*** Updated on Nov 6 to reflect 11.2.0.4 changes***
There were a lot of questions regarding Oracle Database Standard Edition 12.1.0.2 SE2 in the past days. See below for further blog posts on SE2.
And please find the official Oracle SE2 “brief” document here giving you a good overview on SE2:
[http://www.oracle.com/us/products/database/oracle-db-se2-brief-2680836.pdf]
Document has been removed – link is not valid anymore – sorry!
I’ll try to summarize some topics I’m able to answer by myself. And please don’t expect me to assist with license or license migration questions – that is far beyond my scope or knowledge or responsibility, and you may please contact your Oracle sales person regarding these topics instead.
Please find all our articles about Oracle Database Standard Edition 12.1.0.2 SE2:
- Sept 17, 2015:
SE2 – Some questions, some answers - Sept 8, 2015:
MOS Download for Oracle SE2 - Sept 7, 2015:
Support and Patches for Oracle 12.1.0.1 SE/SE1 - Sept 3, 2015:
Can you have Multitenant with Oracle SE2? - Sept 1, 2015:
Oracle Standard Edition SE2 available for download
Software and Support
- Q:
How long will Premier Support offered for Oracle Database Standard Edition 12.1.0.1 SE and SE1? - A:
Premier Support for Oracle Database Standard Edition 12.1.0.1 SE and SE1 will continue until Aug 31, 2016. After this date (as of Sep 1, 2016) Oracle 12.1.0.1 SE/SE1 will enter Sustaining Support.
. - Q:
Will there be Extended Support offered for Oracle Database Standard Edition 12.1.0.1 SE and SE1? - A:
No. Extended Support for 12.1 SE and SE1 is not offered. The Lifetime
Support Policy document has been updated to reflect this.
. - Q:
Is the extension of the Waived Extended Support and the Paid Extended Support for Oracle 11.2.0.4 valid for SE and SE1 as well? - A:
Yes, it is – there’s actually no distinction (as far as I know) between support periods for SE, SE1 and EE.
. - Q:
Are there plans to release Oracle 12.1.0.2 SE/SE1? - A:
Oracle Standard Edition 12.1.0.2 will be offered as SE2 only.
. - Q:
Is hard partitioning allowed with SE2? - A:
Yes, it is as long as there are no more that 2 physical sockets in the server and you are using a supported hard partitioning software to bind a VM to a specific CPU. SE2 is not allowed to run on servers with more than 2 sockets.
For an explanation and a list of supported hard partitioning technologies please see here:
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/partitioning-070609.pdf
. - Q:
Is Oracle Multitenant available with SE2? - A:
Oracle Multitenant is an Oracle Enterprise Edition only license. But you can have Oracle Single Tenant with many benefits meaning you’ll have one pluggable database within one container database. Features such as remote cloning will be fully supported. See: https://blogs.oracle.com/UPGRADE/entry/can_you_have_oracle_multitenant
. - Q:
Can we move PDB from SE2 Single Tenant to a EE Single/Multitenant database? - A:
Yes, of course – this is fully supported.
. - Q:
Is the license migration from SE/SE1 to SE2 so complex, or has there been some relief? - A:
Yes, in fact, there were changes recently regarding a more simple license migration from SE/SE1 to SE2. Thanks to Robert I can share these links with you:
Database Installation and Patching
- Q:
Can I install Oracle Standard Edition 12.1.0.2 SE2 into the existing home (in-place)? - A:
Yes, this is possible even though I would never recommend to do this for the simple reason that wiping out your current home will increase the potential downtime and cause you plenty of extra work in case of fallback. If you still want to install for whatever reason into the existing home there’s no change in handling to any other Oracle release since Oracle 11.2.0.1:
https://blogs.oracle.com/UPGRADE/entry/why_is_every_patchset_now
. - Q:
Which PSU should I apply on top of the releases Oracle Database Standard Edition 12.1.0.2 SE2 installation? - A:
Take the same PSU as you would take for an EE database – there’s no difference and there won’t be specific PSUs (or SPU/CPUs or BPs) released for SE2. Check out MOS Note:1683799.1 (12.1.0.2 Patch Set – Availability and Known Issues) for the most recent recommended PSU
. - Q:
Is RAC (Real Application Clusters) still included in SE2? - A:
Yes it is – limited to 2 nodes, and each node must be a single-socket server. See above: there’s the possibility to either remove a CPU physically – or hard partitioning with a supported virtualization solution such as OVM.
