Oracle Software Licensing Basics

Oracle Software

Licensing Basics

Updated July 2024

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Oracle Software

Licensing Basics

Oracle Software

Licensing Basics

Examples

Resources

• General Licensing

• Oracle Technology

Software Licensing

• Oracle Applications

Software Licensing

Agenda

Oracle Software Licensing Basics

General Licensing

License Types outline the restrictions on customer’s usage

General Licensing Information

Concepts

Full Use license is without

restrictions and allows usage that

is full functionality

• e.g. Per Named User Plus, Application User, or Processor metric

License Metrics determine how software usage is measured

Full Use license Application Specific Full Use Embedded License

Application Specific Full Use is

specific to run only with the

defined application and may come

with additional restrictions

Embedded License is limited to

embed Oracle technology with

defined application and has

further restrictions on install,

package, configure and access

Oracle’s Software License gives you a non-exclusive and limited right to

use the software and as such:

General Licensing Information

Concepts continued

• Perpetual License is the right to use the license perpetually

• As of September 1, 2020, Oracle has ended the availability of term licenses for all on-premise software with the exception of

specific Oracle Technology products for 1 year Term only available; contact your Oracle sales representative for more

information. Existing customers paying support on their term licenses will remain supported through the end of their term.

License Terms provides the timeline for customer’s usage

‒ List price for a term license is based on a specific percentage of the perpetual license price with 1 year at 20% of list price:

Exadata Storage Server Software, Oracle Active Data Guard, Oracle Advanced Compression, Oracle Advanced Security,

oracle Database Enterprise Edition, Oracle Database In-Memory, Oracle Database Standard Edition 2, Oracle Database

Vault, Oracle Diagnostic Pack, Oracle Forms and Reports, Oracle GoldenGate, Oracle Internet Application Server Enterprise

Edition, Oracle Multitenant, Oracle OLAP, Oracle Partitioning, Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Real Application

Clusters One Node, Oracle Real Application Testing, Oracle SOA Suite for Oracle Middleware, Oracle Tuning Pack, Oracle

Weblogic Server Enterprise edition, Oracle Weblogic Standard Edition, Oracle Weblogic Suite.

‒ Note that, the list support price for term licenses is 22% of the list perpetual license fee, as listed in the price list.

Oracle’s Software License gives you a non-exclusive and limited right to

use the software and as such:

See further information on Oracle Global Pricing Site at Oracle.com

Environments

General Licensing Information

Production Environments Non Production Environments

• Development

• Quality Assurance/Testing & Staging

• Disaster Recovery

Use of Oracle Software requires Customers to license the respective

Oracle programs in:

• Customer can obtain development licenses that are limited to development activities per the

Oracle Developer Downloads guidelines

• See the Oracle Technology Network OTN License Agreement for further details

Oracle Software Licensing Basics

Oracle Technology Software Licensing

• Licensing Metrics

• Data Recovery Environments

• Server Partitioning Environments

• Shared Storage Environments

• Authorized Cloud Environments

Licensing Information

Oracle Technology Software Programs

Oracle Technology Licensing:

Featured Technology Programs include the following:

Oracle Database

Oracle Middleware

Oracle Software Management Packs

Oracle Developer Tools

Licensing Metrics include Named User Plus or Processor metric

Named User Plus Processor

For further information, see the Price List and the Database Licensing Documents

General Licensing Information

Oracle Technology Software Programs

Oracle Technology Licensing:

• Add-on products such as the Enterprise Options and Management Packs must match the

number of licenses of the associated product

• Functional dependencies may exists among products. Such dependencies must be licensed

separately as prerequisite products

• Minimums are used in conjunction with license metrics and refer to the minimum number of

licenses a customer is required when licensing Oracle software

‒ License actual usage or minimum, whichever is greater

See the Product documentation at Oracle Help Center or ask your Oracle sales team for further information

Licensing Metrics

Oracle Technology Programs

Named User Plus (NUP) metric is defined as individuals authorized to use Oracle programs installed on single

or multiple servers regardless if individual is actively using the programs at any given time.

