Oracle Database on Amazon Web Services Book

The first book that covers running Oracle on Amazon Web Services:
http://www.amazon.com/Oracle-Databases-Amazon-Web-Services/dp/012800956X

Written by these companies:
http://www.appsassociates.com/awslabs/
http://aws.amazon.com/rds/partners/dbvisit/
http://www.e-dba.com/oracle_labs_aws.html

AWS getting started partner accreditation

Great place to start for business and technical partners new to AWS:

http://aws.amazon.com/partners/training/accreditation/#AWS_Business_Professional

Technical folks can start here before they create there first instance:

http://aws.amazon.com/partners/training/accreditation/#AWS_Technical_Professional

Oracle on AWS costs of Oracle on AWS and licensing management

Here are two common questions in regards to Oracle pricing and licensing on AWS:

1. How can they determine the pricing for an instance launched from an Oracle AMI e.g. https://aws.amazon.com/amis/oracle-database-11g-release-2-11-2-0-1-enterprise-edition-64-bit?

The bottom line: The pricing are the standard EC2, data out traffic, and storage + cost of Oracle licenses (or no cost of Oracle licenses if they have their own)

2. How do they manage BYOL or using unused licenses in practical terms? (afaik they have to BYOL for Oracle on EC2)

The bottom line : It is up to the customer to make sure they are not violating Oracle licensing policies.

Oracle licensing on AWS

In addition to the document on the Oracle web site (http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/cloud-licensing-070579.pdf), this nice explanation of how licensing of Oracle works on AWS:
http://www.bluegecko.net/oracle/oracle-processor-licensing-on-amazon-ec2/. 

Oracle RDS license included and Oracle licensing

You can run Oracle on AWS in a subscription based licensing model using Oracle RDS.  This is for Oracle Standard Edition One and not Oracle Standard or Enterprise Editions.

From the licensing and pricing document from Oracle (http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/cloud-licensing-070579.pdf):

Standard Edition and Standard Edition One -  EC2 instances with 4 or less virtual cores are counted as 1 socket, which is considered equivalent to a processor license. For EC2 instances with more than 4 virtual cores, every 4 virtual cores used (rounded up to the closest multiple of 4) equate to a licensing requirement of 1 socket. This means that running on m1.small, m1.medium, m1.large and m1.xlarge will all cost the same from an Oracle perspective. Details are: "When licensing Oracle programs with Standard Edition One or Standard Edition in the product name, the pricing is based on the size of the EC2 instances. EC2 instances with 4 or less virtual cores are counted as 1 socket, which is considered equivalent to a processor license. For EC2 instances with more than 4 virtual cores, every 4 virtual cores used (rounded up to the closest multiple of 4) equate to a licensing requirement of 1 socket. "The big difference between SE and EE are the number of sockets you can run on (and features/options that Oracle has turned on).  This is not an issue with RDS instance types as the largest instance type has 8 virtual cores.  This number of core is in line with the number of sockets (2 sockets) that is allowed for Oracle SE One(the license included option) per Oracle AWS licensing terms.

Getting Started with WebLogic on AWS

Here are the links to get you started with Oracle WebLogic on AWS/EC2:

1. Oracle on AWS FAQ - 

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/cloud/faq-098970.html

2. Landing page on AWS - 

http://aws.amazon.com/oracle/

3. Oracle Amazon Machine Imagines - 

There are AMIs on the AWS web site but you are best to create your own AMI with the OS of your choice and install WebLogic on this base instance.https://aws.amazon.com/amis?ami_provider_id=4&selection=ami_provider_id . The AMIs Oracle has posted here are really just to get started.  They are really not even good for demo or POC usage. You can find the latest OEL AMIs, for OEL 5.9 and 6.4, at the bottom of this web page: http://aws.amazon.com/oracle/  

4. EC2 Instances available - 

http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/

5. EC2

Pricing - http://aws.amazon.com/pricing/ec2/

6. Pricing calculator - 

http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/calc5.html

1. Oracle licensing : You bring your own license.  You can not buy a license from AWS. This can be an     Oracle ULA, ELA, or perpetual licenses. The only support AWS has for AWS compute with Oracle license included is for AWS RDS. For all other, you have to BYOL.  A partner can use OPN licenses for test and development.  OTN licenses are only for trials of 30 days or less.
Oracle on AWS licensing document is here: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/cloud-licensing-070579.pdf

2. The bulk of the AWS cost is composed of EC2 compute, storage (EBS and S3) and network (data transfer out). The pricing calculator above can give you an estimate of AWS cost.

