This glossary is organised alphabetically. Use the quick-navigation links below to jump to the letter group you need.
A
ACE Authorised Cloud Environment
A public cloud platform that Oracle has officially approved for BYOL (Bring Your Own Licence) deployments. The current ACEs are Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. On ACEs, the standard 2 vCPU = 1 Processor licence rule applies (with the exception of OCI, where 1 Processor = 2 OCPUs).
ADG Active Data Guard
An Oracle Database option that allows a physical standby database to be opened in read-only mode while replication from the primary continues. ADG enables reporting, read offload, and rolling upgrades from the standby. It is not included in the base Oracle Database Enterprise Edition licence — it is an additional option requiring a separate licence purchase at approximately $23,000 per Processor (list price). Enabling ADG parameters in a database configuration without the corresponding licence is one of the most common Oracle audit findings.
ASFU Application Specific Full Use
A restricted Oracle licence type granted to ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) and passed to end customers as part of an application bundle. An ASFU licence permits Oracle technology use only in direct support of the named application. Using the licenced Oracle database for any other purpose — additional applications, reporting, scripts, or data loading outside the ISV application's scope — creates an unlicensed use position. ASFU licences are deeply discounted relative to Full Use but carry significant compliance risk when organisations use the database broadly.
B
BYOL Bring Your Own Licence
A deployment model that allows existing on-premises Oracle perpetual licences to be applied to Oracle workloads in authorised cloud environments (OCI, AWS, Azure, GCP). BYOL does not require new licence purchases — it applies existing entitlements to cloud deployments. The conversion rules vary by cloud: on OCI, 1 Processor licence = 2 OCPUs; on AWS, Azure, and GCP, 2 vCPUs = 1 Processor licence. BYOL is subject to all the same compliance rules as on-premises deployments, including options licencing and virtualisation policy.
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CSI Customer Support Identifier
Oracle's support account number. Every Oracle support contract is associated with one or more CSIs, which are required to download patches, access the Oracle Support portal (My Oracle Support), and log service requests. Organisations with complex Oracle estates often have many CSIs accumulated through acquisitions and legacy contracts. Reconciling CSIs is a critical step in Oracle licence management to prevent duplicate support payments and establish a coherent entitlement picture.
Certification (ULA)
The process at the end of an Oracle ULA term in which the customer declares to Oracle the total quantity of each covered product deployed across the organisation. The certified number becomes the customer's perpetual licence entitlement going forward. Certification is a critical event — it determines the customer's long-term licence position and should be preceded by systematic maximisation of deployment to maximise the entitlement certified out of the ULA. Oracle fiscal Q4 (March–May) is when most certifications are completed.
Core Factor (Core Processor Licensing Factor)
A multiplier published by Oracle for each processor family, used to calculate how many Oracle Processor licences are required per physical CPU core. The most common factors are: Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC = 0.5 (2 cores = 1 licence); IBM POWER = 1.0 (1 core = 1 licence); Oracle SPARC T-series = 0.25 (4 cores = 1 licence). The core factor table applies to on-premises deployments and OCI BYOL — not to AWS, Azure, or GCP deployments.
D
DR Disaster Recovery
In Oracle licensing, any server on which Oracle software is installed for DR purposes must be fully licenced — there is no automatic DR exemption. The only partial exception is the 10-day failover rule, which allows an on-premises passive standby to be activated for up to 10 cumulative days per year during genuine unplanned outages. This rule does not apply to DR environments hosted in public clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP) or to planned maintenance events.
Data Guard
Oracle's standard database replication technology, used to maintain a synchronised standby copy of a primary database. Data Guard (in passive, physical standby mode) is included in Oracle Database Enterprise Edition — it does not require an additional licence. However, the standby server must still be fully licenced for Oracle Database Enterprise Edition. Data Guard Redo Apply (passive mode) does not trigger Active Data Guard licence requirements; opening the standby in read-only mode does.
E
EE Enterprise Edition
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition is Oracle's full-featured database product, supporting all optional add-on products (RAC, Partitioning, Advanced Compression, etc.). EE is typically licenced by Processor (at approximately $47,500 per Processor list price) or NUP (approximately $950 per NUP list price, with a 25 NUP per processor minimum). The vast majority of enterprise Oracle Database deployments are on EE.
ESL Embedded Software Licence
The most restrictive Oracle licence type, issued to ISVs for Oracle technology embedded invisibly inside a third-party product. End customers do not interact with ESL-licenced Oracle technology directly. If an end customer begins using Oracle functionality beyond what the ISV product exposes, a Full Use licence requirement may be created. ESLs are typically discounted 80–90% below Full Use list price because of their extreme restriction.
F
Full Use
Oracle's standard perpetual licence, granting unrestricted internal use rights for the named licencee entity and its subsidiaries at the time of signing. Full Use licences can be used for any internal business purpose with no application restrictions. They are the most flexible and most expensive Oracle licence type. Full Use is available as both perpetual (one-time fee, ongoing support) and term (time-limited) licences.
