Oracle Linux Reviews

Native support with Oracle database and these features:

• OCFS2 (Clustered File System): Open-source alternative to proprietary cluster file systems.
• Ksplice: Apply patches to the kernel without rebooting the system; zero downtime for critical security updates.
• Dtrace: Excellent diagnostic tool for analysis and troubleshooting ported from Sun Solaris.
• Docker containers: Full support, framework optimized and integrated with WebLogic Server Docker containers.
• Btrfs: Detects file system corruption and fixes it; improves backup operations and improves file system and storage capacity by reducing disk seeks and disk I/O operations.

Each month, my team makes a full update of the environment, including: Windows system, databases, Linux system and network systems. We reduced the downtime considerably on our Oracle databases by using Ksplice on our Linux systems.

Hardware vendors certified by Oracle for installing Oracle Linux are: Dell, HPE and Oracle. The product needs to be certified by more vendors to gain more clients and increase the size of market share.

I started using this solution four years ago.

I have not had any stability issues. My databases servers have been up since the last maintenance and there have been no issues during the business day.

I own a RAC cluster with two nodes. It is a medium-size environment supported by Oracle Linux. Scalability never was a problem in my scenario.

Technical support is technically good, but the response time is high. It can take up to weeks to actually solve the problem.

We used Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but licensing costs with Oracle VM decreased significantly, which motivated the change.

Setup was very complex, using cluster resources and fine tuning at the OS level to improve performance.

If possible, use Oracle VM; prices decrease absurdly!

I didn’t evaluate any other options, because we use Oracle Linux only for Oracle databases. And the Oracle database was in Red Hat and was supported only for two OSs available for my employer: Red Hat and Oracle Linux.

Study and learn about the Red Hat kernel and follow the news releases on the manufacturer site. Read the rich manual that Oracle offers.

It’s a good product. It’s Linux.

Oracle Linux is Red Hat Linux is Linux. It is a good and evolving platform that is an excellent base for today’s world where uptime and commodity hardware are the expected norm.

Linux is a cost effective substitute for Unix.

Support could be improved.

I have been using Oracle Linux for over five years.

Of course, we have had stability issues. Linux is a work in progress.

We have not had any scalability issues.

I rate technical support 3/5. The support for Oracle Linux is effective for less difficult problems. We had problems with support when an engineering level of review was required; Oracle basically said they couldn’t help.

We were using Red Hat Linux. We went to Oracle because of licensing problems. We went back to Red Hat because of support problems.

Setup is somewhat complex. It’s Linux.

Oracle Linux saves money, but it is at the expense of support.

We evaluated Red Hat Linux.

Support for difficult problems is lacking.

• We use Oracle Linux templates for Oracle VM Server to provision our clone environments quickly.
• We installed Oracle RDBMS almost without any effort in the OS layer,(thanks to preinstalled rpms, yums, and an easy Oracle Linux installation). It is always good to use Oracle Yum, for easing the installation of additional OS packages when needed.
• We are supporting lots of critical customer environments that are mostly Oracle EBS or Oracle RDBMS running on Oracle Linux and we did not get any unexpected reboots or OS problems.
• Oracle Linux is interoperable almost with every Oracle product, and this interoperability comes built-in by default.
• Oracle Linux is well known in the community and that means quick information access when needed, for example, when data is lacking on administration or a requirement to diagnose a component.

• The preinstall packages for Oracle RDBMS.
• Single vendor support, as my customers mostly have Oracle Applications, Oracle cluster stack and Oracle RDBMS running on top of it.
• It is fully compatible with RHEL. (Considering Red Hat is a widespread distribution, it is a valuable thing, as we can run a wide range of applications that are developed for RHEL). So, any application that runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux will run the same on the corresponding Oracle Linux version.
• Ability to have Oracle Support. (It is a sophisticated support environment.)
• Having Oracle Community for additional support.
• Free binaries and errata.
• Tested and verified by Oracle.
• Ability to check the Oracle Validated Configurations, which offers documented tips for configuring Linux systems to run Oracle database.
• It is a Linux OS but it comes with management and HA tools that are integrated and included for free. Oracle prefers to use Oracle Linux in its Engineered Systems. This also makes Oracle Linux more valuable for me. So, at the end of the day, if you know Oracle Linux, then you automatically get familiar with the Oracle's various Engineered Systems.
• Oracle Linux comes with 2 kernels: 1) UEK, 2) Base kernel. We mostly use UEK because it is Red Hat compatible, modern, current, tested and reliable. But in case of a problem, we can always boot with the base kernel. Offering the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) as part of Oracle Linux alongside what we call the Red Hat-compatible kernel gives us the ability to provide current, modern, tested code to customers without reducing reliable and availability.
• Oracle Database Smart Flash Cache is a key feature for those who use Oracle Databases. It allows us to extend the Oracle Buffer cache using flash-based storage.
• “cgroups” are also a key feature which let us create resource groupings based on CPU, memory or disk parameters.
• Ability to use Oracle YUM server, which gives us a free and convenient way to install the latest Oracle Linux packages.
• New Oracle product patches are firstly available in Oracle Linux... Also, Oracle Linux is quite frequently updated (even the DST patches are directly released).
• Ksplice lets us update the Linux operating system (OS) kernel, while it is running, without a reboot or any interruption.

