Re: oem licensing
- From: "Mark Brinsmead" <pythianbrinsmead@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: RKosaraju@xxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:42:27 -0600
===================================================================
Disclaimer:
The following opinions are offered for informational purposes only. They
may not
be correct, and they may or may not be applicable to your (or anybody
else's)
particular situation.
I am not a lawyer, and I am certainly not your lawyer. Do not make anylicensing
decisions based on my remarks. Do your own research, and obtain qualified
legal
counsel.
===================================================================
Ask your sales rep? Licensing questions? Yow!
In my experience, that has been one of the least reliable sources for
information on licensing. Of course, for straight-forward questions like
these, you should be relatively safe.
It seems that one of the less well-known clauses in your database license
agreement is the one entitled "Entire Agreement", which completely disavows
anything your Oracle sales rep (or Oracle Support, or anybody else in Oracle
Corp) might happen to tell you, even in writing. Oracle sales reps are free
to tell you anything, and right or wrong, their answers have no bearing on
your liabilities (or rights!) as laid out in your license agreement. This
makes it rather difficult to trust their answers, and certainly makes it
risky to do so.
The definitive source of answers to licensing questions is your license
agreement. Read it. For most of us, that is the "Oracle License and
Services Agreement" (OLSA) and the documents included in it by reference.
The OLSA varies by region, and also changes from time to time. Ideally, you
want the find the version that was in effect for your region at the time you
purchased your database licenses, although that can be a little tricky.
Some (very) patient searching at www.oracle.com ought to turn up at least
the most current OLSA that applies to your region. If you are lucky, your
IT department has a person who is responsible for cataloging license
agreements and who can help you find the exact OLSA(s) applicable to you.
In every case I am aware of, the OLSA incudes (or at least seems to include)
by reference the "Licensing Manual" included in your 10g (and now 11g)
documentation set, and it is this document that provides the answers to your
questions.
A careful reading of this document should reveal the following:
1. OEM (Grid Control) is indeed with your database (and iAS) licenses free
of charge.
2. The optional "Packs" for OEM (Grid Control) require separate licenses.
You can find the price for your region at http://store.oracle.com.
3. The OEM "Packs" can be licensed ONLY for Oracle Enterprise Edition.
4. There are numerous data dictionary views and database features which are
designated as "part" of the various OEM "Packs". Accessing these views or
features requires licenses for the appropriate OEM packs. (Note: users of
Standard Edition must first upgrade to Enterprise Edition before they can
license these OEM Packs!)
5. OEM (Grid Control) requires a repository database. This repository
database must be Enterprise Edition. You may install Oracle Enterprise
Edition for the purpose of supporting the OEM (Grid Control) repository
database. You need not purchase licenses for this database, although you
are welcome to do so if you choose. Thus, customers who have licensed
onlyOracle Standard Edition may, indeed, use Grid Control. (By the
way, it took
me about 2 years to drag this answer out of Oracle Corp, and only after
being told repeatedly -- and incorrectly -- by my local sales office that
Grid Control may not be used with 10g Standard Edition. Actually, I think I
may have had to drag this answer out of the OLSA myself.)
6. "Partitioning" is an "Option". You must acquire a license before you
can use it, and you may license Partitioning only for Enterprise Edition
databases.
7. In every case that I can think of, you must follow the same license
metrics for "Options" (including OEM Packs) as you do for Databases. That
is, if your databases are licensed by Named Users, your options must be
licensed by Named Users; if your databases are licensed by CPU, your
options must be licensed by CPU.
As I said, if you read the Oracle 10g/11g Licensing Manual thoroughly and
carefully, you should arrive at the conclusions above. However, you must
take responsibility for interpreting your own license agreement, or retain
qualified legal counsel to do so for you. Do not rely on me, and definitely
do not rely on anybody within Oracle Corp unless they are prepared to quote
chapter and verse from the (your!) license agreement.
The 10g and 11g Licensing Manuals are included in the database documentation
library, which can be found at
http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/database.html
I hope this is helpful. Good luck!
On 8/31/07, Kosaraju, Ravi <RKosaraju@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> As mentioned in other replies to this thread, there are always caveats
> that need to be added when discussing licensing. It is better to consult
> with your Oracle sales rep on any licensing issues. Any licensing
> interpretation without approval from Oracle can be very costly…
>
>
>
> - Ravi
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* Kosaraju, Ravi
> *Sent:* Thursday, August 30, 2007 9:27 AM
> *To:* 'andrew.kerber@xxxxxxxxx'; Oracle Discussion List
> *Subject:* RE: oem licensing
>
>
>
> Hi Andrew
>
>
>
> Here is the link to price list from Oracle.
>
> http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/pricelists.html
>
>
>
> I believe grid control is free with EE but not 100% sure. I am meeting our
> Oracle sales rep today, I can ask that question.
>
>
>
> - Ravi
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
> oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Andrew Kerber
> *Sent:* Thursday, August 30, 2007 9:15 AM
> *To:* Oracle Discussion List
> *Subject:* oem licensing
>
>
>
> Can anyone point me to the rules for oem licensing? Its our understanding
> that the basic software comes free with Oracle enterprise edition, but we
> dont know any more than that. We are also looking to find something
> published from oracle on the licensing of the partitioning option in Oracle
> enterprise edition.
>
> ...
>
Cheers,
-- Mark Brinsmead
Senior DBA,
The Pythian Group
http://www.pythian.com/blogs
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