Oracle recently announced a new free base level for the Oracle Database In-Memory Option, their real-time analytics capability. With the base level, you can allocate up to 16GB of memory to the In-Memory column store, per instance without having to have an addition In-Memory license. Larger column stores will still need the additional license.
With the base level, you get all of the core In-Memory features and functionality, the main limit is on the size of the column store. The 16GB limit applies at the container database (CDB) level. This means that all pluggable databases (PDBs) share the 16GB limit of the CDB. However, on a RAC database, the Base Level feature allows a 16GB column store to be allocated on each RAC instance.
The good news this week is that the new base level is now available on Oracle Database 19c with the release of 19.8 (July RU). See MOS Note Doc ID 31281355.8 for more details.
Once you have applied the 19.8 RU, you can enable the new base level by setting the INMEMORY_FORCE parameter to BASE_LEVEL and the INMEMORY_SIZE parameter to a value up to 16GB.
More information on the new base level and anything else you might want to know about Oracle’s Database In-Memory functionality can be found on the Database In-Memory blog.