When you buy an Oracle Database Appliance – any type – or just a X-server (e.g. X7-2), you get free support for OracleVM, Oracle Solaris and Oracle Linux. But Oracle Linux has different flavours , like basic, premier and premier limited. What kind of support do you get when buying hardware […]
Job Oprel
The bare minimum of licensing an ODA X7-2
The other day we had a discussion with Oracle sales about the question if you can buy an Oracle Database Appliance (ODA) X7-2 HA when you only have 1 socket license Oracle SE. The licensing rules can be interpreted different by some. Disregarding the question why you would buy an […]
ORA-31626, (Database-pump)-job does not exist
A short post about the ORA-31626 error. Found out a scheduled export- and import- job was broken in an Oracle Database. Error: ORA-31626: job does not exist. After checking the scheduled jobs I realized that it’s not the scheduled job, but the datapump-job (should have read the error more carefully – […]
June 23 2019, date of the SCN-bug
The what? I read about the SCN bug a few years ago (a wildly increasing value of the SCN till a certain limit has been reached ) , and took this for granted – most of it. Until recently a customer asked for help with a 9.2 database which had to […]
Oracle’s extended support – when is it free of charge
It’s such a simple, basic and old question I got from a colleague: “Do you have to pay for extended support?”. And if so, how much I have to pay for it. So basic and yet… always have to check again the waived support, what prices and where to find […]
Java SE licensing
There are several good blogs about this subject (like this one), and I never paid much attention to Java and licensing. Until one of our customers became a bit frightend after Oracle approached them with the question if they were really license compliant using Java. For many the words Java […]
The curious case of the blank plugin page in OEM13c
After an upgrade of Oracle Enterprise Manager from 12.1.0.5 to 13.2, I wanted to deploy a new version of the plugin oracle.sysman.db. Downloaded the new version and got to the plugin-management page to apply the patch. But all I got was a blank page. Cost me quite a while to […]
Deploying Oracle OEM agents 13c on windows targets (2008 R2) while OMS is on Linux
Situation at customer’s site: OMS 13.2 on Oracle Linux, targets are Windows machines, and a bit ancient: Windows 2008 R2. How to deploy agents on those targets? Several methods are possible in theory. In this blog I’ll describe my efforts to determine what is really possible and what is efficient.
Relocating base directory Enterprise Manager’s central agent
After the upgrade of the 12c central agent to 13c, I noticed the new central agent’s home located under the wrong – old agent – directory: /u01/app/oracle/agent12c/agent_13.2.0.0.0. Must have done something wrong. How to correct this? Want to move the directory to /u01/app/oracle/agent13c/. A very short blog to describe the […]
Upgrade OEM 12.1.0.5 OMS to OEM13.2
Despite the potential of Oracle Management Cloud, I’m a fan of Oracle Enterprise Manager, with its small imperfections. So when noticing a 12c Oracle Enterprise Manager on Linux, and targets on Windows, I took the challenge of modernizing the customer’s environment a bit. And the starting point , 12.1.0.5 for […]
Oracle, Azure Cloud and licensing with hyperthreading enabled.
