Options Tab

IT Asset Management (Cloud)
The Options tab on the properties for an Oracle database instance displays a list of Oracle options installed on the database instance. Oracle options that are installed, but for which the Used column displays No, have no impact on Oracle licensing. The data showing which Oracle options are installed may come from either of two sources:
  • The FlexNet inventory gathered from this database instance itself
  • Inventory from an Oracle Enterprise Manager repository (the database instance used to store the OEM data) for the installation of Oracle Enterprise Manager that most recently claimed management knowledge of this database instance. In this case, the OEM repository is identified on the General tab of these properties, as Managing OEM.
This information comes from running a series of Oracle queries for each option against the database instance. If any one of the queries returns a non-zero value for Used, the option is listed as used on this tab, as required by Oracle. For example, queries testing for the Advanced Compression option include, among others:
  • AdvancedCompression_ByTableCompression
  • AdvancedCompression_BySecureFilesCompressionAndDeDuplication
  • AdvancedCompression_ByLogArchiveCompression
  • AdvancedCompression_ByFeatureDataGuard.
Tip: Whilst the Usage Details dialog, which may be accessible from the current tab (if you have requested this facility), provides you with a summary message for each piece of evidence, inspecting the tracker.log remains a valuable secondary method of investigation. If the inventory source for this database instance is the FlexNet Inventory Agent locally installed on the Oracle server, then the tracker.log file shows the results for every query, allowing you to dig deeply into the evidence for use of each Oracle option. This includes queries for options that are not currently installed/available on this database instance, but are checked anyway. If this database instance happens to also be an OEM repository (storing management data for Oracle Enterprise Manager), the log is extended to show results for every query on every database instance on every Oracle server managed by that installation of OEM. The location of the log file on each Oracle server is:
  • On Windows: $(TempDirectory)\ManageSoft\tracker.log
  • On UNIX-like platforms: /var/opt/managesoft/log/tracker.log.
The full list of options that may be relevant to this database instance depends on both the version and the edition of Oracle Database for which this is a database instance. The options shown in this tab are definitely applicable to this database instance, and identified by the Oracle queries as described above. To identify others that are not installed/available on this database instance but could be relevant, please see the Oracle listings for your version and edition of Oracle Database. For example:

You can perform the following actions on this tab:

  • Search for an Oracle option: This search is restricted to Oracle options that are installed on this database instance (whether used or not). For more information about using lists, filters, and other UI options, see the topics under Using Lists in IT Asset Management.
  • Open the properties for an Oracle option: You can click the linked Option name property, or select any installed Oracle option and click Open to view its properties. For more details on those option properties, see Application Properties.
  • Open the Usage Details for an Oracle option: You can click the linked Used property to view usage details as outlined below.
The following properties of Oracle options (listed alphabetically) are available for display. By default, all of these properties are displayed, although you may choose to hide some using the Choose columns dialog box.
Table 1. Oracle option properties on the Options tab
Property Description
Enabled by
This column may show:
  • This instance when the Oracle option was enabled locally on this Oracle database instance (described in this property sheet).
  • Oracle Enterprise Manager when the Oracle option is being 'remotely' managed through Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM). In this case, you can identify which implementation of OEM is controlling the option by switching to the General tab and checking the value for Managing OEM. The same implementation of OEM manages both the database instance and associated options (other than those options that were enabled locally on the database instance).
    Tip: This value (Oracle Enterprise Manager) can be displayed only after inventory has been received from the managing OEM. In the absence of that inventory (such as immediately after an upgrade of IT Asset Management), this column defaults to This instance. After the next full inventory import and compliance calculation (typically overnight, unless you run one sooner), the value is updated as required.
Option name

The name of the Oracle option installed on this instance.

Click to view the properties for this Oracle option or pack. See General Tab.
Usage

Specifies how the usage of each Oracle option is determined for this Oracle instance.

From the drop-down list in the Usage column for an installed option, select one of the following:
  • From inventory — (default) Usage of this option is tracked by IT Asset Management through inventory. This requires that usage tracking has been configured in the Usage tab of the application properties for this option. (You can check by selecting the option from the list and clicking Open to navigate to its property sheet.)
  • Always used — Choose this to specify that the option should always be counted as used on this instance. (If you choose this setting and save your changes, the Used column displays Yes.)
  • Never used — Choose this only when you know that the option is never used on this instance. (If you choose this setting and save your changes, the Used column displays No.)
Used
Indicates if the Oracle option has been used on this database instance.
Tip: This value is forced to Yes when the Usage column shows Always used; or forced to No when the Usage column shows Never used. If the Usage column is changed to From inventory, this Used column shows the value imported in the most recent inventory for this database instance.
Note: This feature is enabled by default. It relies on facilities and storage provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Contact your Customer Success Manager or Flexera Support to disable these AWS facilities for your tenant.
Click the Yes or No value to open the Usage Details dialog box. This lists all available results from the individual inventory queries used to investigate the Oracle feature (option or pack) you selected. The following details are shown in its header area:
  • Used — Displays the same Yes or No value, as documented above, that you clicked to open this dialog.
  • Local server — The host name of the local server that was scanned to produce this result, and the scan date. This field only displays when one or more features are detected on a local server.
  • OEM server(s) — This field only displays when one or more OEM servers are in use. For the Oracle feature (option or pack) currently displayed in the dialog, this shows either:
    • The OEM server(s) inventoried, if the feature can be found only through the OEM server
    • For a feature that can also be found locally on the server hosting an Oracle database instance, the host names of all the Oracle Database servers that were reported by each scanned OEM server.
    In both cases, the date that each host was scanned is also displayed.
Below the header area, if data is available, the result of each query is listed, with the results for any used options sorted at the top of the list. The following information displays for each result:
  • Used — Displays Yes if the result of this individual query is non-zero, meaning that this feature is in use (or is always used); or displays No if the query result is a zero, meaning the feature is not in use (or is never used)
  • Message — A statement summarizing the individual investigation that tested for usage, together with its result
  • Source — Which feature of the Oracle database instance was tested to produce this result
  • Last usage date — Displays the date when the feature (option or pack) was most recently used, where that date is available in the GLAS data. Of all the available evidence sources listed in the Source column, only these may provide a date value here:
    • DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS
    • FEATURE_INFO
    • PACK_FEATURE_USAGE
    • PACK_USAGE.
Tip: The last usage date is stored in (and imported from) the Oracle database instance, so that even if an option is subsequently "switched off" (and the Used column therefore shows No), the Last usage date continues to display the last date reported before usage was discontinued.
One of following messages displays when data is not available:
  • Data is not available — There is no data available which is relevant for reporting to Oracle GLAS.
    Tip: After the feature is enabled, results are available only after the next Oracle inventory (.ndi) file, gathered by the FlexNet Inventory Agent locally installed on the Oracle Database server, has been uploaded and resolved into the inventory database. It's during this process that details are also sent to AWS for processing and storage.
  • An error occurred while retrieving usage data — IT Asset Management was unable to establish a connection. This may occur if, for example, access is incorrectly configured. In this case, there may be data in the service for an instance, but IT Asset Management is not able to access the data.

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

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