There is no movement of the Oracle database across virtual machines. To understand the licensing and compliance implications of using VMware for virtualization, let’s use a scenario to demonstrate the difference between VMware’s licensing interpretation compared to Oracle’s licensing policies: Scenario A: An Oracle customer is using VMware vSphere to manage virtual machines in a cluster of 4 Sun UltraSPARC T2+ servers, where an instance of Oracle Database Enterprise Edition is running on a virtual machine with 6 cores assigned. Understanding these complexities is critical to remain compliant, especially when organizations restructure their IT landscape through upgrades or migrations to a new physical server. However, Oracle customers deploying VMware may unintentionally put themselves at risk of non-compliance due to the licensing complexities associated with virtual machines.

VMware provides a leading virtualization platform which allows organizations to reduce hardware related costs and improve operational efficiencies in their IT environment. Oracle customers must keep in mind the benefits coming with virtualization directly impact the revenue stream of Oracle since it requires less physical hardware and consequently reduces the Oracle license counts, licensing fees, and related support fees. Unfortunately, Oracle will offer very limited guidance on how to properly apply database licensing metrics for non-Oracle virtualization software. Running Oracle databases using VMware for server virtualization is one of these licensing compliance red flags for Oracle.

This starts by identifying licensing practice red flags software providers are targeting. While there is nothing a customer can do to change its software providers’ audit policies, organizations should do their best to avoid licensing audit triggers. These business events were described as either intentional by Oracle customers, such as deciding to cancel or reduce support agreements with Oracle, or unintentional, such as Oracle Licensing Management Service’s (LMS) average audit frequency of its customers every 3 to 5 years. In a prior blog, we discussed the top 10 business scenarios impacting organizations’ risk exposure to an Oracle audit.