Oracle Technology Stack and Licences, Oracle Training and Support

What is a license

A license is the "right to use" (RTU) the software and not the software itself. If you have a license, you can obtain a copy of the software through whatever means - order, download, use the CDs from your last project, etc.

Please note that Oracle doesn't use software keys. You can just install the software and use it. It is up to you and your consciences to license the software before using it.

Licenses are not tied to the product version. For example, an Enterprise Edition database license is equally valid for Oracle 9i, Oracle 10g or Oracle 11g. However, you are only entitled to new versions if you have a valid maintenance and support contract in place.

Oracle provides a summary of their licensing metrics in http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/sig.pdf

Oracle License and Support Compliance

Situations may arise where options in the Oracle technology or applications stack are being used that were not paid for, or where use may be extending beyond the scope of the contractual terms. Most of these cases occur due to lack of knowledge of the Oracle licensing scheme and a failure of managers to regularly audit license usage.

Some possible license compliance cases are:

• More users than what are licensed.
• More CPU's than what are licensed.
• A less expensive edition of a product even though a server's size would necessitate high end licenses (SE1 vs. SE vs. EE).
• Mixed support: licenses with active support and others where support has not been paid for.
• Using options such as the Tuning and Diagnostics Packs that are part of GRID Control, which is free, but need a separate license. Same goes for Partitioning and RAC (except for in SE) it is an extra cost.
• Customizing and modification of E-Business Suite components may necessitate full use Oracle Application Server and Database licenses.
• Stand-by and back up servers.
• Old license metrics that do not account for new business realities.
• NUP versus Processors.

Typically, when your Oracle rep. gains knowledge of such a situation a company could face an audit by Oracle. It is highly advisable to conduct a yearly audit of servers with a partner that understands Oracle licensing.