Re: oracle EE pricing

  • From: Mark Brinsmead <pythianbrinsmead@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Niall Litchfield <niall.litchfield@xxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:14:41 -0700

Niall,

I happen to *know* of at least one customer who had "enterprisingly argued
that POWER5 processors" could be licensed for SE.  Before, of course, the
multi-chip-module rule was added.  :-)

It is not the first time I have heard it speculated that IBM POWER5
processors were the reason behind this rule change.

I have also heard Oracle Sales reps state that the rule [regarding
multi-chip modules] is not really *meant* to apply to Intel processors.
Strangely, though, when challenged to amend the license agreement to make
plain that intent, the sales rep fell oddly silent.

Another little-known feature of the Oracle license agreement (and most
others) is that sales people are permitted to say (or write) absolutely *
anything* and their statements have no bearing whatsoever on the terms and
conditions of the license.

Whee!  Ain't licensing fun?

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 10:33 AM, Niall Litchfield <
niall.litchfield@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> The intention was that SE and SE1 were licensed per physical processor not
> per core. In the world that SE naturally inhabits - i.e commodity x86-64
> servers then this makes perfect sense. I don't believe it to be any
> coincidence that the word socket is used since it's a classic intel
> motherboard term. It's the introduction (maybe 18 months ago) or so of the
> term multi-chip module that is somewhat obscure since in the strictest sense
> I'd imagine that all modern processors are multi-chip modules. My best guess
> would be that someone enterprisingly argued that you could license SE on
> the POWER5 ships that had 4 chips per physical socket :). Still I'd have fun
> asking the sales rep whether my proposed new dual processor server was
> multi-chip modules or not and if so why :)
>
> Niall
>
> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 4:48 PM, Bradd Piontek <piontekdd@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>> I"ve been trying to get my head around this interpretation for a while.
>> I'm not sure this is correct (although it could be). A socket can have
>> multiple cores on them. Some of the newer models don't implement th em via
>> Multi-chip-modules. I can see how to Hex-Core chips could be used for
>> SE/SE-One. A core <> a socket.
>>
>> Bradd Piontek
>>   The Pythian Group
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 10:27 AM, Allen, Brandon <
>> Brandon.Allen@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>>  Mark, are you sure it’s permitted to license SE-1 on a 12-core server?
>>> I thought SE1 could only be licensed on a max of 2 cores according to this:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/databaselicensing.pdf
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From p.2:
>>>
>>> “Oracle Standard Edition One may only be licensed on servers that have a
>>> maximum capacity of 2 sockets. “
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From p.3:
>>>
>>> “When licensing Oracle programs with Standard Edition One or Standard
>>> Edition in the product name, a processor is counted equivalent to a socket”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Maybe I’m misinterpreting it?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Brandon
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *From:* oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
>>> oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Mark Brinsmead
>>>
>>>
>>> Yeah, $10K to license Oracle SE-1 on a 12-core database server
>>>
>>> (And you can build a pretty darned powerful database server on SE-1 these
>>> days!)
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Niall Litchfield
> Oracle DBA
> http://www.orawin.info
>



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

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