JAVA JRE licensing

November 20, 2018 at 8:00 AM

JAVA JRE licensing

Since SNOW agent requires JAVA JRE , do we have to license the JRE for every SNOW agent ? or the inventoried device need to have JRE and then we wont require a JRE license with SNOW agent ?

Regards,

Nishant Dhyani

Detlev Eufinger (Flexera Software)
8 years ago
Hi Nishant, The snowagent only needs Java on Unix and oracle DB servers. If this is the case with you, you can also use the Java open jdk versions for our products.. BTW: The current version of Java - Java SE 9 as well as Java SE 8 - is free and available for redistribution for general purpose computing. Java SE continues to be available under the Oracle Binary Code License (BCL) free of charge. Java Runtime Environment (JRE) use for embedded devices or use of commercial features may require a license fee from Oracle. Read more about embedded use of Java SE, or contact your local Oracle sales representative to obtain a license.
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- Bineeth
  8 years ago
  Hi Detlev, As per Oracle, from Jan2019 onwards there is no such thing called Open JDK. Everything things comes under Oracle Java on-Prem or Cloud only. (There won't be any BCL Agreement). Means:- 1. In Production environment, mandatory to subscribe to latest support. 2. In Non-Prod environment, if you need any sort of Security patches/Support/Upgrade, you need to subscribe. Even if you don't want any sort of Security patches/Support/Upgrade in Non-Prod environment, Oracle won't penalize you, though they won't call it as Compliant also. (Quite confusing). 3. So OPN/OTN partners with Cloud license can leverage UC Credits against their Java requirements. Over and above we all discussing only on Java JDK and JRE... What about Java Script?? Does this also need to subscribe in near future? Regards Bineeth
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  - ruud.miermans
    8 years ago
    Hi Bineeth, You agree with the information posted by Carola Iberi, in this Oracle Java topic ?? Regards, Ruud
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    ruud.miermans
    8 years ago
    Quite confused Java is free, but support have to be paid ( subscription) non-prod as in production environment. Java on non-production environment free, but no support . Or companies to be paid subscriptions for support . No penalty for non-prod environment without subscriptions Oracle said: ( on tis https://blogs.oracle.com/java-platform-group/oracle-java-se-releases-faq Q1: Is Java still free after January 2019? Absolutely. As has been the case for over two decades, Oracle is keeping Java free and open, and providing stability, performance and security updates to the current version, at no cost. Oracle also continues to provide free critical patch updates, scheduled over a year in advance , additional updates when required, and two feature updates (which also include critical patch updates) each year under the new release cadence . Oracle does all this development in the OpenJDK open source community, making our contributions available to be ported, analysed, and used by anyone, as open source You can download the latest updates of Java from Oracle, for free, under an open source license from jdk.java.net , and for development and testing purposes as the Oracle JDK from OTN .
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    heiko.berger
    8 years ago
    Hey Ruud, my understanding is: If you can use the latest greatest Java (Major) Version, then you dont need to subscribe and dont need to pay (thats what Sharat Chander means when saying "java is absolutely free"). And also shown on Carolas timetable below - if you can go with the "blue" versions, then you can go for free. BUT: When you have dependencies in your environment, forcing you to stay in Java 8, and you want to stay secure, then you have to subscribe and pay. In other words: Oracle wants to see money for maintaining old Java versions. You can decide to stay with the latest Java 8 SE release from 2018 and use that without costs, but you have to discuss this with your security officer when vulnerabilities are reported for this release. greetings, /Heiko
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- ruud.miermans
  8 years ago
  Well, the article/info above is opposite so Java SE 8 is for free, and Java JRE 8 ( Runtime Environment (JRE) use for embedded devices or use of commercial features may require a license fee from Oracle . we have JAVA SE ( JRE) 8 installed, so is this still for free or is a license fee necessary /commercial use , installed last year ( 2018) ?????????? 2nd question are the updates of this version 8.xx still for free or not ? As mentioned earlier, Oracle database installation also requires JAVA to install..( said our DBA ) which is hidden , on the server, i suppose
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  - ChristophTUVSUD
    8 years ago
    Please correct me if I am mistaken, but I learnt the following from various sources: Starting end of January 2019, you will need a subscription to use the current version of Oracle Java 8 (JDK and JRE). You can still download the January 2019 update by accepting the "Oracle Binary Code License Agreement for the Java SE Platform Products and JavaFX", but the next update will no longer be "public". In case there are "security holes" in the January version you will be at risk as you are not allowed to download and use a "fixed" version without a subscription. When using Open JDK the downloads are still free under the "GNU General Public License, version 2, with the Classpath Exception", but you have no support and especially you will have no long term support. According to the timeline you will get two new versions per year, so if you want to stay current you will have to switch from Open JDK 11 to Open JDK 12 later this year, and to Open JDK 13 and 14 next year. The Java built into the database itself is indeed a different, somewhat "internal" java. This "internal" version is covered by the Oracle Database license, but you cannot use it for license management. I have several Oracle Databases running on Windows Servers, and I decided to replace Oracle JRE by Open JDK to do the license Management. Installation is quite easy (extract the ZIP file and set two environment variables) and I hope that someone will write an publish a PowerShell script to automate the process. There it also an "installer project" on Github but I prefer to use only the "trusted" installation site hosted by Oracle.
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    ruud.miermans
    8 years ago
    clear. !! so no support for using Open JDK the downloads are still free under the "GNU General Public License, version 2, with the Classpath Exception", but you have no support and especially you will have no long term support.. quite tricky maybe, no support
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- ChristophTUVSUD
  8 years ago
  Hi Detlev, Perfect! I searched the forum looking for an answer to my question whether I can use Open JDK instead of Java SE from Oracle. As you write that Open JDK is supported by Snow I will give it a try. One source I read stated that you may not need to buy a separate Java SE license if you want to install Java SE on a server running an already licensed product from Oracle, i.e. Oracle Database SE or EE. But I do not want to rely on that… Best regards, Christoph
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- dschigt
  8 years ago
  Hi Detlev, Just to be sure and I am on the same page as you are... Per your response, I understand there is only a requirement to have JAVA for UNIX and Oracle DB servers. However, what about WIndows servers which have Oracle installed? How is there Oracle database data being obtained? Thanks for any response, Best regards, Detlev Schigt
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