Comments on: Oracle standard edition has no multi-core licensing restrictions

By: Marc Fielding

Marc Fielding — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:37:26 +0000

Hi Avinash,

I’m not aware of any processor minimums for Standard Edition one. I just went to the US Oracle Store website (www.oracle.com/store) and was able to get a single Standard Edition One processor license at the US$5800 list price, plus $1276 for the first year of support. Maybe you can show your reseller how Oracle can sell you this license directly?

Marc

By: Avinash

Avinash — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 07:12:05 +0000

@Marc, today I received a quote from my vendor that I’ll have to buy two license for SE1 even if only one processor is there in the machine with two socket capacity. What’s your suggestion.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:10:09 +0000

@Marc: Thank you very much for this, I feel a lot better now as I was concered that I had it all wrong.

By: Marc Fielding

Marc Fielding — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 20:51:25 +0000

@Matt: That’s right: with only one of two sockets occupied under SE One, you only need a single processor license. Just make sure that the machine has maximum capacity of two sockets or less, otherwise you can’t license SE One at all.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:17:52 +0000

So are we saying that OSE-One on a system with two sockets, but only one processor installed needs a single license?

By: Thomas WARIN

Thomas WARIN — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 21:43:07 +0000

Hi Marc,
First, I want to thank you for your clarification and I agree with you. We still must consider the type of CPU, even if the version is OSE ou OSE-One. I will also follow your advice and contact Oracle.
Thank you again for your help.
Sincerely yours.
Thomas

By: Marc Fielding

Marc Fielding — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:50:09 +0000

Hi Thomas, The real question is: is your multicore CPU considered to be a multi-chip module (and therefore subject to licensing per chip). This depends very much on the individual processor selected, rather than the architecture. From the Wikipedia article on the Xeon processor, the 5300 series implemented as "two Woodcrest dies on a multi-chip module" and they list the POWER2, POWER4, and POWER5 processors as being multi-chip modules as well. This post on the network management blog says that the newer Intel Nehalam (55xx) processors are not multi-chip modules at all. But when it comes to licensing, the best place for authoritative information would be your Oracle sales rep. Hope this helps! Marc

By: Thomas WARIN

Thomas WARIN — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 02:49:05 +0000

Hello,
How did you understand this :
“When licensing Oracle programs with Standard Edition One or Standard Edition in the product name, a processor is counted equivalent to an occupied socket; however, in the case of multi-chip modules, each chip in the multi-chip module is counted as one occupied socket.”
Extract from : http://www.oraclelicensestore.com/en/oracle-licensing#p
If OSE ou OSE-One is installed on a INTEL server with 1 processor 4-core, how to calculate the number of required licences ? 1 or 2 (=4*0,50) or 4 ?
If OSE ou OSE-One is installed on a server RISC6000 Power5+ with 2 processor dual-core, how to calculate the number of required licences ? 1, 2 , 3 (= 2*2*0,75) or 4 ?
Are you absolutely certain that Oracle standard edition one, in any architecture, with a maximum capacity of 2 sockets per machine)required 1 licence per socket (processor) and not per-core.

and in case of control by the editor, what evidence to bring?

Thanks for your explanations.
Thomas

By: Marc Fielding

Marc Fielding — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:42:50 +0000

The actual license requirements depend on the CPU architecture and the edition of Oracle software. Oracle publishes a full list at http://www.oracle.com/corporate/contracts/library/processor-core-factor-table.pdf

A few examples of license requirements an 8-core chip:

Intel Xeon chips newer than 75XX: 8 (factor 1)
SPARC64/PA-RISC: 6 (factor 0.75)
Intel Xeon 75XX or earlier: 4 (factor 0.5)
T-Series SPARC, 1.2Ghz or less: 2 (factor 0.25)
Oracle standard edition one (any architecture, maximum capacity of 2 sockets per machine): 1 (per-socket, not per-core)

Marc

By: someone

someone — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 06:43:40 +0000

this mean, for 8-core processors, I need number of licenses: “how many chips is there in processors” that number of licenses is necessary?