• Human and non-human operated devices are counted towards NUP license

• Batch processing from computer to computer is permitted and does not require counting users at the front of the batch process

• If multiplexing hardware or software is used, multiplexing is counted at the front end

‒ For further information on batching and multiplexing refer to on the next slide

See full metric definition in the Oracle Technology Price List

Licensing considerations include :

• User minimum for products may apply

• Licensed at the greater of either user minimum (if applicable) or actual users

Named User Plus Metric Considerations

Licensing Metrics

Oracle Technology Programs

Named User Plus (NUP) definition includes Batching and Multiplexing :

Batching is an activity that allows a group of tasks

occurring at different times to be processed at the same

time with little interaction from the user and includes:

‒ Automated batching is copying data from computer

to computer where the database is running, this is

permitted and does not require licensing users in

front of batch processing

‒ In manual batching or import/export of flat files,

the individual users who are performing the

transaction needs to be licensed

Batching Multiplexing

Multiplexing is when a large number of end users and/or

devices access a system via an interface, such as TP

monitor or a web server product, so that the apparent

number of users and/or devices accessing the system is

much smaller than the actual number of users and/or

devices

‒ If multiplexing hardware or software used, license

at the multiplexing front end

Licensing Metrics

Oracle Technology Programs

The Processor metric is used to license all processors where Oracle programs are installed and/or running. This

metric is commonly used for uncountable or hard to manage user/count populations

• User Minimums per processors may apply

• Most Standard Edition products are licensed by Processor, which for Standard Edition programs is defined as a socket

‒ For multi-chip module processors, each chip on the processor counts as one occupied socket

• Enterprise Edition and other technology products may be licensed by cores

‒ (# of cores x core factor = # of Processor licenses)

‒ please see Oracle Processor Core Factor Table

See full metric definition in the Oracle Technology Price List

Processor Metric Calculations

Data Recovery Environments

Oracle Technology Software Licensing

Licensing Oracle programs that are installed and/or running in Data Recovery:

For further information, see the Licensing Data Recovery Environments Document

All Copying, synchronization, and mirroring of the data and/or program files requires licensing

• Data and optional Oracle binaries are copied to another storage device therefore all programs installed and/or running must be

licensed

Licensing Requirement:

A testing allowance (up to four times, not to exceed two days per testing in any given calendar year) is granted for physical copies of

backups as follows:

• For Oracle database program only, test on an unlicensed spare computer

• Does not allow for any other data recovery methods, such as remote mirroring or synchronization

• Not applicable in a virtualized environment

Testing:

Data Recovery Environments

Oracle Technology Software Licensing

Licensing Failover Data Recovery:

Failover Data Recovery is an exception which allows for one unlicensed server/node in a clustered environment sharing single

storage and requires the following:

• Allows an exception to run the Oracle programs on one unlicensed node up to ten separate 24-hour periods in any given

calendar year

• If failover periods exceed ten separate 24- hour periods the failover node must be licensed

• When the primary node fails, the failover node acts as the primary node. Once the primary node is repaired the customer

must switch back to the primary node or designate that repaired node as the failover node

• Same license metric must be used for production and failover nodes and options must match the number of licenses of the

associated database

For further information, see the Licensing Data Recovery Environments Document

Server Partitioning Environments

Oracle Technology Software Licensing

Server Partitioning Environments:

For further information, see the Partitioning Document

Oracle has determined that the

following technologies are permitted

as a means to limit the number of

Oracle Processor licenses required for

a given server:

• Hard Partitioning technologies as

listed in the Partitioning Document

• Oracle Trusted Partitions for certain

Oracle Engineered Systems

• Oracle Linux for KVM, Oracle OVM

Server, Oracle Solaris Zones

Hard Partitioning

Segments the operating system using

operating system resource managers

and is not approved as a means to

determine or limit number of Oracle

Processor licenses required on a given

server or cluster of servers

Soft Partitioning

Oracle recognizes and allows this

practice to license only the number of

cores activated when a server is

shipped

Capacity on Demand

Virtualized Environments

Oracle Technology Software Licensing

Virtualized Environments are considered a Soft Partitioning technology:

• Oracle does not have a separate licensing policy for virtualization deployments of Oracle software for on premise licensing

