OOW 2019 - Significant Oracle Multitenant Announcements

Background

During Oracle OpenWorld 2019, there were significant announcements related to my favorite Oracle option in recent years - the Oracle Multitenant option. In this blog post I will summarize the highlights.

Oracle 19c Exciting News

Prior to Oracle 19c (Oracle 12c through 18c), in order to use pluggable databases (usually for consolidation purposes), one had to own the multitenant option which is an extra option (=cost) on top of the oracle enterprise edition. There was also a single-tenant option which allows running the multitenant architecture but with only one pluggable database; hence, single-tenant. You can read more about that in a blog post I wrote about Oracle's deployment options (Non-CDB, Single-Tenant, Multitenant).

Starting with Oracle 19c, customers can run 3 pluggable databases with no extra cost, i.e. without the multitenant license.

Oracle 20c - End of Era?

For years the non-cdb architecture has been defined officially by Oracle as deprecated and "may be desupported in the future". In OOW19, it was announced that the next Oracle release (20c) will be the first one that the non-cdb architecture will be officially desupported.

Oracle 19c Privilege Analysis - Positive Licensing Update!

Introduction

One of the most valuable security related features which have been introduced recently (in Oracle 12c to be specific) is the Privilege Analysis feature. Using this feature, the DBA can easily understand which privileges are actually being used by users. Once the analysis has been completed, the DBA can revoke all of the unnecessary privileges/roles.
I actually wrote a dedicated blog post about this topic with some code examples. See: http://oracledbpro.blogspot.com/2015/12/oracle-12c-privilege-analysis.html

Oracle Database 19c Positive Licensing Update!
Prior to version 19c, this extremely helpful and useful feature was only available for Enterprise Edition with Oracle Database Vault (extra cost option).
Starting from 19c this feature is available with Enterprise Edition; in other words, no need for the data vault option which, is mentioned previously, is an extra cost option.

This is a really nice update from Oracle - let's hope that one day the Diagnostics & Tuning pack features (e.g. AWR, ADDM, ASH, etc.) will be included with the Enterprise Edition without forcing customers to buy the extra cost diagnostics & tuning packs options :)

Reference
https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/19/newft/new-features.html#GUID-57C5AD70-55F2-4E4E-879A-B2D88A237A24

Oracle RAC with Standard Edition (SE) 2 is not supported in 19c

Introduction
For so many years (starting in the early 2000's, when 10g was released) Oracle RAC option (Real Application Clusters) was available with Oracle Standard Editions; even when Oracle introduced Oracle Standard Edition 2 (SE2) back in version 12.1.0.2 (see my blog post about SE2 here), they offered the RAC option.

19c Update
With the introduction of the recent 19c release, Oracle did a pretty significant change with SE2 which I believe is worthy of a blog post.
Oracle RAC has been de-supported effective with Oracle Database 19c.
According to Oracle, "SE2 Socket requirements are hard to meet as hardware evolves." In addition, they claim that "SE Oracle RAC has seen diminishing demand with increased high availability requirements, as SE does not provide the full set of high availability capabilities available in the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition".

My Own View

I personally feel like Oracle licensing is too strict and with this recent change it became even stricter. For example, I always believed that Diagnostics and Tuning packs should have been part of the Enterprise Edition by default. I felt like the move to Standard Edition 2 back in 12.1.0.2 was strict as it was more limited than Standard Edition with the same price. I believe that the recent 19c SE2 change is a (valid) tactic to move people to Oracle cloud. The positive news is that from my experience of working with my customer base, the impact on the market should be very low as it's pretty rare to see customers use SE2 with RAC given the limitations of SE2.

Additional Information 

• https://www.slideshare.net/MarkusMichalewicz/oracle-rac-19c-with-standard-edition-se-2-support-update

Oracle Database 12c Deployment Options

Introduction

Oracle Database 12c Multitenant Architecture is definitely the highlight feature of Oracle 12c. In this article we will review the Deployment Options for Oracle Database 12: Multitenant, Single Tenant, and Non-CDB.

