Oracle License Cpu Core Factor

[Marianna]

Icannot find a concise answer to licensing of DBs on OVM specifically around the area of vCPU / CPU core factor, and would like this clarified. When can you use the vCPU factor, and when does the normal MF (0.5 per Intel core) apply?

The Processor metric originally appeared at the turn of the century and was ambiguously defined as, well, all processors where the Oracle programs are installed and/or running. Prior to Processor, Oracle had attempted to level the playing field among chip makers with its Universal Power Unit. Calculating UPUs required complicated math so Oracle pivoted, ultimately landing on core factors and subtle updates to the Processor metric over time.

Disclaimer 1:

Unless you are a paying client, I am not who you take licensing advice from. Talk to your Software License Manager (SLM) if you want to know how many licenses you need or your Oracle sales rep if you want to know how many licenses you could afford with the budget you have. ?

Those are the only lines of interest for this discussion. The operating system treats it as 56 separate CPUs. What we do have is 2 processors, each processor has 14 cores for a total of 28 cores and hyper threading is used with two threads per core so 28*2 = 56.

Oracle licensing deals with cores so we can forget about hyper threading. We just have to remember that what is presented to the OS is twice the number of cores we have. This is likely to cause yourself and your SLM heart burn too often for comfort.

The remedy is to ask for a server with a comparable spec, either one with 14 cores and a 1.0 core factor, or one more like the one you used to have that has 28 cores with a 0.5 core factor and move to it.

No, Oracle has different methods for licensing in virtual environments. Hard partitioning technologies allow sub-capacity licensing, while soft partitioning technologies require full server or cluster licensing. This applies to both Oracle database products and Java subscriptions.

Count every physical core on which Oracle is installed and running to calculate cores in an Oracle unlimited agreement. Consulting with an Oracle licensing expert is recommended for precise calculations and compliance.

The Oracle Core Factor Table is essential for organizations licensing Oracle databases and technology products. By understanding and applying the core factor table, organizations can accurately calculate their licensing requirements, ensure compliance, and optimize their Oracle investments.

EC2 dedicated hosts are essentially just collocated servers running the AWS hypervisor. They are licensed similar to on-premises servers where all cores in the physical host are counted towards license consumption. The core factor table is applied as usual.

AWS bare metal servers are similar to EC2 dedicated hosts, with the difference being there is no OS installed on a Bare Metal server. AWS bare metal servers are licensed the same as an on-premises physical server where all cores are counted.

From a support perspective, Premier Support for OVM has ended as of March 31, 2021. Oracle is offering Extended Support for OVM until March 31, 2024 for an additional fee. Extended Support will not include support for new hardware or new bug fixes. After 2024, OVM will still be covered by Sustaining Support. See the following link for details about support for Oracle Linux and its hypervisors.

Live migration is the main high availability function (HA) of any virtualization platform. It allows a running machine to move to a different physical server with no down time. Both partitioning policies listed above disallow live migration for hard partitioning. This puts a serious operational and HA limitation on workloads licensed by the hard-partitioning policies.

While the Partitioning Polices for OLVM and OVM are very restrictive with the core pinning and live migration mandates, it does provide an additional option for licensing Oracle workloads in AWS. The AWS EC2 servers tend to have high core counts and this can be problematic for Oracle licensing. By leveraging the Partitioning Policy guides, clients with smaller Oracle workloads can run their workloads on AWS with a small number of licenses.

House of Brick helps our clients arrive at the most cost-effective licensing solutions for Oracle workloads, whether running on-premises or in the cloud. We can help your organization move to the AWS cloud while not breaking the bank. Making a mistake with your Oracle licensing can be costly if done incorrectly. Let the experts at House of Brick help to avoid costly licensing mistakes in the cloud.

Currently, oracle is running on a physical server.

I want to move oracle to a virtual server (vmware).

The oracle version is 11g, the license type is Named User Plus (30 licenses). Oracle Database Standard Edition One - Oracle 1-Click Ordering Program - Named User Plus Perpetual

The new server has 1 cpu, 32 core.

Do I have to worry about licenses on the new server having NUP license?

The virtual machine will be set to 2 core.

I will not be using vmotion.

As mentioned by @adrianyong4136 a you must also consider the other hosts in the VMware cluster if vMotion, HA etc. is enabled. If the VM is able to be moved to another host in the cluster (whether or not you actually do), you must also consider & include the other host(s) resources.

I have to count all cores. Even if the VM has only 2 cores allocated?

Yes, Oracle does not recognise VMware as a partitioning platform, you must calculate using the underlying host machine resources and any machine it is capable of being moved to my way of HA, VMotion DRS etc.

As mentioned by adrian_ycha you must also consider the other hosts in the VMware cluster if vMotion, HA etc. is enabled. If the VM is able to be moved to another host in the cluster (whether or not you actually do), you must also consider & include the other host(s) resources.

Currently, oracle is running on a physical server.

I want to move oracle to a virtual server (vmware).

The oracle version is 11g, the license type is Named User Plus (30 licenses). Oracle Database Standard Edition One - Oracle 1-Click Ordering Program - Named User Plus Perpetual

Oracle 11g SE1 is only for a single CPU bare-metal installation on certain OS. No virtualization support at that time of licensing. I am not sure about Oracle 12c.

You may want to read more Differences Between Enterprise, Standard Edition One (SE1), Standard Edition (SE/SE2) on Oracle 12.1.0.2

One reason why they have gotten rid of SE1 is that it was cheap. Even for the other Oracle licensing, they do not recognize other hypervisors especially in vCPU counts unless you use Virtualbox (Enterprise edition as it is for business use).

If you want to use info from vendors, have the agreements or contracts etc in writing and do let them know your full server specs and server farm specs & that it will be used during audits. Else during audits, they may reply that you might not have given them full disclosure etc etc.

This blog is probably only of interest to those shops that use HP Itanium chips but from this month Oracle have changed the Core Processor Licensing Factor for Intel Itanium Series 93XX from 0.5 to 1.0. This will impact new servers that require licensing but and as I understand it for those companies with site licenses it will only affect new servers being added in, not existing servers.

To completely spoil the Xmas period for any HP server salespeople, at the same time Oracle have made changes to the licensing factor for Sun servers so that the new Sparc64 VII+ has a factor of 0.5 which to those of us who are mathematically challenged means you can run twice as many CPUs on those boxes as an HP Itanium 9300 for the same money. You will note that I have used the term CPU in the last sentence rather than core and as long as Oracle databases base their internal calculations on a cpu count then I will continue doing so. The documentation states quite clearly that various components of Oracle Database are configured based on the number of CPUs, such as the Optimizer, Parallel Query, and Resource Manager. That is CPU not cores.

Is this the death knell for Oracle on HPUX. Well it is probably the last rites at least. Given that market share will drop, HPUX is a very late port for new developments and for some products such as OEM/Grid the user base is tiny compared to Oracle Enterprise Linux (or any other Linux varient) then I cannot see any other way but downwards for Oracle sales on HPUX.

Am I sorry. Well as I work on an all HP site for Unix systems then it is of interest but I cannot say that I am sorry, in fact hopefully it might lead to the opportunity to evaluate other suppliers and see if database performance can be increased and if that comes at reduced cost of ownership then it can only be positive.

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