Until recently, there was one rule when deploying Oracle software in the Azure cloud: count one Azure CPU Core as equivalent to one Oracle Processor license. But there was somehow what confusion about hyperthreading VM’s. This has been nuanced by Oracle in their cloud-licensing document very recently
Oracle Open World; day 4 – almost done
Almost done. It’s not expected that tomorrow, thursday, will be a day full of new stuff, exciting news. Today, wednesday was a mix for me between ‘normal’ content like sessions about migrating to Oracle Enterprise 13.2 (another packed room) and a very interesting session about the Autonomous Database. Just a […]
Oracle Open World; day 3- some highlights
Day 3 began with a very smooth and interesting keynote of Thomas Kurian, full of flawless, wonderful demo’s . The second keynote, of Larry Ellison happened in the afternoon, I couldn’t attent for as I head a product management meeting. But some hickups I heard. Beside the keynotes it was […]
Oracle Open World; day 2 – highlights
At Monday Oracle Open World really starts. A whole lot of general sessions with announcements and strategic directions on product / service level. In this post I’ll try to summarize the highlights of this day. Quite hard, there are a whole lot of interesting sessions which overlap. Always the […]
Oracle Open World 2017; day 1 observations
Just a quick note about day 1 at Oracle Open World. This Sunday traditionally is filled with presentations of usergroups, customers and product management, and at the end of the day the welcome-keynote. In the presentations there’s not really exciting news, they will have to wait until the keynotes. But […]
The day before OOW17; infra expectations
Oracle Open World 2017 is starting tomorrow, and as a platinum partner of Oracle, we – AMIS Services – are obliged to keep us and our customers informed with the roadmap of Oracle products. And of course translate this to added business-value for our customers. In short: what to pick […]
Virtualization on the Oracle Database Appliance S, M, L
One of the great advantages of the Oracle database Appliance HA is the possibility of Virtualization through OracleVM. This virtualization wasn’t possible for the other members of the Oracle Database Appliance. Until now. In the patch 12.1.2.11.0 which has been released recently for the ODA S,M and L, virtualization is […]
TCO cloud calculator Oracle and AWS
One of the main reasons to move to the cloud is the promise of a decreasing Total Cost of Ownership. But the calculation of the TCO (IaaS) is not always easy to do. Luckily some cloud-providers provide also the so-called TCO-calculators for comparising the TCO of your IT on-premise with […]
Consequences of stopping Oracle support
When buying licenses for Oracle, the first year support is mostly part of the deal. After that, a Customer may decide to stop paying for the yearly technical support of the Oracle licenses. The consequences of that decision is not always clear to customers. Most OLSA’s will contain the sentence […]
Net usable storage when using Oracle Database Appliance
Since the birth of the ODA X6-2 HA, the net usable storage has become more of a challenge when advising a customer as the X5-2 HA had substantial more – but slower – storage. This very short blogpost is just a quick summary / checklist of the net usable storage, […]
Public Cloud consequences with an Oracle environment
The title suggests a negative statement of using a Public Cloud. Well, it isn’t. I’m convinced the Cloud is the next BIG thing, with huge advantages for businesses. But companies should be aware of what they choose. A lot of providers, including Oracle, are pushing us to the cloud, Public, […]
Connecting Oracle Management Cloud with Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c
Let’s clear about this: Oracle Management Cloud (OMC) is NOT a replacement of Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control (OEM CC) or even an equivalant. Rumours are that this will be Oracle’s policy in a far away future, but in the meantime we focus on what they do best. OEM CC […]
Oracle Database Appliance X6-2L and X6-2 HA, comparing the line
A while ago I published an article about the ODA X6-2S and X6-2M, the new entry level machines for small business. And since then Oracle introduced the ODA X6-2L and the successor of de ODA X5-2: ODA X6-2 HA. Quite a line of ODA’s. But when to choose what ODA? […]
Deploying Oracle Management Cloud for Infrastructure monitoring
It’s a bit hard to choose the right heading for this article. How do you call setting up Oracle Management Cloud (OMC) – a trial environment – to explore the possibilities for monitoring the infrastructure such as hosts, databases, middleware. You don’t have to install OMC – it’s already there […]
Saving money by understanding Oracle licensing part 2
In part 1 the basics were explained. In this part II other topics will be treated like virtualizing, engineered systems, SE2, Unlimited License Agreements, Cloud and other stuff. Whenever I can I will link to other posts. Comments or additions are welcome. And of course, if there are still any questions […]
Saving money by understanding Oracle licensing, part 1
Oracle and licenses. The general feeling most of the time is that you pay too much for the use of the Oracle products, and it’s not always sure if you are compliant, because of the complexity of the rules. This – hopefully clarifying – blog is part of a small […]
Utilizing your IT environment with Oracle Database Appliance
I admit, I’m a bit of a fan of the Oracle Database Appliance. And I also admit there are some characteristics of the X5-2 ODA’s which made it sometimes a bit hard to fit in the needs of the customer. I’ll come to that later in this post. With the […]
Oracle Database Appliance X6-2S and X6-2M, filling the gap
Oracle introduced the ODA X6-2S and ODA X6-2M. And no, they are not the successor of the quite popular ODA X5-2, which we installed and configured quite a number of times lately. These 2 new machines are the in-between ODA’s, entry level machines for small business. Single node with flash […]
Connect Oracle Enterprise Manager 13 to Amazon’s Cloudwatch
Oracle Enterprise Manager 13C has been introduced as a ‘single pane of glass’. Managing and monitoring all the assets, in or out of the public cloud. But when creating an RDS- database instance in Amazon’s cloud, it is monitored by Cloudwatch, and it’s not possible to install a so-called Oracle […]
Chargeback in Oracle Enterprise manager 13C
Since Oracle Enterprise Manager 12C it is possible to allocate the costs of IT resources to the people of organizations who consume them. This is done through the use of the plugin ‘Consolidation Planning and Chargeback’ . Pete Sharman wrote an excellent blog about configuring this plugin in Enterprise Manager […]
Why go to a seminar or conference?
