Java logo with $ signs to indicate Oracle Java Licensing monitoring is important to avoid unnecessary costs Java license monitoring has now become an essential requirement for many organizations as Oracle’s recent licensing changes have made compliance mandatory, with increased risks of audits and higher Java licensing compliance costs.

Once a free programming platform, Java now requires navigating a complex licensing framework, including employee-based models that tie costs to the size of a workforce. These changes significantly increase the risk of unbudgeted expenses for licensing violations. A good overview of the situation is provided by Cliff Saran at ComputerWeekly, see: Oracle Java licensing explained: Addressing complexity, cost and audits | Computer Weekly.

Oracle’s own monitoring tools, such as download tracking and “call home” features, allow the company to identify Java usage across IT infrastructures, leaving organizations with little room to operate unnoticed.

Larger enterprises with extensive Java deployments face heightened exposure to audits and potential penalties. An excellent recent (and succinct) overview of Oracle’s reach and potential liabilities for organizations is provided by Simon Taylor (VP, Global Channel Partners, Azul), see: Is an Oracle Java Audit or sales call on its way? Here’s what you need to know.

The risk of an Oracle Java audit

In 2023 it was widely reported that Gartner issued a warning that one in five Java users were likely to face an Oracle audit within the next three years. Concerns have also been raised because Oracle’s definition of an employee is extremely broad. For further details you may like to read:

Monitoring Java license usage automatically

Implementing Java licensing monitoring is essential for developing an effective strategy that ensures compliance and controls costs. An effective Java monitoring and management licensing strategy should include elements such as collecting a detailed inventory of Java installations, understanding usage patterns, and tracking key data such as versions and deployment methods.

By proactively monitoring their Java environments, organizations can reduce financial risks, avoid audit penalties, and explore cost-effective alternatives like OpenJDK to minimize dependency on Oracle’s licensing model.

Today I’ll cover eG Enterprise’s Java licensing and usage capabilities, both for Oracle and other Java variants and how they can help you ensure compliance with Oracle but also evaluate and understand your use of alternative Java tool stacks to minimize costs.

A Java licensing strategy

Simon Taylor’s article outlines the basics of a solid Java licensing strategy. The basic components are to prepare for the likelihood of an Oracle audit are to:

  1. Assess Risk: Evaluate current and future Java usage, especially for large enterprises.
  2. Inventory Java Instances: Catalog Java installations across IT environments, including production servers and development systems.
  3. Collect Licensing Data: Gather granular details such as machine types, operating systems, and Java Development Kit (JDK) versions.
  4. Leverage Tools and Experts: Use IT asset management tools or enlist Java-specific licensing experts.

Banner to a guide on how to get full-stack observability and monitoring for Java applications

Challenges when tracking and monitoring Java installations for compliance

Let us consider what organizations face when looking at Java license monitoring – i.e. what they need to monitor and track their Java usage for compliance. Organizations usually find these factors apply:

  • Applications often include their own versions of Java.
  • Multiple versions of Java may be installed on a system.
  • Older versions of Java may have vulnerabilities that need to be addressed.
  • Installation of different vendor Java Runtime Environments (JREs). Those with licensing costs are a particular liability. Oracle and Azul are not free, and so tracking JRE versions by vendor is important.
  • Java may not be installed on standard directories. Important to track Java versions wherever they are available.

How eG Enterprise can help with your Java license monitoring and tracking strategies

Java licensing monitoring is a purpose-built feature with eG Enterprise’s “Security Check” layer. This means that the powerful AIOps-engine at the heart of eG Enterprise will auto-discover your Java landscape and provide automatic alerting on Java licensing issues according to criteria that can be customized (including minimum versions and so on).

Java installation checks are supported on a wide range of OSs, including Windows, Linux, Solaris, AIX and HPUX.

Screen shot of eG Enterprise automatically monitoring Java installations and Java instances - essential to understand Java License costs

Figure 1: Java licensing monitoring information and alerting is provided within the context of full-stack monitoring

Administrators can customize Java licensing checks by factors including – how frequently checks are performed, what minimum version of Java is defined to be compliant, whether DD (Detailed Diagnostics) should be collected and how frequently (details of the Java installation).

Screenshot of GUI that administrators can use customize Java license monitoring checks by factors including – how frequently checks are performed, what minimum version of Java is defined to be compliant

Figure 2: A simple GUI is provided to customize Java licensing checks

This proactive approach to compliance means that you will be alerted to non-compliant installations rapidly. If someone installs a non-compliant version of Java you can take proactive action and question their usage (many applications include their own JRE and so the consequences of installation are not always clear to teams).

Compliance reporting and auditing of Java Installations

eG Enterprise comes with a multitude of built-in ready-to-go reports including for monitoring Java licensing compliance. Reports can be tailored via the intuitive GUI that requires no query languages. Custom reports and dashboards can also be added via simple-to-use GUI builders. These reports can also be automated and configured to be generated within other reports, published and/or emailed to stakeholders and saved to compliance archives.

Figure 3: Simple overviews provide an instant view of compliance and the extent of Java usage within an organization

Figure 4: Further down these reports contain details of all Java installations and whether they are within compliance

Monitoring Java library versions

eG Enterprise also includes change and configuration tracking modules. This means that the platform will also track “Java archive” (JAR) file versions.

Figure 5: Configuration tracking shows the list of JAR files in a folder (including subfolders) and track the version number of each file. This allows administrators to review when changes to a JAR version happened and correlate them with any application performance changes.

If you’d like to learn about eG Enterprise’s extensive support for monitoring and troubleshooting Java applications and the infrastructure upon which they run, please see: Java Application Monitoring | eG Innovations and Java Application Performance Monitoring White Paper.

Information on JVM monitoring is available, here: JVM Monitoring Tools | eG Innovations.

eG Enterprise is an Observability solution for Modern IT. Monitor digital workspaces,
web applications, SaaS services, cloud and containers from a single pane of glass.

Free Trial  See the platform

Learn More:

About the Author

Babu is Head of Product Engineering at eG Innovations, having joined the company back in 2001 as one of our first software developers following undergraduate and masters degrees in Computer Science, he knows the product inside and out. Based within our Singapore R&D Management team, Babu has undertaken various roles in engineering and product management becoming a certified PMP along the way.