Tracking management of Oracle Database options

FlexNet Manager Suite version 2018 R2

Since Oracle options may be managed either locally on the database instance where they are running, or remotely using Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM), it can sometimes be difficult to understand why an Oracle option is shown as licensable on a particular database instance. New properties for database instances now make this easier to track:

• In the General tab of the properties for each database instance, the Managing OEM property reports which installation of Oracle Enterprise Manager most recently claims management of the database instance.
• In the Options tab of the same properties, the Used column shows which Oracle options are licensable on this database instance, and the new Enabled by column shows whether each option was enabled locally on This instance, or remotely by Oracle Enterprise Manager, meaning the installation identified on the General tab.

These new insights don't require any special configuration. It works for all methods of collecting FlexNet inventory for Oracle databases and instances, and only requires that the database instance used as a management repository by Oracle Enterprise Manager is among the database instances from which FlexNet inventory is collected.

Tip: If you use Oracle Database 12c or later, the OEM repository may be saved in a pluggable database instance. In this case, to support inventory from pluggable database instances, you need version 13.0.1 of the FlexNet inventory agent (distributed with FlexNet Manager Suite 2018 R1 hotfix 02) or later.

Logging for the FlexNet inventory agent locally installed on the Oracle server has also been enriched to include details of options discovered on each database instance. This may assist with troubleshooting your Oracle options.