‒ Soft Partitioning technologies are not permitted as a means to determine or limit the number of software licenses

required for any given server or cluster or servers

‒ Virtualized environments are licensed within the parameters of the metric definition

• In general, Virtualization technologies are considered soft partitioning methods and some examples are noted in the

Partitioning Document

Shared Storage (non-virtualized) Environments

Oracle Technology Software Licensing

Shared Storage Environments:

• Shared Storage is when a storage device is connected to and used by two or more systems

• Oracle licenses all processors where Oracle programs are installed and/or running

‒ When shared storage devices with Oracle programs are mounted by multiple servers, the respective Oracle programs are

required to be licensed on all the servers

‒ Not recognized in soft partition environments for purposes of limiting Oracle’s licensing

Authorized Cloud Computing Environments

Oracle Technology Software Licensing

Authorized Cloud Providers:

• Customer can deploy their Oracle Technology programs licenses on two Authorized cloud providers:

‒ Amazon EC2 and RDS

‒ Microsoft Azure Platform

‒ Google Cloud Platform

• For the purposes of licensing Oracle Technology programs in the Authorized Cloud, customer are required to count the

maximum available vCPUs of an instance type as follows:

‒ Count 2 virtual CPU (vCPU) to 1 Oracle Processor license if multi-threading of a processor cores enabled, and 1 virtual

CPU (vCPU) to 1 Oracle Processor license if multi-threading of processor cores is not enabled

‒ Please refer to Licensing Oracle Software in the Cloud Computing Environment Document for further information

• Customer can deploy their Oracle programs on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure:

‒ To determine the number of Processor licenses for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, refer to the Oracle Core Factor Table

Oracle Software Licensing Basics

Oracle Applications Software Licensing

• General Licensing Information

• Licensing Models and Metrics

• Additional Information

General Information

Oracle Applications Software Licensing

Oracle Applications Licensing:

Featured Application Product Lines include the following:

• Oracle E-Business Suite • PeopleSoft • Siebel • JD Edwards

Licensing Models

Licensing Models offer flexibility for purchasing programs

in different pricing models such as Component, Custom

Application Bundle (CAS) or Enterprise

Licensing Metrics

Licensing Metrics allow customers to purchase based on

user or usage based counts for Component pricing, bundle

users across select programs for CAS pricing or company

wide type of usage for Enterprise pricing

• For further information, see respective Price List

• For other Applications including Global Business Unit, contact Oracle Sales for further assistance

Models and Metrics

Oracle Applications Software Licensing

Oracle Applications Licensing Models are offered as follows:

Component Model is an a la carte type

of pricing for an individual product.

Metrics available are:

• User-based metrics such as

Application User, Employee,

Subscriber, etc

• Usage-based metrics such as

Electronic Order Lines, Expense

Reports and $M Costs Of Goods

Sold, etc

Component Model

Custom Application Suite Model

allows to create custom bundles

across select product lines based on

needs for specific user populations

• Custom Suite User is the only

metric available and refers to the

individual authorized to use any of

the products included in the bundle

and assembled across different

application product lines

Custom Application Suite Model

Enterprise Model is ideal for large

companies to license an individual

product for their entire organization

without the need to keep track of

specific users, servers or deployment

locations

• Metrics refers to company wide

values, e.g. Enterprise $M in

Revenue

Enterprise Model

• Contact your Oracle sales team for further assistance

Additional Information

Oracle Applications Software Licensing

For Oracle Applications Licensing:

• In most cases, add-on products must match both the number of licenses and metric of the associated product (parent).

