RE: Sun to Linux on Dell

Steve,

You hit the nail on the head with RAC licensing. Oracle is currently offering discounts on RAC, likely due to that reason.

Look for an article on this subject by Mogens Norgaard in the upcoming issue of SELECT.

Interestingly enough, RAC for Oracle Collaboration Server is a mere $60 per user, significantly less than normal RAC licensing.

You also might be interested to know that Oracle is now doing Linux support. Not just Oracle on Linux, but Linus OS support.

Guess they weren't too happy with the finger pointing going on with Oracle on Linux systems. Don't have a URL handy, but shouldn't be too hard to find.

Jared

"Steve McClure" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 06/09/2003 01:24 PM
 Please respond to ORACLE-L  

        To:     Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
        cc: 
        Subject:        RE: Sun to Linux on Dell

I would agree there is not much to go on, and I admit I am leary to jump on
the migrate to Linux bandwagon. True you can get dirt cheap hardware to run
your Linux install, but then you are running a very solid OS on dirt cheap hardware. Performance will suffer unless you purchase really top notch equipment. You can also buy more cheaper hardware and go the RAC route, but
then you have all those licensing fees for RAC. Very likely more expensive
than the Sun, HP, IBM box that could have delivered the required performance. Then you have the support question. All the big vendors have
very good support staffs. I bought the top level REDHAT support contract a
few years back and, unless they have seriously come Jesus, they are way behind the big boys in support. Not to mention trading out Sun HW Support,
even without a contract, for any sort of DELL support. No Thanks! I would
add that if they are gung ho regarding Linux, Sun now supports Linux on their hardware.

I feel like I should have started this response "Hello my name is Steve McClure and I am a RAC on Linux doubter" Really I have felt this way for a
long time. Maybe the time will come when I see it as a great idea, but right now it just doesn't add up for me.

Steve McClure

-----Original Message-----
Matthew Zito
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 12:45 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

There's just not enough performance info here to go on. If the service times for the storage are high, simply improving the back-end storage (faster drives, more spindles, more cache, etc.) could solve the problem.

As far as Solaris vs. Linux cost, its definitely true that a Linux server _could_ be more expensive than an identically powered Sun server, though I bet over three years the price difference would swing the other way. Even taking that into account, though, the real cost savings of Linux come into play with RAC. First, the Intel hardware is a much faster at <4 cpus than above - 2.0 ghz on 4-way boxes vs. 900mhz at 8-way (and it goes up again when you go down to 2-way servers - 3.0ghz available), and the price-performance ratio improves as well. So, rather than buying one 4-way server, it can be cheaper to buy three 2-ways and end up with more RAM and more CPU power, even taking into account the overhead with RAC.

However, in this particular case, none of this will help you if its your storage that's the bottleneck.

Thanks,
Matt

--
Matthew Zito
GridApp Systems
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cell: 646-220-3551
Phone: 212-358-8211 x 359
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> -----Original Message-----

> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On

> Behalf Of Stephen Lee

> Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 1:40 PM

> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

> Subject: RE: Sun to Linux on Dell

>

>

>

> If you price the Dell servers, I think you will find there is

> little price advantage over a comparable (sort of) Sun 8-CPU

> box -- for example, Sun Fire V880.  If the Sun 450 of which

> you speak is a few years old, then changing to almost any

> platform will get you CPU's that are a heck of a lot faster.

> But, if I/O is the big deal, they need to consider the I/O

> capacity of the box, not just the CPU power.  That is, you

> might have two boxes that support 8 CPUs, but one has 4 IDE

> interfaces, which the other has 8 SCSI interfaces.

>

> Try to encourage them not to get hung up on the Linux

> buzzword.  Really, it's just a popular buzzword these days to

> most people who don't understand what the OS truly is.  There

> are those who seem to think that if it uses Linux, it will be

> a lot cheaper than if they use some other kind of unix. Not

> so.  Not a bit.

>

> They also need to look at the kind of support -- both vendor

> and third party

> -- each platform has.

>


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