Re: RAC and ASM - Standard vs. Enterprise Edition install process ?

  • From: Mark Brinsmead <pythianbrinsmead@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: dannorris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 21:45:03 -0700

The limitations are "just paper" -- until you fail a licensing audit.

Well, even then, I guess, they are still "just paper".  Lots of small
rectangular pieces of paper.  Green ones in the United States, other colours
in nations sufficiently civilized for their governments to be able to afford
more than two shades of ink.

Warning on SE with RAC:  When using RAC with Standard Edition, the processor
limits are *per cluster*, not per node.  SE-1 licenses cannot be used for
RAC at all.  SE licenses are valid for RAC, however, the *maximum
capacity*of all nodes in your cluster must not add up to more than
*4 sockets*.  Note:  that is *sockets*, not *processors*.  The word
*socket*is a licensing metric -- and a very tricky one whose meaning
varies by the
manufacturer and model of your CPUs.

Sure.  The limits are entirely "paper" limits.  But if Oracle Corp ever
finds you to be violating these paper limits, you might receive a
*really*big invoice.

Remember:  SE --> $20,000 per socket.  EE + RAC --> $70,000 per *core*.
Even a small RAC cluster, if non-compliant, can easily cost in excess of
$1million to re-license.


On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Dan Norris <dannorris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> AFAIK, the licensing restrictions in SE are just that--licensing
> restrictions. I'm not sure about CPU count, but I do know that building RAC
> with SE doesn't technically require ASM, just that the license does. I tend
> to believe that the CPU restrictions are just paper restrictions and won't
> really be technical limits, but I'm not positive.
>
> Dan
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Crisler, Jon <Jon.Crisler@xxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>> I am wondering what happens if you try to install SE on a server with
>> more CPU's than is allowed by SE.  As anybody knows that tries to figure
>> out licensing costs for Oracle, there is a difference in processor
>> sockets, processor cores, and cluster configs.  But does SE actually
>> enforce any CPU limits ? Will it just set the parameter "cpu_count" to 4
>> and not let it increase beyond that value ?
>>
>> For EE, 1 core = 1 processor.
>> For SE, 1 socket = 1 processor  (so a single socket with a 4-core chip
>> is 1 processor)
>> For SE, 4 cpu sockets is the limit for a RAC cluster, which implies a 4
>> node max config.
>>
>> I am just looking at Intel / AMD processors, and ignoring Sun Sparc for
>> now which is even more complex.    I think my servers are ok for now,
>> but we might have to remove CPU's to stay compliant with the license.
>>
>> http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/databaselicensing.pdf
>>
>>
>


-- 
Cheers,
-- Mark Brinsmead
  Senior DBA,
  The Pythian Group
  http://www.pythian.com/blogs

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