Oracle Licensing
Oracle licensing is a relatively complex topic. The following links point to articles and documents that I have come across in my attempt to understand it. There are many potential scenarios, particularly with backup and recovery, disaster recovery and failover, and virtualization and clustering. Even after reading the articles and documents, and the Oracle documentation, it is probably necessary to have discussions with Oracle representatives to determine whether a particular scenario or architecture is correctly licensed. As well as database (engine/software) licenses, attention must be paid to database options and tuning packs.
Oracle Database Licensing
Oracle’s Licensing Rules – 5 Common pitfalls (techrepublic)
Oracle Licensing Information (pdf)
Oracle Software Investment Guide (pdf)
VMWare and Oracle Licensing
Oracle Database Licensing – raises questions