• Oracle should increase the interaction between Oracle Linux and Oracle RDBMS. (Oracle RDBMS can be packaged into Oracle Linux; a tight integration will bring advantages.)
• File recovery should be added to Oracle Linux. (When you delete a file, you should recover it easily.)
• The RDBMS know-how that Oracle has, should be used to also develop Oracle Linux. (Oracle RDBMS has lots of features; why not mimic some of them in the OS tier?)
• Oracle Linux documentation should be enhanced.
• Oracle Linux clustering should be enhanced and made widespread. (Oracle should certify it in its products.)
• We need a file system other than ASM or ACFS. We need a file system which can be used for replication; maybe integrated Oracle databases.
• We need an Oracle Database-aware GUI but with a consolidated administration console added to the distribution.
• A GUI-based performance analysis tool should be added to the distribution.

I have used it for 5 years. I have used Oracle Linux for hosting several critical Oracle Databases and Oracle Application Servers. 90% of my customers are using Oracle Linux for hosting their Oracle E-Business Suite environments. Also, in the past 5 years, I have migrated lots of Oracle Databases and EBS environments from other OS vendors to Oracle Linux. I have also done several Exadata and ODA administration, which have Oracle Linux in their OS tier.

We did not encounter any stability issues.

We use Oracle Real Application Clusters for RDBMS-level scalability. We also use engineered systems, which are by default scaled out. All these environments are based on Oracle Linux and we didn't have any issues on the OS layer.

Technical support is 8/10.

We were using Red Hat Linux before. We started to use Oracle Linux, because it is free and supported by Oracle (owner of almost all the products that we are using or administrating). It has stabilized as time goes by and compatible with RHEL.

Initial setup was straightforward.

There is no license required for Oracle Linux; however, we recommend having an Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) license for getting at least basic level support.

We are using Oracle products including Oracle RDBMS, Oracle FMW applications and Oracle EBS, so this is why the strongest option is always Oracle Linux.
Unless there is a hardware-OS relationship (i.e., IBM AIX and IBM Power Systems), we always use and we always recommend that people use Oracle Linux as the operating system.

• Check out the validated configurations.
• Read the guide to get the considerations (such as basic security considerations).
• Check the certification matrix for ensuring your applications and hardware are compatible with Oracle Linux.
• Get at least basic ULN support.

The operating system is tweaked to work well with Oracle DB and other Oracle applications. Some kernel parameters have already been adjusted to suit Oracle products.

Ksplice is a cool feature with Oracle Linux that allows you to patch your systems without reboot.

The DTrace tool is available for debugging issues. If you’re a Solaris professional, you might be used to it and it’s always handy.

The Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS2) works well with OVM and other cluster scenarios.

All these features come with the Oracle Linux UEK kernel, however a Red Hat supported kernel is also available. It always feels good to have a choice.

I think it’s fair to compare this product to Red Hat Linux and although both OSs almost have same features, Oracle Linux is cost effective.

You can expect it to work well with Oracle products like OVM and Oracle OpenStack. I have been using it on physical boxes, VMware vSphere and Oracle Virtualization for x86.

As someone who has also worked with service based companies, I would say the choice of using Oracle Linux will depend on the environment.

Oracle environment: If you plan to run mostly Oracle products in your environment, then Oracle Linux is a good choice since you don’t have to run behind multiple vendors for troubleshooting. It also gives you a chance to convince Oracle to throw in some discounts.

Cost: If cost is a big factor in your environment, you could save some money by going for Oracle Linux support.

Availability: Linux has seen increases in security patches and most of these kernel patches require reboot. The Ksplice feature comes in handy if your environment can’t afford any downtime.

Despite these cool features, the choice would depend on over all IT goals and is mostly driven by two factors: how your environment is setup and how you plan to support your IT infrastructure.

The product is not very different from the market leader Red Hat Linux Operating System.

However, it has some issues when run in a virtualized environment. These NTP and other bugs get worse with the kind of support Oracle provides for Oracle Linux. Oracle support drags out issues and they like to play ping-pong between various teams.

I faced few issues with time sync on Oracle Linux when running on OVM & I had a tough time resolving it with Oracle support.
They could not provide any proper solution & dragged out the issue for a very long time.

I have been using Oracle Linux for over three years.