Failover Rule (10-Day Rule)
An Oracle provision allowing a passive standby database to be activated for up to 10 separate 24-hour periods per calendar year during genuine production outages without requiring a full licence for the standby server. Conditions: (1) standby is passive (no ADG, no active reads); (2) activation is for a genuine unplanned outage; (3) the primary is down during activation; (4) cumulative days are counted across the year. The rule applies only to on-premises shared-storage cluster configurations — not to public cloud DR environments.
G
GCP Google Cloud Platform
Google Cloud is an Oracle Authorised Cloud Environment (ACE), meaning BYOL rules apply for Oracle Database and other Oracle technology deployments. The 2 vCPU = 1 Processor licence rule applies on standard GCE instances. Google Cloud Bare Metal Solution (BMS) provides dedicated physical servers where Oracle RAC and other features requiring dedicated hardware can be deployed; BMS licensing follows on-premises rules with all physical cores licenced.
H
Hard Partitioning
A technology control that physically or statically restricts Oracle software to a defined subset of CPU cores, recognised by Oracle as a valid means of limiting licence scope. Oracle-approved hard partitioning technologies include: Oracle VM Server (OVM) with CPU pinning, IBM LPAR with capped partitions, Solaris Zones with CPU capping, and Oracle Linux KVM with hard cgroups. Hard partitioning enables organisations to licence only the restricted subset of cores. All other virtualisation (VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix, Kubernetes) is classified as soft partitioning and does not limit Oracle licence scope.
I
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Cloud compute services (virtual machines, storage, networking) on which Oracle software can be installed and run. When Oracle software runs on IaaS (AWS EC2, Azure VMs, GCE instances, OCI compute), standard Oracle cloud BYOL licensing rules apply. Licence obligations arise when Oracle binaries are installed and running — not merely when instances are provisioned or images are stored.
J
Java SE Universal Subscription
Oracle's commercial Java SE subscription model introduced in January 2023, replacing the prior per-user and per-processor pricing with a per-employee model. All employees of the subscribing organisation are counted, regardless of whether they use Java. Current pricing is approximately $15 per employee per month (subject to negotiated tiers). Oracle JDK 17 and later releases under the No-Fee Terms and Conditions (NFTC) are available free for production use; older Java versions (8, 11) require a commercial licence for production use.
L
LMS License Management Services
Oracle's internal audit and compliance organisation. LMS conducts software audits to identify unlicensed Oracle software deployments. LMS teams use proprietary data collection scripts to inventory Oracle products, options, and hardware configurations. LMS operates independently of Oracle's sales organisation but audit findings frequently lead to commercial discussions about purchasing additional licences. The typical audit cycle is every 3–5 years.
M
Metric
The unit of measure used to calculate Oracle licence requirements. The two primary Oracle Database metrics are Processor (based on CPU cores) and Named User Plus (based on individual users and devices). Other Oracle products may use different metrics — for example, Application User, Employee, and Flowed User are used in certain Oracle applications licencing contexts.
N
NUP Named User Plus
A licence metric based on individual users and devices authorised to access Oracle software. "Named" means specific individuals or devices — not concurrent or simultaneous users. "Plus" means automated processes, batch jobs, and devices must be counted in addition to human users. For Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, the minimum is 25 NUP licences per Processor, regardless of actual user count. NUP licences are non-transferable once assigned to an individual or device.
O
OCI Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Oracle's proprietary public cloud platform. OCI offers the most favourable BYOL conversion rate: 1 Oracle Processor licence covers 2 OCPUs (Oracle Compute Units). OCI is also the only cloud platform that supports Oracle RAC, Oracle Exadata Database Service, and Oracle Database@Azure (an OCI service co-located in Microsoft Azure data centres). Oracle Support Rewards (credits reducing on-premises support obligations) accrue on OCI spending.
OCPU Oracle Compute Unit
OCI's unit of compute resource measurement. One OCPU equals one physical CPU core with hyper-threading (presenting as two vCPUs in most configurations). For BYOL on OCI, one Oracle Processor licence covers two OCPUs — providing the equivalent of 4 vCPUs of compute per Processor licence. On ARM-based OCI Ampere instances, the conversion ratio is even more favourable: 1 Processor licence covers 4 OCPUs.
OCS Oracle Cloud Services
Oracle's umbrella term for cloud subscription offerings, including SaaS (Oracle Fusion Cloud applications: ERP, HCM, SCM), PaaS (Oracle Integration Cloud, Autonomous Database, APEX), and IaaS (OCI compute, storage). OCS subscriptions are time-limited — they do not confer perpetual licence entitlements. When an OCS subscription lapses, all rights to the service cease. Oracle does not have a traditional Enterprise Agreement; OCS subscription bundles are the closest equivalent for cloud consumers.
