Oracle Database and WebLogic Server licensing in soft-partitioned environments
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Summary of Oracle Database and WebLogic Server licensing in soft-partitioned environments
The Software Asset Management (SAM) application supports Oracle Database and WebLogic Server licensing rules for soft-partitioned environments, such as those using VMware and Nutanix virtualization technologies. Soft partitioning segments the operating system (OS) to limit CPU resources available to Oracle software, enabling licensing based on Named User Plus or Per Processor metrics. WebLogic Server licensing support covers all editions including Standard, Enterprise, and Suite.
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Oracle Licensing on VMware vSphere
When running Oracle Database or WebLogic Server on VMware vSphere virtual machines (VMs), licensing requires covering all processors on the underlying physical ESXi host running those VMs. Even if multiple VMs share the host, all processors must be licensed. Oracle licensing on VMware vSphere depends on the VMware vMotion capability, which allows VM migration between physical hosts without downtime.
- For vSphere ESXi 5.0 and earlier: License all processors on all physical hosts within the same shared storage/datacenter.
- For vSphere ESXi 5.1-5.5: License all processors on all hosts within the same VMware vCenter Server instance.
- For VMware vCenter Server 6.0 and later (with ESXi 5.1+): License all processors on all hosts within all vCenter Server instances across the network.
Enabling the “Use host affinity for reconciling licenses” option in SAM ensures licensing respects VM-host affinity rules, basing license counts on all physical hosts the VMs can run on according to these rules.
Oracle Licensing on Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV)
Nutanix AHV is not recognized by Oracle as a hard partitioning technology, so licensing must cover all physical cores on the AHV host running the Oracle VM. If the host is part of a Nutanix cluster, all physical cores in the entire cluster must be licensed. SAM supports licensing at both the host and cluster level, provided no Nutanix cluster exists for host-level licensing. For example, deploying an Oracle database on a VM in a Nutanix cluster requires counting all physical cores across the cluster for license consumption.
The Software Asset Management application supports Oracle Database and WebLogic Server licensing rules in soft-partitioned environments, such as VMware and Nutanix virtualization technology.
Soft partitioning enables you to segment the operating system (OS) of the environment into different OS types and OS versions by using OS resource managers. OS resource managers limit the number of processors that each Oracle database or WebLogic server can run on by creating segments in which CPU resources are allocated to applications within the same OS. For more information about Oracle licensing and soft partitioning, refer to the Oracle Help Center.
When you install or run an Oracle Database or WebLogic Server in soft-partitioned environments, you can license it using either the Named User Plus or Per Processor license metric. In addition, the WebLogic Server licensing support covers the entire WebLogic product family that includes the Standard, Enterprise, and Suite editions. For more information, refer to this knowledge base article KB2630167.
VMware vSphere
VMware vSphere is a virtualization platform through which you can install and run Oracle databases or WebLogic servers on virtual machines (VMs). To run an Oracle database or WebLogic server on a VM, you must license all processors on the underlying physical ESXi host that is running your VM. If your physical ESXi host is running multiple VMs simultaneously, you must still license all processors on the host regardless of how many VMs are running the Database or WebLogic server.
Oracle licensing on VMware vSphere is based on the VMware vMotion capability that is associated with each vSphere version. VMware vMotion is the VMware vSphere technology that enables VMs to migrate from one physical ESXi host to another without service interruptions.
The Oracle publisher pack supports the following Oracle licensing models on VMware vSphere:
| VMware vSphere version | VMware vMotion capability | Licensing model |
|---|---|---|
| VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0 and earlier | VMs can migrate to any physical ESXi host within the same shared storage under the same datacenter. | You must license the processors on all physical ESXi hosts within the same shared storage under the same datacenter. |
| VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1-5.5 | VMs can migrate to any physical ESXi host within the same VMware vCenter Server instance. | You must license the processors on all physical ESXi hosts within the same VMware vCenter Server instance. |
| VMware vCenter Server 6.0 and later | VMs can migrate to physical ESXi hosts within any VMware vCenter Server instance across your network. Migration is supported only on physical hosts that run VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1 or later on VMware vCenter Server 6.0 and later instances. | You must license the processors on all physical hosts that run VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1 or later within all VMware vCenter Server 6.0 and later instances across your network. |
For more information about Oracle licensing on VMware, see Understanding Oracle Certification, Support and Licensing for VMware Environments.
Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV)
The AHV is a virtualization platform from Nutanix using which you can install and run Oracle databases and WebLogic servers on Nutanix VMs. According to Oracle’s Server Partitioning Policy, only specific technologies, possibly with certain modified configuration constraints, are considered hard partitioning. Nutanix isn’t included in Oracle’s list of approved hard partitioning technologies. Therefore, to run an Oracle Database on a Nutanix VM, you must license all physical cores on the AHV host running the VM with Oracle Database.
Additionally, if the physical host is part of a Nutanix Cluster, you must license all the physical cores in that cluster. The Oracle publisher pack supports licensing at both the cluster level and the host level, provided there’s no Nutanix cluster.
In the following example, the license consumption for deploying a database on Virtual Machine VM1 is calculated at the cluster level. This calculation implies that all physical cores across all hosts in Cluster1 are counted for licensing.