Re: standby and Oracle licensing

As I recall, the rules have been thus for at least 3 to 5 years. If this is a change in policy, it's not an especially recent one...

You are correct in one regard. "Standby" (DataGuard) as a database feature is provided free of charge with Enterprise Edition. It's just the standby database itself that is not free.

I'm afraid I can't say whether it has *always* been this way, just that it has been for as long as I have been doing my own licensing research. (I.e., since I stopped trusting what the sales reps tell me. Some of those guys will say almost *anything*!)

Bear in mind this: today's licensing policies may or may not apply to you. If you are an "established" site, you are probably governed by the license that was in effect at the time of your purchase. (Or not.) If you are a large site, you may have a specially negotiated license that bears little or no resemblance to the "OLSA", the so-called "standard" license that we are discussing here.

In either case, it might be highly advisable to do some searching within your corporate offices to see whether (and how) *your* actual licenses differ from the "standard" one...

• Original Message ----- From: David <thump_at_cosmiccooler.org> Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 2:19 pm Subject: Re: standby and Oracle licensing

> Thanks.
> I really do understand this and that Oracle is now embracing this
> as the
> gospel.
> Is this a recent change as I am 99.99% sure that it did'nt always
> used to
> be this way and that under EE one got standby that one did not have
> to pay
> in addition for so long as it was'nt open and used for some number of
> hours.
> --
> ..
> David
>
> > This is actually (surprisingly) straight-forward.
> > Probably one of the few things related to oracle
> > Oracle licensing that is...
> >
> > The thing to understand here is the difference
> > between a "failover" and a "standby".
> >
> > With a "failover" database server you (might) have
> > installed Oracle database software in anticipation
> > of the future need to move disks (or restore
> > backups) containing a database after your "primary"
> > server has failed. Under normal circumstances,
> > there is NO Oracle software running on this server
> > at any time.
> >
> > With a "standby" server, the software is not only
> > installed, but (usually) running. A database is
> > (usually) present, although it may not be open.
> >
> > Okay, so, within some restrictions, your "failover"
> > server need not be licensed. Oracle corp.
> > understands that the software is pre-installed only
> > as a precaution (and to speed recovery) in the event
> > that you might *someday* need it. As I understand
> > the rules, the N (is N=10?) days for which you may
> > use this without purcahsing licenses should actually
> > be read as "N days or parts thereof". If you
> > startup your failover instance for 30 minutes,
> > that counts as "1 day". If those 30 minutes
> > happen to span midnight (localtime, I presume)
> > it is actually "2 days".
> >
> > In contrast, standby databases must always be
> > licensed. You must use the same "metric" for
> > the standby as you do for the "primary" database.
> > That is, if the primary database is licensed for
> > Named Users Plus, then the standby database must
> > be licensed under the same rules. If the primary
> > database is licensed by CPU, then so must be the
> > standby. There is a chance that with Named User
> > licensing, your production licenses may be
> > sufficient to cover the standby. Not so with
> > CPU licensing.
> >
> > There you go. Perfectly clear. ;-)
> >
> >
> > Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. And I am not *your*
> > lawyer. Read your license agreement. Understand it.
> > If you are not comfortable that you understand your
> > license adequately, obtain qualified legal counsel.
> > DO NOT RELY ON *ANYTHING* I (or anybody other than
> > your lawyer) TELL YOU.
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: David <thump_at_cosmiccooler.org>
> > Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 11:16 am
> > Subject: standby and Oracle licensing
> >
> >> I am under the impression that a physical standby DB is licensed
> >> under the
> >> EE license for the primary and there is no additionl costs to
> run the
> >> standby. We are be told now this is not true by Oracle sales
> and they
> >> sent us a doc:
> >>
> >> Failover: Nodes are configured in ?cluster? with the first
> >> installed node
> >> acting as a primary node. If the primary node fails, one of the
> >> nodes in
> >> the cluster acts as the primary node. In this type of environment,
> >> Oraclepermits licensed Oracle Database customers to run the
> >> Database on an
> >> unlicensed spare computer for up to a total of ten separate days in
> >> anygiven calendar year. Any other use requires the environment to
> >> be fully
> >> licensed. Additionally, the same metric must be used when licensing
> >> thedatabases in a failover environment.
> >> ? Standby: One or many copies of the primary database are
> >> maintained on
> >> separate server(s) at all times. These systems are configured for
> >> disasterrecovery purposes. If the primary database fails, the
> >> standby database is
> >> activated to act as the new primary database. In this
> environment, the
> >> primary and the standby databases must be fully licensed.
> >> Additionally,the same metric must be used when licensing the
> >> databases in a standby
> >> environment.
> >>
> >> What is your understanding of this?
> >> "cluster" "failover" "standby"
> >> They are really cuttign off their nose here again.
> >> --
> >> ..
> >> David
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>

--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l