Oracle Licensing in ServiceNow SAM - 7 Activities customers should complete

[RyanShamirA]

Oracle is consistently one of the most complex and audit-heavy publishers in any organization's software portfolio. Getting your ServiceNow SAM environment correctly configured for Oracle isn't just a technical task — it's a compliance risk mitigation exercise.

Having worked closely with customers and partners on Oracle licensing scenarios in SAM, I've put together a practical checklist of the seven key activities you should work through to ensure your Oracle environment is accurately tracked, reconciled, and audit-ready.

Here's what's covered:

1. Plugin setup — what to install and where to find it
2. Discovery — native patterns vs. Oracle GLAS, and when to use both
3. License configuration — entitlements, software models, partitioning (hard/soft/cloud), BYOL vs. License Included
4. VMware aggregation — host affinity and aggregation level settings for Oracle on VMware
5. SAM Health Checks — identifying any configuration issues 
6. Reconciliation & reporting — Publisher Overview and Oracle Infrastructure Report
7. Java SE licensing — employee metric, tier pricing, and override cost configuration

Each part includes direct links to the relevant ServiceNow documentation.

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1. Setup & Prerequisites

• Verify plugin availability: Log in to your ServiceNow instance and navigate to System Applications > All Available Applications > All. Search for the Software Asset Management Professional for Oracle plugin (Plugin ID: con.snc.samp.oracle) and submit a plugin request if it is not already installed.

• You may need to wait for approval before installation. In parallel, review the Software Publisher Pack for Oracle documentation to obtain detailed insights on utilizing the Oracle related features in the application.
  
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/software-asset-management/oracle-publisher-pac...
  
  The Software Publisher Pack for Oracle supports the licensing of Oracle Database, Database Options, Database Management Packs, WebLogic and Java.

2. Discovery

• Patterns are available to discover Oracle Database (DB). Review the Oracle DB discovery requirements as specified.
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-operations-management/itom-visibility/c_OracleDatabaseDiscovery...

• Utilize the Oracle Global License Advisory Services (GLAS) data collection to discover Oracle DB and Options, Middleware, and Java configuration items:
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-operations-management/discovery-and-service-mapping-patterns/or...
  
  Both native discovery patterns and GLAS collection serve complementary roles. GLAS data is often referenced by Oracle during audits, making this an important input for compliance reporting.

3. License Configuration

• Ensure entitlements and software models are set up for supported Oracle products.
• Review each Oracle deployment and confirm whether it is in a hard-partitioned, soft-partitioned, or cloud environment.
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/software-asset-management/oracle-licensing-par...
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/software-asset-management/oracle-licensing-clo...
  
  
• Review and set up the level of aggregation and host affinity for reconciling licenses for Oracle DBs and WebLogic servers on VMware:
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/software-asset-management/define-application-p...
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/software-asset-management/sam-properties.html

 

4. Validation & Health Checks

• Perform SAM health checks to identify any configuration issues for Oracle DB, WebLogic and Java.
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/software-asset-management/sam-health-check.htm...

• View the results on the Health Check dashboard and review the recommendations on resolving the issues.
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/software-asset-management/health-check-dboard....

5. Reconciliation & Reporting

• Run reconciliation and go through the publisher overview for Oracle in the Software Asset Workspace ‘License Usage’ tab. Results are updated whenever a new reconciliation result is available.
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/software-asset-management/publisher-overview-o...

• Use the Oracle Infrastructure report to go through your Oracle infrastructure as this report would provide an insight about the Oracle databases running and the configuration items that are supporting these databases.
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/software-asset-management/oracle-infrastructur...

6. Java SE Licensing (If Applicable)

The following steps apply if your organization is using Oracle Java SE Universal under an employee-based license metric.

• Create a resource value record for the Java SE software model keeping the value of units consumed same as the number of employees including all personnel as defined in your Oracle contract.
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/software-asset-management/create-resource-valu...

• The Java employee licensing cost is calculated using a tier-based pricing model defined by Oracle. The pricing model is stored in the Price tier [samp_price_tier] table, which can be referred in following link.
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management?topicPivot=itam-oracle-price-tiers

• If your organization uses a custom pricing tier negotiated with Oracle, update the override license cost records associated with the Java SE software model accordingly.
  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-asset-management/software-asset-management/create-edit-override...

7. Additional Resources

• For a guided walkthrough of ServiceNow SAM capabilities, refer to the SAM video series below.
  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkGSnjw5y2U4zdMtBnktGnnoH_higJEN0