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Re: Unix over VMS

From: Matthew Reagan <mreagan_at_fast.net>
Date: 1997/10/27
Message-ID: <01bce287$c29f1880$0102020a@dx4133mfr>#1/1

Shankar,

I currently am running on a pair of Alpha OpenVMS machines, and I love them. The only times I shut down the machines is preventive maintenance. The databases get shut down every Friday for a cold backup (when we don't have any mission critical work scheduled) but otherwise they run "forever".

Oracle has announced that 7.3 of Oracle will be the last version release for OpenVMS on VAX equipment. OpenVMS on Alpha is fine. V 8 will be available "any day now". Yes, we do get our releases later than most Unix platforms. We VMSers have our own dedicated porting team, so the work is done by people who are VMS-specific. Our releases are more stable than the ones for Unix (IMHO). The DEC SBU at Oracle keeps promising that our releases will be 3 months after the DEC Unix release. I have yet to see that, and its been promised more times than I can count.

People are just now getting excited about parallel server. I've been running it since V 6 of Oracle (I can't remember how long ago we started). Clusters? Sure. Digital knows how to do clusters COLD. How many YEARS now? I even lost a parallel server node and didn't notice for an hour (it handled batch jobs).

Oracle support leaves alot to be desired, regardless of the platform your on. VMSers get screwed more than most customers tho. I never talk to a VMS aware support tech even if its a down database (unless the database conveniently crashed during normal business hours, of course). That has made it a bit more complicated, but, if you know VMS, you can pick out the relevant comments from the support rep and tell him what is a load of hogwash right off the bat.

I like my machines. The next big Oracle project is going to be HP-Unix, for a number of reasons (third party packages, mostly). This project is causing alot of pressure to convert our OpenVMS systems, but they can take them away after they pry my cold, dead fingers from them or Digital blows it BIG time (which may be happening with the Intel negotiations) and the decision is made for me. HP can't offer all of the things that OpenVMS has (at least the ones I need). It may in time, but at this point, it doesn't.  I'm not going to convert just "because". If there is a pressing reason, I will consider other operating systems, but I won't go without a very convincing argument.

What kind of expertise do you have in house? Do you need (and I mean REALLY need) V 8 of Oracle? What market are you in? Do you use third party packages? What platforms to they run on? Will you be running client processes on the server machine directly, or will everything be on Windows?  If so, the choice of your server should be based on reliability, needed functionality, etc. Changing servers (if they are ONLY used as servers, and not client machines) is actually relatively easy, so a choice that you outgrow is not that hard to change. The power of Alpha OpenVMS is really hard to ignore on a price/performance level. The new 1200 is really sweet (dual 500+ mhz processors for how much? less than 20K? Hmm...

sankara.subram_at_coats.com wrote in article <877713919.9277_at_dejanews.com>...
> Hi Oracle Gurus,
>
> I was talking to our dba about the operating systems...and we came
> accross a interesting question...why UNIX??Why not VMS?? I am really
> interested to know the advantages of choosing UNIX over VMS or the
> otherway... I do know UNIX has some advantagaes like portability, fast
> etc... But I don't have any other strong arguements..
>
> Your sugestions will be greatly appreciated
>
> Shankar V Subramanian
> Trying to learn anything and everything!so far learned nothing!
>
> -------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
> http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet
>
Received on Mon Oct 27 1997 - 00:00:00 CST

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