General Oracle Client Question (licence info and more)

[blarson0]

Hi! I work for a large company, and we use an oracle database to store all of the information on the stuff that we build. The problem is, none of the computers have the oracle client installed. We access oracle by using citrix, so we can only get reports and such through code that headquarters has released. I find this to be very slow and frustrating.

Is there any reason why they wouldn't install the oracle client on user machines? I was under the impression that oracle gave out the client software for free, is that correct? Is there any other reasons I might be overlooking as to why we wouldn't get the client?

I am planning to bring this up sometime soon, and want to be prepared for any excuses that I might get.

Thanks!

-Brad

 

[karluk]

As far as I know you could run Oracle client from Citrix, if your company wanted to go that route. The unwillingness to make Oracle client available to end users is probably a policy decision rather than a license or cost issue.

There are some legitimate reasons for restricting database access. Your company may be worried about a performance hit if it people to run untested and untuned queries on their production database. The reports that you are given have probably either been tested to make sure they run efficiently or are run at night when producing them won't affect large numbers of online users.

One way around the performance issue would be to run adhoc reports from a replicated copy of your production server. Another possibility is to set resource limits in your profile to ensure that no query runs over a predetermined threshold.

As always there's a tradeoff between giving customers enough flexibility to do what they want vs. giving them so much power that they can bring a database to its knees. It sounds as if your company is taking a cautious approach. That's ok as long as they are responsive enough to give you the reports you need in a timely manner.

 

[blarson0]

Thanks for the info, Karluk!

My real problem with the current setup is that it can't be automated. I am developing some access databases for different groups in our plant to give them information such as invantory, parts lists, etc... The only way to refresh this information is to request a report, wait 5 min or so to get it, download it from citrix (as a .txt), run it through monarch to make it an access file, and then look at my database. If we could have the oracle client installed I could like the oracle tables right in to access, for instant delivery of information.

It isn't a very good system at all, but I guess it will have to work.

Thanks again!

-Brad

 

[spenglerr]

Actually the Oracle License is bought for the server and not for the clients. Therefore installing clients has no limitation except in the case, that you licensed the database by named users. Then of course the clients are restricted to a certain number of unique users. If these (say N) users work with (say) 2N computers then you can install the client of course 2N times...
If you have a CPU license, then you can spread your clients for the database all over...

 

[Guest_imported]

what is the differences b/w Oracle 8 and Oralce 8i.