Oracle Linux Reviews

We use Oracle Linux with multiple clients for multiple applications.

Over a period of time, feature-wise, functionality wise, the reliability is important for us. 

First of all it is a zero-dollar value, it is free. We only have to pay for support. So it brings down the overall cost. And it is providing the same functionality as any other Linux system that is out there in the market.

Some customers feel about Oracle licensing, while it is free, they are not able to understand the support model for it. They feel the price is high for support. 

I have seen running production systems on it, there is no issue at all, because of the operating system.

I have no experience with scaling, but I believe scalability is as part of it as any other Unix based operating system that is out there in the market.

It is world-class.

It is straightforward and well documented. If people have basic Unix knowledge, they can jump on it. But I would definitely recommend going through the documentation before implementing any operating system in an enterprise environment.

Regarding criteria when selecting a vendor, if I am working in an Oracle world, I would what's important is being "family." If you are using Oracle as a database, using Oracle Linux is a good choice, because you are in the same family. Support is coming from the same vendor. The chances of vendor conflict - for example, being able to pull in people from different vendors; if I'm using Red Hat Linux I would be pulling people from Red Hat Linux, I would be pulling people from Oracle databases - that kind of scenario would not be there. Support would be seamless.

In terms of advice I would say, know your needs first, and if you know your needs, compare Oracle Linux with other operating systems. If you are running Oracle systems, Oracle databases, Oracle Linux is certified by Oracle. I believe all of Oracle is using it internally when building the system. For example, when they're developing Oracle databases or when they're developing Oracle EBS, they're running it on Oracle Linux.

Go for it. Evaluate it, know your needs first, and then see what solution is addressing your need.

We're quite heavy Linux users. We do high performance computing on Linux so we like a Linux which is compatible with several platforms, so we don't have to cross-compile for too many Linux editions.

We like that Oracle Linux is Red Hat compatible, it makes things very easy for us. We can move between platforms very easily. 

Oracle Linux has helped us to use some of the Oracle cloud platforms, it's made that quite easy. Really, access to that is why we use Oracle Linux.

Just keeping up to date with the latest releases, so Red Hat Enterprise having Linux 7 compatibility would be useful. Other than that, the tools that we need are there, we use the GCC compilers and those tool chains.

We've had absolutely no problems at all, we've never had any stability issues with Oracle Linux.

We run, as I said, high performance computing, so we run across several nodes at any one time. We've scaled up to 30 Oracle Linux instances talking to each other, with no problems at all.

Luckily, I haven't had to use it yet. Obviously we use some of the Oracle online documentation, that's always been useful. And any time we've had any contact with Oracle it's been fairly positive. So what little contact we've had has been good.

We didn't feel much of an investment because we use the cloud platforms, then it's an option to us there. The actual investment of just trying Oracle Linux out was very little, it was just one of the choices on the cloud platform, and it turned out to be one of the best.

It was relatively straightforward. Again, the compatibility with other Linux distros makes it quite straightforward, so we've had no issues really. It was very simple.

In terms of important criteria when selecting a vendor: support, and stability of the product as well. Obviously having the packages certified by Oracle, a known stable platform, makes it easy. We don't have to worry about doing an update and then breaking things. That's probably one of the key things for us.

I'd say try it out, it's simple to get running, get it onto a CIN and then just give it a go.

By far, the most valuable feature of Oracle Linux is the fact that the unbreakable UEK kernel is optimized to run Oracle databases. Basically out of the box, the kernel parameters are automatically set up for I/O, for memory, and for performance.

Benefits of Oracle Linux for a lot of customers include things like Ksplice, for example, the ability to perform online kernel patches with zero downtime. In fact, a lot of the other vendors like Red Hat and SUSE are starting to embrace that technology, but they’re years behind.

Overall, Oracle Linux is full of great features and functionality. Because it is an Oracle product, what would be nice is if there better integration between the Linux operating system and Oracle ASM and things like ASMLib and the integration with Oracle RAC.

From a stability perspective, Linux has been around for decades, and Oracle Linux is going to be around for a long, long time, and it’s going to be a dominant player.

It is a derivative of Red Hat, but for all practical purposes, it’s immensely scalable, especially as you're talking about doing multi-node clusters with Oracle Linux. There are numerous customers who are leveraging Oracle RAC on Oracle Linux, that’s a very common platform for a lot for customers today. 