These products are noted as Options in the Price List

• Minimums are used in conjunction with license metrics and refer to the minimum number of licenses a customer is required

to purchase when licensing Oracle programs for the first time

• Oracle Applications product lines are supported to run on top of Oracle Technology products

‒ For certain Oracle Application product lines, Oracle Technology products are included as restricted use or separately

licensed

‒ See the Application Licensing Table Document for further information

• See the Product documentation at Oracle Help Center or contact your Oracle sales team for further information

Oracle Software Licensing Basics

Examples

Licensing Human Operated and Non-Human Operated Devices

4 Processors

Oracle Database EE

25 Delivery Employees using 15

hand held devices

Custom Application

15 Warehouse Distribution Scanners

Example 1

• Current distribution company has 15

non human operated scanners to track

shipments out of the warehouse. These

scanners update the Oracle Database

• There are 25 delivery employees on

rotating shifts

• The delivery employees use hand held

devices (15) to update Oracle Database

Enterprise Edition with delivery

confirmation information

• Oracle Database Enterprise Edition is

running on a 4 Processors server with 24

cores per processor, with core factor 0.5

Example 1

Products to be licensed Number of licenses required

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition

(ODBEE)

This product can be licensed by Processor or by Named User Plus metric

• By Processor licenses with 0.5 factor:

All processors where the database is installed and/or running must be licensed

Calculation is (4 Processor x 24 cores = 96 cores)

96 cores x 0.5 core factor = 48 Processor licenses required

• By Named User Plus: the number of licenses required is:

The minimum number of Named User Plus user (25 Named User Plus per Processor)

or the total number of actual users accessing the Database, whichever is greater

1) 48 Processor licenses x 25 user minimum = 1200 Named User Plus user minimum or

2) 15 non human operated distribution scanners + 25 delivery employees using hand

held devices = 40 Named User Plus

The Number of Named User Plus licenses required: 1200 user min required

Licensing Human Operated and Non-Human Operated Devices

Licensing Batch Processing

10 Analysts

Import/Export Flat files

Automated Batching

Custom Forms

400 Traders

Oracle Database EE

Custom Application

Example 2

• Customer has Auto batch feeds that

update the Oracle Database

• 400 traders access the Oracle Database

Enterprise Edition through Custom

Forms

• 10 Analysts access the Oracle Database

for input via flat file

• Oracle Database Enterprise Edition is

running on a quad-core processor with

core factor 1.0

Example 2

Products to be licensed Number of licenses required

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition This product can be licensed by Processor or by Named User Plus metric

• By Processor licenses with 1.0 core factor:

All Processors where the database is installed and/or running must be licensed

4 cores x 1.0 core factor = 4 Processor licenses required

• By Named User Plus: the number of licenses required is:

The Named User Plus user minimum (25 Named User Plus per Processor)

OR The total number of actual users accessing the Database (# of traders and analyst),

whichever is greater

1) 4 Processor licenses x 25 user minimum = 100 Named User Plus user minimum

2) 400 Traders + 10 Analysts = 410 Named User Plus

held devices = 40 Named User Plus

The Number of Named User Plus licenses required: 410

Licensing Batch Processing

Licensing Multiplexing Environments

Internet Users and Internal

Bank employees

Two – 24 Core

Processors

Oracle Database EE

Bank Website

Example 3

• Bank Employees access through Web

Browsers to manage bank information

and transactions of account holders

• Account holders accessing a Bank

information through Bank’s website via

Web Browsers

• Account holders can also use Automated

teller machines (ATM) for transaction and

information on account

• Oracle Database Enterprise Edition

storing banking transactions running on

a server with two 24 core processors,

with core factor 0.5

Licensing Multiplexing Environments

Example 3

Products to be licensed Number of licenses required

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition This product can be licensed by Processor or by Named User Plus metric

• By Processor licenses with 0.5 factor:

All processors where the database is installed and/or running must be licensed

Calculation is (2 processor x 24 cores = 48 cores)

48 cores x 0.5 core factor = 24 Processor licenses required

• By Named User Plus: the number of licenses required is:

The minimum number of Named User Plus (25 Named User Plus per Processor)

OR The total number of actual users accessing the Database, whichever is greater

1) 24 Processor licenses x 25 user minimum = 600 Named User Plus user minimum or

2) Uncountable population, default is Processor as economical choice

held devices = 40 Named User Plus

The Number of Processor licenses required: 24 Processor

Licensing Shared Storage (non-virtualized)

Volume X

Volume Y

Shared Storage Device

Servers

Server 1

Server 2 Server 4

Server 3

Example 4

• Customer has 4 Server Nodes (nodes) that

are arranged in a shared storage

environment that is non virtualized.