3. Oracle support on AWS : 

 http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/cloud/faq-098970.html#support

Oracle licensing on AWS

I may have blogged about this already, but want to give more detail as this question keeps coming up. Customers and partners want to know specifically how licenses purchased from Oracle or used on AWS as part of their ULA and ELA agreements are converted to cores and sockets on AWS.  Here is an example that I believe will clear things up:

1. Standard Edition - EC2 instances with 4 or less virtual cores are counted as 1 socket, which is considered equivalent to a processor license. For EC2 instances with more than 4 virtual cores, every 4 virtual cores used (rounded up to the closest multiple of 4) equate to a licensing requirement of 1 socket.  This means that running on m1.small, m1.medium, m1.large and m1.xlarge will all cost the same from an Oracle perspective. Details are: "When licensing Oracle programs with Standard Edition One or Standard Edition in the product name, the pricing is based on the size of the EC2 instances. Authorized Cloud Environment instances with 4 or fewer virtual cores are counted as 1 socket, which is considered equivalent to a processor license. For Authorized Cloud Environment instances with more than 4 virtual cores, every 4 virtual cores used (rounded up to the closest multiple of 4) equate to a licensing requirement of 1 socket."
2. Enterprise Edition - .5 multiplier which means you need 1 Oracle license for every 2 virtual cores on EC2.  This means that  running on m1.small, m1.medium, and  m1.large will all cost the same from an Oracle perspective.  Running on m1.xlarge would cost double the price since it has 4 virtual cores.

A virtual core is not the same as a vCPU. More on virtual cores here: http://aws.amazon.com/jp/ec2/virtualcores/

All the details can be found on the Oracle web site here:
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/cloud-licensing-070579.pdf 

Of course, you should check with Oracle to make sure that you are in compliance.

Getting started with Oracle EBusiness Suite on AWS

Here are the links to get you started with Oracle EBusiness Suite on AWS (EC2 only, RDS not supported):

1. Oracle on AWS FAQ - 

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/cloud/faq-098970.html

2. Landing page on AWS - 

http://aws.amazon.com/oracle/

3. Oracle Amazon Machine Imagines - 

There are Oracle Enterprise Linux, Database and WebLogic AMIs on the AWS web site but you are best to create your own AMI with the OS of your choice and install EBusiness Suite on this base instance.https://aws.amazon.com/amis?ami_provider_id=4&selection=ami_provider_id . You can find the latest OEL AMIs, for OEL 5.9 and 6.4, at the bottom of this web page: http://aws.amazon.com/oracle/  

4. EC2 Instances available - 

http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/

5. EC2

Pricing - http://aws.amazon.com/pricing/ec2/

6. Pricing calculator - 

http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/calc5.html

Key Considerations:

1. Oracle licensing : You bring your own license.  You can not buy a license from AWS. Your Oracle license that you bring or purchase from Oracle can be an Oracle ULA, ELA, or perpetual licenses.  More on licensing can be found here: 

http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2013/01/oracle-licensing-on-aws.html

2. The bulk of the AWS cost is composed of EC2 compute, storage (EBS and S3) and network (data transfer out). The pricing calculator above can give you an estimate of AWS cost.

3. Oracle support on AWS : 

 http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/cloud/faq-098970.html#support

Oracle licensing on AWS

Oracle licenses portability and support on AWS is a bit different between Oracle on EC2 and Oracle on RDS.  However, with both models you can Bring Your Own Licenses (BYOL). With RDS, you have the option of BYOL (Bring Your Own License) or License Included.  With Oracle on EC2, you can only BYOL. All Oracle licenses are portable to AWS as indicated here: http://aws.amazon.com/oracle/.   More details on how your Oracle licenses work on AWS can be found here: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/cloud-licensing-070579.pdf.  The Oracle FAQ has more details on working with Oracle on AWS: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/cloud/faq-098970.html#Oracle_AWS. 

Gettings started with Oracle DB on AWS

Here are some links to get you started with Oracle database on AWS (EC2 and RDS):

• Oracle on AWS FAQ - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/cloud/faq-098970.html
• Landing page on AWS - http://aws.amazon.com/oracle/
• Oracle Amazon Machine Imagines - https://aws.amazon.com/amis?ami_provider_id=4&selection=ami_provider_id.  You can find the latest OEL AMIs, for OEL 5.9 and 6.4, at the bottom of this web page: http://aws.amazon.com/oracle/        
• Marketplace AMIs - Can be found here:  https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/search/results/ref=srh_navgno_search_box?page=1&searchTerms=oracle+database+12c
• AWS EC2 Instances (you manage the database) - http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/
• AWS EC2 Pricing - http://aws.amazon.com/pricing/ec2/
• AWS Pricing calculator - http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/calc5.html
• AWS RDS (managed database) - http://aws.amazon.com/rds/oracle/
• 10g Database - This can only be run on EC2 as RDS does not support 10g.
• Licensing - http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/cloud-licensing-070579.pdf
• AWS RDS limitations - http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/Concepts.DBEngine.Oracle.html
• Download and use the Oracle Database on AWS reference implementation - Oracle Database 11g on Amazon EC2 Implementation Guide
• Review the presentations here - http://www.slideshare.net/tomlaszewski