Thanks Mark, We haven't received the final word from Oracle on the licensing part, but I was able to find this document that does indicate that the hard partition option licensing using logical domains is a "no" from Oracle. It is however RAC supported. * http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/clustering/certify/db_virtualization_support.pdf *<redir.aspx?C=88d1a9187c6e4796adafc8f7d143e6eb&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.oracle.com%2ftechnology%2fproducts%2fdatabase%2fclustering%2fcertify%2fdb_virtualization_support.pdf> - Ravi On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 9:32 PM, Mark Brinsmead <pythianbrinsmead@xxxxxxxxx>wrote: > Check very carefully on this proposed configuration. > > Oracle has different rules for "hard" partitioning and "soft" > partitioning. With "hard" partitioning, which is usually supported by > hardware that provides (close to) electrical isolation between server > partitions (and almost always prevents sharing of any physical resource > other than maybe a power or IO bus between partitions), you only need to > license Oracle for the CPUs (cores) within the partition running Oracle. > > With "soft" partitioning (where, commonly, the *number* of processors > serving a partition at a given moment is limited, but instructions on the > partition can potentially run on *any* processor or core in the server at > some time or other), you will need to license Oracle for every processor > (core) in the server, regardless of how many or few processors are in > partition(s) used for Oracle. > > In all likelihood, you configuration will be what Oracle describes as > "soft" partitioning, in which case you will need to license all cores. (I > do not know that for certain, though, as I have never researched this > particular question for Solaris "containers".) Be *certain* that you know > the *correct* answer to this question before you commit to a cost-saving > plan like this one -- you might otherwise be in for a nasty surprise > otherwise. Do *not* accept the word of your local sales rep. Wherever > you get an answer, try to get a statement in writing, preferably with > citations back to the appropriate part of the OLSA, the Oracle Licensing > Manual, etc. > > As for using "Logical Domains" with RAC, I expect you are going to find > that this is unsupported in any event. Again, I may be mistaken here, but I > believe I have read on Metalink (about a year ago) that this is indeed > unsupported. Again, check this configuration carefully on with Oracle > Suport before making any plans around it. > > > > On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Ravi Gaur <ravigaur1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> We are trying to bring in some Sun T5440 (will run Oracle RAC) for a new >> application and are working with Oracle on some licensing issues. >> One idea that came up was to create a virtualized env (Logical Domains) in >> an effort to reduce the # of cores presented and still purchase the >> equipment (ultimately get the Oracle licensing cost within the budget). In >> an year or so, when the application load increases, we can then scale up the >> CPUs and buy the extra licenses at that time. >> >> Anyone has any experiences to share running RAC (10gR2 at this pt) in >> Solaris 10 LDom env? Any concerns/gotchas that we should be aware of? >> >> TIA, >> >> - Ravi Gaur >> > > > > -- > Cheers, > -- Mark Brinsmead > Senior DBA, > The Pythian Group > http://www.pythian.com/blogs >