Licensing of Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control

Licensing of Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control

Posted on 2019-05-14 by Markus Flechtner

It is my impression that the licensing of Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control is not clear to everyone. Almost every month there is a question on https://community.oracle.com/ on this topic. Let’s see what the Oracle documentation says.

Disclaimer: The information presented in this post is based on the Oracle documentation only. Please ask your Oracle Sales Representative for an official statement from Oracle.

TL; DR: As long as you’ve got a licensed Oracle product you can use the base functionality of OEM Cloud Control without any license and you do not need a license for the repository database (single-instance, no HA) as long as you use it for OEM only.

There are two documents which are relevant in this case:

1. “Database Licensing Information User Manual” (https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/19/dblic/index.html)
2. “Enterprise Manager Licensing Information User Manual” (https://docs.oracle.com/cd/cloud-control-13.3/OEMLI/toc.htm)

Licensing of the Repository Database

Quote 1 (from the “Database Licensing Information User Manual”, Section 1.7 “Special License Rights” (https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/19/dblic/Licensing-Information.html#GUID-75262092-CD86-4B30-A21B-92ECC1C2E130): “A separate single instance Oracle Database can be installed and used as an infrastructure repository for RMAN, Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control, Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) Warehouse, Global Data Services Catalog, Sharding Catalog, and Grid Infrastructure Management Repository without additional license requirements, provided that all the targets are correctly licensed. It may not be used or deployed for other uses.

The infrastructure repositories for RMAN, Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control, AWR Warehouse, Global Data Services Catalog, and Sharding Catalog can be shared in one database, or deployed in separate databases. Enterprise Edition must be used for the infrastructure repository database(s).

If Oracle RAC is used for the infrastructure database, then Oracle RAC licenses for all servers, and Enterprise Edition licenses for all but the first server, are required.

If Data Guard is used for the infrastructure database for RMAN, Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control, AWR Warehouse, Global Data Services, and Grid infrastructure management Repository, then an Enterprise Edition license for the standby server is required. The Infrastructure Database for the Sharding Catalog can be protected with Data Guard without a second Enterprise Edition license.”

Quote 2 (from “Enterprise Manager Licensing Information User Manual”, Section 1, “Enterprise Manager Restricted-use License” (https://docs.oracle.com/cd/cloud-control-13.3/OEMLI/GUID-7B2095D3-4E88-4346-9566-638219FF1130.htm#O): “Enterprise Manager includes a restricted-use license of the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition for use only with the Oracle Management Repository as well as with the following complementary repositories used by Enterprise Manager: AWR Warehouse, Ops Center, Real User Experience Insight, Load Testing, and Test Manager.

Additional database options or additional servers for disaster recovery require separate licensing. Customers receive one single-instance database with the Cloud Control, or RMAN, repository. To protect the repository with Data Guard, customers need to purchase a license for the standby site. To protect the repository with Oracle Real Application Clusters, customers must license the second node for the database, and both nodes require an Oracle Real Application Clusters license.”

Wrap-Up: You do not need a license for the OEM repository database if you use it for OEM only (and the other purposes mentioned above; in my opinion it’s a good idea to store the RMAN catalog and the OEM repository in one database) as long as it is a simple single-instance database (no RAC, no DataGuard). Please keep in mind that it must be an Enterprise Edition database with all options). No packs (Diagnostic Pack, Tuning Pack) must be used for this database (or you need a license for database + packs).

Licensing of Weblogic Server

Quote (from “Enterprise Manager Licensing Information User Manual”, Section 1, “Enterprise Manager Restricted-use License” (https://docs.oracle.com/cd/cloud-control-13.3/OEMLI/GUID-7B2095D3-4E88-4346-9566-638219FF1130.htm#O): “Use of Oracle WebLogic Server with Oracle Enterprise Manager is restricted to servlet functionality. A restricted-use license for WebLogic clustering is included, to support deployment of cluster of Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher servers, only when used with Oracle Enterprise Manager.”

==> No license required if you use Weblogic for OEM only.

 

BI Publisher

Quote: (from “Enterprise Manager Licensing Information User Manual”, Section 1, “Enterprise Manager Restricted-use License” (https://docs.oracle.com/cd/cloud-control-13.3/OEMLI/GUID-7B2095D3-4E88-4346-9566-638219FF1130.htm#O): Oracle Enterprise Manager includes restricted use of Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher and Business Intelligence Mobile for use with Enterprise Manager functions and interfaces only. This restricted BI Publisher license will allow reporting only against the Enterprise Manager repository and against data dictionary (including AWR and AWR Warehousing data) of target databases. In order to report against other data sources, it is necessary to have BI Publisher license.”

==> No license required if you use BI Publisher for OEM only.

OEM Cloud Control itself

Quote (from “Enterprise Manager Licensing Information User Manual, Section 9 “Enterprise Manager Base Functionality” (https://docs.oracle.com/cd/cloud-control-13.3/OEMLI/GUID-534AFAC0-3F0E-47D7-A538-C9A5CBC90299.htm#OEMLI157)): “The base installation of Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 13c includes several features free of charge with the purchase of any Oracle software license or Support contract.”

==> As long as you have got a license for an Oracle product, the base functionality of OEM Cloud Control is free. But be aware that a lot of features in OEM require additional packs. If you don’t have a license for the Diagnostic Pack and/or the Tuning Pack for your databases, please check the parameter “CONTROL_MANAGEMENT_PACK_ACCESS” accordingly). Other packs can be disabled in OEM (Setup -> Management Packs -> Management Pack Access).

Database Monitoring: Standard Edition 2 or Enterprise Edition without Diagnostic Pack or Tuning Pack

Some of the “cool” features for database monitoring require the Diagnostic Pack or the Tuning Pack for the Oracle Database (Enterprise Edition). So, if you are running Enterprise Edition without these Packs or Standard Edition 2 (in whichthees packs are not available), you’ll miss some interesting stuff. There’s a section in the OEM licensing information (https://docs.oracle.com/en/enterprise-manager/cloud-control/enterprise-manager-cloud-control/13.3.1/oemli/enterprise-dat… ) which lists the features which require Diagnostic Pack or Tuning Pack.

Support & Patches

It is my personal understanding (!) that you can download patches and request support for OEM if you’ve got a valid support contract for an Oracle product which is monitored with OEM.