The Core Licensing Principle for Oracle Options on AWS
Every Oracle Database option and management pack is licensed separately, per processor, matching the Enterprise Edition base licence count. There are no bundles, no cloud-specific discounts, and no included options in AWS deployments. If you run Oracle Database Enterprise Edition on an EC2 instance with 8 vCPUs (requiring 4 EE Processor licences), every additional option you enable — RAC, Multitenant, Partitioning, Advanced Security, Diagnostics Pack — requires an additional 4 Processor licences each.
This additive model means the total licensing cost for a fully featured Oracle EE deployment on AWS can be 3–5× the base database licence cost. Understanding which options are genuinely needed — and which have been inadvertently enabled — is the most important cost control lever for Oracle on AWS.
Licensing Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) on AWS
RAC is Oracle's high-availability clustering technology, available only with Enterprise Edition and licensed separately per processor on every node in the cluster. RAC is not supported on Amazon RDS — it requires manual deployment on EC2 instances or VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC), with third-party shared storage or clustering solutions.
Per-Node Licensing
RAC must be licensed on every server node participating in the cluster. Each node requires RAC Processor licences equal to the EE Processor licence count for that node. A 2-node cluster doubles the RAC licence requirement compared to a single instance — and a 3-node cluster triples it. There is no "cluster licence" or "shared" RAC licence pool across nodes.
No RDS Support
Amazon RDS does not support RAC. If you need RAC functionality, you must deploy on EC2 instances (with shared storage solutions like Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP or third-party clustered storage) or on VMware Cloud on AWS. This means RAC on AWS is always a BYOL deployment — you cannot use AWS's "Licence Included" option for RAC.
Consider Alternatives
Before committing to RAC on AWS, evaluate whether AWS-native high availability — Multi-AZ RDS, EC2 Auto Scaling with Data Guard, or Aurora (for non-Oracle workloads) — meets your requirements at lower cost. RAC licensing on a 2-node cluster with 8 vCPUs per node costs 8 additional RAC Processor licences. If the goal is HA rather than scale-out performance, Data Guard may achieve the same objective at a fraction of the RAC licensing cost.
| RAC Scenario | Nodes | vCPUs Per Node | EE Licences | RAC Licences | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small HA cluster | 2 | 4 | 4 (2 per node) | 4 (2 per node) | 8 |
| Standard production | 2 | 8 | 8 (4 per node) | 8 (4 per node) | 16 |
| Large-scale cluster | 3 | 16 | 24 (8 per node) | 24 (8 per node) | 48 |
| Formula: Per node — vCPUs ÷ 2 = EE licences = RAC licences. Total = sum across all nodes. | |||||
Licensing Oracle Multitenant (Pluggable Databases) on AWS
Oracle's Multitenant architecture — Container Databases (CDBs) and Pluggable Databases (PDBs) — is a separately licensed option for Enterprise Edition. However, Oracle provides a free allowance of up to 3 PDBs per CDB starting from Oracle Database 19c, which means many deployments may not require the Multitenant licence at all.
No Multitenant Licence Required
Running 1, 2, or 3 Pluggable Databases within a single Container Database on Oracle 19c or later does not require a separate Multitenant licence. This is included with the base Enterprise Edition licence. For many AWS deployments — particularly where each EC2 instance hosts a small number of databases — this free allowance is sufficient. On standard Amazon RDS for Oracle, AWS restricts you to one user-created PDB per instance, so the Multitenant licence is typically unnecessary for RDS deployments.
Multitenant Licence Required
Running 4 or more PDBs in a single Container Database requires the Multitenant option licence — licensed per processor, matching the EE base count. On EC2 and RDS Custom, you have full flexibility to create many PDBs, but each additional PDB beyond 3 does not incur an incremental licence — the Multitenant licence is binary: either you have it (unlimited PDBs) or you do not (capped at 3). This means the cost decision is between staying within the 3-PDB free allowance versus licensing Multitenant for unlimited consolidation.
💡 Optimisation Strategy: Consolidate Within the Free Tier
Before licensing Multitenant, evaluate whether your database consolidation objectives can be achieved within the 3-PDB-per-CDB limit. If you have 9 databases to consolidate, deploying 3 CDBs with 3 PDBs each avoids the Multitenant licence entirely. On an 8-vCPU EC2 instance, the Multitenant licence costs the same as 4 additional Processor licences — at Oracle list pricing, this represents approximately $188,000 in licence fees plus ~$41,000 annual support. Consolidation architecture decisions should always consider the licensing cost threshold.
Licensing Partitioning, Advanced Security, and Other Options
Oracle's remaining database options — Partitioning, OLAP, Advanced Security, Advanced Compression, Active Data Guard, and others — follow the identical per-processor licensing model. Each option requires Processor licences equal to the EE base count, licensed separately, with no bundles or cloud-specific pricing.
| Oracle Option | Licence Metric | 8-vCPU EC2 Example | Common Audit Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partitioning | Processor (matches EE count) | 4 Processor licences | Partitioned tables or indexes detected in DBA_PART_TABLES |
| Advanced Security | Processor (matches EE count) | 4 Processor licences | Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) or Network Encryption enabled |
| Advanced Compression | Processor (matches EE count) | 4 Processor licences | OLTP compression, SecureFiles deduplication, or HCC usage |
| Active Data Guard | Processor (matches EE count) | 4 Processor licences (standby server) | Open standby database for read-only queries or reporting |
| OLAP | Processor (matches EE count) | 4 Processor licences | Analytic workspaces or OLAP cube materialised views |
| In-Memory | Processor (matches EE count) | 4 Processor licences | INMEMORY_SIZE parameter set to non-zero value |
| Cumulative impact: An 8-vCPU instance with EE + Partitioning + Advanced Security + Compression = 16 Processor licences (4 × 4 options) | |||
See a cost analysis for your Oracle deployment on AWS
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