Developing a solid business case for going to a conference is not always easy. Most of the time the company culture dictates the succes-rate of your attempt. The necessity for your own development is of great importance to you but is most of the time not the prevailing factor for the company. […]
Migrating Red Hat Linux subscription to Oracle
I never realized in depth the difference between a Linux subscription and a license. Linux is open source, so the software itself is for free. No license to use it is required. But when you buy a Linux support subscription, you are legally entitled to download the ISO images […]
Modifying BI Publisher reports in Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c, e.g. ‘Database Usage Tracking Summary’
Recently I bumped into an annoying bug in the code of a report, wrote about it a while ago, notified Oracle. And they has confirmed that a new version of this specific report is in development phase. But.. a report can be modified, so if it’s not that hard, why […]
Oracle Public Cloud Confusion
I always thought I could address the main differences between private and public cloud. Oracle announced the ‘Oracle Private Cloud Machine’ at Oracle Open World 2015 which runs locally, offering a private cloud for an organization. Then Oracle decided to rename it to ‘Oracle Public Cloud Machine’. And I think […]
Usage Tracking Reports, using Oracle Enterprise Manager 13C as a SAM tool
Still loving the idea to use Oracle Enterprise Manager as a ‘kind of ‘ Software Asset Management Tool, and get regular centralized reports that tells me what Oracle software is running and if there are changes in use of licenses over time. The necessary data is already there in the […]
Implementing ORAchk in Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c
Heard about it at Oracle OpenWorld 2015: A new feature in Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c is the possibility to incorporate ORAchk, the healthcheck tool for databases, RAC and Engineered Systems. This post is about downloading (and importing), deploying and provisioning the ORAchk-plugin. Spoiler-alert: there’s downtime involved of the OMS. There […]
Oracle OpenWorld 2015 – a customer’s perspective
At the start of the each year, I always take the time to look back on the year we left behind. Last year, one of my most memorable experiences was Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco. The event has always been an overwhelming experience, but this year it seemed even more so. […]
Oracle licenses needed while monitoring your (non-)Oracle environment with OEM
With Oracle Enterprise Manager you are able to monitor an Oracle environment as well as a non-Oracle environment, like Microsoft’s SQL Server. You are also able to exchange notifications between Oracle Enterprise Manager and e.g. Microsoft’s SCOM, and there’s a choice how to monitor this heterogeneous environment. One of the […]
Licensing ODA on NUP’s and with different metrics
Since Oracle launched the Oracle Database Appliance a few years ago it has become clear that only the Enterprise Edition is allowed on the machine. But when NOT using the bare metal setup (not the OracleVM) it’s not always quite transparent what kind of licensing requirements is needed and allowed. More […]
Keeping track of your licenses with OEM12C – reports
Wouldn’t be nice to get regularly informed how (in)compliant you are with Oracle licenses in an easy – centralized – way, and therefore not have to worry about visits of Oracle’s LMS – License Management Services? I think that would be nice for the most of us. Running LMS-scripts on […]