *your*
lawyer.  Read your license agreement.  Understand it.
If you are not comfortable that you understand your
license adequately, obtain qualified legal counsel.
DO NOT RELY ON *ANYTHING* I (or anybody other than
your lawyer) TELL YOU.


----- Original Message -----
From: David <thump@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 11:16 am
Subject: standby and Oracle licensing

> I am under the impression that a physical standby DB is licensed 
> under the
> EE license for the primary and there is no additionl costs to run the
> standby.  We are be told now this is not true by Oracle sales and they
> sent us a doc:
> 
> Failover: Nodes are configured in ?cluster? with the first 
> installed node
> acting as a primary node. If the primary node fails, one of the 
> nodes in
> the cluster acts as the primary node. In this type of environment, 
> Oraclepermits licensed Oracle Database customers to run the 
> Database on an
> unlicensed spare computer for up to a total of ten separate days in 
> anygiven calendar year. Any other use requires the environment to 
> be fully
> licensed. Additionally, the same metric must be used when licensing 
> thedatabases in a failover environment.
> ? Standby: One or many copies of the primary database are 
> maintained on
> separate server(s) at all times. These systems are configured for 
> disasterrecovery purposes. If the primary database fails, the 
> standby database is
> activated to act as the new primary database. In this environment, the
> primary and the standby databases must be fully licensed. 
> Additionally,the same metric must be used when licensing the 
> databases in a standby
> environment.
> 
> What is your understanding of this?
> "cluster" "failover" "standby"
> They are really cuttign off their nose here again.
> -- 
> ..
> David
> 
> 
> --
> //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
> 
> 
> 

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


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