Is Data Safe really for free?
In the last autumn, the new Oracle Cloud Infrastructure feature called Data Safe was released. For sure, new features has to be tested. I have tested the Data Safe feature too and added a cloud database to Data Safe. But in my enthusiasm about this cool feature – or maybe it was just too late in the evening – I did a mistake by adding the database target. Four days later, I recognized that Data Safe is charged in my account. Mmm, but should it not be for free? First reaction: I raised an SR and described the case. The nice guy from My Oracle Support realized the situation quickly:
Dear Mister Berger, you have used the wrong target type when adding the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure database as a new Data Safe target.
From the Service Request:
- B91632 – Oracle Cloud Infrastructure – Data Safe for Database Cloud Service – Each (Includes 1 million audit records per target per month) – Free
- B91631 – Oracle Cloud Infrastructure – Data Safe for Database Cloud Service – Audit Record Collection Over 1 Million Records (over 1 million audit records per target per month) – 0.0800 / 10,000 Audit Records Per Target Per Month
- B92733 – Oracle Cloud Infrastructure – Data Safe for On-Premises Databases – Target Database Per Month – 200.00 Target Database Per Month + Includes 1 million audit records per target per month (pre-requisite under B91632)
Indeed, indeed. According My Oracle Support I have used the wrong target type. Instead Oracle Cloud Database, I used Oracle Database on Compute. And did not realized, the mistake and ignored the text below to the dropdown box. Shame on me 😉 – here is the small, but important difference:
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So far so good, the mistake was recognized. I deleted the target and added it from scratch with the correct target type. But this didn’t help, the charging went on.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Price List
Adding an other target type than Oracle Cloud Database is charged on monthly fee base as described here: Cloud Price List | Oracle
Cost and Usage Report
In the detailed cost and usage report, the target is marked as deleted (suffix DELETED + deletion date), and charged.
All you can do is getting angry about that mistake and wait. After a month, the money was burned down, and there were no more Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Data Safe costs charged. As you can see, there are 201.44 CHF charged for a month.
I don’t know what Oracle has for a currency converter, but actual 200 USD are less that 180 CHF 😉
Lessons learned
Pity about the beautiful money – and for my next test run: RTFM.