RE: Oracle Enterprise Linux and Linux Standard Base (LSB)

This is what I read in a recently published article:

 

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http://www.informationweek.com/news/business_intelligence/analytics/show
Article.jhtml?articleID=227500585&queryText=Oracle%20Linux

 

That's where Oracle's aiming. The second version of its Exadata machine,
Exadata X2-8, added an important feature: 5 TB of solid state disk. The
flash memory, consisting of Sun Flash Fire cards, serves as a giant
cache for frequently used data. Solid state disks haven't been used on
database machines before. One reason is that while you can read the
disks as many times as you want, you can write to SSD memory only about
5,000 times before the gate decays. SSD makers now have ways of leveling
the wear across an array of SSDs, so they think they'll have about the
same life as a spinning disk. But buyers don't have experience with SSDs
lasting 10 years.

Buyers will also likely worry about how proprietary Oracle's appliances
are. Exadata and Oracle's new Exalogic application-running appliances
will run either Solaris or Linux, but for Linux, it will have to be a
version that makes use of solid state disks at a faster rate than
today's standard Linux issue. That's one reason Oracle just came out
with a modified Linux core, its Unbreakable Kernel. Chief corporate
architect Edward Screven was at pains to say, "We are not forking
Linux." But Oracle's Unbreakable Kernel has changes that other kernels,
such as that used by Red Hat and Novell, do not.

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Does it mean that this feature will end up in the core Linux kernel,
which will mean in RHL?

 

From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tim Hall
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 2:45 PM
To: jkstill@xxxxxxxxx
Cc: Zhu Chao; Oracle-L Freelists
Subject: Re: Oracle Enterprise Linux and Linux Standard Base (LSB)

 

Hi.

 

I listened to Wim Cokearts speak about this and their message was pretty
simple. Oracle are writing lots of fixes for stuff that Red Hat won't
include in their kernel directly, and although they will make it into
the main kernel tree (and therefore get into RHEL), it takes a long
time. Look at how long we have been stuck with substandard kernel
features due to the delays in getting RHEL6 out of the door.

 

The Oracle kernel allows Oracle to get the important features/fixes out
in a better time frame than RHEL, while still being fully certified for
all Oracle products. They will continue to ship and certify against both
their kernel and the RHEL kernel.

 

Many of the performance improvements will also be seen in RHEL6 once
it's released, so Oracle aren't trying to take the credit for all of
them. It's just that you are getting a RHEL6+ kernel now, rather than
waiting for RHEL6 to be released.

 

In addition, you can break the chain between RHEL version and kernel
version. On an Oracle server, the main thing you care about is the
kernel. Do you care if you are running OEL5 or OEL6 if you have the same
kernel on both? There's nothing to stop you running OEL5 for as long as
Oracle support it, and still have all the benefits of the latest and
greatest kernel along with the bug fixes. That certainly saves a lot of
hassle with regards to upgrading versions across your data center.

 

The major take home message from this is that Oracle expect you to use
their kernel from now on. It's what they are going to use for all their
appliances from now on.

 

Cheers

 

Tim...

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 7:18 PM, Jared Still <jkstill@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

2010/9/29 Zhu Chao <zhuchao@xxxxxxxxx>

Oracle also stats it outperform standard red hat by 75 percent for
oltpworkload, I know it is for marketing but does anyone has experience
with that new OEL version , and could it indeed boost performance. I
thought Linux kernel is pretty mature already, no major opportunity for
such great tuning?

 

 

I would also like to see something besides the marketing hype.

 


Jared Still
Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist
Oracle Blog: http://jkstill.blogspot.com
Home Page: http://jaredstill.com

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