Comments on: Licensing Oracle on VMware vSphere

By: Donnetta Bassler

Donnetta Bassler — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 16:15:51 +0000

will this get u banned ?

By: DRS Host Affinity rules can be used to run Oracle on a subset of the hosts within a cluster | UP2V

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:24:13 +0000

[...] posting on the internet about Oracle licensing. Jay Weinshenker wrote an interesting post titled Licensing Oracle on VMware vSphere with usefull thoughts and comments from readers. Another blogposting by Jay titled Yet another way [...]

By: Alex Andrew

Alex Andrew — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:00:47 +0000

Thanks J, for a great article, we have been advising clients for the past 4 years that Licensing Oracle on VMware is a challenge. In my experience core/disabling is not on the list of Hard-partitioning technologies as mentioned in the Oracle guide. The only alternative is to remove the CPU’s, in some cases that is exactly what the client has done. I agree that vendors and customers should be looking closely at virtualization policies, and pushing the Vendors on a contract negotiation may be the only way to get what you want.

By: J

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:49:39 +0000

I understand what you’re saying Simon, and I do appreciate the comment. As we’ve both seen, this has come up in several discussions on the Internet over the years, and I’ve approached numerous Oracle reps about this and been told similar things – but every time I’ve asked Oracle to put this in official legal contract writing, they have demurred. The best official communication in writing I have is the partitioning guide which I read to state that Oracle does let customers license only CPUs turned on. Unfortunately their legalese says I cannot reproduce the document, but it is linked to in the article you commend on.

Thanks for stopping by and I do appreciate your feedback.

By: Simon Haslam

Simon Haslam — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:54:22 +0000

Oracle does NOT recognise CPU/core disabling in the BIOS as a means of hard partitioning or reducing the required Oracle licence count (this has come up in several discussions in 2009 and 2010). It’s counter-intuitive I know.

By: Rick Pollock

Rick Pollock — Thu, 05 May 2011 04:48:40 +0000

Carl, have you heard more on the licensing issue with CPU disabling via BIOS?

By: J

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:31:23 +0000

Wow, keep me informed please, since that appears to be in direct contradiction to their partitioning document.

I suspect you have an over zealous sales person, but who knows.

By: Carl Bradshaw

Carl Bradshaw — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:49:07 +0000

Just an update, that in my recent project-based discussions with Oracle they have verbally stated that CPU disabling via BIOS is considered a ‘soft partition’ and they are requesting license payment for all CPUs/cores in the target system.

We have asked for written confirmation but nothing as yet.

By: Rickard Nobel

Rickard Nobel — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:06:39 +0000

I belive CPU Affinity (pinning) can only be set when not using DRS at the same time. The option is removed for a VM inside a DRS cluster.

By: J

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 02:06:21 +0000

Carl, all I can say is to check out the second half of the partition document from Oracle…it states ( in my interpretation of course since I am not allowed to quote) that processor disabling is allowed.