[Tfug] Clarification: database licensing theory to practice

[Zack Williams]

On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 9:20 AM, Paul Steinbach <MIS at samlevitz.com> wrote:
> We use this application under an Oracle application specific full use
> license.  It allows us to use Oracle 9i Enterprise Edition only with this
> application.  We have named user access licenses for both the application
> and Oracle Enterprise Edition.  The company that sells the licenses has
> created the database structure, triggers, functions, etc.  If I want to
> migrate it to Oracle or EnterpriseDB or something else, I am assuming I can
> recreate the tables and migrate the data but that all the functions etc are
> "source code" and therefore belong to the application.  The licensing
> company has stopped development at Oracle 9i and does not support RAC
> (clustering).  The application supposedly needs the Enterprise Edition
> features and supposedly includes some SPARC-specific coding.  We use a 4-way
> Sun V480 talking to an EMC FC-5700 fiber array with 2X7+1 drives (RAID 10)
> over 1G FC HBAs.
>
> This is an issue because the array has been problematic and management that
> does not want to update.  Our database has become more and more critical as
> we have added more functions and time-critical services (ie Same-day
> delivery).  I am trying to find a way to have a majority of my data and
> services online without paying for a whole 'nother set of Oracle and
> application licenses.  Though I have made recommendations for upgrades, we
> are subject to the same economy as everyone else.
> The license allows for emergency copies of the software. I am thinking that
> maybe I can keep a second database alive on another array (iSCSI?) attached
> to the original server using either OS copies or Oracle utilities.  If the
> array went down I could bring the database up on the second array and the
> original server.  If the original server was down, I could link the second
> array to my backup 2-way V480 and be back in action.  I don't want to
> replicate the Fiber stuff because I don't think I could support it without
> another contract.  I do have a backup FC-5700 for parts.

Speaking to the hardware side of things:

2GB/s FC gear is relatively cheap - you can buy a 2GB 64-bit PCI dual
port adapters for under $100, and 2GB FC switch with 8 active ports
for around $500 off of ebay (I'm thinking a Qlogic 5200 or similar)
when I last checked.    You could tie everything into a redundant
infrastructure for not a whole lot, and it may be bulletproof enough
to run without a service contract.

I'd look into getting another array, or building one with Sun's
COMSTAR framwork on a standard x86 box to take advantage of higher
density SATA disks, and the increased manageability of running Solaris
on the array.

As far as the software goes, if you don't have control of the code
running on the system and you can't upgrade,  you may be in for
rewriting the front end against their data as stored in the database,
at which time you could jump database engines.   Alternatively, you
may think about doing a rewrite from scratch, with all the pain that
involves, but it would probably last longer and you'd "own" it
totally.

- Zack