Oracle Licensing LPAR IBM

Most organizations wants to understand if Oracle licensing IBM LPAR will optimize their licenses, will find that it does optimize and save them money. Lets learn more about this in this article and how licensing works.

PowerVM is IBM’s virtualization for Power platform and while it may not be difficult to understand, it is more complicated than other hypervisors when it comes to Oracle licensing. PowerVM has more configuration options, or “knobs to turn,” than x86 platforms like VMware. While VMware allows for the configuration of virtual CPUs, PowerVM has additional parameters that dictate the number of physical processors that are allowed to be used and in what fraction, down to 0.01 of a core for newer micro-partitions. It may sound “it’s complicated” because of the added complexity of PowerVM in terms of Oracle licensing.

PowerVM Licensing

PowerVM is a virtualization hypervisor that has specific terminology related to Oracle licensing. A “frame” refers to a physical server, a “processor pool” is a collection of sub-divided processors within a frame, and a “logical partition” (LPAR) is a PowerVM virtual machine. There are two types of LPARs: “dedicated LPARs” which are built on dedicated cores and not micro-partitioned, and “micro-partitions,” which are built on shared CPU resources. A “virtual processor” represents a physical core to an LPAR, and an “entitlement” is the guaranteed amount of CPU resources for a micro-partitioned LPAR. A micro-partitioned LPAR that is “capped” cannot exceed its entitlement, and “Live Partition Mobility” (LPM) allows for the live migration of an LPAR to a different processor pool

When using PowerVM to run Oracle workloads on logical partitions (LPARs), there are two options for Oracle licensing: either licensing the underlying physical hardware (also known as traditional core-based licensing), or using Oracle’s extra-contractual hard partitioning policy to license the LPAR.

Oracle Licensing LPAR

Licensing the underlying hardware for Oracle on PowerVM is fairly simple: you just count the number of cores where the Oracle software is installed or running, apply the core factor, and that determines the number of licenses required. However, with LPARs, there is an added complexity because a frame can have multiple processor pools, and LPARs can potentially migrate between LPAR pools. IBM LPAR Processor pools typically contain a subset of the cores on a frame and a frame can have multiple pools. If LPARs are associated with a processor pool and are not allowed to leave it, then the number of processor cores in the pool can be used to determine the licensing requirements. However, if the LPARs are able to move between pools, it becomes more complicated and all processors on which the LPARs have run must be counted to determine the licensing liability.

Another way to license LPARs is by using the guidelines outlined in the Oracle partitioning policy. This policy covers various partitioning technologies and for the purposes of AIX systems, specifies that dedicated LPARs are allowed, but micro-partitioned LPARs must meet certain restrictions in order to be used. These restrictions include: being capped, having Live Partition Mobility (LPM) disabled, and not allowing TurboCore mode. If a dedicated LPAR is used, the number of virtual processors can be counted towards license usage, with the LPAR being able to use up to 100% of the number of physical IBM processors configured as virtual processors for the LPAR. For example, a dedicated LPAR with two virtual CPUs can use up to 100% of two physical IBM CPU cores. Micro-partitioned LPARs are more complicated to license using the partitioning policy, as they must be capped and the entitlement (or guaranteed capacity) must be used to determine the number of processors in use. If the entitlement is specified as a decimal, it must be rounded up. One example , a capped, micro-partitioned LPAR with two virtual processors and an LPAR entitlement of 1.4 is counted as two CPU cores towards license usage. It’s important to note that LPM must be turned off for micro-partitioned LPARs, as moving the LPAR from one pool to another is considered a de-install and re-install of the Oracle license for that IBM LPAR, incurring a licensing risk only on one pool at a time

How can our Oracle licensing experts help?

Our Oracle licensing services for IBM LPAR (Logical Partition) can help organizations ensure compliance and optimize their Oracle investments on IBM hardware. Our services include:

Reviewing and interpreting Oracle licensing agreements to understand the terms and conditions of using Oracle software on IBM LPAR
Identifying any potential compliance issues or areas of risk
Providing recommendations for optimizing Oracle licensing to save money on IBM LPAR
Assisting with the process of migrating Oracle workloads to IBM LPAR, including ensuring that all necessary licenses are in place
Providing ongoing support and guidance to ensure that the organization remains compliant with Oracle licensing rules and policies on IBM LPAR.

Our team of Oracle licensing experts has extensive experience working with IBM LPAR and can provide customized solutions to meet the specific needs of your organization. We are committed to helping you protect and optimize your Oracle investments on IBM hardware.