oracle licencing

[McCu]

Is it true that Oracle require an aditional licence if you use Veeam to backup an Oracle server?

[Gostev]

No

[McCu]

Is it not the case that because a Veeam backup includes all of the Oracle binaries and is bootable, then any server where this backup resides will require a licence?

This is from Oracle licencing
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pric ... 070616.pdf

Remote Mirroring - This method involves the mirroring of the storage unit or
shared disks arrays. Remotely mirrored storage units may be geographically
dispersed and not in the same location as the primary unit, but they share the
same disk array. To setup a remote mirroring environment, the Oracle data
files, executables, binaries and DLLs are replicated to the mirrored storage
unit. Solutions like Veritas Volume Replicator, EMC SRDF, Legato Replistor, and
EMS StoreEdge are used to mirror the data stored in on the disk arrays. In this
environment, both the primary and the remote mirrored databases must be
fully licensed. Additionally, the same metric must be used to license both
databases. If the Oracle Database is accessing the data from the primary disk
array and it is not accessing the mirrored disk array, but it is installed on the
mirrored network storage unit, then both database must be fully licensed and
the same metric must be used. If a failure occurs in the primary storage unit
and the Oracle Database can no longer access the data from the primary disk
array, however it is still installed on the primary unit, and data can only be
accessed from the remote mirrored disk array, then both databases must still
be fully licensed and the same metric must be used. In this environment,
Oracle must be fully licensed at the primary site, and if it is ever installed
and/or run at the secondary site, it must also be fully licensed there.
Additionally, the same metric (i.e. processor-based, or named user-based)
must be used to license both databases.

[Gostev]

Veeam backups are not created by mirroring storage unit or shared disk arrays, so we are out of scope for this requirement if you are simply backing up your Oracle server. If however you use our replication functionality, then this might be different, and this worths checking with your Oracle representative directly. Typically, most vendors do not require that DR site software is licensed (as long as the software is only used when production site is down), but Oracle might be different.

[tsightler]

Oracle has some of the most draconian license policies in the world. The above license description is designed to push you to use one of Oracle's own replication technologies rather than that of another vendor since it's almost always going to be cheaper to simply license Dataguard or RAC or whatever, rather than another entire instance of Oracle. There are really only three possible options:

1. Ignore the license terms as they're likely not enforcible anyway and it's unlikely Oracle would ever find out or pursue the issue even if they did.

2. Let Oracle know just how stupid this licensing rule is and explain to them that, if they would like to continue to see your fat checks for support every year, they need to find a way to include the licensing for your secondary sites, whether that be by discounting the secondary site to the extreme, or offering significant additional breaks on the primary. Use an attorney familiar with purchase agreements and negotiate out any license terms that are simply not acceptable to you as a company and eventually find middle ground that satisfies you as a customer and Oracle as a vendor. I guess this method might not work with small purchases.

3. Just continue allowing Oracle to be the 900lb gorilla and take it up the "you know where".

For whatever reason, most organizations appear to take option #3.