Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 part II

In mine previous post (Oracle Database Standard Edition 2) I tried to transfer first information about SE2. The rumors are now confirmed that Oracle Standard Edition 2 is now available for download from OTN.
The new version of SE for Database brings new licensing rules which will have a huge impact on anyone who has been using Standard Edition One and/or Standard Edition to date, especially if they’re running RAC on SE.
Here’s the detail from the updated “Database Licensing” document found here.

Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 may only be licensed on servers that have a maximum capacity of 2 sockets. When used with Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 may only be licensed on a maximum of 2 one-socket servers. In addition, notwithstanding any provision in Your Oracle license agreement to the contrary, each Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 database may use a maximum of 16 CPU threads at any time. When used with Oracle Real Application Clusters, each Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 database may use a maximum of 8 CPU threads per instance at any time. The minimums when licensing by Named User Plus (NUP) metric are 10 NUP licenses per server.

More information about SE2 and its feature matrix compared to SE1/SE and EE can be found here.

So what does this mean for us, customers?

• Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 (SE2) will replace SE and SE1 from version 12.1.0.2
• SE2 will have a limitation of maximum 2 socket systems and a total of 16 CPU threads
• note not cores
• SE2 is hard coded in Resource Manager to use no more than 16 CPU threads.
• SE One and SE will no longer be available to purchase from 10th November 2015
• Oracle is offering a FREE license migration from SE One* and SE to SE2.
• SE One customers will have to pay a 20% increase in support as part of the migration.
• SE customers face no other cost increases for license or support, subject to Named User minimums being met.
• Named user minimums for SE2 are now 10 per server
• All the usual warnings about Oracle and VMwware still exist – don’t do it and stay away from the potential to become none-compliant and face a big bill from an Oracle audit. Contact us for advice if you’re in this situation today.
• 12.1.0.1 was the last SE and SE1 release
• 12.1.0.1 SE and SE1 customers will have 6 months of patching support once SE2 12.1.0.2 is released with quarterly patches still being available in Oct 2015 and Jan 2016.

In short, if you’re planning on applying new patches to your SE1/SE Databases past 12.1.0.1 you’re going to trigger these new licensing rules and you’re at risk of becoming none-compliant.

Why is Oracle doing this?

Our guess, it’s quite simple;

1. Generate new revenue from Oracle SE1/SE customers that have been “static” on these Editions for years. Eg, an ISV package that is underpinned by Oracle DB. Update – this now seems to be the wrong assumption as Oracle are offering a free migration to SE2 for SE One and SE customers. However, new SE2 customers will generate more revenue for Oracle compared to purchasing SE One.
2. Generate new cloud revenue. Eg, rather than upgrade to SE2 and buy the new licenses you might be tempted to adopt the Oracle Cloud “Database-as-a-Service”. Update – Again, with the license migration I don’t see how moving to the Oracle Cloud is now going to be used as an incentive by Oracle.
3. Limit the amount of SE customers (SE1, SE and SE2) on 2 socket commodity servers with the number of cores increasing year on year to upgrade to Enterprise Edition – especially those customers that are CPU bound on performance.

How will Oracle enforce this?

If you download the 12.1.0.2 patchset for SE don’t be surprised if you get contacted by your Oracle sales rep and/or LMS for an audit. Update – with the free license migration and potential for hard coded thread limitations means that the possibility of an LMS audit is almost zero.

What should we do now?

Work with Explorer to get a license health check for current and future usage. We’ll help you understand;

1. Your hardware and software landscape – number of servers, cores, threads, DB versions etc.
2. Your usage/dependency on RAC & DR/Failover
3. Your DB performance
4. When you plan to upgrade to 12.1.0.2
5. The cost impact for purchasing new licenses. update – with a free migration this is less of an issue but will still be a considering if you’re looking for new/additional licenses.
6. The options/benefits of using OVM or doing a hardware refresh

For more information or help/guidance on the impact of this change contact a member of the Oracle sales representative ... they will be happy to help advise you.
Hope this helps someone.

Cheers!