Software Asset Management publisher pack for Oracle

Use the Software Asset Management publisher pack for Oracle to track and optimize licensing for your Oracle products.

The Oracle publisher pack supports the following Oracle products:

• Oracle Database
• Oracle Database options
• Oracle management packs
• Oracle Weblogic Server
• Oracle Java

To use the publisher pack, activate the Software Asset Management Professional for Oracle plugin (com.snc.samp.oracle).

Oracle licensing

The Oracle publisher pack adds Oracle specific licensing options for software entitlements.

Table 1. Software entitlement fields

Field	Options
Agreement Type	Generic Unlimited License Agreement (ULA)
License metric	Named User Plus Per Processor Employee
Metric group	Oracle

Important:

The Software Asset Management application supports Bring Your Own License (BYOL) for Oracle Database and WebLogic servers across hybrid infrastructures. With BYOL support, you can track licenses for your Oracle Database and WebLogic servers in both on-premise and public cloud environments. For more information about Oracle BYOL support, see Bring your own license or subscription to the public cloud.

Additionally, you can use the Oracle Global License Advisory Services (GLAS) to manage licensing of your deployed Oracle software products. For more information, see Oracle GLAS data collection.

Oracle license metrics

The Software Asset Management application supports the following license metrics for Oracle:

Named User Plus

The Named User Plus license metric licenses all users and physical devices that access the following Oracle products:

• Oracle Database
• Oracle Database options
• Oracle management packs
• Oracle Weblogic Server

If a user operates a device that accesses any of these Oracle products, the Named User Plus license metric licenses both the user and the device. Use this license metric in environments where users and devices are easily identifiable and countable.

Important:

To use this license metric, you must create a corresponding client access record. Client access records enable you to track and manage the users or devices that are accessing a particular version of your software. The Software Asset Management application can then use the information in these client access records to reconcile your software. For more information on client access records, see Create a software client access record in workspace or Add a software client access record in Software Asset Management classic.

The Named User Plus license metric implements different licensing minimums based on the Oracle Database or Oracle WebLogic Server edition that your users and devices are accessing.

• If your users and devices are accessing Oracle Database Standard Edition (SE) or Standard Edition One (SE1), you must have a minimum of five Named User Plus licenses.
• If your users and devices are accessing Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 (SE2), you must have a minimum of 10 Named User Plus licenses per database server. In addition, each SE2 database can use a maximum of 16 CPU threads at any given time.
• If your users and devices are accessing Oracle Database Enterprise Edition (EE), you must have a minimum of either 25 Named User Plus licenses per processor or the total number of users and devices that are accessing this database edition. The license metric sets this licensing minimum to the larger of the two values.
• If your users and devices are accessing Oracle WebLogic Server Standard Edition, you must have a minimum of 10 Named User Plus licenses per processor.
• If your users and devices are accessing Oracle WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition, you must have a minimum of 10 Named User Plus licenses per processor core.

Licensing minimums are automatically applied to the software models for your Oracle products using the following metric attributes:

• Minimum users per processor (Oracle Database products)
• Minimum NUPs for WebLogic on-premise deployments (Oracle WebLogic Server products in on-premise environments)
• Minimum NUPs for WebLogic cloud deployments (Oracle WebLogic Server products in cloud environments)

The Software Asset Management application can then use the metric attribute values to determine the number of rights that are required for each Oracle product. To determine this number, the Software Asset Management application multiplies the appropriate metric attribute value by the number of processors (Oracle WebLogic Server Standard Edition and all Oracle Database Standard editions) or processor cores (Oracle WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition and Oracle Database Enterprise Edition) on the underlying physical server that the Oracle product is installed or running on. The resulting value is compared against the total number of users and devices that are accessing the Oracle product. The number of required rights is set to the larger of the two values.

For example, 20 users are accessing an Enterprise Edition (EE) database that is running on a physical server with eight processor cores. The Named User Plus license metric consumes 200 rights because the number of rights that is based on the metric attribute value (25 minimum licenses x 8 CPU cores = 200 rights) is greater than the number of users that are accessing the database (20 users).

Per Processor

The Per Processor license metric licenses the server processors on which you install or run the following Oracle products:

• Oracle Database
• Oracle Database options
• Oracle management packs
• Oracle Weblogic Server
• Oracle Java

Although you can install and run Oracle products on physical servers, virtual servers, partitioned servers, and the cloud, the Per Processor license metric licenses processors on only the underlying physical server or cloud server.

The Per Processor license metric calculates the number of rights that are required for your Oracle products by multiplying the total number of processor cores by a core processor licensing factor, as specified on the Oracle Processor Core Factor Table. Use this license metric in environments where large numbers of users and devices are accessing the same environment or where users are not easily identifiable and countable, such as the Internet.