. - Q:
I would like to use SE2 with RAC. Which Grid Infrastructure will I need to download? - A:
When deploying a SE2 RAC Cluster please download the regular Oracle Grid Infrastructure (GI) packages from the official download locations (OTN, MOS, eDelivery). There’s no separate download for an SE2 GI.
, - Q:
Can I install/use SE2 on a 4-socket server? - A:
No – SE2 is limited to be deployed on 2-socket servers only. And physically removing 2 CPUs from a 4-socket-machine does not satisfy the license agreement. For further clarification and an official Oracle guide please see the Oracle Software Investment Guide, page 11 (or search for “Standard Edition”) to find the exact definition and details.
. - Q:
Can I deploy more than one SE2 database on a server? - A:
Yes, of course you can.
Database Upgrade
- Q:
I want to upgrade from Oracle 12.1.0.1 SE/SE1 to Oracle 12.1.0.2 SE2. Is there any specific procedure or tool to use? - A:
Upgrade works exactly as expected. There’s no difference for SE2 compared to the upgrade procedure from Oracle 12.1.0.1 EE to Oracle 12.1.0.2 EE.
. - Q:
I would like to upgrade from Oracle 12.1.0.1 SE/SE1 to Oracle 12.1.0.2 EE. Is there any specific procedure or tool to use? - A:
Upgrade is always the same procedure, regardless of SE, SE1, SE2 or EE. But if you’ll convert from SE/1/2 to EE please follow the advises in MOS Note:2046103.1 (How to Convert Oracle Database 12c from Standard to
Enterprise Edition ?)
.
Other topics
- Q:
Does the thread limitation in SE2 (16 in single instance mode, 8 per node in RAC mode) include background processes? - A:
No, background processes such as LGWR or PMON are not included in this limitation.
. - Q:
Is the thread limitation valid across all instances on the same server? - A:
No, the limit is enforced per database instance and not per server.
. - Q:
Does the thread limitation happen based on number of OS threads or CPU threads? - A:
Actually the use of the term “threads” may be a bit misleading. Please have a look into the documentation about Instance Caging. That will explain how the thread limitation will be enforced. Views to monitor the resource usage are: V$RSRC_CONSUMER_GROUP, V$RSRCMGRMETRIC and V$RSRCMGRMETRIC_HISTORY.
. - Q:
How do I get an idea how many threads I’m using right now? - A:
First of all your OS displays how many OS threads it offers right now.
Either check the Windows task manager:
.
or on Unix use “top” and press “1“:
.
In these examples you’ll see that the OS can handle a maximum of 16 (Win) or 4 (Linux) threads in parallel. That means you can’t hit the thread limitation per single instance database.
If your OS displays more than 16 threads then you may need to check with Oracle Support please since the external page I shared via a link disappeared unfortunately.
. - Q:
Is there a core limitation for the hardware SE2 is installed on? - A:
No, the box you’ll use Oracle SE2 on can have as many cores as the CPUs offer. But there’s a socket limitation of a maximum of 2 physical sockets. But the most modern CPUs can present 36 cores to SE2 on a 2-socket machine.
. - Q:
Can I disable Hyper Threading to present more “real” threads to the database? - A:
Yes, this is possible but the effect may not be huge.
. - Q:
Can I license any options/packs with SE2 such as Diagnostics or Tuning Packs?
A:
Unfortunately you can’t license any additional packs or options with SE2. You will have to rely on things such as PERFSTAT and similar tools.
Thank you for the information!
A have a question the SE2 and Oracle RAC: You write "each node must be a single-socket server". Is it allowed to use a two socket server and remove one CPU?
Each big server vendor offers a single-socket server. But these machines are better workstations and in my opinion they are no servers (e.g. only one power supply).
Armin
Hi Armin,
sorry, I made this now more clear.
Yes, you can remove one CPU physically. Or you can hard partitioning with OVM to have only one CPU presented to the OS.
Thanks
Mike
Great information,thanks!
There is one small question left:
Is SE2 allowed on IBM Power 8 Two Socket Board (S822), because every socket seems to count twice from Oracle point of view(DCM – Dual Chip Module => 2 CPU in 1 Slot?)
Thanks a lot,
Otto
Hi Mike, great summary! Thanks.
Got some questions regarding the definition of term: "threads". The content you refer to ( Instance Caging, V$RSRC_CONSUMER_GROUP, V$RSRCMGRMETRIC and V$RSRCMGRMETRIC_HISTORY) are not clearly defines "threads". It shows how to limit CPU usage based on CPU numbers, percentage and how to monitor. Cannot find anything that contains threads.
