Licensing Oracle Software in the Cloud Computing Environment
The Oracle cloud licensing policy document is named “Licensing Oracle Software in the Cloud Computing Environment.”
As more organizations move to cloud computing environments, it is important to understand the licensing policies for software in these environments, particularly for Oracle software. This article outlines the policy for licensing Oracle software from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure in cloud computing environments.
Vendor Coverage
The policy covers the use of Oracle software in cloud computing environments from the following vendors:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
- Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)
- Microsoft Azure Platform
Counting Maximum Available vCPUs
When licensing Oracle programs in the above-mentioned cloud environments, customers must count the maximum available vCPUs of an instance type as follows:
- AWS EC2 and RDS:
- If multi-threading of processor cores is enabled, count two vCPUs as equivalent to one Oracle CPU license.
- If multi-threading of CPU cores is not enabled, count one vCPU as equivalent to one Oracle Processor license.
- Microsoft Azure:
- If multi-threading of processor cores is enabled, count two vCPUs as equivalent to one Oracle CPU license.
- If multi-threading of CPU cores is not enabled, count one vCPU as equivalent to one Oracle Processor license.
Oracle Cloud Licensing Calculation
When licensing Oracle software in Authorized Cloud Environments, the Oracle Processor Core Factor Table should not be used. The pricing for Oracle SE1, SE2, or SE in the product name is based on the size of the instance:
- Instances with four or fewer Amazon vCPUs or Azure vCPUs should be considered equivalent to one socket (or one Oracle processor license).
- Instances with more than four AWS or Azure vCPUs require one socket for every four Amazon/Azure vCPUs used (rounded up to the nearest multiple of four) or every four Azure/AWS vCPUs used (rounded up to the nearest multiple of four).
Oracle Standard Edition Limitations
Under this cloud computing policy, Oracle DB SE may only be licensed on instances with up to 16 AWS/Azure vCPUs.
Oracle DB SE1 and SE2 may only be licensed on instances with up to eight Amazon vCPUs or eight Azure vCPUs if licensing Database Standard Edition 2 using the Named User Plus metric, a minimum of 10 NUP licenses is required per 8 Amazon vCPUs or 8 Azure vCPUs.
Licensing Oracle Database Enterprise Edition on Azure
To license Oracle Database Enterprise Edition on a Microsoft Azure instance with 32 vCPUs, you must count the maximum available vCPUs as specified in the policy.
According to the policy, you would count two vCPUs as equivalent to one Oracle CPU license if multi-threading of CPU cores is enabled and one vCPU as equivalent to one Oracle CPU license if multi-threading of CPU cores is not enabled.
In this case, with an instance with 32 vCPUs, you need to count each vCPU as equivalent to one Oracle CPU license. Therefore, you would need 32 processor licenses to license this instance properly.
Licensing Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 on Azure
To license Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 on a cloud computing instance, you must count the maximum available vCPUs according to the policy. In this example, with an instance with eight vCPUs, you would count four vCPUs as equivalent to one Oracle CPU license.
Therefore, you would need two processor licenses to license this instance properly.
Conclusion
Properly licensing Oracle software in cloud computing environments ensures compliance and avoids potential legal issues.
By carefully reviewing and understanding the guidelines outlined in this document, you can ensure that your organization is licensing Oracle software correctly in AWS and Microsoft Azure environments.