For example, a physical server that is running an Enterprise Edition (EE) database has two processors with four cores each. If your core processor licensing factor is 0.5, the Per Processor license metric consumes four rights for the physical server.

2 CPUs x 4 CPU cores x 0.5 licensing factor = 4 rights.

When you allocate rights for a database using the Named User Plus or Per Processor license metric, Software Asset Management automatically allocates rights for the associated database options and management packs using the same license metric.

If you create a Client Access License (CAL) record to specify the number of users or devices that can access an Oracle Database or WebLogic server, the Software Asset Management application licenses users and devices using only the Named User Plus license metric. Software Asset Management does not use the Per Processor license metric even if Per Processor licenses are available.

Employee

The Employee license metric licenses the total number of full-time, part-time, and temporary employees, including those employed directly and indirectly through agents, contractors, and consultants, according to Oracle's definition of internal business operations.

The Employee license metric calculates the number of licenses that are required by the total number of employees and not the number of employees that use the Oracle Java SE Universal. The 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. For more details, see Pricing model for Oracle Java SE Universal.

Additionally, for the Employee license metric, the true-up cost is shown for a subscription period of one year.

When you run reconciliation for a software model that has one or more entitlements with the Employee license metric, a right is consumed for each employee recorded in the resource value records. You can create a resource value record for the Java SE software model keeping the value of units consumed same as the number of employees consuming the licenses. For details, see Create a resource value record.

When you're using a custom tier table, you can update the override license cost records associated with the Java SE software model. For details, see Create or update an override license cost record.

Oracle verified third-party vendor tool

To collect installation and usage data for the Oracle products that are deployed in your environment, you must use a discovery process. With the verification and enrollment of ServiceNow in the Oracle Third-Party Tool Vendor (3PTV) Program, the ServiceNow Discovery application and Software Asset Management application are both verified by Oracle to collect and report on this data without requiring any Oracle measurement tools. You can collect and report on data for Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Fusion Middleware, and the underlying hardware that supports these products.

During contract renewals and audits, Oracle requires you to provide specific usage data for your Oracle products.​ You can collect this data by running scripts that are provided by Oracle. These scripts collect data about the Oracle products that are deployed in your environment, as well as the physical and virtual hardware that supports those products.​ However, the process of collecting and reviewing this data can be very time consuming.

The ServiceNow Discovery application uses Oracle-verified Discovery patterns and reporting to collect the same data that is provided in the script output. You can collect this data regularly to track your compliance and minimize unexpected audit results.

For more information on Oracle discovery, see Oracle Global License Advisory Services (GLAS) data collection.

Note:

To access all the benefits of ServiceNow Discovery, request and install the CMDB CI Class Models application from the ServiceNow Store. See CMDB CI Class Models store app for more information on this application.

• Oracle Database and WebLogic Server licensing in partitioned environments
  The Software Asset Management application supports Oracle licensing rules for Oracle Database and WebLogic Server in both soft- and hard-partitioned environments. You can use partitioning to help reduce the number of licenses that are required for your installations.
• Oracle Database and WebLogic Server licensing in cloud environments
  The Software Asset Management application supports licensing rules for Oracle Database and WebLogic Server in cloud environments.
• Oracle Database licensing in multitenant architectures
  The Software Asset Management application supports licensing rules for Oracle databases in multitenant architectures.
• Oracle Database licensing for Standard Editions
  Oracle Database Standard Editions are licensed on servers having a value less than the maximum capacity of sockets to help ensure risk-free license compliance.
• Oracle Database options and management packs
  You can use the Software Asset Management publisher pack for Oracle to track licensing positions for your Oracle Database options and management packs. The Licensable Oracle Options [samp_oracle_option_set] table provides the complete list of database options and management packs that you can create software models for.
• Oracle reconciliation
  Oracle reconciliation keeps your Oracle license positions accurate and up-to-date without requiring manual calculations. Reconciliation runs weekly or on-demand.
• Oracle Infrastructure report
  You can use the Oracle Infrastructure report to gain visibility into your Oracle infrastructure. This report includes information about the Oracle databases that you are running and the configuration items that are supporting these databases.
• Oracle DB Server Deployments per Agreement report
  You can use the Oracle DB Server Deployments per Agreement report to gain visibility into your Oracle Database server deployments across hybrid infrastructures, based on the agreement type.
• Software Publisher Analytics dashboard for Oracle in Software Asset Management classic
  View compliance analysis results related to Oracle on the Software Publisher Analytics dashboard in the Software Asset Management classic application.
• Publisher overview for Oracle in the Software Asset Workspace
  View license usage information related to Oracle in the publisher overview for Oracle in the Software Asset Workspace.