• There are 4 Server Nodes, each with two 24-

core processors with core factor 0.5.

• Customer is running WebLogic Suite and

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition.

• There are 2 licensing scenarios as examples:

‒ Scenario A: Oracle Database Enterprise Edition &

WebLogic Suite are installed on Volume X and all

servers mount Volume X.

‒ Scenario B: WebLogic Suite is installed on

Volume X and Oracle Database Enterprise Edition

is installed on Volume Y. Servers 1 & 2 mount

Volume X & Servers 3 & 4 mount Volume Y.

Licensing Shared Storage (non-virtualized)

Example 4

Products to be licensed Scenario and Number of licenses required

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition

& WebLogic Suite

Scenario A: Oracle Database Enterprise Edition & WebLogic Suite are installed on Volume X and all

servers mount Volume X

• By Processor licenses with 0.5 factor:

Calculation is four server nodes each with two 24 core processors = 192 Cores

192 cores x 0.5 core factor = 96 Processor licenses required

For WebLogic Suite and Oracle Database EE Processor

WebLogic Suite

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition

Scenario B: WebLogic Suite is installed on Volume X and Oracle Database Enterprise Edition is

installed on Volume Y. Servers 1 & 2 mount Volume X & Servers 3 & 4 mount Volume Y

• By Processor licenses calculation with 0.5 factor:

• For Volume X is two server nodes each with two 24 core processors = 96 Cores

96 cores x 0.5 core factor = 48 WebLogic Suite Processor licenses required

• For Volume Y is two server nodes each with two 24 core processors = 96 Cores

96 cores x 0.5 core factor = 48 Oracle Database Enterprise Edition Processor licenses required

Licensing Failover Environments

Shared Storage Device

Example 5

• Customer has a data recovery

environment in a Failover High

Availability cluster configuration

• 4 Server Nodes in a cluster having one

single Storage/Storage Area Network

(SAN)

• Customer has two 24-core processors

per node with core factor 0.5

• All Server Nodes are connected to the

same shared storage running Oracle

Database Enterprise Edition

• Customer is licensing by Processor

metric

High Availability Cluster

Network Connections

Licensing Failover Environments Example

Example 5

Products to be licensed Number of licenses required

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition This product is licensed by Processor metric

• By Processor licenses with 0.5 factor:

All processors where the database is installed and/or running must be licensed.

Calculation is for three server nodes each with two 24 core processor = 144 Cores

144 cores x 0.5 core factor = 72 Processor licenses required

• Only 1 Failover node is granted free in this 4 server node cluster

• Customer needs to license 3 server nodes

• Number of Processor licenses required: 72 Processor

Applications Licensing Environments

Invoices pending

for approval

Approved invoices for

payment

EBS Financials

Custom Invoice

Approval Form

30 Financials Users 10 Manager Users

Example 6

• Company A Finance team processes their

Financial information in their E-Business

Suite (EBS) system using the Financials

application

• Company A licenses EBS Financials in the

Component model by Application User

metric

• Invoices approval form has been

customized for Managers to review and

approve

• 10 Manager Users validate and/or

approve the invoices

Applications Licensing Environment

Example 6

Products to be licensed Number of licenses required

Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS)

Financials

Application User is defined as an

individual authorized by you to use the

applicable licensed programs which are

installed on a single or multiple servers

regardless of whether the individual is

actively using the programs at any given

time.

This product is licensed by Application User metric

Number of Application User licenses required: 40

• Users of EBS Financial application would need to be licensed and Manager Users who

validate and/or approve the invoices in EBS would need to be counted for licensing in

addition to the Finance Department Users

• Due to modifications made, Full Use licensing will be required for the underlying EBS

restricted use technology set of products. See Application Licensing Table for further

information on modifications

Resources

Resource Links
1. Oracle Contracts
2. Oracle Global Pricing
• Technology Price List
• Applications Price List 
3. Available on Oracle.com as Documents to download or view
• Oracle Database Licensing 
• Partitioning Policy
• Data Recovery Environments
• Licensing Oracle Software in Cloud Computing Environment
• Application Licensing Table 
• Oracle Processor Core Factor Table 
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