📖 Part of the Oracle Licensing Knowledge Hub. See also: GoldenGate Licensing Overview · Cloud-Based GoldenGate Licensing: OCI, AWS, and Azure · GoldenGate Common Audit Risks.
Oracle's default stance: Any server where GoldenGate is installed or actively running must have a licence. The only exception — an unused cold backup rarely activated — is narrow and should be approached carefully with documentation if you rely on it. Plan to fully licence your HA and DR environments.
HA/DR Licensing Scenarios
Active-Active (Bi-Directional) Replication — Full Licensing Required, Both Sites
In an active-active setup — two data centres or cloud regions where each has an active database and GoldenGate replicates changes both ways — both sites are production and actively using GoldenGate. All nodes must be fully licensed. It is effectively the same as licensing two separate GoldenGate deployments, one at each site. Each site's source and target roles are interchangeable, so there is no "free" side. This doubles the licensing requirements, but it is expected for active-active architectures.
Example: A financial system runs in two data centres for HA, with GoldenGate keeping them in sync. If each data centre's DB server has 16 cores, you must license GoldenGate for 16 cores at DC1 and 16 cores at DC2 (with the appropriate GoldenGate edition for Oracle/Non-Oracle as applicable).
Active-Passive (One-Way) Replication to Standby — Full Licensing Required, Standby Server Too
In this scenario, a primary database continuously replicates to a secondary database (which may be used for read-only reporting or purely for failover readiness). Even though the secondary might not accept user changes, GoldenGate is actively applying transactions to it. Running apply (Replicat) processes continuously. From a licensing perspective, that secondary environment is actively running GoldenGate.
The general rule: If GoldenGate is installed and/or running on a server, that server needs to be licensed. The standby database server will continuously run the apply processes, which is definitively "running" GoldenGate.
Failover Nodes and the 10-Day Rule — Very Narrow Exception, Rarely Applicable
Oracle has a concept of a failover exception (the "10-day rule") for certain products in clustered environments. This rule allows a passive node in a cluster to run the software for up to 10 separate days per year without a licence, only if the primary node fails.
However, this is tricky to apply to GoldenGate because GoldenGate doesn't usually sit idle until failover. It would either be running (for replication) or not running at all. If you had a setup where GoldenGate is installed on a secondary server but not actively replicating (essentially a cold standby for GoldenGate itself), you might argue the 10-day rule if you only launch GoldenGate on that server during a failover event.
But in practical GoldenGate DR designs, you cannot keep data in sync if GoldenGate isn't running until failover. Most GoldenGate DR setups don't qualify as "idle standby" — they are active replication. Therefore, the 10-day rule is usually not applicable, and you should licence the DR server.
Bottom line: Only consider the failover exception if you truly have GoldenGate completely inactive on a backup node that only kicks in if the primary GoldenGate server dies. And even then, track usage carefully. Oracle's official stance: standby and failover systems must be licensed the same as production unless they meet the narrow unlicensed failover criteria.
Clustered Environments — All Nodes Potentially Licensable
Be cautious if GoldenGate is installed in a cluster (e.g. Oracle RAC or a Linux cluster). Oracle's partitioning policies for databases apply similarly. If a GoldenGate installation can run on multiple nodes of a cluster, Oracle might insist all those nodes are licensed. Even if at any one time it runs on only one node.
Common scenario: GoldenGate is installed on a multi-node application cluster for HA. Unless you've configured hard partitioning or processor affinity to restrict it, Oracle could view the entire cluster's CPU footprint as needing licensing (similar to the VMware scenario extended to physical clusters).
If you need GoldenGate high availability, consider using Oracle's native clustering (e.g. Oracle Clusterware) with static node assignment, or use container orchestration with node labels to ensure GoldenGate processes only run on licensed nodes. If using VMware for HA, see the virtualisation considerations in the GoldenGate Licensing Overview.
Development, Test, and QA Environments — Licensing Required
High availability testing often involves duplicating environments. Non-production environments also require licences if GoldenGate is installed. Oracle's licences do not automatically cover dev/test separate from production.
