Transparency into the licensing of Oracle Database features

IT Asset Management version 2019 R1.5

Correctly licensing Oracle Database features and options is an extensive task that may require a deep level of investigation to understand the licensing results. The new Oracle Database transparency feature now provides you with greater visibility into the reason why an Oracle feature (option or pack) is, or is not, used on an Oracle database instance.

The major part of this feature is an enhancement to the Used property of the option/pack listed in the Options tab of the properties of the Oracle database instance. This property indicates whether an Oracle option or pack that is installed on the database instance is reportedly used (Yes) or not used (No). This result now links to the new Usage Details dialog, which lists the host name of the local server and any OEM server(s) that were scanned to get these results, and the date of each scan. If additional information is available, the dialog lists the result of each test that was run to determine whether or not each option or pack was used, and which feature of the Oracle database instance was tested. We recommend that you use the latest version of the Oracle Inventory scripts which are distributed with the Application Recognition Library and other library downloads to achieve the highest data quality for this feature.

Note: If you wish to use this feature, there are three requirements:
  • You must have not opted out of data storage in Amazon Web Services (AWS). For more details see the email you received in July 2019 from Flexera, notifying you that Flexera will begin storing some data in Amazon Web Services (further explanation here). The Usage Details dialog relies on facilities and storage provided by AWS.
  • At this release, the new Usage Details dialog must first be enabled by Flexera (for early adopter customers). Contact your Customer Success Manager or Flexera Support if you wish to enable this feature ahead of its general release. (It is planned that, at the next release of IT Asset Management cloud, expected to be 2019 R1.6 in September, this feature will be enabled for all current cloud subscribers who have not opted out of AWS.) Notice that as of the 2019 R1.5 release, there are no plans to provide this Oracle Database transparency feature other than through the processing and data storage facilities of AWS.
  • After the Usage Details dialog is enabled, you must have uploaded the latest Oracle .ndi file collected by the locally-installed FlexNet Inventory Agent on the Oracle Database server hosting the database instance. It is as the uploaded .ndi file is resolved into the inventory database that the details are handed off for processing and storage in AWS.

The second part of this new feature is an enhancement which links the existing Option name property to the properties of that Oracle Database option or pack. This link opens the General tab of the application properties page for the option. This enhancement is enabled by default.

Both of these new features are located in the Options tab of the Oracle instance properties page (Discovery & Inventory > Oracle Instances > Oracle Instance Properties). For more information, refer to the Options tab page in the online help.

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

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