Remediation Plan: Steps to Address Oracle License Compliance Issues
Discovering gaps between Oracle software usage and your license entitlements is half the battle – the other half is resolving those gaps.
In this Remediation Plan stage of the Oracle License Compliance Checklist, IT managers develop and implement strategies to address any compliance issues that have been uncovered.
Read Oracle License Compliance Checklist for IT Managers.
This article provides a detailed breakdown of how to formulate a remediation plan, including whether to purchase additional licenses, reduce software usage, or uninstall software.
The outcome of this stage is a more compliant and cost-efficient Oracle environment, achieved through targeted actions.
Setting Remediation Priorities
Not all compliance issues are equal; some require urgent attention, while others might be acceptable risks in the short term:
- Critical (High-Risk) Gaps: These include any usage with significant financial exposure or legal risk. For example, running an unlicensed Oracle Database Enterprise Edition in production, or using a database option like Advanced Compression widely without any licenses. These are top priority – they could incur heavy penalties if audited.
- Moderate Gaps: Issues such as a handful of extra users exceeding your Named User Plus limit, especially in non-production environments, or a second instance of WebLogic on a server where only one is licensed (small overdeployments). These need action, but perhaps not an immediate fire drill.
- Low Priority or Acceptable Surplus: Over-licensed areas (no compliance risk, just inefficiency) or trivial shortfalls that might resolve soon (e.g., you know a project using that software is ending next month).
By categorizing, you can focus resources where they matter first. A useful approach is to create a remediation matrix that lists each gap, its severity, and the proposed action.
Remediation Strategies: Buy, Reconfigure, or Remove
For each compliance gap identified, decide on one (or a combination) of these fundamental strategies:
1. Purchase or Reallocate Licenses (Scaling Up Entitlements):
- New License Purchase: If the software or feature in question is mission-critical and will continue to be used, the straightforward (though budget-impacting) solution is to buy the necessary licenses to become compliant. Engage your procurement and vendor management teams to get quotes from Oracle. Consider timing – if you’re near a quarter-end, Oracle might offer discounts to close the deal. Prioritize negotiating terms that might prevent future issues (e.g., including some extra capacity or flexibility).
- Renewing Lapsed Licenses: Perhaps you had licenses that were previously terminated. In some cases, Oracle might allow you to reinstate them (with back support fees). This could be considered if it’s cheaper than buying brand-new licenses.
- Reallocate within Entitlements: If you find that one area is overused and another is underused, and if your license agreements allow reallocation (many are enterprise-wide, so you have some flexibility to assign where needed), you could shift resources. For example, if Department A isn’t using all its Oracle licenses and Department B is short, simply reassign some licenses on paper. Oracle’s licenses are usually not named to a department, so as long as it’s the same legal entity, you just need to document internally that certain licenses now cover different servers/users.
- Leverage Unlimited License Agreement (ULA): If the compliance gap is huge (like you’d need to buy a large number of licenses), consider negotiating a ULA with Oracle. A ULA is a time-bound agreement where you pay a fixed fee for unlimited use of certain Oracle products. This can sometimes be a cost-effective remediation if growth is expected. However, ULAs have their complexities – include an expert in those negotiations.
- Consider Third-Party Support (if removal is an option): If the compliance issue is with older versions and you have more licenses than needed, one indirect strategy could be to switch some deployments to third-party support (like Rimini Street) and not worry about Oracle’s audit on those, but that typically means not upgrading those instances. (This is a fringe strategy and should be approached carefully, as it doesn’t solve the license shortfall, only possibly incur a cost if you drop Oracle support.)
2. Reconfigure or Optimize Deployments (Reducing Usage to Fit Entitlements):
- Uninstall or Turn Off Unused Software: If the gap is caused by software that isn’t needed, remove it. E.g., uninstall Oracle Database from a server that was set up “just in case” but isn’t actively used; or remove an extra WebLogic instance that was for a test that’s now over.
