Re: Oracle on Novell

Now time for my 2 cents.....

I have ran serveral Oracle databases on Netware for several years. I have also run DBs on NT and Unix. Of the three Unix is my preferred choice. Netware was extremely fast. I tried the same hardware with NT vs Netware and Netware had atleast a 50% increase in speed. This is mainly due to the fact the Netware was running everything in Ring 0. This speed came at a high price though.... Oracle is not all that stable. It can just take a great deal of abuse. Even on Unix a server process will periodically core dump on a large system. If this happens to Netware, you will abend the server.

In general I found Netware to be a great platform to run databases with a small number of users. 30 - 40 users seemed to be where I started running into a bit of instability on Netware. Granted, most of my users where using SPX... Perhaps the SPX protocol adapter was part of the problem as well.

NT is very stable with Oracle from what I have seen. I have not used NT very much though.

Michael Krolewski wrote:

> Just to throw in my 2 cents. I am aware of no application that runs better in
> Novel than under NT. NT is an application server, Oracle is a multi process
> multithread application. Novel is built to act as a storage engine and
> possibly run Novel OS applications. Oracle is not a Novel OS application.
>
> No I do not want to get flamed.
>
> I believe that NT would be a better bet. Bigger and more support from
> many vendors and Oracle itself.
>
> If you are looking for performance look at the hardware -- disk caches,
> bus speed, hub speed. Generally even with large databases for an NT
> box the issue of performance is on the hardware. HP has multiple processer
> servers with good internal drive support ie LX server.
>
> Moving from DEC to an NT box you are going to see a performance drop.
>
> Mike Krolewski
>
> Roger Loeb wrote:
>
> > Dan,
> >
> > Thanks for you input. I really appreciate it. I agree that the application
> > is getting rather large for the Wintel platform. However, it is currently
> > running on a DEC Alpha under Unix, and DEC support has been nothing short of
> > abominable. We were down for 5 days before the problem got escalated high
> > enough for someone to finally say, "Oh, you need the secret patch for that."
> > Compaq and DEC deserve each other; they both have a fondness for keeping
> > vital information "close to the vest."
> >
> > What I am trying to do is put the Oracle stuff on a platform that we
> > (mostly) understand, have lots of support (from newsgroups and other
> > pioneers), have plenty of choices for hardware variants, and the hardware
> > price is kept down by competition. Thus, ... the Intel x86+ platform, which
> > may not be adequate for the task. I have the disk facilities and speed --
> > the same ones I would use on Unix (from Winchester Systems www.winsys.com --
> > really fast RAID-5 arrays). What I need is something to run Oracle as a
> > server. The applications will remain on the Alpha. (That's the only reason
> > I can even consider WinNT, which is too unstable if you actually run any
> > applications other than something rock solid like Oracle.) The data divides
> > itself nicely into two independent databases, so I can use a two machine
> > cluster to spread the load and get failover support.
> >
> > I think I'm committed to at least trying this approach. Doesn't cost a
> > bunch to test it. However, if I can really get 30% better performance on
> > Netware, where I also have better support for very large data files, I need
> > to take a serious look at that possibility.
> >
> > I'm one of those people who still believe in Novell. Once more people
> > recognize that there's a big difference in "industrial strength" networks,
> > and that application servers and network servers don't have to be the same
> > thing, the basic Novell architecture, particularly as it has been
> > re-invented in Netware 5, is likely to enjoy a resurgence. Too many of our
> > clients have jumped on the NT bandwagon and regretted it severely. Novell
> > has shipped some pretty strong products lately, has acquired some serious
> > Java talent, and has a good story to tell if they can get above the noise
> > level. (My Netware 3.11 server says it's been running for 895 days; I
> > remember taking it down to add some memory almost three years ago. My NT
> > server was last rebooted yesterday, and looks like it may need to be
> > rebooted any minute...)
> >
> > Rog
Received on Mon Jun 15 1998 - 09:04:29 CDT