Questions are:
User or Kernel threads? Or both?
Is the term "thread" equal to the term "cores"? If not, what is the exact definition?
If yes, are we encouraged to set the limitations 8/16 on our own on servers with more than 8/16 cores? Or is it already limited within SE2 installation?
Thanks
David
Otto,
sorry to disappoint you but you’ll have to check with your Oracle sales rep or contact person or Oracle partner. I can’t answer license questions regarding specific CPU types.
Cheers
Mike
And just to add this – according to this table I don’t see any difference but please check back with the appropriate Oracle persons in sales:
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/contracts/processor-core-factor-table-070634.pdf
Mike
David,
the thread limitation refers to the same thing as you’d limit with CPU_COUNT in every Oracle Database. If you try to set CPU_COUNT higher then it will error out. SE2 will limit CPU threads.
You don’t have to do anything as this is enforced automatically, for single instance to 16 and for RAC mode to 8 per node. So no action required.
Usually I direct people to the excellent blog post of Franck Pachot experimenting with CPU_COUNT and THREADS:
http://blog.dbi-services.com/oracle-standard-edition-two/
(scoll down a bit past the installation and the PSU part) to THREAD LIMITATION.
Cheers
Mike
Hello,
Do Oracle Database SE2 and EE belong to the same license set?
Is it possible to buy support for DBSE2 while having EE unsupported licenses?
According the current Oracle support policy the Oracle Database license set consists of Database Enterprise Editions, Database Standard Editions, Database Standard Edition One and Personal Edition. It doesn’t contain DBSE2.
Thank you.
Sergey Tomin
Sergey,
the license guide has SE2 mentioned:
https://docs.oracle.com/database/121/DBLIC/editions.htm#DBLIC109
But please contact your Oracle rep as I’m not able to support you regarding license questions as I’m not an expert in this space.
Thanks
Mike
Hello Mike ,
About SE2 in RAC, If node 2 fails, will node 1 accept the whole 16 threads ?
If not we should not have more than 4 threads per node in normal prod, if we want to be able to failover without loosing too much performance.
This would be short.
Thanks
—
Bertrand
Bertrand,
no, not by default. It will once you restart the database instance on node 1 with cluster_database=false. But I’d assume silently that – if node 2 goes down – you’ll have no desire for restarting the instance on node 1 as well 🙂
Cheers
Mike
assumption is correct 🙂
This will have to be a new test in migration plans … I have always sized rac servers to be able to accept the whole load in case of failover.
I will have to determine the loss of performance due to failover in SE2 Racs. Not so easy …
Thanks for your answer …
Regards ,
—
Bertrand
Hello Mike,
I have an urgent query – we are running Oracle OVM on a Red Stack platform – essentially an Oracle Cloud service for our clients (we are a service provider) – we are using 4 CPU (Socket) servers to run Oracle OVM on. We have been told that we can not run Oracle Standard Edition 1 and 2 Database servers on these servers (within virtual machines) even if we use hard partitioning because they are 4 socket physical servers (X4-4 servers). This does not make any sense to me as surely this is the whole point of having hard partitioning – can you advise – would be much appreciated,
Best regards,
Nick
Hi Nick,
I see this point – and I feel sorry that I’m not the instance to be able to do anything in this case. You may please get in touch with your Oracle sales rep or your local sales consulting contacts.
Thanks
Mike
please remove my last post as it was incorrect
many thanks
Dave,
what was your last post?
Cheers
Mike
We currently have oracle 11 installed and have had a SE1 license for it. Now we’ll need to get SE2 licenses once the SE1 license expires. Do we have to upgrade to oracle 12, or can we continue to use the older version with the SE2 licenses? Would rather not have to upgrade if not necessary.
Thanks,
John
Hello Mike,
Thanks for the reply – we have no choice but to use 2 CPU servers it appears,
Best regards,
Nick
we have total two hp server – HP DL360 G9 each server having one processor. our operating system is windows server standard 2012-r2 -64 bit.
Now we are going to deploy two node cluster on widows server 2012 r2 os and we are going to add one san storage in cluster.
1. we have ordered oracle database standard edition one NUP
2. We have ordered SW Update ( oracle database standard edtion one NUP ( updates & upgrades for SE-2 -1
Year)
3. we have ordered software support also.
Now i want to deploy oracle database on windows serve 2012 R2 cluster for fail safe or high availability.
