Oracle Database Appliance provides capacity-on-demand licensing.
Capacity-on-demand (CoD) refers to an Oracle Database Appliance server that has a subset of its cores turned off so that the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition software license cost can be reduced. The reduction of cores can be turned off before or after the deployment. The number of active cores can be increased at a later time, when more capacity is needed. Oracle Database is licensed separately. Refer to Oracle Database Licensing Information for additional information.
When you add your hardware Support Identifier (SI) for Oracle Database Appliance to your My Oracle Support account, you establish a license for all the cores on your system. Oracle Database Appliance Models X5-2, X4-2, X3-2, and V1 can be deployed with bare metal or virtualization. Both platforms types offer capacity-on-demand licensing. With bare-metal installations, you disable cores that you do not intend Oracle Database to use. To do this, add your hardware Support Identifier (SI) for Oracle Database Appliance to your My Oracle Support account and create a key. If you deploy Oracle Database Appliance Virtualized Platform, then all the cores are enabled. However, capacity-on-demand licensing is established by assigning specific cores to the virtual machine where you run Oracle Database and related software (ODA_BASE).
Chapter two explains how to obtain a licensing key and record your initial license requirements with My Oracle Support. It also explains how to change the licensed core count, if necessary, later.
Chapter two is only appropriate for bare metal installations where your license covers the cores that you are using for Oracle Database
Chapter three contains information about the third-party products that are included with Oracle Database Appliance.
“Task 3: Install the ODA_BASE Template” Chapter 4 of Oracle Database Appliance Getting Started Guide for an example of setting the initial licensed core count on Oracle Database Appliance Virtualized Platform.