FlexNet Manager for Oracle®: Features

The Dashboard offers three convenient views into the completeness of your assessment process and your resulting compliance situation.

 

1. Alerts
   FlexNet Manager for Oracle proactively guides you through your initial assessment and notifies you, using five alerts, when there is missing data potentially leaving you with an incomplete picture of your compliance situation.
   
   Over the course of the assessment process, the following five alerts provide insight into the status and comprehensiveness of your evaluation:
   1. No instances of Oracle technology have been discovered in your inventory. (Run a scan to find Oracle inventory on your network)
   2. No entitlements have been defined. (Define entitlements in the Entitlement Manager)
   3. You have one or more instances of Oracle technology in your inventory that are not allocated to any entitlements. (Show)
   4. You have Oracle instances without defined databases. (Define databases)
   5. You have Oracle databases that are missing version and/ or edition data. (Schedule an Oracle introspection)
2. Compliance Summary
   The Compliance Summary section rolls up your entire Oracle environment and indicates the number of entitlements that fall into one of four categories:
   • Overused entitlements
   • Entitlements approaching compliance threshold
   • Underused entitlements
   • Entitlements in good standing
   
   Using color coding, the Compliance Summary reports the average use of the software in each category compared to its related entitlement.
   • Green indicates that the level of usage is safely within the limits of your license agreement
   • Blue indicates that none of the licenses purchased are being used
   • Yellow indicates that almost all of the licenses purchased are in use so a license compliance violation may soon occur
   • Red indicates overuse
3. Compliance Details
   The Compliance Details section enables you to drill down into each software feature to easily view the compliance situation for each line item relating to a contractual entitlement.

 

With FlexNet Manager for Oracle, Database Administrators and System Administrators no longer have to manually inventory their Oracle deployments. Without having to install yet another agent, you can remotely scan the entire corporate network or a defined range to identify where Oracle instances are deployed, with a minimal impact on your network traffic. No agent means a shorter implementation time and less hassle.

Once you have found all of the servers running Oracle Database and E-Business Suite, you can start collecting more detailed license metrics including:

• Database Usage Metrics
  • Number of users that are using the database
  • Date that the database was last used
  • Which database options are being used and which are not
  • Which database enterprise management tools are being used and which are not
• E-Business Suite Usage Metrics
  • Number of applications that are being used (e.g., Financials, Human Resources, etc.)
  • Number of users that are accessing the applications
  • Number of expense reports that are being used
  • Number of line items that are being used
• License Models: Names User Plus (NUP) and Processor
• Editions (11g, 10g, 9i)
• Versions (Enterprise, Standard and Personal)

During these more in depth scans, FlexNet Manager shows the progress of the search, which is particularly helpful for large deployments.

Empowered with concrete deployment data, you can compare it to your contract terms and identify your compliance position for both internal and external stakeholders. You can also identify potential cost saving opportunities. For example, you can evaluate the comparative benefits of going with an alternate license model or of implementing corporate policies to change behavior and optimize spending.

In order to calculate the number of Oracle processor licenses needed for compliance, an organization must understand the number of processors used by servers where Oracle is installed and that server’s “core processor licensing factor” as designated by the Oracle Processor Core Factor Table. Different processors may consume a different number of points per core to account for the number of cores and, to a certain extent, the relative performance of those cores. For example, a SUN UltraSparc with 4 eight-processors will require 4*8*.0.25 = 8 licenses.

Manually accounting for core processor licensing factors when determining license compliance can be frustrating and time consuming. FlexNet Manager automatically discovers the hardware makeup of the systems running Oracle technologies and determines the number of processor licenses and minimum user counts required based on core factoring calculations.

By automating this process, you can reduce the time and effort it takes to identify your processor license shortfalls. It will also likely improve the accuracy and consistency of the results.

Authorized data entry users can quickly add or modify entitlements through a structured web interface. The structure is based on the Oracle application and database price list. The details submitted, such as the license type or the number of users or processors, will serve as the entitlement record and will be used to determine the compliance position and basis for optimization recommendations.



Once a new entitlement has been defined, the units available must be allocated to the discovered inventory in use. This confirmation step is critical to ensure the accuracy of the compliance assessment.

 

Get the information you need to understand your compliance position and identify cost-saving opportunities by reporting on:

• Database Inventory and Usage Metrics
  • Number of users that are using the database
  • Date that the database was last used
  • Which database options are being used and which are not
  • Which database enterprise management tools are being used and which are not
• E-Business Suite Inventory and Usage Metrics
  • Number of applications that are being used (e.g., Financials, Human Resources, etc.)
  • Number of users that are accessing the applications
  • Number of expense reports that are being used
  • Number of line items that are being used
• License Models: Names User Plus (NUP) and Processor
• Editions (11g, 10g, 9i)
• Versions (Enterprise, Standard and Personal)

Using the power of Cognos 8, drill down on data points to get more precise, deployment information and then export reports into multiple file formats, including Excel, PDF, CVS, TXT, PNG, JPEG, HTML, and RIF.

 

With FlexNet Manager, you can run reports that automatically highlight the specific areas that have changed over a given time frame. Components new to the system since the last scan are highlighted green and components that have merely changed since the last scan are highlighted yellow.

Thanks to this level of insight, you can

• Efficiently monitor changes to your Oracle environment over time to avoid drifting out of compliance
• React to any breach so that timely corrective action can be taken
• Eliminate the need to manually catalog the information over a period of time and collate the results

Demonstrate your compliance position while aligning with Oracle’s true-up guidelines and processes.

 

Options are licensable capabilities which extend the power of the Oracle database in secure data management, transaction processing and data warehousing (e.g. RAC, OLAP, Partitioning, etc.). It is common for these to be installed without IT’s oversight, leading to a sprawl of deployments over time. Considering that options can potentially double the cost of a single installation, unintentional use is an expensive mistake few organizations can afford to make.

Using agent-less scanning technology, FlexNet Manager for Oracle identifies Options that are installed and reports on their use per database instance.

Management tools are licensable performance enhancing capabilities for the database (e.g., Diagnostic Pack, Tuning Pack, etc) Use of packs can change over time without IT knowing or approving of the additions. If they are used unintentionally, the organization can face a significant financial burden at their next true-up.

Using agent-less scanning technology, FlexNet Manager for Oracle identifies the types of Database Enterprise Management tools that are installed and reports on their use.

FlexNet Manager for Oracle allows you to quickly gain a complete understanding of how your organization uses Oracle E-Business Suite. Empowered with concrete deployment data, you can compare it to your contract terms and identify your compliance position for both internal and external stakeholders. You can also identify potential cost saving opportunities by evaluating the comparative benefits of going with an alternate license model or of implementing corporate policies to change behavior and optimize spending. For example, if you are charged by the number of expense reports generated, you might implement a policy that asks employees to consolidate their requests every month.