Re: Linux File system and Oracle setup

andkovacs_at_yahoo.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We have a unique opportunity to compare Linux with Windows running an
> Oracle 9.2 server. We have setup two 100% identical servers DL380 G4:
> one with windows 2000 adv server and the other with RedHat 3.4. Both
> are running the same applications in parallele.
> Oracle folks told us that this experience has no sense and we should
> not compare these two operating systems.
>
> Is this a no sense test case ?
>
> We have a little problem with Linux. Our i/o throughput is lower than
> on windows by 20%. Raid setup is the same on both servers, all disks
> are in Raid 0+1. We think that the issue is related to file system
> setup. At present we are running ext3fs with mode=journaling.
>
> What is the best file linux system for Oracle ?
>
> At oracle a "boy" advised us to setup our disks in Raid 5 ?! Is there
> something special about Raid and Linux ? Or this boy is just like the
> other average folks at Oracle, really stupid.

I am inclined to agree with the folks from Oracle even though I have personally run the same test for education purposes. And to cut to the chase Linux always wins if tuned properly with one caveat. That caveat being that Intel chips have paths burned into the silicon that favours Windows over Linux. On AMD chips Linux kills Windows.

Still all-in-all Linux is a far better operating system for reasons that are more important than speed and are thus the things you should be focusing on.

What good is speed if the system isn't secure? What good is speed if the system isn't stable? What good is speed if every change requires a reboot? What good is speed if every O/S patch breaks things?

Change your focus to those things that really matter to a database and you will see why the Oracle folks likely are advising against the exercise.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
http://www.psoug.org
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)