Re: Linux Flavour for Oracle 9i

Matt wrote:

> I am starting a Proof of Concept project to demonstrate benefits of
> migrating our Oracle databases from Windows to Linux. This is driven
> by potential performance improvements.
>
> I am trying to decide on a particular flavour of Linux.
>
> Since this is an Enterprise wide application, our choice will be
> limited to the Oracle supported platforms, i.e.:
>
> Redhat Enterprise AS (2.1, or 3)
> Redhat Enterprise ES (2.1, or 3)
> Suse Linux Enterprise Server
> United Linux 1
>

Solid:

• RedHat ES 3 for machines less than or equal to 4 CPU
• SuSE SLStdS8 for machines less than or equal to 4 CPU (Suse Linux Standard System is much less $ than SLES)
• RH AS 3 for enterprise > 4 CPU
• SLES8 for enterprise > 4 CPU
• SLES9 for anything that Oracle has certified! See Oracle's Certify site
• WhiteBox Linux for development as it mimics RH3AS.

Avoid like the plague any of the freebie 'public' distros like Debian, Fedora, SuSE Pro, Mandrake, and so on. While they are extremely good and beneficial, the amount of tinkering needed to get Oracle stable, and the rapid release cycle, make these unsuitable for you environment. I run several of the freebies, but NOT under Oracle! Reason - anything other than the basic database will likely give hicups, occasionally at random.

Preferred by me:

I personally am getting very happy with SLES9 for Oracle now that it's certified. Since it's late to the game, not all Oracle products are certified on SLES9, but I think the certifications are being done as quickly and carefuly as possible.

There are a few things to watch for with SLES9, but they are getting fixed rapidly. I personally like SuSE's support better than RedHat - ymmv as it depends _entirely_ on the individual on the other end of the line.

Comment:

Many people mistakenly believe that United Linux was a distribution. It was a _specification_ with a core kernel and minimum distribution requirements to be used as the basis for distributions. SLES8 is SuSE's implementation of United Linux 1. Now that UL is basically defunct, the consortium members are independant - SLES 9 is a wonderful distro and perfect example of where UL should have been going.

/Hans Received on Fri Nov 12 2004 - 14:57:10 CST