| Lesson 7 | Checking license compliance |
| Objective | Check the session high water mark for license compliance. |
Checking license Compliance
Many, but not all, Oracle licenses specify a maximum number for concurrent users
accessing a database. For example, I have a client with a 220 concurrent user license. That means that client can have up to 220 user sessions open at any one time. This limit was negotiated when the client purchased the license and was recorded as part of its contract with Oracle. However, it's up to the DBA to configure the software to enforce that limit. It's also up to the DBA to monitor compliance.
You can restrict the number of concurrent sessions allowed for a database by setting the license_max_sessions initialization parameter. To allow 220 sessions, for example, you would place the following line in your database initialization file:
license_max_sessions = 220
If you're enforcing a limit on concurrent sessions, you may want to check to see how many you are
using periodically. Oracle helps you do that by recording a license high water mark in the alert log each time the database is shut down. Here's what that looks like:
Sat Jun 19 22:22:41 1999
Shutting down instance (normal)
License high water mark = 180
License High Water Mark
The license high water mark represents the maximum number of concurrent sessions that have ever been active all at once since the database was last started. The example shown here indicates that there was a maximum of 180 users connected at one time. If you notice that the license high water mark is consistently near the limit of your license, you may want to consider increasing the number of concurrent users on your license.
In the next lesson, you will list free space in a tablespace.
Checking License Compliance - Quiz