What Are Oracle Database Enterprise Edition Options?
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition options are separately licensed add-on features that extend the capabilities of the base Enterprise Edition database. Options are not included in the EE base price — they must be purchased independently, at their own per-processor or per-Named User Plus price, and are subject to Oracle's annual support regime. Options are available exclusively for Enterprise Edition: Standard Edition 2 customers cannot purchase or use any EE option, and any activation of an EE feature on SE2 constitutes an edition violation rather than an options violation.
The key rule: options must be licenced on every processor where the option is installed or in use. This is not a per-server licence or a per-deployment licence — it is a per-processor licence that mirrors exactly how the base EE database is licenced. If an option is in use on a 12-processor deployment, all 12 processors must be covered by that option's licence. You cannot licence an option for fewer processors than the full deployment.
Annual support for each option is set at 22% of the net licence fee in year one, and increases by 8% per year compounding thereafter. For a large deployment with multiple high-value options, the cumulative annual support cost can rival or exceed the original perpetual licence cost within a decade.
Key Options and Their Pricing
Real Application Clusters (RAC)
RAC enables multiple Oracle Database instances to run simultaneously on different servers, sharing a single physical database, for active-active high availability and scalability. The list price is $23,000 per processor or $460 per Named User Plus. RAC licensing applies to every processor on every node in the cluster. A two-node RAC cluster with 8 processors per node requires RAC licences for all 16 processors — not just the primary node. This is one of the most frequently under-licensed options Redress Compliance identifies in client licence reviews: customers who have expanded their RAC cluster from two nodes to three or four nodes without purchasing additional RAC option licences are exposed to a multi-million-dollar compliance gap.
Partitioning
Oracle Partitioning allows large tables and indexes to be divided into smaller, more manageable partitions, improving query performance and manageability for large data sets. It is priced at $11,500 per processor or $230 per Named User Plus. Partitioning is one of the most commonly unlicensed EE options — partly because database architects naturally gravitate to partitioning as a performance optimisation for large tables, and partly because the feature can be activated with a single ALTER TABLE statement without any system-level warning that the feature requires a licence.
Oracle's LMS audit scripts specifically query DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS for evidence of Partitioning usage. Even a single partitioned table in a database counts as Partitioning option usage for the entire processor set. Organisations that have partitioned even one large table without holding a Partitioning option licence are exposed from the moment that table was created.
Advanced Security
Oracle Advanced Security provides Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) and Data Redaction capabilities. It is priced at $15,000 per processor or $300 per Named User Plus. TDE, in particular, is widely used because regulatory requirements (PCI-DSS, GDPR, HIPAA) often mandate encryption at rest. Many organisations implement TDE without realising it is a separately licensed option, assuming it is included in the base EE product. It is not. Any Oracle Database instance with TDE enabled must hold the Advanced Security option licence for every processor in that deployment.
Diagnostic Pack and Tuning Pack
The Diagnostic Pack ($7,500 per processor) includes Oracle's Automatic Workload Repository (AWR), Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM), and database performance monitoring features. The Tuning Pack ($5,000 per processor) includes SQL Tuning Advisor and SQL Access Advisor. These packs are separate licences and are commonly activated through Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) without explicit licensing review. The risk is significant: OEM Cloud Control enables pack-level monitoring features by default, and DBAs who use OEM for routine database monitoring may inadvertently be using AWR — which requires the Diagnostic Pack licence — across their entire estate.
Oracle's LMS scripts query DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS and OEM's management repository to identify pack usage. The Diagnostic Pack finding is one of the highest-frequency audit discoveries, and the retroactive exposure — covering all processors where the pack was ever used, including historical instances that may no longer be running — can be substantial.