Unless you have a special deal, each dev/test GoldenGate deployment should either be licensed or you use the free licence (Oracle GoldenGate Free) under its limitations strictly for development use. GoldenGate Free edition is limited — Oracle-to-Oracle only, small data sizes — and cannot be used for production workloads.
If your HA/DR testing involves full-scale replicas, ensure those environments are accounted for in licensing. Perhaps via a multi-use licence or as part of a ULA.
Disaster Recovery to Cloud — Cloud Environment Must Be Licensed
Many organisations use GoldenGate to maintain a live copy of an on-prem database in the cloud for DR. This is a great use case for GoldenGate, but it means you now have GoldenGate running in the cloud as well. Which must be licensed (via BYOL).
You need enough licences for both environments. If your primary is on-prem (licensed via Processor metric) and your DR is on AWS (licensed via vCPUs with 2:1 ratio). Some may choose to deploy the DR GoldenGate in OCI using BYOL or even licence-included for ease — especially if it's only spun up during a disaster. But if it's continuously syncing, you're continuously using it, so the licence applies continuously.
📖 Read Cloud-Based GoldenGate Licensing: OCI, AWS, and Azure for detailed cloud deployment guidance.
HA/DR Licensing Summary
| Scenario | GoldenGate Running? | Licence Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active-Active (Bi-Directional) | Yes — both sites | Yes — both sites | Double the licensing. Each site fully licensed. |
| Active-Passive (One-Way Standby) | Yes — Replicat on standby | Yes — both sites | Standby runs apply processes = active use. |
| 10-Day Failover (Cold Standby) | No — only on failover | Maybe — very narrow | Only if GoldenGate truly idle. Track usage carefully. Rarely practical. |
| Clustered (RAC / Linux Cluster) | Can run on any node | Yes — all reachable nodes | Unless hard partitioning restricts to specific nodes. |
| Dev / Test / QA | Yes — if installed | Yes | No automatic dev/test coverage. Use GoldenGate Free for limited dev use. |
| DR to Cloud (OCI/AWS/Azure) | Yes — continuous sync | Yes — cloud too | BYOL to cloud, vCPU counting rules apply. |
Cost-Saving Architecture Strategies
One strategy some organisations use to reduce DR costs with GoldenGate is to leverage Oracle's Active Data Guard (ADG) for pure Oracle-to-Oracle physical standby. ADG is included with the GoldenGate licence. So if you have GoldenGate licensed on an Oracle DB, you already own ADG for that DB. And can use ADG for one-directional DR without deploying GoldenGate at the DR site for that database.
Use GoldenGate Where You Need It
Deploy GoldenGate for multi-master replication, heterogeneous database integration, data transformation, and scenarios that require logical replication. These are the use cases where GoldenGate is truly irreplaceable.
Leverage Included ADG Rights
If you have GoldenGate licensed on an Oracle DB, you already own Active Data Guard for that DB. Use ADG for simpler Oracle-to-Oracle one-directional standby scenarios. This avoids needing GoldenGate at the DR site for that database.
Avoid Unnecessary DR Licensing
By using ADG (included with GoldenGate) for pure Oracle-to-Oracle physical standby, you can avoid deploying and licensing GoldenGate at the DR site. This is nuanced but can deliver meaningful cost savings on the DR side.
Understand the Limitation
The ADG strategy only works Oracle-to-Oracle and requires the environment to tolerate physical standby (no divergence). If you need heterogeneous replication, data transformation, or active-active capabilities at the DR site, GoldenGate licensing at both sites is unavoidable.
Architecture Optimisation
Use GoldenGate where you need it (multi-master, heterogeneous, transformation) and leverage the included ADG rights for simpler Oracle-to-Oracle standby scenarios. This is nuanced but can deliver meaningful cost savings on the DR side. Plan to fully licence your HA and DR environments. Oracle's default stance is that any server where GoldenGate is installed or actively running must have a licence. From a budgeting perspective, factor in the cost of those additional licences if you require redundancy.
Oracle GoldenGate Licensing Deep Dive
Read the comprehensive GoldenGate licensing overview covering editions, metrics, and compliance scenarios.