Re: Oracle on Linux vs NT

On Fri, 03 Sep 1999 09:39:48 -0500, Dave Zuzga <dzuzga_at_isdinc.com> wrote:

>Thanks for the intelligent response Doug. I realize there are many other
>factors involved in the selection of a OS, but the main one I meant to
>address was performance of the OS.
>
>Specifically, does one OS have a performance advantage in networking or disk
>io? Does one implement SMP better than another?
>
>I really love using *NIX or it's derivatives. We were only on NT because of
>the price break that Oracle gives you. Now that Linux is in the same pricing
>category as NT, I want some evidence to switch to Linux or stay with NT.
>
>Just to answer Doug's questions:
>
>The database will be about 60GB in size with only one instance running on the
>server. The longer it can stay up without any intervention, the better it
>will be. It should have an average of 5 or 6 regular users, with sporadic
>access from a web server. It is used primarily for monthly reporting and is
>run in NOARCHIVELOG mode. We take cold backups whenever we load new data
>(usually monthly). The server will only be a database server (not
>multipurpose).
>
>-Dave
>

Excellent!

Sounds like you have a medium sized db with a very small number of users. Other than a monthly batch cycle, static data. Mostly reporting activity or DSS (full table scans and some ad hoc probably).

Given this, Here are my thoughts:

For NT - NT has a very efficient file access system and a pretty fair Async IO implementation. You will be able to devote about 75-80% of your 1GB to Oracle if you have NT set up right. (turn off NT large file cache, disable unneeded services.) The should give you plently of room for about 400M of DB cache, 300m of SGA (if needed) and 100M+ for PGAs with a large sort area. Don't use NTs raid, use hardware raid. (0+1 is by far the best, 5 is the worst usually) Few regular processes so no problems here. NTs threads processing offer some efficiencies over *NIX individual processes that use IPC to talk. I'll take Notepad over the VI (read VILE) editor any time :-) Easy to Find NT mouse jockey's that can support a basic system.

For *NIX - Sounds like this is your area of expertise so admin should be no problem. Harder to find a NIX egomaniac, but when you do they are usually pretty good. Linix has a smaller kernal so you could squeeze a few more MB out for Oracle. Unix (if set up right) can be rock solid. No nightly/weekly/hourly :-) reboots needed. File system is basic NIX and readhat's flavor is pretty good. Pay attention to setting up the ASYNC IO. I'm not sure if Linux's comes enabled outof the box, I know You have to turn it on in some NIXs(then turn if off again because it's pretty unstable). NIX has better RAW device support. NIX has better tape backup support. Will scale up better if you get a bunch more users.

In general, NIX used to have BIG advantages over NT, but the gap is narrowing and NT is gaining ground. Once (if) the dreaded reboot/memory leak problems lessen....... should be interesting to see where this race leads.

I have not used Linux with Parallel Query, but early 8.0.x versions of Oracle on NT have been a bit flaky for me.

Conclusion - I would go with the OS you are most comfortable with. For your app, the OS pros/cons will be nearly insignificant compaired to tuning queries, the Oracle parms, defining indexes, pinning tables and procedures, etc...

Hope this helped. Enjoy.........

Doug Coan
Senior Client Server Systems Integrator
DCoan_at_aegonusa.com
"Live to Learn and Learn to Live" Received on Fri Sep 03 1999 - 00:00:00 CEST