A lot of customers who are on Red Hat, for example - it’s all pricing. Again, this is another key benefit of being on Oracle Linux. If you buy Oracle hardware, for example, be it x86 or ODA or even Exadata, all those platforms will run on Oracle Linux, but because you're paying annual support for the hardware, you will automatically get free support on Oracle Linux. That’s by far, probably, the biggest benefit of going on Oracle Linux. 

If you compare also from cost of support of Red Hat versus Oracle Linux, Oracle Linux is going to be a lot cheaper overall.

When selecting a vendor, the cool thing about Oracle Linux is that the customers are going to be running an Oracle database on it. At the same time, if they’re going to be running Oracle databases on top of Oracle Linux, you have one vendor to call for support, you have one vendor to choke at the end of the day if things go wrong.

It's a 10 out of 10. You are going to get great support from Oracle Linux. The portal that you would log into for support for Oracle Linux is going to be the same portal that you would log into to get your database support. It will be the same portal that you log into to get your Exadata and ODA if you're running those hardware appliances as well.

The ones I really appreciate are things like the fact that, from a costing perspective, it is only the support cost. That's the only thing you have to pay for.

There are the little hidden things like Kubernetes of packaging, OpenStack, it's all built in to the subscription as part of Oracle Linux. When you get Oracle Linux, you get OpenStack and Kubernetes which, is coming down the path.

Ksplice is a huge piece for us for supportability as well.

Pre-validated configuration is a huge benefit for us, because we're doing database installation all the time. 

I think the biggest benefits you'll see are things like rapid deployment, things like templates. Again, like I mentioned before about validated configuration. You don't have to set individual parameters, and set up settings. DBAs just run this RPM and, boom, you have an environment that's already pre-configured, pre-set for Oracle configurations.

Kubernetes, as I mentioned before, that's coming down soon. 

Stability and scalability, we don't have any issues. We're running it on PCA, we're running on bare metal, we're running on different cloud configurations, OVM. For us, UEK versions 2 and 3 have been very stable and very scalable. We run RAC on it as well.

That's interesting because I came from Oracle support, it's near and dear to my heart. One of the beauties of Oracle support is the fact that the guys who are in Oracle support actually came from Oracle database support. So when you make a call to Oracle support, if you're calling about a web or app server, especially a database server, they know exactly what you're talking about, because they came from that world. You don't have to explain to them what a database is, what a process is. They totally get it.

Very straightforward. Setting up Linux, we usually use templates, ISO images. We use Spacewalk, which is part of the subscription model, it's free; so we use Spacewalk quite a bit.

I always tell them, if you're running Oracle workloads like database, that's a natural fit for Oracle Linux. Because, like I said, It's pre-configured, you get to validate configuration, you get Spacewalk, support. It's a nice little bundle.

When selecting a vendor, the things we focus on are high availability, scalability, and business requirements. All those things come together. We figure out whether it's a RAC solution, OVM solution, virtualize, a middle-tier stack that all fit in together.

I would say it's a nine out of 10. Start using it. If you're familiar with Red Hat, you're going to be familiar with Oracle Linux. It's pretty much the same thing, so start investing time and testing it in-house.

When you look at Oracle Linux over the years, you've got to go back to the beginning of Linux. Nobody would accept it in the community because it was open source. A guy by the name of Larry Ellison said, "Let's put Linux on every app server we have in the company because I believe this is what's coming next." When I look at Oracle Linux, Larry really drove Linux, to some degree, into the market. 

But when I look at Linux and some of the value of it, you look at privacy, security, it's much more secure, much more private than other operating systems. It's very easy to install and a lot of people use it. It's very common.

I've been using Linux since it came out, a very long time.

Is Linux scalable? Let's see. It's on the fastest machines on planet Earth, which is Exadata. Does it scale? Yes. Proven in many clients out there, Exadata is the highest selling and best product that Oracle has ever put out in their history.

When I'm comparing Linux, I look at the things like Windows - and a lot of people call it "Windoze," d-o-z-e, like they're dozing off because it's so slow. Linux is extremely fast and that's why it took the entire market. It's why it's the standard right now. Oracle Linux, when I look at it, it's very fast, it's really not comparable to anything else. It's very good.

The setup of the solution is very common for people who are familiar with installing Linux. I don't see any issues there. Also, with Linux, they have patches that come out when there's any issue. That's why you get a lot of good security. The after-support, never really had an issue. Linux is pretty simple to where you set It up and it's done.