Our database server and application server is same.
we want to store database on san storage
please suggest me which we have ordered oracle license is support on windows server 2012 R2 cluster or not.
if yes then how can i configure oracle fail safe or high availability on windows server 2012 R2 cluster.
Please reply me soon as i have to be prepared for installation before my product will come and it will come in next week.
Maulesh,
unfortunately I can’t answer your questions as I’m just a simple product manager – but not involved in any license topics.
And your question worries me in another way as you demand immediate attention.
Even as I fully understand your situation – and I would always reply immediately please understand that this is a blog only and not a support forum. And I travel a lot – plus sometimes I have days off as well 😉 Therefore please don’t expect any immediate replies via blogs.
In your case you should call your Oracle reps directly for the license question – and open an SR to check with Support for options to install exactly what you want and need.
Sorry for the inconvenience 🙂
Cheers
Mike
Hi,
I’m installing Oracle Standard edition 2 for windows machine.So just suggest me recommended configuration for windows.I have Dell core i5 64 bit machine. please reply as soon as possible.
Thanks
Neerkumar
Neerkumar,
not sure what type of advice you are requesting?
Cheers
Mike
Hello Sir,
By mistake i removed APEX 4.2.5 from oracle 12c. So please suggest me any restore option available in oracle 12c or install again 4.2.5 version.please give me all details.
Hi Mike,
I’m wondering if you can answer this question. If I have a license to Database Enterprise Edition, does this mean that I can install instances of DB EE, SE, SE1, and SE2 with that license, or do I need licenses for all 4 editions, or however many I install? I would assume that the highest edition gives me an included license to simultaneous lower edition instances on the same server, as it seems kinda silly to pay multiple fees for having fewer rights/functionality on some instances. But it’s hard to find explicit documentation. Hope you can help. Thanks!
Vik
Is it possible to manage an SE via Cloud Control?
My main interest is to apply PSUs
@neerajsarathe25@gmail.com
Please reinstall. You may check MOS please or open an SR.
Cheers Mike
@Vik
I’m sorry Vik but I’m not in the position to answer licensening questions. Please direct them to an Oracle sales person as I really can’t answer it.
Cheers
Mike
Chris,
of course you can manage SE2 and patches via Cloud Control.
Just be aware that using the patching deployment of Cloud Control may fall under Lifecycle Management Pack so please check with your Oracle contacts.
Cheers
Mike
Hi Mike,
I have question on thread limitation in SE2 – is the limitation on server level or on database level?
e.g I have one server with two 16 core Intel processors, 32 cores at all – for running two Oracle databases.
Will this two databases works in near-fullspeed or in halfspeed?
– first database takes 16 cores and second takes remaining 16 cores, or
– both databases uses the same 16 cores, remaining 16 cores will not be used by Oracle
which option is true?
Cheers
Przem
Przem,
on database level – not on server level.
Cheers
Mike
Greetings Mike: Can you shed additional light on your answers about empty sockets – why SE2 allows Oracle RAC to be run on a pair of twin socket servers with one socket empty but a 4 socket server with 2 empty sockets can’t be used to run SE2 (non-RAC)? Thanks, -PaulM
Paul,
unfortunately I can’t as those things are decided way above my level. I can see why you are wondering of course. But you may contact your sales contact person for further details.
Cheers
Mike
Hi Mike
Thanks for you answer.
But this is still unclear for me.
I understand at a server must only get max 2 cpu and 16 core total.
and i RAC 1 cpu 8 core per side.
But i the customer build a vmware cluster platform and the 2 server has 1 cpu and 8 core every in the cluster is this OK. ?
or if the cluster has 2 server 2 cpu and 8 core every in the cluster ??
This is from the client
The 2 servers will be positioned as virtual machines on our Hyper-V cluster. The nodes in the cluster has two physical sockets, each with 12 cores.
I do not think it goes, what do you say ??
Regards Johnny
Hi Johnny,
thanks for clarification. I’m not an Oracle license expert nor am I entitled to answer license questions.
In your customer’s case I’d say "No, won’t be possible" as two physical sockets are not allowed for RAC SE2.
See my questions/answers blog post:
Q:
Is RAC (Real Application Clusters) still included in SE2?
A:
Yes it is – limited to 2 nodes, and each node must be a single-socket server. See above: there’s the possibility to either remove a CPU physically – or hard partitioning with a supported virtualization solution such as OVM.
