Oracle Licensing in a Fluid Virtual Environment

11 August 2011
3 minute read
Oracle

Oracle Licensing in a Fluid Virtual Environment

11 August 2011
3 minute read

The following question has been posted within the Virtual User Group (VUG) by an ITAM Review reader.

If you have experiences or advice to share regarding managing this type of Oracle licensing scenario please post your comment below or respond directly within the VUG. Thank you.

Question:

Introduction 

We rely heavily on virtualization technologies to create a flexible platform that supports multiple applications.

One of the outcomes of this flexibility is the fluidity in which logical server partition (LPAR) can be moved between physical hardware platforms (host server) or have its processor and memory allocations adjusted based on demands.

Our license agreement with Oracle is based on the number of processor cores. The net result to us is that we have the maximum flexibility and least overhead. We have used the practice of counting all processor cores on a host server as being available to support a product even if the LPAR that is hosting that product has an allocation lower that the maximum processing cores available on the host server.

The situation is made more complicated by features for specific products that may be turned on or off and have separate license charges. For example, the Oracle Database is licensed as well as the optional Real Application Cluster and Partition features.

Scenarios

  • 2 Host Servers: Earth and Venus, both starting with 4 processing cores.
  • 2 Oracle Database LPARS: Accounting and Logistics, both with a base allocation of 1 processing cores, but the allocation can increase based on demand.

Scenario 1

Accounting and Logistics LPARs are hosted on Earth. Result: 4 processing cores are counted towards the Oracle Database license count.

Scenario 2

Accounting and Logistics LPARs are hosted on Earth. The Partition feature is enabled on the Logistics LPAR. Result: 4 processing cores are counted towards the Oracle Database license and also to the Partition license count.

Scenario 3

Accounting and Logistics LPARs are hosted on Earth. The Partition feature is enabled on the Logistics LPAR and the processor capacity is increased to 8 processing cores. Result: 8 processing cores are counted towards the Oracle Database license and also to the Partition license count.

Scenario 4

The Logistics LPAR is relocated to Venus (4 cores) while the Accounting LPAR remains hosted on Earth (8 cores). The Partition feature is left enabled on the Logistics LPAR Result: 12 processing cores are counted towards the Oracle Database license and Partition license count is reduced to 4.

Questions

  • We cannot be unique in the requirement to manage product licenses in a fluid virtualization environment.
  • How are other companies handling this?
  • Are there software packages available to assist with the license management?

This question has been posted on the Virtual User Group (VUG) by an ITAM Review reader.  If you have experiences or advice to share regarding managing this type of Oracle licensing scenario please post your comment below or respond directly within the VUG. Thank you.

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