I recommend Oracle Linux regularly because it's a standard that works well with the Oracle Database, it works well with all the different needs. When you look at the topology in a general IT department, it fits very well. In the cloud, Linux runs the cloud. 

Linux is a 10 out of 10. Windows, not so much; maybe down at two or three, especially on the privacy side and security, in my opinion.

KSPlice feature that allows you to install kernel updates within a live environment without downtime.

Less downtime during updates installations.

The documentation of the product can be improved. It often lacks a lot of documentation, but so do a lot of Oracle solutions.

I am not the end customer, but I have been supporting the product for a year now.

No issues encountered during deployment. Very smooth deployment

There were a few stability issues because of the hardware that we used. For the most part, it is a very stable solution.

There were no scalability issues.

I do the technical support with the help of Oracle.

The setup was a straightforward implementation.

The product is a part of an Oracle Enterprise Solution. You only pay for support to use the product. It is a free product.

We wanted to implement a virtualized environment under the Oracle VM for x86. This was the right product for that, so we did not look at any other products.

It is a great product to have. It is even better to run it on Oracle hardware.

The most valuable feature in Oracle Linux is its design. Oracle Linux is built with features to align very closely with Oracle products and specifically the Oracle Database. For example, it’s delivered with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel which is a kernel developed and optimized by Oracle for Oracle products.
It’s an important part of the system that makes Oracle Database so powerful.

The Oracle Linux system is configured, by default, to schedule I/O for database usage and this I/O management plays an important part in database performance.

Dynamic tracing could be improved. In Oracle Linux, you have some very powerful (for example "perf" or "systemtap").

If Oracle can deliver such tools like dtrace for linux (publicly), this would help albeit actually dtrace is delivered through the Unbreakable Linux Network.

I have used Linux since 1997 and Oracle Linux since its availability in 2007.

We have never encountered any stability issues.

We have never encountered any scalability issues.

I usually use forums, Google and My Oracle Support (MOS )Knowledge Base (a great tool) to find answers to my questions. I never used Support Engineers to resolve issues related to Oracle Linux.

I used Red Hat Linux solutions before, but Oracle Linux is better engineered to run Oracle products.

The initial setup is not complex. If you understand Linux basics, it won’t be a problem.

Oracle Linux support is not free but the product is free. You can use it and test it safely for your tests environments. As soon you run your production, purchase a support if you have to access patches etc.

We evaluated Red Hat Linux a couple of years ago, but both products are very close. Only Oracle Linux has specific features that can be optimized for Oracle products (Database, Engineered systems etc.)

If you are searching for an operating system build to run your Oracle products, then Oracle Linux is the best product to do that.

Starting with Oracle Linux 5, we’ve started to use ext4, which has provided us better disk performance. The unbreakable kernel has been very secure and has provided us a robust OS that has outperformed many of its counterparts. Starting with Oracle Linux 6, we’ve used LXC containers to lock down applications within the OS. We’ve been extremely happy with the scalability and performance of each version across a multitude of platforms.

The reliability of the product has increased our efficiency. With needing 99.98% uptime, the OS has been incredibly stable. In the 10 years I’ve been using the product, I’ve had to open zero product defects as it has functioned in every way we needed it to.

With many other operating systems, including this one, I would love to have the ability to upgrade the kernel in place. This currently requires a reboot of the OS. With today’s applications and customer needs, having the ability to perform in-place kernel upgrades with no reboots would be huge.

There are some capabilities with Oracle linux to do this, but it is not widely used. KSPLICE can be utilized but there are many features of it such as stack tracing after the fact you may not get what you need and a reboot would still be required. Starting with version 6 you can utilize KSPLICE. Most customers especially hours are hesitant to use such methods like KSPLICE. It does require a higher kernel version (4.x) and many many applications have not yet been supported on that kernel rev that myself and company support.

There is a product you can purchase from cloudlinux called kernelcare. It works well and has fewer nuances. Worth a look for POC at a minimum for any critical business applications. Much like KSPLICE, kernelcare will only work with Oracle linux 6+.

I’ve been using these versions starting with Linux 5 from Oracle since 2007.

We have not had any issues related to stability of the OS. Application-related issues have caused the downtime.

No problems at all with scalability. We’ve been able to extend clusters without issue.

