One of the most misunderstood Oracle license policies is the so called “ten day rule”. Many customers (and even Oracle salespeople) interpret the “ten day rule” to mean they can run a standby or disaster recovery server for up to 10 days without requiring a license. The actual rule is actually quite simple and applies to a very specific situation, which Oracle defines as “Failover”.
From an Oracle licensing point of view, “Failover” applies specifically to active/passive hardware clusters where Oracle software is installed on two nodes in an active/passive cluster with shared storage. Examples of this type of cluster are MS Failsafe, Veritas Cluster, Sun Cluster, and Oracle Cluster Ready Services (CRS) and Oracle RAC One Node.
In this scenario Oracle runs on a primary node and fails over to the passive “failover” node when the primary node fails. Oracle allows customers to install Oracle database on the passive failover node withour requiring licensing for that node, subject to the “ten day rule”.
The ten day rule states that customers must purchase licensing for the passive failover server if it is active (i.e. database running) for more than 10 calendar days in a given calendar year.
For example, if you fail over to the passive node at 11:00 pm on Monday and fail back to the active node at 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday, that counts as two days against your 10 days per calendar year.
From Oracle’s current license definitions and rules:
Failover: Your license for the following programs, Oracle Database (Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition or Standard Edition One) and Oracle Internet Application Server (Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, Standard Edition One or Java Edition) includes the right to run the licensed program(s) on an unlicensed spare computer in a failover environment for up to a total of ten separate days in any given calendar year. Any use beyond the right granted in the previous sentence must be licensed separately and the same license metric must be used when licensing the program(s).
Full License Definitions and Rules can be found here: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/olsadef-ire-v122304-070549.pdf
The ten day rule is often confused with Oracle’s license policy for testing backups, which allows customers to install Oracle on a spare server for the purpose of periodically testing database backups and then immediately turn the server off and keep it turned off until you need to test the backup. For testing backups, you can turn the server on and load the database from your backup up to four times, not exceeding 2 days per testing, in any given calendar year.
From Oracle’s License Definitions and Rules:
For the purpose of testing physical copies of backups, your license for the Oracle Database (Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition or Standard Edition One) includes the right to run the database on an unlicensed computer for up to four times, not exceeding 2 days per testing, in any given calendar year.
Supporting documentation is here on page 7: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/olsadef-ire-v122304-070549.pdf
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Cintra is a Global Oracle Platinum Partner with offices in New York City, Dublin, Ireland, and Bristol, UK. We were awarded Oracle’s Global Database Partner of the year for 2011 and Oracle’s North American Partner of the Year for the Database Appliance for 2012. We are consistently ranked among Oracle’s top Value Added Resellers.
Cintra’s Oracle License and Support Review Services serve as a friendly audit of our customers’ Oracle deployments and enable customers the make informed decisions to maintain Oracle License Compliance at the lowest possible cost. For more information on Cintra’s licensing services and Oracle implementation and Remote DBA services, please visit http://www.cintra.com or email Seth Feeley sfeeley@cintra.com