Working for unlicensed sites

I wonder how other independent professionals feel about helping companies that are running systems on Oracle without purchasing sufficient (or any) licenses from Oracle. Where do you draw the line? A few examples can be illuminating:

One client of mine simply wanted to complete the RFP requirements to write a proposal to sell servers to a major bank. They only needed to install Oracle on a single host, run a simple load test against it for 24 hours, and submit the results with the RFP. I did not ask, but Oracle was clearly unlicensed at this site.

Another client is running a major order processing and fulfillment system, and "are not sure" if they are licensed. They definitely have no support. My sense is that when you fork over your $50K+tax per proc, you will notice the cash missing from your budget. Do you think I should push for proof of license compliance or is it none of my business?

If your answer is the latter, are there any ethics to apply to these scenarios? How far do you go? Would you download EE onto their server yourself and call it their problem if they fail to license it?

What about a site that queries v$active_session_history without paying for the tuning pack?

I routinely help those interested in complying to do so, and help in negotiations with Oracle, but what about these egregiously non-compliant sites?

SQL*Plus 'prelim' connection

A little known feature of SQL*Plus is the 'prelim' connection, which allows you to connect to an Oracle instance's SGA without alloctaion a session. This is very handy when you are dealing with a completely hung instance that is no longer accepting logins, even as SYSDBA.

You can use the prelim connection to obtain diagnostics from within your own session or in an already-running session in the database. You can take diagnostic traces like hanganalyze and systemstate, or query x$ structs.

Here's an example of dumping the contents v$wait_chains (a new view in 11g) using the prelim connection:

$ sqlplus /nolog
SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.6.0 - Production
SQL> set _prelim on
SQL> connect / as sysdba
Prelim connection established
SQL> oradebug setmypid
Statement processed.
SQL> oradebug direct_access enable trace
Statement processed.
SQL> oradebug direct_access disable reply
Statement processed.
SQL> oradebug direct_access set content_type = 'text/plain'
Statement processed.
SQL> oradebug direct_access select * from x$ksdhng_chains
Statement processed.
SQL> oradebug tracefile_name
/opt/oracle/diag/rdbms/test01/test01/trace/test01_ora_3025.trc

Here's an example of dumping hanganalyze and systemstate from within he already-running DIAG process:

$ sqlplus /nolog
SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.6.0 - Production
SQL> set _prelim on
SQL> connect / as sysdba
Prelim connection established
SQL> oradebug setorapname diag
Oracle pid: 4, Unix process pid: 9837, image: oracle@host (DIAG)
SQL> oradebug dump hanganalyze 1
Statement processed.
SQL> oradebug dump systemstate 267
Statement processed.
SQL> oradebug tracefile_name
/opt/oracle/diag/rdbms/test01/test01/trace/test01_diag_9837.trc

I believe prelim was quietly introduced in 10g. It does not appear to be available in 9i. This feature is extremely important for obtaining diagnostics upon the first occurrence of a hang. It prevent encountering that hang over and over, never finding the cause.

Thanks, and be sure to check out my whitepapers and articles at http://www.ora-600.net.

Jeremiah