Multitenant

Multitenant is the new paradigm in Oracle 12c which allows managing multiple Pluggable Databases in a single instance (i.e. Single Instance configuration) or multiple Pluggable Databases with multiple instances (i.e. RAC configuration). This is an extra cost option which is available only for Enterprise Edition Databases. In order to choose the Multitenant Option, check the "Create As Container Database" option in DBCA, as follows:

Single Tenant

Single Tenant is similar to the Multitenant in terms of the architecture and pluggable databases capabilities such as unplug/plug and PDB cloning options; however, it allows having only one single Pluggable database. This option does not require the extra cost license, as opposed to the Multitenant option. 

Non-CDB

Non-CDB basically means the old pre-12c architecture. In this option there is only one single Database with one single instance (i.e. Single Instance configuration), or one single Database with multiple instances (i.e. RAC configuration). In either case, Single Instance or RAC, there is only one single Database. The concept of Pluggable Databases is irrelevant and the 12c PDB options such as unplug/plug and clone are not available. In order to use the Non-CDB option, uncheck the "Create As Container Database" option in DBCA, as follows:

Single Tenant vs. Non-CDB

In case that you are interested in upgrading to Oracle Database 12c, but you are not interested in using the Multitenant option, you may ask yourself whether you should use Single Tenant or Non-CDB. Personally, I highly recommend on adopting  the Single Tenant due to the following reasons:

• Unplug/Plug - With Single Tenant you could unplug your PDB and plug it into a different CDB which could simplify upgrades and migrations in many cases.
• Fast Cloning - With Single Tenant you could fast clone your PDB to a different CDB which could simplify data migrations in many cases.
• Deprecation of Non-CDB Architecture - As per Oracle official documentation "The non-CDB architecture is deprecated in Oracle Database 12c, and may be desupported and unavailable in a release after Oracle Database 12c Release 2. Oracle recommends use of the CDB architecture.". This means that in the future we will all have to use either Single Tenant or Multitenant, so I believe it is better to get the knowledge and skills for managing Pluggable Databases as soon as possible.

Summary

I've created the following diagram which covers the 3 deployment options in Oracle Database 12c.

Additional Resources

• Deprecation of Non-CDB Architecture

• Oracle Multitenant (White Paper)

• Introduction to the Multitenant Architecture (Oracle Documentation)

The new Oracle Edition - "Standard Edition 2" has been released!

The new Oracle Edition, Standard Edition 2 has been released (on September 1st) and is available for download as version 12.1.0.2 at: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html

So far 12.1.0.2 was available only for the Enterprise Edition so with this new edition, customers who are using 12.1.0.1 with the Standard Edition, can finally upgrade to 12.1.0.2

This new edition will replace the Standard Edition and Standard Edition one, therefore 12.1.0.1 is the last version that offers the Standard Edition and Standard Edition One. Standard Edition 2 will cost exactly the same as Standard Edition (as per Oracle global price list, it costs 17,500$ per processor), therefore customers who are using Standard Edition One (as per Oracle global price list, it costs 5,800$ per processor) and would like to upgrade to Standard Edition 2, will need to pay an extra charge in order to benefit the advantages of Standard Edition 2 (such as using Real Application Clusters). For customers who are using 12.1.0.1 Standard Edition or Standard Edition One, the permier support is available until september 1st, 2016

Notes:

1. Standard Edition 2 is limited to 2 CPU sockets per system (Standard Edition was limited to 4)
2. RAC with Standard Edition 2 is limited to 2 nodes (1 CPU socket per node)
3. Standard Edition 2 is limited to 16 CPU threads per system (Standard Edition was unlimited)
4. RAC with Standard Edition 2 is limited to 8 CPU threads per node

Useful Links:

• Oracle Database Editions Page
• Oracle Standard Edition 2 Page
• Oracle Database Licensing Guidelines
• Oracle Global Price List