DATASHEET
Oracle® Databases on VMware® Support and Licensing Oracle Databases Support for VMware Current Support Oracle has had an official support policy for VMware since 2007. For customers with long-standing Oracle and VMware relationships, the policy is well understood and proven. VMware uses virtualized Oracle products to run its own business. Oracle's E-Business Suite and Siebel infrastructure were virtualized by VMware, and have been supported by Oracle from the outset per Oracle’s standard policy of support for VMware. Considerations:
Know the facts: Oracle’s policy toward virtualization with VMware is characterized for subscribers by MyOracleSupport, Document ID #249212.1. Gartner, IDC, and others also have documents for their subscribers that specifically address this policy. Be pragmatic about your approach: VMware worked with its Oracle account team to understand the support policy and establish a baseline for success. After testing Oracle Support in a VMware virtualized, pre-production Oracle environment, VMware had the confidence to put virtualized Oracle databases into production to run its own business. That confidence has been repeatedly reaffirmed over more than two years of uptime. Oracle Support owns your support agreement: If you seem to be getting conflicting messages about the supportability of Oracle on VMware, recognize that Oracle Support is the ultimate authority on your entitlement. No one else, including VMware, has the ability to define this. VMware worked with Oracle Support to clarify their Support policy and got the support it needed to proceed with two separate enterprise-wide projects. VMware customers have benefitted from Oracle’s support policies since 2007. Their success with virtualized Oracle databases has helped them achieve higher levels of utilization and flexibility, while improving DBA access to core Oracle products.
Technology Partners for Oracle Support VMware has collaborated with EMC Corporation to test and qualify an Oracle single instance 11g database on Symmetrix, Clariion, and Celerra storage platforms. EMC’s labs and support organization have done extensive testing with Oracle on VMware. EMC customers are in a unique position to benefit from this enhanced understanding of dynamic Oracle workloads on VMware. For more information about EMC’s enhanced support for Oracle customers running on VMware, visit http://www.emc.com/solutions/applicationenvironment/oracle/oracle-virtualization-vmware.htm.
Service and Integration Partners for Oracle Support For over a decade, House of Brick Technologies has been helping customers of all sizes with Oracle and other Tier 1 application integration best practices and support. They have extensive customer experience with Oracle on VMware. Learn how House of Brick can help you make the most of your Oracle or other Tier 1 workloads on VMware by visiting www.houseofbrick.com/oracle-on-vmware.
Oracle Databases on VMware Support and Licensing Guide
Licensing Model for Oracle Databases on VMware Oracle databases are classified into three major editions: Enterprise Edition (EE) Standard Edition (SE) Standard Edition One (SE-1)
The editions are described as follows. Enterprise Edition (EE)
Licensed by Core
This is the customers' the most popular choice for production databases. All Oracle features and add-ons can be applied to Oracle EE. This is the “workhorse” of the mix and is the database that customers typically run in production and preproduction environments.
Customers count the number of cores on a given server, and license every core, regardless of how many cores Oracle applications actually use. After licensing, a machine can support unlimited virtual machines.
Standard Edition (SE)
Licensed by Socket
Same database as EE, but limited to four sockets. A key feature of SE is that it includes RAC. At about one-third the cost of Oracle EE, this version is an excellent choice for customers looking to affordably extend their Oracle footprint to more users, deploy a small RAC configuration, or do other useful work with Oracle on a smaller 4socket scale.
Customers can license up to 4 sockets and, after licensing, run unlimited virtual machines on a machine. This is an attractive option for x86 deployments. The SE license limits SE to 4-socket clusters. That is, one 4-socket host, two 2-socket hosts, or four 1-socket hosts. If customers attempt to use SE in vCenter clusters larger than that, Oracle requires a license upgrade to Oracle EE. The easy solution: isolate SE editions in 4-socket vCenter logical clusters to comply with licensing.
Standard Edition One (SE-1)
Licensed by Socket
Same database as EE, but limited to two sockets and lacks RAC functionality. The SE-1 version is the “ultimate” developer edition for runtime, as it is 1/8th the price of EE, but can still support the same DB as a production server licensed with the EE version.
Customers can license up to 2 sockets with SE-1 and, after licensing, run unlimited virtual machines on a machine. There is “extension” potential with SE-1 running on VMware vSphere™ DBAs can host multiple Oracle virtual machines on a 2-socket box running SE-1 and add additional developers to the Oracle mix affordably. This option is largely underutilized by customers and is a great way for VMware to add value to the Oracle development environment. The same caveat for clustering applies here: SE-1 may not be clustered beyond a single 2-socket box or two 1socket boxes.
VMware does not offer guidance on third-party licensing. Oracle provides publicly available pricing and licensing information. More information can be obtained from the Oracle website:
http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/index.html
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/database/producteditions-066501.html
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