Re: Oracle Licensing Validation

From: MacGregor, Ian A. <"MacGregor,>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2020 23:22:16 +0000
Message-ID: <MWHPR0701MB380102430CC593C49C534BF3E2F90_at_MWHPR0701MB3801.namprd07.prod.outlook.com>

In olden times, I used to relink Oracle specifying what options, I wanted to turn off. I'm not sure if that is still supported. It looks like it's possible from the ?/rdbms/lib/ins_rdbms.mk file.

but again, I'm not sure if the result is supported.

Ian A. MacGregor
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Computing Division
To offer the best IT service at the lab and be the IT provider of choice.

---

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org <oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org> on behalf of Mark J. Bobak <mark_at_bobak.net> Sent: Monday, March 16, 2020 3:47 PM
To: Bill Ferguson <wbfergus_at_gmail.com> Cc: John Thomas <jt2354_at_gmail.com>; Carlos Carlos <cc427908_at_gmail.com>; ORACLE-L <oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Subject: Re: Oracle Licensing Validation

I agree, I'm on SE2 and have been for years, with no major surprises. I also agree, if you're on EE and you're trying to limit use of unlicensed features, *that* can be tricky. But on SE2, in my experience, the instance simply won't use the feature, even if you attempt to do so.

-Mark

On Mon, Mar 16, 2020 at 5:40 PM Bill Ferguson <wbfergus_at_gmail.com<mailto:wbfergus_at_gmail.com>> wrote: I migrated my databases to SE2, and I haven't experienced any major problems so far. I did notice a couple things though, like my RMAN scripts that were set to use two channels simply say parallelism isn't supported, so no big deal for me.

Bill Ferguson

On Mon, Mar 16, 2020 at 1:32 PM John Thomas <jt2354_at_gmail.com<mailto:jt2354_at_gmail.com>> wrote:

1. How do we go about validating the license on a database?

It's difficult. Use a non-Oracle database is the easiest answer.

2. I’ve seen some references to licensing validation with Doc ID 1317265.1, however that document doesn’t seem to be accessible anymore, is there another document, script out there?

I don't think so. Oracle Enterprise Manager has some features allowing you to limit feature use, within Enterprise Manager. Won't stop you or your DBAs or even developers from using features your company will eventually have to pay for, whether you used them for an evaluation or not.

3. I was querying DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS and noticed the feature names don't necessarily match the names in the online licensing document (e.g. https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/12.2/dblic/Licensing-Information.html#GUID-0F9EB85D-4610-4EDF-89C2-4916A0E7AC87)

• for example DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS shows that 'Adaptive Plans' have been used, but the document only references 'Adaptive Execution Plans'. Are these the same? How can we reconcile differences in feature names?

If I was a cynic I would say Oracle make it as difficult as possible for you to be sure you are licensed to use the features. They do have some sneaky views like the ones you mention that will result in you being presented with a large, unexpected bill should you step outside your licence terms and be audited.

I have long felt it is a practice verging on criminal to treat customers in this way. One example was the anomaly that existed in Oracle on Windows in V11 I think. Failover would result in automatic use of Active Data Guard, incurring what, $15k per CPU, unless you knew and managed to write some manual startup triggers that would prevent the standby opening in OPEN mode.

Can you imagine a car company doing something like this? Even in the case of a four-wheeled software platform like a Tesla? Can you imagine how long they'd last if they automatically activated the Ludicrous license if you pressed the accelerator more than 70% and debited your credit card? That's the equivalent of what Oracle expects you to put up with.

Oracle products should come with a utility that mandatorily verifies features are licensed before they are switched on, but there has never been an incentive for them to provide such a feature. The incentive operates the other way round.

Regards,

John Thomas

On Mon, 16 Mar 2020 at 18:16, Carlos Carlos <cc427908_at_gmail.com<mailto:cc427908_at_gmail.com>> wrote:

We created an new oracle instance, standard edition 12.2.0.1.0 on Oracle Linux 7.7 and we want to make sure we aren't using any features we aren't supposed to use.

My questions are:

1. How do we go about validating the license on a database?
2. I’ve seen some references to licensing validation with Doc ID 1317265.1, however that document doesn’t seem to be accessible anymore, is there another document, script out there?
3. I was querying DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS and noticed the feature names don't necessarily match the names in the online licensing document (e.g. https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/12.2/dblic/Licensing-Information.html#GUID-0F9EB85D-4610-4EDF-89C2-4916A0E7AC87)
   • for example DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS shows that 'Adaptive Plans' have been used, but the document only references 'Adaptive Execution Plans'. Are these the same? How can we reconcile differences in feature names?

Thanks,

Carl

--

• Bill Ferguson

--

http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l Received on Tue Mar 17 2020 - 00:22:16 CET