Re: For those installing Oracle SE, what systems meet the 4 socket
- From: David Robillard <david.robillard@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: oracle-l digest users <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2010 11:52:33 -0500
On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Ken Simpson <ipadba@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Trying to understand Oracle and their licensing is giving me an ulcer.
> We're looking at moving some of our systems from EE to SE. I
> understand that for the most part a socket=CPU except in the case of a
> multi-chip module. For a multi-chip module, each module counts as a
> socket.
>
> We're currently a Sun (oops Oracle) Solaris environment and it appears
> to me that the current Oracle SPARC chips are all multi-module chips
> and not-eligible for SE. So that would seem to limit us to Intel/AMD
> hardware. So those of you who have deployed SE. What servers are you
> deploying on?
We've just purchased several Oracle products and thus we had to
understand the licensing rules.
The official document to have this information is the "Oracle®
Database Licensing Information 11g Release 2 (11.2)" Part Number
E10594-03. There's a copy of this book for versions of course. I'd
give you the URL, but the otn.oracle.com site's documentation server
is down at the moment :( Here's how to reach it: otn.oracle.com ->
Documentation (choose your Oracle version) -> View Library ->
Licensing Information.
Ah, wait, it works now :)
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/license.112/e10594/toc.htm
Now, I recently went to an Oracle class and discussed the issue with
my Oracle rep, the Oracle teacher and two of my Oracle technical reps.
This is what I found out:
-- a) To calculate how many CPU you will be charged, Oracle uses a
different math formula depending on the CPU architecture (x86, POWER,
SPARC, T, PA-RISC, Itanium, etc). I'll list the rules first, then
write some examples. So If you plan to install your Oracle products
on...
- x86 and x64 CPU by Intel or AMD, then one CPU core is equal to 0.5.
- SPARC and T CPU by Sun Microsystems or Fujitsu, then one CPU core is
equal to 0.5 (it was 0.75 before Oracle's purchase of Sun...)
- POWER CPU by IBM, then one CPU core is equal to 0.75
- Itanium and PA-RISC by HP, then on CPU core is equal to 0.75
Here's some examples.
- x86 and SPARC world: you want to use a two-socket Sun X4170 system
running on 2 Quad-Core Intel 5500 processors. That means you have 4
cores x 0.5 = 2 CPU per 5500 processor. If you have both sockets
populated, then you need to calculate 2 x 2 = 4 CPU. Oracle will thus
charge you for 4 CPUs.
- POWER, Itanium and PA-RISC world: suppose you want to install your
Oracle product in a small IBM 9110-51A (a.k.a. p5 510) server with two
dual core POWER5 CPU. You need to calculate 2 x 0.75 = 1.5 by POWER5
CPU. Oracle, of course, rounds that number up! Which means you have 2
CPU per POWER5 CPU. So on that machine with two dual-core POWER5 CPU,
Oracle will charge you 4 CPU...
-- b) Virtualisation can help reduce these costs. Indeed, you can
partition your hardware in order to lock Oracle into a partition with
only a subset of CPU cores presented to it, hence your Oracle licenses
will be cheaper.
Oracle database is certified to run under different types of
virtualisation techniques. Such as Oracle VM, HP (nPar, vPar,
Integrity VM), IBM (LPAR, Micro-partitions, VIO Server, WPAR, zVM) and
Sun (Domains, L-Dom and zones/containers). But NOT VMware ESX. Since
there's too many to list here, check out this paper:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/clustering/certify/db_virtualization_support.pdf
The key here is to check wether you need to run a single instance
database or a RAC database. RAC isn't supported on all virtualisation
techniques.
-- c) Options and Packs. Generally, when you see the word "Option" and
"Pack", that means you have to pay for it. You can query the
DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS to see which Options and Packs you're
currently usign (and see if you owe money to Oracle ;)
-- d) DataGuard. If you have a CPU-licensed Enterprise Edition on your
production site, then your DataGuard machine has to be running a
CPU-licensed EE software. You can't have a CPU-licensed production and
a named-user licensed DataGuard site. That's where it hurts. But with
most storage subsystem's ability to sync volumes between themselves,
you can by pass DataGuard altogether and use your storage to sync to
another storage on your other data center (we all have at least two
data centers, right?)
Hope this helps,
David
--
David Robillard
UNIX team leader & Oracle DBA
CISSP, RCHE, SCSA & SCSECA
Notarius
--
//www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
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