- Disable Unlicensed Features: A common quick fix is to disable Oracle options or packs that are not licensed. For example, if Diagnostic Pack is enabled (which happens by default when you use certain Oracle Enterprise Manager features), ensure you disable the pack (e.g., stop the
Automatic Workload Repositorytasks if not licensed). Oracle provides ways to disable options via parameters or command-line tools (choptutility for some DB options. - Reduce Users or Access: If you exceed the Named User Plus count, consider whether all those accounts are still active. Often, user counts include stale accounts that can be cleaned up. End-dating or deleting unused user accounts in applications or databases can bring the count down. Ensure this aligns with business needs – coordinate with the application owners.
- Consolidate Workloads: Perhaps you have Oracle software deployed on multiple servers, each used lightly, requiring numerous licenses. You could consolidate those workloads onto fewer servers to reduce the total licenses needed. For instance, if you have two database servers, each with four cores, and you only need one at a time, moving both databases to one server (if performance allows) could let you shut down the other and use just 4-core licenses instead of 8. Be careful to stay within capacity and ensure that reliability is addressed if you are consolidating.
- Adjust Virtualization Setup: If virtualization causes a licensing issue (such as with VMware), consider making architectural changes. One strategy some use is to create a dedicated Oracle cluster separate from other workloads. That way, you limit the scope of a VMware cluster that requires an Oracle license. Another option is to use Oracle-approved hard partitioning, such as Oracle VM, Solaris Zones, or cgroups, to cap the CPU usage for Oracle. For example, on VMware, you might not have an easy fix. Still, you could switch the Oracle deployment to a physical server or an Oracle VM Server to legitimize a partitioning approach.
- Temporary Suspension: If an Oracle feature is used only occasionally (say, a pack used by DBAs for troubleshooting), you could decide to restrict its use until you procure licenses. It’s not a solution per se, but it avoids ongoing non-compliance. You’d train staff: “Don’t use Feature X until further notice.”
3. Replace or Upgrade (Alternate Approaches):
- Switch to Free Oracle Versions where possible: If a use case can be fulfilled by Oracle Database Express Edition (XE), which is free, consider migrating a small development instance to XE, keeping its limitations in mind. Similarly, suppose Java is the issue, and open-source OpenJDK can replace Oracle JDK for your needs. In that case, that’s a remediation: swap out Oracle JDK to avoid needing Oracle Java SE licenses.
- Migrate to Other Platforms: In some cases, if the licensing cost is too high, an organization might consider migrating off Oracle for that system (e.g., moving a less critical database to PostgreSQL). This is a big decision, and it’s outside normal short-term remediation, but it’s a strategic option if you find Oracle licensing continually painful in a specific area.
- Cloud Conversion: Oracle offers cloud solutions, as well as license-included options. For example, running Oracle Database on Oracle Cloud with license-included pricing can help alleviate the need to use your license for that deployment. If a project is going to the cloud anyway, consider doing it sooner to resolve a compliance issue. Beware, though: moving to Oracle’s cloud might solve compliance for that instance, but it introduces cloud subscription costs.
Read Usage Comparison: Identify Gaps Between Licenses Owned and Actual Usage
Plan Execution and Governance
Once strategies are decided:
- Formalize the Plan: Write down the actions, owners, timeline, and expected outcomes for each gap. For instance, “By Q3, purchase 4 Processor licenses for Oracle Database EE for ServerA (Owner: Procurement),” or “By next month, uninstall Oracle on ServerB (Owner: IT Operations)”.
- Obtain Approvals: Likely, some actions need management approval, especially purchases. Build a business case for purchases: compare the cost of buying vs. the risk of not buying (penalty in audit, or system downtime if you remove it). For remediation that affects users (such as removing accounts), get sign-off from the application owners.
- Implement Changes Carefully: Coordinate with the relevant IT teams to schedule the changes. For example, plan a maintenance window to disable a feature on a database and test it after making the change to ensure there are no unintended side effects.
- Keep Evidence: document the actions taken and when they were taken. If you disabled a feature, save a screenshot or log showing it’s now off. If you purchased licenses, file the new Oracle ordering document in your records. This evidence is crucial if Oracle’s audit later asks why something was previously on and now off – you have an audit trail.
