Oracle Standard Edition now Supports ODA X10

Oracle announced the support of Oracle Standard Edition 2 (SE2) with ODA X10 and clarified licensing conditions in the March 2024 Release Blog.  We are excited! Full Oracle X10 Support on Oracle SE is great for Oracle Customers. By combining Oracle SE, ODA and Dbvisit StandbyMP, customers can create high-performance, resilient, easy-to-manage, and cost-effective environments.

Background

Since the 2016 introduction of the X6 and lite ODAs (S/M/L single node models), Standard Edition has supported ODA.  However, in mid-2023 Oracle introduced the new Oracle Database Appliance X10 lineup with support for Enterprise Edition only. This was because Standard Edition 2 license conditions were not compatible with AMD Epyc 9334 processors inside X10 servers which have a multichip, 32-core, 4-socket architecture (essentially 4 processors with 8 cores each) that infringed SE2’s 2-socket limitation.

New Licensing Changes Enable Oracle SE on ODA X10

With log backup retention, you can configure how long you would like to keep log backups (transaction log backups), allowing you to utilize log backups for other backup tasks or uses.

StandbyMP is well-suited to managing your warm standby requirements, however taking (and storing) backups should also be a part of your second-line DR strategy. You now have the option to utilize log backup files on the primary or standby as part of your backup plan. This eliminates the need to do a copy-only transaction log backup as part of your backup strategy. 

Check out Oracles’ Oracle SE on ODA X10 Licensing Documentation.

For Standard Edition, clients were used to licensing sockets and having all the cores available. With their X10 licensing change, Oracle allows the 4 socket processor but you are limited to 8 enabled cores per node per SE2 PROC license. This is in line with Standard Edition’s existing 16-thread limitation.

• There must be one SE2 License for every eight active cores (if the number of cores is not divisible by 8 it is rounded up).
  
• Restricting the active cores can be done through Capacity on Demand (reducing the number of cores in the BIOS) and by configuring DB System CPU Pools. 
• When using Named User Plus (NUP) licensing the minimum licensing remains at 10 NUP per server. 
• Note this exclusively relates to ODA Systems, not any other AMD multi-chip systems.

[Table: SE2 license configuration for each ODA]

Is this better or worse? We agree with Dierk Lenz of Hermann and Lenz that because the Standard Edition 2 Database already had a 16-thread limitation, the 8-core limitation per single DB instance makes sense and the effect is negligible.  (Hermann and Lenz have a lot of clients using ODA and Dbvisit and I recommend you read their blog). Jerome Dubar of dbi services also agrees it's still a great deal and futureproof solution:  “...a 8-core ODA is already a very capable machine. It will also make the ODA X10-L even more appealing compared to the X10-S: only one PROC license is now required for minimal needs but with the possibility of adding disks later. It’s a more secure choice as you will keep your ODA for 5 to 7 years''. 

Why Standard Edition on ODA?

Our partner dbi services in Switzerland puts this better than we can (read their blog here). Standard Edition 2 and ODA S/L models are a great match and cost-effective if you don’t need Enterprise Edition features for a particular database. Yes, any DBA would love to have Enterprise Edition (or even better Exadata!), but the reality is that for a lot of applications, Oracle SE is more than sufficient. That's because Standard Edition shares the same binaries as Enterprise Edition and is Enterprise Edition with some disabled features and performance limitations. 

A Resilient Oracle SE Environment on ODA

What about Data Guard you ask? Well, you can utilize Dbvisit StandbyMP, with its Data Guard-like functionality, to create and manage a warm standby Database. It’s also highly intuitive and delivers some advanced functionality such as zero-data-loss switchovers, DR testing, reporting snapshots, and intelligent activation at recovery points. 

We have many clients utilizing Oracle SE + ODA + Dbvisit StandbyMP.  It is a powerful, resilient and affordable database setup. 

[Image: Dbvisit StandbyMP Architecture]

What about the ODA X9?  Should I Choose the ODA X9 or ODA X10?

The new core conditions only apply to the ODA X10 and the ODA X9 is still available, so should you choose that? Well, it will depend on whether you value speed or storage.

• Speed, X10 Wins:  The X10 features the AMD Epyc processor that is supposed to be more powerful than the X9-2. As having fewer cores running at higher processor speeds is better when using SE2, the X10 has the advantage. 
  
• Storage, X9 Wins:  The X10-L is limited to 8 x 6.68TB disks (54.4TB RAW).  The X9-2L can have up to 12 x 6.68TB disks (81.6TB RAW).  You should also note that on the X10-L if you add more than 4 disks, the additional disks are located inside the housing which could require downtime when replacing.
  
  

In Conclusion, SE & ODA is Once Again a Great Package!

Oracle SE is now officially supported on ODA X10 with the new licensing regulation. By combining Oracle SE and ODA X10, customers can create a future-proof (especially with Capacity on Demand), high-performance, and cost-effective solution.  This can be made into a resilient environment for business-critical databases, by creating a warm standby environment on another ODA (or even in the cloud) using Dbvisit StandbyMP. ODA is officially back for Standard Edition Users and it's great!


Read more about StandbyMP on ODA here (https://dbvisit.com/dr-and-oracle-database-appliance)