

VIRTUALBOX SOFTWARE
Catching Oracle’s attention by being out of compliance with VirtualBox has resulted in many companies receiving a larger software audits from Oracle since they now have evidence to suggest the company’s software environment is not as organized as it ought to be. Since the fine is so small, it may lead companies to brush it off, but this small fine could easily lead to a bigger problem. Even if your company is out of compliance when it comes to VirtualBox’s Extension Pack, your penalty may be somewhere shy of USD $1,000, which amounts to pennies for larger corporations. They are notified of every installation of VirtualBox and will be able to know which desktops in your company have VirtualBox. While the presence of VirtualBox may be a blind spot to you, it certainly isn’t for Oracle. The Foot in the Door for a Software Audit Without that visibility, the only options you possess for monitoring the usage of VirtualBox is either checking the desktops manually (a gruelling process which leaves a very likely threat of human error), or we have suggested to many clients, simply put a company-wide block on the webpage where you can download VirtualBox. However, at MetrixData 360, we are repeatedly finding that discovery tools that are available today are unable to detect the presence of VirtualBox on a device.

Failure to attend to these issues could easily translate to owing Oracle hundreds of thousands of dollars in required licenses, depending on the size of your infrastructure.ĭoes your company have VirtualBox installed on its desktops? If you have a discovery tool in place as a part of your Software Asset Management process, that’s probably where your thoughts are turning if you want to find the answer. In addition, any environments like Test/Development servers that interact with VirtualBox also need to be licensed. This means that anything the VirtualBox touches needs to be licensed.
VIRTUALBOX LICENSE
It is important to note that if you chose to use the socket pricing model (a socket is what hosts a chip, which contains a collection of one or multiple cores), then you will need a license for all the hosts within a vCenter, which could expand throughout multiple data centers. The Extension Pack has two pricing models that you can pick between, as seen below and published on Oracle’s website:

Unlike with the GPLv2, which allows for redistribution, you can’t redistribute the Extension Pack without a special license from Oracle. Unlike the rest of VirtualBox, the Extension Pack is subject to the Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL), which means that you can download the Extension Pack onto a single host computer for non-commercial purposes, which a company distinctly doesn’t fall under. However, if you get the Extension Pack, then you are eligible for support, updates, and maintenance from Oracle. This is basically a reddit-like board consisting of a collection of software enthusiasts who may just have the solution to the problem you’re facing. If you have an issue with VirtualBox and you don’t have the Extension Pack, then you can consult the VirtualBox Community. Namely, it improves the performance of the VirtualBox and while the VirtualBox alone only supports USB 1.1 devices, the Extension Pack Supports USB 2.0 and 3.0 devices.

The Extension Pack is enticing for many reasons. The Extension Pack is what you need to buy a license for.
VIRTUALBOX INSTALL
The Basic Package and the Guest Additions are free, however, the Extension Pack that you can install just as easily to go with VirtualBox is distinctly not free. The Basic Package, the Extension Pack, and the Guest Additions. VirtualBox is broken down into three parts.
VIRTUALBOX CODE
VirtualBox is free in every sense of the word you don’t have to pay for it, and you can play around with the code as much as you like, so what is the issue? Sadly, there are many issues that arise when your business decides to get VirtualBox.
