Re: oem licensing

From: Mark Brinsmead <pythianbrinsmead_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:42:27 -0600
Message-ID: <cf3341710708311742y6c9e74dcga0bf1349e19dbe79@mail.gmail.com>

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:

OEM (Grid Control) is indeed with your database (and iAS) licenses free of charge.
The optional "Packs" for OEM (Grid Control) require separate licenses. You can find the price for your region at http://store.oracle.com.
The OEM "Packs" can be licensed ONLY for Oracle Enterprise Edition.
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!)
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.)
"Partitioning" is an "Option". You must acquire a license before you can use it, and you may license Partitioning only for Enterprise Edition databases.
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_at_triu.com> 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_at_gmail.com'; 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_at_freelists.org [mailto:
> oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] *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

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

Received on Fri Aug 31 2007 - 19:42:27 CDT