Active Data Guard
Active Data Guard ($23,000 per processor) extends Oracle Data Guard to allow active queries against the standby database while it is in recovery mode. The base Data Guard functionality (where the standby is in a passive recovery state) is included in Enterprise Edition. The Active Data Guard option is required only when active queries are run against the standby. Many organisations run standby databases where occasional queries are executed for reporting or diagnostics — without realising this activates the Active Data Guard option requirement. Oracle's audit scripts detect active query execution against Data Guard standbys.
| Option / Pack | Processor Price | NUP Price | Common Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real Application Clusters | $23,000 | $460 | Cluster expansion without licence uplift |
| Partitioning | $11,500 | $230 | Single partitioned table = full licence required |
| Advanced Security (TDE) | $15,000 | $300 | Compliance-driven TDE without licence |
| Database In-Memory | $23,000 | $460 | Default or accidental column store activation |
| Active Data Guard | $23,000 | $460 | Standby queries without option licence |
| Diagnostic Pack | $7,500 | $150 | OEM AWR monitoring without licence |
| Tuning Pack | $5,000 | $100 | SQL Tuning Advisor usage without licence |
How Oracle Detects Unlicensed Option Usage
Oracle's LMS (Licence Management Services) audit process relies primarily on two data sources: the DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS view within each Oracle Database, and Oracle's own LMS collection scripts run against the customer's environment during an audit. DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS records a cumulative history of every Oracle Database feature and option that has been used, including the first and last time each feature was accessed, and a count of uses. Critically, this history is not erased when a feature is disabled or when the database is patched — Oracle can see historical usage that predates the current configuration.
This has a significant practical implication: if a DBA enabled Partitioning, ran a partitioned workload for three months, then dropped all partitioned tables and disabled the feature, Oracle's audit scripts will still surface that historical usage. The compliance gap exists from the moment of first use, not from the current configuration. This retroactive exposure is one of the most commercially damaging aspects of the Oracle audit process — and it is why "cleaning up" non-compliant usage before an audit begins does not eliminate the liability.
Audit Alert: Historical Usage Cannot Be Hidden
DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS retains the full history of option usage. Disabling a feature or dropping objects that used it does not remove the historical record. Oracle's LMS scripts will find it. The only way to address historical usage is to negotiate it as part of a commercial settlement — not to try to hide it.
The Cost of Getting It Wrong
A fully loaded EE deployment on a 12-processor server with RAC, Partitioning, Advanced Security, Database In-Memory, Diagnostic Pack, and Tuning Pack represents the following list-price perpetual licence cost: $47,500 × 12 (EE base) + $23,000 × 12 (RAC) + $11,500 × 12 (Partitioning) + $15,000 × 12 (Advanced Security) + $23,000 × 12 (In-Memory) + $7,500 × 12 (Diagnostic Pack) + $5,000 × 12 (Tuning Pack) = $1.6 million in perpetual licences. Annual support at 22% adds a further $354,000 per year in year one, increasing by 8% annually. If these options are in use without licences, the entire amount is owed retroactively — plus Oracle's standard penalty terms.
Protecting Your Compliance Position
The most effective protection against an Oracle options audit finding is a proactive internal compliance programme. This means conducting regular internal reviews using Oracle's DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS — not sharing the results with Oracle, but using them to identify and remediate gaps before Oracle's LMS team does. It means implementing governance controls that require a licensing sign-off before any new Oracle Database option is enabled in production. It means ensuring that Oracle Enterprise Manager policies explicitly disable management pack usage for databases where those packs are not licenced.
When an Oracle audit has already commenced, the priority is to engage independent Oracle licensing advisors — under legal privilege — before responding to Oracle's data collection requests. The data Oracle collects during an audit forms the basis of their claim, and how that data is presented, and what context is provided, can materially affect the outcome. Redress Compliance has helped enterprise clients reduce audit claims by 30–90% through rigorous counter-measurement analysis and commercial negotiation. Contact our Oracle audit defence team for independent support.
Client Outcome
In one engagement, a global manufacturing group faced an Oracle audit finding of $3.4M for unlicensed use of the Oracle Diagnostics Pack and Tuning Pack across 22 production database servers. Redress Compliance reviewed the AWR and ADDM usage configurations and demonstrated that the packs had been enabled by default during patching — not intentionally. The final settlement was $510,000. The engagement fee was less than 3% of the original exposure.
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