Re: Oracle Novell sites?

Re: Oracle on Netware - my story :)

Background:

    My current project is a computer integrated manufacturing     system aimed at small to medium sized food producers.     The idea is to show that an integrated system can be     used with relative ease and with low cost using     commodity hardware and recognized software. i.e.     we don't want to run "MonkeyBase9000" on an "Aptrex XYZ-PDQ".

    The database was designed using Oracle CASE 5.0 and contains     about 150 tables averaging 10 columns each. Some of the     tables hold historical production data and have potential     to store several million rows each.

Hardware:

    Compaq ProSignia 486/66
    32 Mb RAM
    2 Gigabytes of hard disk
    CD-ROM
    Tape backup
    etc. etc.

    This is regarded as a "base system" that meets our     needs right now but can be upgraded with more RAM     and hard disk space as we require it.     At the time of purchase, Pentiums were about $1,200     more. Since Oracle seems to rarely be CPU bound     on a DB server, we went with the cheaper 486. Now     the cost difference is not an issue so we would     go with a 60 or 90 Mhz Pentium.

Software

    Started with Netware 3.11 and have since upgraded to     Netware 3.12
    Started with Oracle 6 and are now up to Oracle 7.0.16     The SQL*Net flavor is SPX. We may go to the TCP/IP     version when it settles down a bit more.

Problems

   The Oracle NLM, as with most other NLMs is highly    dependent on the Netware CLIB library. The first    few versions of Oracle did not make this    statement clear enough. Later versions explicitly    stated in the install guide which particular versions    of CLIB would work with the particular version of    Oracle being installed. However, these instructions    were typically overlooked by the installers.

   Trouble is, the "Oracle" expert and the "Netware"    expert are often not the same person in an organization.    Hence Novell would upgrade CLIB and Oracle would crash.    Oracle would upgrade the database and Netware would go    down, etc.

   The latest version of Oracle (7.0.16 and perhaps others)    deal with the CLIB issue directly in the install program
(which, by the way, is far better than the shell script
   nightmare enjoyed by our UNIX friends :). Basically,    you are asked which version of Netware you are installing    on. As far as I can tell the following happens:

        If Netware 3.11:   Warn installer to check CLIB versions
                           by hand - some CLIB upgrades by
                           Novell may be incompatible.
                           Just in case, Oracle ships with a recent
                           version of CLIB but Novell's patch may
                           be even newer than that.
      
        If Netware 3.12:   Things should be OK. Oracle can run
                           with the CLIB that ships with Netware 
                           3.12.

        If Netware 4.0:    You tell me :)   I would assume that
                           this is also OK since 3.12 and 4.x
                           are of similar vintage but I have no
                           Netware 4.x experience so . . . . 

Oracle on Netware 4.x

   Since I have not used Netware 4.x I can't give any personal    experience here. What I have heard though, is that there is    some performance penalty when running Oracle under Netware 4.    Please feel free to embellish or correct me here.    

   When running under NW 3.12, Oracle runs at Ring 0 as all    NLMs do. This offers the fasted access to the CPU and,    hence, the best performance. The downside is that when    such an NLM crashes, it usually takes down the whole    server with it.

   On Netware 4.x, one has the option (?) of running    an NLM in a mode that offers more protection from an NLM    crash. This mode, however, causes NLMs to run a bit slower
(i.e. not at Ring 0). That's all I have to say about that :).

Big Oracle/Netware sites

   Oracle on Netware has come under fire for not supporting    as many clients as its UNIX bretheren. I think they are    aimed at slightly different markets but they do overlap.    Oracle on UNIX has been reported to support over 1000    users on a single box. The largest Netware system    I've seen in action had less than 50. So the question    becomes, if I have < 50 users, do I go with Netware    or UNIX as the OS ?

   IMHO, if I have shop with 20 Netware servers, many people    who already are familiar with Netware (CNE, CNA, CNXYZ    and all that), AND, I need to support less than 50 users    on a decent (less than 5 gigs) sized database, I would    definitely go with Oracle on Netware. I can't see this    shop bringing in a UNIX box to do this particular job.

   It would be nice to hear from shops that are running    100 Oracle users or more on a Netware box.

   It would also be nice to hear from mostly Netware shops    that have been successful in brining in UNIX systems,    especially Oracle on UNIX on to the scene.    UNIX has really come a long way in terms of administrative    and installation tools so I think the gap between    the ease of administration is definitely closing    between Netware and UNIX.  

Sorry for all the rambling. I hope this adds some fuel to the fire. As always, let me know if you have any more specific/other questions.

Rich Holowczak
Rutgers University
holowcza_at_andromeda.rutgers.edu Received on Sat Feb 11 1995 - 19:51:31 CET