P
Perpetual Licence
A licence that grants usage rights indefinitely, subject to ongoing annual support payments. The majority of Oracle Database and technology licences purchased on-premises are perpetual. A perpetual licence holder who cancels support retains the right to continue using the software version they held at cancellation but loses access to updates, patches, and new versions. Oracle support fees on perpetual licences increase by 8% per year under Oracle's standard support contract.
Processor Licence
Oracle's primary licence metric for large, multi-user environments. A Processor licence authorises Oracle software use on one Oracle Processor (calculated as physical cores × core factor). All cores on all servers where Oracle software is installed or running must be licenced by Processor — or by hard partitioning to a defined subset of cores. On-premises list price for Oracle Database Enterprise Edition is approximately $47,500 per Processor. In cloud environments, 2 vCPUs = 1 Processor licence (AWS, Azure, GCP) or 2 OCPUs = 1 Processor licence (OCI).
PULA Perpetual Unlimited Licence Agreement
A variant of the Oracle ULA where unlimited deployment rights are granted in perpetuity with no expiry date and no certification requirement. PULAs eliminate the ULA's certification risk but are significantly more expensive (typically 2× a standard ULA) and extremely rare. Oracle grants PULAs only to very large customers with substantial Oracle spend as leverage. Even a PULA is limited to specific named products — it does not cover Oracle's full portfolio.
R
RAC Real Application Clusters
Oracle's active-active database clustering technology, enabling multiple database instances to run simultaneously on shared storage. RAC provides the highest availability Oracle Database architecture and horizontal scalability. RAC requires a separate licence (approximately $23,000 per Processor list price) in addition to the base Enterprise Edition licence. In cloud environments, RAC is supported natively only on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Oracle Database@Azure (Exadata service) — not on standard AWS, Azure, or GCP VMs.
S
SE2 Standard Edition 2
Oracle Database Standard Edition 2, a reduced-cost edition with a maximum of 2 CPU sockets per server. SE2 is licenced by Named User Plus with a minimum of 10 NUP per server (not per processor). SE2 does not support Oracle RAC, most optional add-on products, or deployment on servers with more than 2 CPU sockets. It is suitable for smaller, single-server deployments where Enterprise Edition features are not required.
Soft Partitioning
Virtualisation or containerisation technologies that Oracle does not recognise as valid for limiting Oracle licence scope. Soft partitioning technologies include VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, Docker containers, and Kubernetes pods. When Oracle software runs in a soft-partitioned environment, Oracle requires all physical CPU cores on all hosts in the cluster (where Oracle could theoretically be moved by the virtualisation layer) to be licenced.
Support Fees
Oracle's annual maintenance and support charges, typically calculated as 22% of the net licence fee per year. Oracle's standard support contract includes an annual escalator of 8% per year — a contractual provision that increases the support bill by 8% each year regardless of whether additional software is deployed or used. Over five years, a £1 million support obligation grows to approximately £1.47 million purely due to the escalator.
T
Term Licence
An Oracle licence that grants usage rights for a defined period — commonly one, two, or three years. At expiry, the licence must be renewed or replaced; rights to use the software cease. Oracle has increasingly pushed enterprise customers toward term licences in cloud migration discussions, though perpetual licences remain the dominant model for on-premises technology deployments.
U
ULA Unlimited Licence Agreement
A time-bound Oracle contract (typically 2–4 years) under which the customer pays an agreed upfront fee plus annual support, and may deploy unlimited quantities of the named Oracle products during the term. At the end of the ULA, the customer certifies their actual deployment count, which becomes their permanent perpetual licence entitlement. Oracle support fees under a ULA are fixed regardless of deployment volume — meaning every additional deployment during the ULA term is effectively free. Maximising deployment before certification is the most important ULA strategy. Oracle's Q4 (March–May) is when most ULAs are signed and certified.
V
VMware (Oracle Licensing Policy)
VMware is classified by Oracle as soft partitioning. When Oracle Database or other Oracle software runs in a VMware environment, Oracle requires all physical CPU cores in the entire VMware cluster (all hosts where Oracle software could be moved by vMotion or DRS) to be licenced — not just the cores allocated to the Oracle VMs. This is one of the most significant sources of Oracle compliance exposure in enterprise environments. The only remedy is migrating to Oracle-approved hard partitioning technology or licencing the entire cluster.
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Includes licence term reference cards, audit response templates, and compliance checklists.About This Glossary
This glossary was compiled by the advisory team at Redress Compliance based on 20+ years of Oracle contract management and audit experience. Terms are defined as they are practically applied in Oracle licensing negotiations and audits — not necessarily as Oracle's own documentation presents them (Oracle's documentation frequently emphasises Oracle's interests rather than customer rights). Where a term has compliance implications, we have noted them.
For a broader foundation in Oracle licensing, see our Oracle Licensing for Beginners guide and our Oracle Licensing FAQ. For deeper guidance on specific topics, visit the Oracle Knowledge Hub.