Oracle Options: Optimum Virtual Architecture

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

The Optimum Virtualized Architecture for Oracle Options report tracks licensing of Oracle Database Enterprise and Oracle options in VMware environments, assuming that the soft partitioning rule is applied at the single cluster level (that is, Oracle's original soft partitioning rule that applied up to VMware 5.0 — this now requires a commercial negotiation with Oracle to have them accept this rule in your environment, assuming that you now use a later version of VMware). Under this rule, an installation of a licensed option on any VM(s) on any host(s) in the cluster triggers licensing of all cores on all hosts in the cluster.

The proposed optimizations rely on this soft partition at the boundary of each cluster. This rule allows for a straight-forward scenario to optimize your virtual architecture: it proposes that VMs with a consistent set of Oracle options installed and in use are grouped together in a single cluster (per set of options). The suggested total number of cores for each cluster is the sum of the cores assigned to the VMs where the licensed product(s) are installed. Naturally, the organization of virtual hosts to accommodate these guests is left to your IT team; but the principle is to keep each specialized cluster consistent, so that VMs with different installation patterns are moved to other separate clusters; and similarly hosts with no relevant installations are also assumed to move out of the specialized clusters, to minimize the core count for a cluster containing any given set of Oracle options.

The report also allows you optionally to propose subdividing these idealized clusters into smaller 'local' clusters by grouping together VMs that have been assigned to enterprise group 'locations'. You get to choose which level of the location hierarchy should be used as the dividing principle for these local clusters. For example, imagine that two VMs have been assigned to these location hierarchies:
  • Australia/Victoria/Melbourne
  • Australia/Victoria/Swan Hill.
If you selected Level 2 for grouping your VMs and hosts, both these VMs would stay in the same cluster, since they have paths that are identical to the second level. However, if you selected Level 3 for your Location grouping, these two VMs would be assigned to hosts in separate clusters.
Tip: Because software installations in containers (whether Docker containers or in Kubernetes clusters) are not currently included in license consumption calculations in IT Asset Management, applications installed in containers are out of scope for this report.

Generating the report

Note: This report is scoped to the data that each operator is entitled to see, according to their access rights. While an administrator can see all available licenses, clusters, consumption, and optimizations, another operator who has access rights restricted to EMEA sees only those elements linked to the EMEA location, and to any of its child locations.
  1. Go to the Optimum Virtualized Architecture for Oracle Options page (Reporting > License Reports > Optimum Virtualized Architecture for Oracle Options).
  2. Optionally, choose the Location grouping setting you require. This may be a level in the hierarchy of locations you have created as enterprise groups, or either of two special values:
    • Across all locations means that no grouping is applied, so that the proposed clusters are maximized and limited only by the matching sets of installed Oracle options
      Tip: This is also the setting to use if you do not have your VMs assigned to particular locations recorded in your enterprise group structure.
    • Exact location means that every proposed cluster is limited to hosting VMs with identical locations assigned.
  3. Click Run report to display the results for all licensed installations of Oracle options running in vCenter clusters.

Reading the report

The following columns (listed alphabetically) are available.

Important: USD currency must be added as a supported currency to your tenant. Note there is no requirement to make USD your default currency. If USD is not added to your list of supported currencies, returned VM host data may contain discrepancies such as missing VM hosts and inaccurate price related data. To add USD currency, navigate to Administration > IT Asset Management Settings > Defaults > Currency Settings. On this page select Add a Currency and then United States Dollar (USD) from the Currency drop down list. When finished select Add.
Column name Description
Cluster cores

The total number of processor cores in all hosts within the cluster to which this VM belongs.
Cluster cores with same options
The sum of processor cores in hosts (across all clusters) where hosted VMs (or the host server itself) have the identical set of Oracle options installed and activated. For example, suppose that:
  • VM1 belongs to cluster A, which includes 50 assigned cores
  • VM2 belongs to cluster B, which includes 20 assigned cores
  • VM3, VM4, and VM5 all belong to cluster C, where there are 100 assigned cores
  • All these VMs are running the same pattern of installed options (say, Advanced Compression and Advanced Analytics)
then Cluster cores with same options displays the total of these core counts, or 170.

Effectively, once the optimized clustering has been implemented so that these clusters all contain only VMs running the same pattern of Oracle options, this corresponds to "the number of cores consumed for this option set".

Cluster name

The path in the virtualization hierarchy to the cluster (in the form of domain/clustername). Cluster names are not forced to be unique, although giving them unique names is best practice. If you need to differentiate between (for example) two clusters with the same name, check the hosts and instances.
Cores

The number of processor cores that have been assigned to the current virtual machine (identified in VM name).

Device location
The location that has been linked to the virtual machine shown in this row.
Remember: If your system setting Update virtual machine location to match host location is set to true, this location may be inherited from the host where the VM is a guest.
Grouping location
The location path, extracted from the hierarchy that defines the Device location, that is used for grouping hosts together into optimized clusters. This is based on the Location grouping control that you selected before deciding to Run report. For example:
  • Suppose the Device location is United States/Illinois/Itasca
  • Suppose you set the Location grouping control to Level 2 (and then select Run report)
  • The resulting Grouping location then consists of the first two steps of the device's assigned location, or United States/Illinois.
Host name

The name of the virtual host where the virtual machine in this row is a guest. Host names are not forced to be unique, although giving them unique names is best practice.

Instances with all options

The names of Oracle Database instances where all of the Oracle options in use for this row are activated. The instance name is followed by that number (in parentheses) of activated options. If there are multiple database instances to include, items are comma-separated.
Instances with fewer options The names of Oracle Database instances where some (but not all) of the Oracle options in use for this row are activated. The instance name is followed by the number (in parentheses) of activated options related to that instance. If there are multiple database instances to include, items are comma-separated.
Tip: It is not possible to tell from this report which of the possible set of options are used for an instance and which are not. To drill into those details, switch to the Management view.
Oracle options in use

A comma-separated list of all of the licensable Oracle options that are installed and activated on the virtual machine in this row (identified in VM name).
Recommended cluster cores

A proposed number of virtual host cores to be included in a rearranged cluster that contains only the server(s) hosting VM(s) running a consistent set of Oracle options. In the case where there is only one consuming VM to be included in the cluster, the number of Cores for the VM is the recommended maximum number of cores for the cluster.
Suggested cluster
A name proposed for the suggested new cluster that combines these elements:
  • The literal string Cluster -
  • The comma-separated names shown in the Oracle options in use column, followed by another dash separator
  • The path shown in the Grouping location column.
Suggested optimization
The direction for optimizing the configuration in ways that minimize the license consumption (and associated costs). Possible values include:
  • The Amount field on the Financial tab of the license properties.
  • Saving could be obtained by grouping together VMs with consistent installed and used options. Licensing of nn cores could be avoided.
  • Some instances have inconsistent options activated for the VM. Saving could be obtained by grouping together VMs with consistent installed and used options. Licensing of nn cores could be avoided.
  • The last comment reports, for Oracle Database Enterprise and option by option (relevant to the VM row), the financial savings that would be obtained if applying these VMs moves to optimal clusters. This calculation is used by the SAM Optimization Hub. The license cost (for Options or Oracle Database Enterprise) is either the one used by the highest purchases license for the related product (Oracle Processor license type) or a default cost (like in the Oracle License Optimization on Clusters report) of USD5000 for Options and USD47000 for Oracle Database Enterprise. Please note that given the complexity of the data, a factor of 0.5 is applied to all consumption calculations for these VMWare clusters architecture.
VM name

The name of the virtual machine that is the focus of data in this row of the report.

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

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