Understanding Oracle Features and Options on Oracle 11.2

About Standard Edition(SE) and SE ONE:

SE (4 sockets max) + RAC option available.

SE ONE(2 sockets max) .

Enterprise edition unlimited(extra costs for options)

Main Enterprise options we don’t get in Standard Edition(SE)

1. Oracle Standard Management Pack - Pack includes scaled down functionality from Change Management, Diagnostics, and Tuning Packs.
2. Fine-grained auditing -  This features allows the monitoring of database access based on the content of the data accessed.                           
3. Oracle Advanced security  -  Security options.
4. Data compression - This feature provides the ability to compress tables and partitions.
5. Bitmapped index   -This feature provides an and bitmapped  index type commonly used join index in data warehouses for  columns with low cardinality, such as 'Y' or 'N', to dramatically improve performance gains in a data  warehouse application.
6. Automated parallel  - Automated parallel query   optimization based on  system utilization.
7. Database Resource Manager - gives Oracle Database more Manager control over resource management decisions, circumventing problems arising from inefficient operating system management.
8. Online operations  - Online index maintenance, Online table organization, Online table redefinition.
9. Function-based in indexes - Oracle SE may allow you to create a function-based index.
10. Performance - Query Results Cache, PL/SQL Function Result Cache, Client Side Query Cache, SQL Plan Management.
11. Unused block compression in backups.

How to check what do you use:


--number of users and cpu/processors:

SELECT   * FROM v$license;

--database edition installed:

SELECT   banner
  FROM   v$version
 WHERE   UPPER(banner) LIKE UPPER('%edition%');

--oracle partitioning installed:

SELECT   DECODE (COUNT ( * ), 0, 'no', 'yes') partitioning
  FROM   (SELECT   1
            FROM   dba_part_tables
           WHERE   owner NOT IN ('SYSMAN', 'SH', 'SYS', 'SYSTEM')
                   AND ROWNUM = 1);


--oracle rac installed:

SELECT   DECODE (COUNT ( * ), 0, 'no', 'yes') rac
  FROM   (SELECT   1
            FROM   v$active_instances
           WHERE   ROWNUM = 1);

--options installed/not installed:

col name  format a50 heading "option"
col value format a5  heading "?" justify center wrap
break on value dup skip 1

  SELECT   parameter name, VALUE
    FROM   v$option
ORDER BY   2 DESC, 1;


--features used/not used:

set feedback off
set linesize 122
col name             format a45     heading "feature"
col version          format a10     heading "version"
col detected_usages  format 999,990 heading "detected|usages"
col currently_used   format a06     heading "curr.|used?"
col first_usage_date format a10     heading "first use"
col last_usage_date  format a10     heading "last use"
col nop noprint
break on nop skip 1 on name

  SELECT   DECODE (detected_usages, 0, 2, 1) nop,
           name,
           version,
           detected_usages,
           currently_used,
           TO_CHAR (first_usage_date, 'dd/mm/yyyy') first_usage_date,
           TO_CHAR (last_usage_date, 'dd/mm/yyyy') last_usage_date
    FROM   dba_feature_usage_statistics
ORDER BY   nop, 1, 2;

Source

Differences Between Enterprise, Standard and Standard One Editions on Oracle 11.2 [ID 1084132.1]