Since I’ve not had to use technical support, I am unable to rate it.

We used to use RedHat. Support costs drived us to switch. We’ve saved thousands of dollars.

Setup is all straightforward; however, we utilize very complex installations. We use a variety of tools to speed up the acquirement of software, deployment of systems, patching, backup and recovery. We believe in segregation and following NIST/IRS/DOD standards in all of our builds. Straightforward is nice, but to protect our customers, we go the extra mile.

With everything from hardware to software, we recommend to analyze all options. Not every customer or application will fit the bill for the Oracle Linux OS products.

We evaluated a few other OS providers. Those include RedHat, CentOS, Debian and openSUSE.

Read the documentation, follow best practices and if you do not have standards in place, follow up on NIST/IRS standards for OS configurations to protect yourself and your client.

The most valuable features are:

• It’s free.
• Kernel 4.x.
• RPM-based.
• RedHat clone.
• Support for Spacewalk.
• Easy and stable upgrades.

We use Oracle Linux for all Oracle database servers.

Updates are very slow in our part of world (Slovenia). Now, we use Spacewalk for distribution of updates, but replication to Spacewalk is slow.

I have been using Oracle Linux for seven years.

We have not encountered stability issues.

We have not encountered scalability issues.

I have never used support for Oracle Linux.

We are still using RHEL 5.x, 6.x and 7.x, SLES 9,10 and 11 and CentOS 6.x and 7.x.

Setup is straightforward.

I recommend Oracle Linux to everyone who needs the stability of RHEL and the newest kernel.

We did not evaluate alternatives.

Just use it.

It provides us with templates and Oracle-validated configurations that allows quicker install and configuration of Oracle Database software.

The existence of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is special adjusted for the best performance of Oracle software. It updates the OS using Ksplice.

We have no downtime for OS upgrades, hence customer production isn't affected, and we have no security breaches and higher performance of Oracle stack software due to its usage of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel.

Although Btrfs does a great job, I would like to see ZFS being part of future distributions.

Also, a distributed replicated block device (DRBD) feature would better provide a sort of mirroring over a network of block devices, becoming a superset of Oracle Database Data Guard for a range of applications with storage residing on related block devices.

From another perspective, the adjustments needed for implementing a powerful PPPoE server (PPP over Ethernet) in a similar way, what the guys from Mikrotik (www.mikrotik.com) did for X86 platforms (also starting from Linux kernel) could be interesting. Imagine how secure the connection to related OS using PPPoE would be, the simplicity of routing in the environment, and many more advantages.

We've been using it for two years.

For small and medium clients, there were no issues with deployment. For larger enterprises, Oracle VM is preferred.

For small and medium clients, there were no issues with stability. For larger enterprises, Oracle VM is preferred.

For small and medium clients there were no issues with scalability. For larger enterprises, Oracle VM is preferred.

They get an A for the outstanding customer service and technical support.

We had to choose this solution in order to have the technology used on the same line. Since Oracle Databases is the market leader, as well as other successful software platforms on the stack, the OS from the same provider needed to be considered and analyzed in-depth from technical and cost perspectives also. To keep the answer short, the balance leaned towards Oracle Linux and Oracle Solaris.

The initial setup was straightforward. The fact that the images can be freely downloaded from OTN allowed us to set up a lab environment and perform initial simulations of the targeted environment. The large number of existing templates saved lots of time for “in-depth” documentation, adjustments, configurations, and so on. Since the testing provided more than sufficient positive signs, the solution was chosen.

The operating system implementations were in-house. There is no need for a vendor team to perform the OS install once you have in-house system administrators with needed skills. Related skills can be quickly gathered by professionals familiar with various Linux flavors, and certification for Oracle Linux can be achieved by taking a rather simple exam in one of the many Pearson Vue centers. I've heard that for other Linux distributions the process isn’t as simple.

Yes, RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.5, but improvements in Oracle Linux and better support price incline the balance to that one.

My advice is to act on the pattern: Plan – Do – Check – Act. From the way the question is formulated, the first step is done. They should now download the product, install an in-lab environment along with the related applications, check how the framework responds to the specific needs, and make the Go / No-Go decision. My estimation is that for most cases the Go decision will be taken, but that can depends on specific other elements.

Another advice is to have one person providing infrastructure support with at least one Oracle Certification in this area, so easy issues become solved in agile style.