Oracle Linux Reviews

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.

For me, I like that fact that Oracle Linux is very similar, of course, to CentOS and Red Hat. Plus, Application Testing Suit makes it a lot more customizable for us. We're also able to monitor it with our software. These features make Oracle Linux very simple with very little configuration changes needed.

When we work with customers who are more Oracle-based, then Oracle Linux seems to follow more along the lines of what they want to do. The licensing is simpler because they usually don't have to go to VMware, Microsoft, or any other company to get different things. The functionalities they need are already built-in.

The installation needs some improvements because, as my admins have told me, it's a little bit tedious compared to others. Also, it takes a little bit of time to actually find files, download them, and install them. That kind of goes for anything with Oracle in that unless you know exactly where to go, it can take a bit of time. But once it's installed, it just works.

We've had no issues with the deployment.

A handful of customers that are using it haven't had any issues with the stability.

We have been able to scale using Linux just fine.

I would say that the initial setup is pretty much straightforward. It falls along the lines of the others. Some of the newer versions of other flavors of Linux make it a little bit simpler, but overall it's straightforward and we've hadn't had any trouble once it's been installed.

We implemented it ourselves with our in-house team.

I would probably have them explain, at least to themselves, what they're going to use it for, what applications are going to be running on it. And if it's going to be Database or something more Oracle-based, it's going to be great for that. If it's going to be something else, it may not be the best fit, depending on exactly what they are going to do with it.

The most valuable feature for us with Oracle's Linux product is the online kernel patching.

It gives us the ability to cover kernel bugs by using Oracle Ksplice online patching. The best part is that we can do this whole process without any unnecessary downtime.

In terms of improvement, from my experience the documentation and resources are not complete and I sometimes have to refer to Red Hat for Linux documentation.

Also, because we use HP servers, the drivers for Oracle Linux are not complete yet.

I've been using Oracle Linux for about four years.

I've had no issues with the deployment.

I've had no issues with the stability.

There have been no issues scaling it for my needs.

I'd say that technical support is good.

For the initial setup, you need some expertise to configure a good and stable system.

I perform all Oracle Linux implementations myself. The most important point that I've found is to plan, plan, plan, and then deploy.

The price is good.

• Performance – Running on an operating system that is optimized for Oracle software provides significant performance gains.
• Stability – Oracle Linux provides a far more stable platform than Microsoft Windows.
• Supportability – Oracle releases security fixes and bug fixes first on Oracle Linux. Environments are more secure and easier to support.
• Cost – Oracle Linux is roughly half the cost when compared to other comparable Linux distributions.

When designing a new Oracle database platform, Oracle Linux provides built-in benefits for database customers that are not available on any other platform. This has improved the performance, availability, scalability, and security of our architecture.

While the Oracle Linux software is perfectly suited for our needs, the related support processes within Oracle can often be challenging. Having your ticket routed to a capable support engineer can involve several escalations, and there is then a risk that the ticket is transferred to another engineer when the original person’s shift ends, often resulting in a frustrating process of answering many of the same questions again.

Similarly, the time to receive a bug fix can often be longer than in open-source equivalents. Therefore, we always recommend that Oracle Linux implementations are handled with an experienced Oracle Partner, specialized in Linux, who can supplement Oracle’s own support structures with a deeper level of expertise and faster response.

We have used this solution for seven years.

We hit a couple of bugs in the early days of Oracle Linux 5 but in the last few years, the platform has been extremely stable.

The platform is extremely scalable, either in a virtualized fashion or by using the available clustering technology.

I would rate the support provided as a 6 our of 10, due to some slow responses and some delays on getting senior, experienced technical support personnel engaged.

In the past, we had primarily used either Oracle Solaris or Red Hat Enterprise Linux as a standard. Oracle Linux provided a more-agile, easy-to-deploy platform than Solaris, at a lower cost than Red Hat, and including optimizations not available in either of the previous platforms.

The initial setup is very straightforward for a basic server. However, there are complex configurations that can (and should) be added in for enterprise-level environments to provide better performance, stability, and redundancy.

Oracle Linux is roughly half the cost in terms of licensing and support when compared to other comparable Linux distributors.

We had primarily been using Red Hat Linux in the past. We also evaluated SUSE Linux and CentOS.

While it is very straightforward to set up an Oracle Linux server, seek advice from experienced Oracle Partners to ensure that your new servers are customized and optimized to provide the performance, availability, and redundancy you need.

As a DBA, I prefer Oracle Linux as it is fine tuned to run Oracle databases. I can easily install pre-requisite packages using pre-install rpms. ASMLib is pre-installed with Oracle Linux.

Most of the patches are publicly available and free via public repositories. Any application that is certified in Red Hat Enterprise Linux is certified in Oracle Linux by default, as they both share the same source code.

Desktop environments should be designed better. Red Hat Enterprise Linux's desktop environments are much better.

I have been using Oracle Linux for 3.5 years.

We have never had stability issues.

We have not had scalability issues.

Technical support gets 3.5/5.

I was using AIX, Solaris, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The main reason for switching was that Oracle Linux is much cheaper compared to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Setup was straightforward.

Oracle Linux itself is free. But, if you need support, you need to purchase a support license. Following is the price range:

• US$500 for a 2-socket server.
• US$1600 for unlimited number of CPUs in a machine.

I have worked on AIX, Solaris, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The UEK kernel is optimized for Oracle databases, Oracle applications, and Oracle engineered systems. So, go for it.