Oracle Licensing with Veeam Explorer

[chaosad]

How is licensing with Oracle for Veeam especially in regards to backups and Explorer? How does Explorer work as in does it start it's own Oracle instance and that is how it can restore fine grain? If so that would need it's own license in Oracle eye's wouldn't it? What about the backups created themselves both the VM whole backup and the Oracle application specific backup. Do any of those require a separate license from Oracle , esp the VM backup as it does contain the binaries?

Do you have any docs to backup any Licensing answers?

Thanks for any help on this!

This concerns Oracle SE1 licensed databases

[Gostev]

I assume you are asking about transaction-level recovery functionality. Veeam Explorer for Oracle does not start it's own Oracle instance, instead it uses an existing Oracle instance that you point it to (aka staging server).

And for simple point-in-time restore, we just copy database and log files to the target Oracle server, mount the database and replay logs there (so no staging server is required at all).

Regardless, Oracle licensing is extremely complex, so it is best to direct any Oracle licensing questions to your Oracle representative, as we're obviously not in position to give you guidance on another company's licensing... besides, this can quickly turn into a legal issue for Veeam.

Thanks!

[chaosad]

So based on that, we need to have at least 1 extra license for the 'staging server'?

As for PiT recovery, you are just apply logs that were backed up. There is no oracle binaries involved at all? It is only hitting the oracle instance that is being restored?

[Gostev]

I don't know if us using the existing Oracle server that you are already using to run other databases requires an extra license with Oracle licensing.

Regular PIT recovery is no different from how you would manually restore the database to the same target Oracle server using RMAN, just fully automated.

[tsightler]

I don't know if us using the existing Oracle server that you are already using to run other databases requires an extra license with Oracle licensing.

With the obvious disclaimer that I'm a Veeam employee, not an Oracle licensing expert, I can't think of any scenario that would require an extra license for this use case. If you use the "restore to a specific transaction" functionality Veeam does technically start another instance, but we use the binaries from the selected ORACLE_HOME. You can select any existing ORACLE_HOME, with a compatible Oracle version, in the environment. In most cases Oracle does not restrict the number of instances, or even ORACLE_HOMEs, that can be installed on a server, as licensing is by processor or by named user, not per-instance.

I suppose if you installed Oracle on a server to use specifically as a staging server, rather than using one of your existing servers, and you didn't have either enough named users (there is a minimum number of named users per processor/server which varies by edition) or enough processor licenses to cover this new instance, then you would probably need additional licensing, but I expect most users to simply use the existing Oracle server for the handful of times they'd want to browse and select a very specific transaction, the only use case that requires any staging.

The definitive guide for Oracle licensing is the Software Investment Guide. Also, referenced is the Licensing Data Recovery which covers Oracle licensing for failover environments, such as replication, and DR testing of backups (such as using Surebackup). Oracle is quite restrictive with these use cases, but does provide some limited use.

In summary, as already noted, Oracle licensing is very complex, and is governed by your specific purchase agreement with Oracle. No one at Veeam can claim that any specific use is compliant, only Oracle can do that, so if you have concerns, the absolute best bet is to ask your Oracle representative, and even better, get it in writing.

[chaosad]

Thanks, that def does help.

One of the things we were trying to wrap our head around is the full virtual backup. The one where you can then turn around and stand up that VM clone. Since that copies the binaries, we were trying to figure out if that constitutes need of license. Right now we do the RMAN backups and store those. So there is no binaries to be had on the backup server and vault. So is the storing of the binaries, on another server, constitute the need for license, even though it not used at the time. When it is used, presumably we would have a SE1 license to then cover it starting up.

The best answer would be to ask Oracle, but sadly that is also the worst.

[tsightler]

The best answer would be to ask Oracle, but sadly that is also the worst.

I understand this comment, but unfortunately it's also the only place to get an accurate answer that can be accepted. Everything else is just random people on a forum giving their opinion.

To me, Veeam backing up Oracle isn't any different that dozens of other programs have been doing for a long time. The fact that Veeam backs up a VM image rather than the files, doesn't really change anything, it's still a copy of the binaries to an archive. In the Veeam case, restoring the VM can be fast, but it still requires performing a restore operation before the Oracle data can be used. Oracle seems to understand that customers will make backups of their systems, and even want to test them, based on their quote from the Licensing Data Recovery Environments doc I linked earlier:

Testing
For the purpose of testing physical copies of backups, your license for the Oracle Database
(Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition or Standard Edition One) includes the right to run the
database on an unlicensed computer for up to four times, not exceeding 2 days per testing, in
any given calendar year. The aforementioned right does not cover any other data recovery
method - such as remote mirroring - where the Oracle program binary files are copied or
synchronized.

However, I must once again say that this is just my personal opinion, which isn't that useful, and certainly is not an official Veeam stance. It's just the random opinion of a guy who used to use a lot of Oracle, and had to deal with their licensing, and now happens to be a Veeam employee, so I thankfully don't have to deal with Oracle licensing anymore.

[pdimarco]

Hi,

Did anyone ever open the discussion with oracle about their licencing model in case of failover in CCR ?

Thanks in advance.

[veremin]

Check the answers provided above. They do not mention VCC-R specifically. However, the concepts described are still applicable to it. Thanks.