Oracle Database Vault Licensing – The Complete Guide

Oracle Database Vault is licensed based on:

• Processor-Based Licensing: This option depends on the number of processors in the server where Oracle Database Vault is installed.
• Named User Plus Licensing: This option is based on the number of users accessing the database.
• Enterprise Edition Requirement: The license metrics and quantities must match those of the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition license.

Oracle Database Vault

Oracle Database Vault is an add-on security feature for Oracle Database Enterprise Edition. It offers advanced data protection mechanisms to control and restrict access to sensitive information.

However, its licensing requirements and costs can be complex, requiring a clear understanding to ensure compliance and cost-effectiveness.

Licensing Oracle Database Vault: Key Rules

1. Enterprise Edition Dependency

• Oracle Database Vault is exclusively available as an Oracle Database Enterprise Edition (EE) add-on.
• It cannot be used with the Standard Edition or any other edition.
• The licensing model and quantity for Database Vault must exactly match those of the associated Enterprise Edition license.

2. Matching License Metrics

• Processor-Based Licensing: For environments using processors as the licensing metric, the Database Vault license must cover the same number of processors as the Enterprise Edition database.
• Named User Plus Licensing: If the database uses Named User Plus (NUP) licensing, the same number of NUP licenses must be applied to the Database Vault.

3. Core Factor Table Usage

• Processor-based licensing for Database Vault follows the Oracle Processor Core Factor Table. The number of required licenses is determined by multiplying the total number of cores in the processor by the core factor applicable to the processor type.

4. Additional Cost

Licensing costs for Database Vault are substantial, emphasizing the importance of accurately estimating usage needs to avoid over-provisioning.

Database Vault requires a separate license and is not included in the Enterprise Edition base cost.

Features of Oracle Database Vault

Oracle Database Vault offers robust security features tailored for organizations aiming to enhance data protection and meet regulatory compliance requirements. These features are critical for ensuring fine-grained access control within Oracle databases:

Multiple conditions are required before granting access, providing an extra layer of protection. Economical as the user base expands.

Realms

Protect sensitive data by creating barriers that prevent unauthorized users, even privileged database administrators, from accessing or modifying data.

Command Rules

Define and enforce rules governing the execution of specific SQL commands. For example, blocking DROP TABLE commands during certain time windows.

Factors

To enforce context-based access restrictions attributes such as IP address, time of day, or device type are used.

Rule Sets

Collections of rules that work with realms and command rules to provide flexible and nuanced security controls.

Secure Application Roles

Ensure application roles are activated only under specific, predefined conditions, enhancing security in application-level data access.

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