Re: Database recovery from user error

Daniel Morgan <damorgan_at_exesolutions.com> wrote:
>
>I've got a question for you and all of the others out there that say they have
>not upgraded due to a third-party app. I just ignore the advice. Get the latest
>stable version. And set compatible = whatever nonsense they will support. And
>I've never had a problem.
>
>What's the risk, if any?

The risk is that when something goes wrong, you've no support for your business critical application.

A certified combination means the vendor has tested it and claims that it should work. Thus when it doesn't work, it's a real problem somewhere (though quite possibly PEBKAC ;-).

An uncertified combination massively opens the space in which the problem may exist. The vendor would have to do a full system test of the configuration before being able to ascertain if their software worked at all in that environment, even if Oracle claim "it should".

You might call it buck-passing, but problem diagnosis is so difficult in complex systems that you have to eliminate as many unknown factors as possible if you're going to resolve an issue. If you think it's hard to convince a 3rd party app vendor there's a problem with their software, you haven't tried to convince OS vendors and Oracle that a problem is theirs, not an application problem.

-- 
Andrew Mobbs - http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~andrewm/