Re: Running Oracle 805 on Linux

<kodava_at_pacbell.net> wrote in message news:ilEE3.407$sE.33800_at_typhoon-sf.snfc21.pbi.net...
> Hi all,
> I've been charted to design a web site..Like most web sites, it will
> have a bunch of web servers fronting some application servers and one
> database (Oracle) server.

That's a good idea. You HTTP server could be servicing a lot of traffic--causing undue response interference with your Oracle application.

> Now I would like to have 3 or 4 e-machines Celeron
> systems running Linux as my web servers, feeding into a load balancing
> switch such as a Foundry ServerIron or an Alteon AceDirector.

My sister has an e-machine desktop. What an unrealiable piece of crap. The running joke is not being able to turn off the "autoboot" feature. For not a whole lot more, you could get a Dell or a Gateway. At least they have human beings on the tech support line.

> On the back
> end, I would like to stay with Linux as far as possible -- I will be
 having
> things like chat servers and mail servers, and I cannot see why Linux
 won't
> work here.
>
> The thing that's keeping me up at nights though is Oracle. I'd really
> like to run it on Linux, but I don't know how strong Oracle's committment
 is
> to Linux. For that matter, I do not know if Linux can scale to running a
> gigantic database server -- we're very small right now but expect to grow
> rapidly (obviously ;) I expect the database to be up in the
> multi-hundred-gigabyte range in the next few months. This isn't going to
 be
> one of those inactive database servers, folks are going to be inserting,
> deleting, and updating records all the time. Its come down to Linux/Intel
> because its cost effective (we're tight on $$$) vs Solaris/Sparc because
> Sun/Oracle have such a tight relationship. I'm equally familiar w/ Linux
 and
> Solaris BTW. I'd like to stay w/ RedHat 5.2, since its a release behind.
>

I regularly consult with companies that have 10s of GB of data on Oracle. Most of my Oracle work is on AIX, HPUX, and WindowsNT. You might get away in the short-run using Linux on cheap PCs, but look forward to some heavy iron when you get serious. Silicon Graphics is supporting Linux on their 1400L server. Compaq is discountinuing WindowsNT development on their Alpha servers in favor of OpenVMS, Unix and Linux. Sun is even introducing something called Hot Desk that has NO operating system. You can find out "what's shipping" in each OS/Hardware combination at the supported platforms site (http://platforms.oracle.com/linux).

What's nice about Oracle is that if you do change your mind about the hardware or the OS, you can migrate your database to the new server fairly painlessly.

Once you get above 40 GB, you are going to want systems that have multiple processors and fast data channels. You are going to want some reliable hardware. The only thing I've seen on the e-machines web site (http://www.emachines.com/) was a page of directions on how to ship the machines back to the factory.

-rn Received on Sun Sep 19 1999 - 00:00:00 CEST