- Update Compliance Status: After execution, update your usage comparison to reflect the new state. Mark gaps as resolved or reduced. This is satisfying and also ensures your next audit of compliance starts with a cleaner slate.
- Monitor for Recurrence: Address any root causes. If a feature was turned on by mistake, educate the DBAs about checking license implications. If a team installs unauthorized Oracle software, implement a policy that requires approval for all installations. Essentially, feed these fixes back into the ongoing monitoring process so that the same issue doesn’t happen again.
Read Ongoing Monitoring: Regular Audits and Continuous Oracle License Compliance.
Example: Going back to the healthcare company example, they had an unlicensed RAC usage on two nodes. Their remediation plan was to disable RAC on those nodes since it was a test environment that didn’t truly need 4-node RAC.
They scheduled downtime, reconfigured the cluster to 2 nodes, tested that the application still worked on the reduced cluster, and kept a record of the change.
Additionally, they instructed their DB engineering team not to enable RAC on more nodes than licensed in the future and added a check to their build process.
Another example: a media company discovered 20 extra named users in their database beyond the licensed limit. They reviewed the user list and found that 15 accounts belonged to former employees or service accounts that were no longer in use.
They removed those accounts, bringing usage within licensed limits.
For the remaining five active users, they purchased additional NUP licenses because they were important business users. Thus, through both clean-up and purchase, they remedied the gap.
Dealing with Oracle During Remediation
If you’re in a remediation phase and Oracle initiates an audit or somehow is aware of your compliance gap (maybe you self-disclosed during a support call inadvertently):
- It’s generally better not to broadcast your internal findings to Oracle until you have a plan. But if an audit happens, you might consider signing a quick purchase (or even a short-term license agreement) to cover the issue before the audit completes – Oracle then might not count it as a compliance issue since you “remedied” it during the audit (this depends on timing and Oracle’s leniency).
- In some cases, you can negotiate a “settlement” where, instead of paying penalties, Oracle will require you to purchase a certain number of licenses in the future. This is effectively the purchase strategy, but framed during an audit resolution.
- If you work with independent advisors like Redress Compliance, they can sometimes negotiate with Oracle on your behalf to minimize costs – they may know what discounts or deals are feasible.
Post-Remediation Review
After executing the remediation steps, hold a retrospective:
- Did we address everything? Double-check that no gaps were left unaddressed.
- What did we learn? Perhaps this highlights areas that need strengthening, such as better inventory controls or the user de-provisioning process.
- Report to senior management or compliance committees on the closure of issues. This assures that risks have been mitigated.
Recommendations
- Act Promptly: Address high-risk compliance gaps as soon as possible, ideally before any formal audit. The longer a gap exists, the greater the potential exposure if the company is audited.
- Balanced Approach: Don’t assume purchase is the only answer – often a mix of cleanup and buying is most cost-effective.
- Negotiate Wisely: If you’re buying, do so with knowledge. Use the information about your gap as leverage – Oracle sales might push for a big purchase. Still, you can perhaps bargain for a concession, such as including some extra licenses or a discount due to volume.
- Document Everything: From gap discovery to closure, maintain documentation. It demonstrates a good-faith effort to stay compliant. In an audit, showing that you have a process and fixed issues can sometimes make Oracle more cooperative.
- Involve Independent Experts if It’s Complex: If your remediation involves complex changes, such as partitioning or changes to the licensing model, or significant financial decisions like ULAs, consult an independent Oracle licensing expert. Their experience can ensure you don’t, for example, sign up for a ULA that doesn’t solve your compliance problem.
- Preventive Measures: Use this chance to strengthen controls. Implement checks in DevOps pipelines for Oracle software, conduct a license impact analysis for new projects, and consider training IT staff on basic Oracle compliance best practices.
Remediation is where plans turn into actions. A well-executed remediation plan not only brings you into compliance but can also streamline your Oracle usage and reduce unnecessary costs.
Organizations that handle remediation effectively show a pattern of responsibility and control, which in turn may make Oracle view them as lower risk in future audits.
The ultimate goal is to resolve today’s issues and put mechanisms in place to prevent tomorrow’s, which naturally leads to the final stage of our checklist: ongoing monitoring.