See also:
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/partitioning-070609.pdf
linked from the same "Some questions, some answers" blog post.
Cheers
Mike
Hi Mike,
I would like to ask you, whether the socket count restriction for SE2 license (2) is applicable just for RAC environment, or for failover cluster environment (Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2012 R2) too?
We are now using 4-node failover cluster with single socket servers (W2012R2) licensed with SE, considering possibilities of database upgrade (12cR1).
Thank you for your assistance,
Trap
Trap,
for RAC the socket restriction is pretty clear and straight forward: 1 socket per node, a max of 2 nodes.
When you have a true failover cluster (assuming we both speak about cold failover clusters where on NODE 1 all production load is running and NODE 2 has no active Oracle services but in case of a failover NODE 2 comes up, the logs will be recovered and the database made be available) then this (in my humble opinion) is treated as a single database thus meaning you can have two sockets. But please double check with your Oracle sales rep or somebody from Oracle direct. As mentioned many times before I’m not in the position to give license advice. Therefore what I’m saying is just my personal interpretation and not an official Oracle statement.
Please check with Oracle sales 🙂
Cheers
Mike
hi,
Can you please clarify what RMAN features does SE2 license allows to be used?
For instance, can we use DB Verify utility under SE2 license or not? WRT url: https://docs.oracle.com/database/121/DBLIC/editions.htm#DBLIC109 I could see that tablespace PIT is not allowed, but can we use DBPIT?
Is it possible to point to a reference document or MOS document which shows rman features allowed to be used under 12c SE2 license
thanks
Raj
Raj,
everything which is not explicitly named as under a certain edition is allowed. The list works the other way round. There’s no document saying "this is allowed in SE2" but when the licensing doc says "Feature X is only in EE" then it is not in SE2.
Cheers
Mike
Mike,
Is it possible to run Oracle DB SE2 with RAC with the following setup:
2 physical servers with 2 CPU each
Apply hard partitioning on the servers with Oracle VM and create 2 VMs on each server
setup 2 Oracle RAC with 2 VMs each across the physical server (theoretically each RAC only utilized one socket on each server)
Thanks.
JS,
you can use any compliant hard partitioning approach you like as long as each physical server only has 2 CPUs in it and each VM node only has one physical CPU allocated to it.
Thanks
Mike
Hi Mike,
I have a query for which I am not getting any reasonable output.
Can we upgrade oracle 11G standard edition one to oracle 12C directly or we have to upgrade it to SE2 first.
And what are the additional features involved with SE2.
Kindly enlighten me on this.
Hi Kumar,
yes, you can upgrade – the SE/SE2 topic is a license topic which is fully independent from the technology part. SE2 is “Standard Edition” as it was before. But you’ll have to clarify the license topic (CPU limitation etc) first before you upgrade.
From the technology standpoint, an upgrade from 11.2 SE to 12c SE2 is no different from any other upgrade.
Cheers,
Mike
I found this on a blog, is it factual, if so where can I find it in Oracle documentation
Oracle database licensing is based on the hardware. Once the hardware is properly licensed, you can run as many instances as you can support – either as instances on a single server (Virtual or physical) or in multiple virtual machines.
The things you need to watch if you are running Standard Edition, Standard Edition One, or Standard Edition 2 are the number of sockets on the motherboard (stay with a maximum of 2 sockets or you get forced into Enterprise Edition and per core licensing), and the specific CPU-Oracle has a license condition (Multi Chip Modules or MCM) where they actually count each piece of silicon in a CPU package with a core as a socket.
Rey,
as much as I understand your question, please raise this with your Oracle Sales contact. I don’t (and can’t) do neither license consulting nor can I assist you here. I think we have a purchasing guide which explains the details but I don’t have a link handy.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
Currently Oracle SE edition is running in one of our production servers. Now I want to upgrade that to SE2. Just downloading and installing will work.?
Since it’s a production server, will it create any issues to the current running instances.?
Hi Sridhar,
SE2 is just a licensening term – you download the newer version, install SE and upgrade to it.
That’s it.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
I’m not finding it anymore the advice calculation in the following link “http://www.redstk.com/current-thread-count-for-your-standard-edition-oracle-databases/”. Would it be possible, please, to explain how I can identify how many threads my database is using or where in statspack can I identify how many threads are being used?
thanks
Hi Haley,
thanks for the pointer – I will remove the link then (or already did by the time you read this).
Unfortunately you may need to either check with Oracle Support or use the sysinternals tools shared and hosted by MS.
Cheers
Mike