(c)Oracle WhitePaper 12c

Oracle12c Application Continuity in Standard Edition

This morning I read some stuff on the new 12c feature APPLICATION CONTINUITY and TRANSACTION GUARD.

To my understanding this feature is more a JDBC driver feature than a database feature, so I said “yes” of cause this is Standard Edition Proof, but after having some issues summing-up the facts around this feature, I hope you could assist me on this question

Update 8th June 2015: No this feature is not Standard Edition Proof, so please tell your Java Developer NOT TO IMPLEMENT.

Thanks Markus Michalewicz, Franck Pachot, Ludovico Caldara, and Philippe Fierens for your intervention, and for giving us the facts on this one!

If you are interested in, what made me ask this question, keep on reading.

“Is this feature Oracle Standard Edition Proof or not?” The Answer:NO

Facts from Oracle’s own documents

By googling on the option we can see from OTN what it can provide us:

Application Continuity (AC) is a new feature available with the Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), Oracle RAC One Node and Oracle Active Data Guard options that masks outages from end users and applications by recovering the in-flight database sessions following recoverable outages.

Transaction Guard is a reliable protocol and tool available with the Oracle Database 12c that returns the outcome of the last in-flight transaction after outages that make the database session unavailable. It is used by Application Continuity to ensure that an in-flight transaction is committed successfully, no more than once. It can also be used directly by applications to return a known outcome to the end users.

RAC feature is by default included in the Standard Edition Database for free, so it should be ok – right?

From the white paper we can read this

Introduced in Oracle Database 12c, Application Continuity strengthens the fault tolerance of systems and applications that use an Oracle database. Application Continuity is available for

Oracle WebLogic Server

Oracle Universal Connection Pool, used standalone or as a data source for a third party Application Server

Standard 3rd Party JDBC application servers using the JDBC PooledConnection interface

Oracle JDBC-Thin Driver

WebLogic Server is a product on its own, and with its own license model, but the three others is to my understanding Standard Edition proof “methods”.

12c Support information

Application Continuity for Oracle Database 12c supports the following client and server features:

Oracle Database 12c Client

Oracle JDBC Replay Driver 12c or later. This is a JDBC driver feature provided with Oracle Database 12c for Application Continuity, referred to as the “replay driver” onwards.

This text is from the WP, and below is how the text continues:

Oracle JDBC FAQ

General information on JDBC: The Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) API is the industry standard for database-independent connectivity between the Java programming language and a wide range of databases…(picture below)

More information:

Can third party vendors distribute Oracle’s JDBC drivers along with their own software?
If you are a third party software company (and Oracle partner) then please check out Oracle’s licensing terms spelled out at Oracle Licensing Agreement Please contact your local Oracle sales rep for more details.

Behind the link, you will find the License Rights:

Oracle License Document

Here is where I start to have problems summing-up the facts.

According to the license, we cannot use the Application Continuity and since the Transaction Guard is part of the AC, not that either.(TG is used by Application Continuity to ensure that an in-flight transaction is committed successfully, no more than once.)

RAC is included for free in a Oracle12c Standard Edition Database (Note: not in SE one), and this feature relies on JDBC that is Standard Edition proof, and the License Document tell us this feature is not Standard Edition Proof.

So what do you think?

“Is Application Continuity and the Transaction Guard features Oracle Standard Edition proof or not?”

The Answer is : NO – we cannot use this feature with a Standard Edition Database.

And a reminder….

Note: Oracle licensing is a complicated business. The notes here are only a guide. You should always discuss your licensing with Oracle License Management Services or any other third-party company, who are professionals on this business.

Take care, stay well, and let’s enjoy the summer….Please send some summer warm weather!

…In Finland it’s only 14 degrees at the moment, and a cold wind…