The operating system is fairly stable.

We have not had any scalability issues.

I rate them at 2.5/5. This is a big area of improvement for this product. Even the knowledge base isn’t as good as Red Hat’s.

I have used both OL5 and OL6. The choice depends on the application running on the OS.

Setup is not different from other OSs in the market.

You can certainly save money on support.

I have worked with other Linux distributions like Ubuntu and CentOS. I have also worked with Oracle Solaris, HPUX, and AIX.

Make sure you have good Linux support staff.

It's very easy to use. We have admins who have been able to administer this product. It is user-friendly. On top of that, we don't have any major issues with this product. The main issue we have with other, similar products that we use is performance. This product does not have any performance issues.

We are using it on a normal scale, but we are using a competitor application on a large scale. The application and the OS that we are using on a large scale has some performance issues. If we are talking about this application for this product, we are satisfied with the performance; we are satisfied with the output and throughput; and we have satisfied customers.

On top of that, this application does not break as compared to other applications.

I would like to see portability to other hardware, such as Dell and Intel platforms, instead of just putting a blinder on only Oracle products or Oracle hardware. The portability is the main challenge, I think. We should be able to port this application to other hardware and other vendors.

This product is more stable as compared to the competitor product that we have. It is more reliable. It doesn't break quite as often. It's user-friendly.

I don't think that it's that scalable, because you have to install Oracle Linux on an Oracle proprietary product. It is not that scalable; meaning, if you want to install this product on Dell or any other platform, you cannot do that. You have to buy an Oracle product in order to use this operating system.

Oracle technical support is quite good. We always have a few issues in this environment. They're user friendly; they’re cooperative with the customer. Their customer app is also excellent, and they provide excellent support.

Actually, my team was involved in supporting this product after it's built. We are in IT operations, so all the support after the handover was done through my team.

About 10 years ago, we were using this product a lot. Over the years, when we saw that it was not that scalable, we looked around for different solutions. We moved new applications onto the new product’s environment. This one we left as-is, so right now, it is in containment; meaning, any new product or any new applications are not porting into this application.

The number one criteria when choosing a vendor such as Oracle is reliability. Number two is cost. Number three is efficacy.

We chose this solution because it doesn’t break down. It provides good performance. It's reliable. Reliability was one of the factors in the decision to choose this.

If you are looking for a reliable product, this is the product. If you're looking for anything which can be scalable, you might need to look something else.

Based on performance, I would rate it higher. Based on scalability, I would rate it lower.

Well, the most valuable features are not the technical features. The most valuable feature is more of a support case feature. They build the operating system, we also run on Oracle hardware, and we run an Oracle database on top of that. The big benefit is having one vendor to go to for your hardware questions, your database questions and the operating system in the middle. So it makes life a lot easier. In general, they know more about it. They are simple cases, because you've got everything from one vendor.

One technical aspect I like is Ksplicing. You can patch Linux without having downtime.

Those two combined with the sophistication from Oracle products on Oracle Linux sums it up. Ksplicing and a certified one-vendor approach is in many cases the biggest benefits.

In general, if they move off from Windows, they will see quite heavy cost-cutting. You've got some heavier costs when you move off from Red Hat and especially if you combine it with the hardware deal where you run it on Oracle hardware. You get the support for the operating system for free; it's quite a major case. That is something you can expect and see a return on investment quite quickly.

In all honesty, there are not that many additional benefits except for the money and the other items I've mentioned, in relation to Red Hat, because the operating systems are quite the same. It is more about the financial and support and Ksplicing; those are the main differentiators. But, in general, we see customers going down in costs when they move off from Red Hat to Oracle Linux.

Regarding areas for improvement, I think they follow the main kernel filler. The only thing from what I can see as an improvement is the level of adoption in the Linux community because I too often see non-Oracle products at first not being released or not being certified as Oracle Linux. You see more adoption in Red Hat even though they are binary-compatible. You often see that those extras are not directly available on the Oracle download repositories, whereas with Red Hat there is a lot available. And Oracle is quite focused on its own product stack. You can get everything running; everything that you can run on Red Hat you can run on Oracle Linux. However, it is not that integrated. It's no big deal, it takes you a couple of extra commands, but they could spin off more adoption by doing that.

In all honesty, I know that their graphical user interface is very basic, but I think 99.9% of people use it on a server version that doesn't have any display connected to it. Therefore, there's no reason for doing that. I don't see that much improvement specifically for Oracle Linux; I have the same stuff as for Linux in general. There's the adoption of specific drivers as such, but nothing specific for Oracle Linux. I think that they are a very good competitor to Red Hat.

We adopted Oracle Linux seven or eight years ago, when we started moving off from Red Hat. In that time frame, you're generally investing knowledge into Oracle Linux. I think it's around seven years or something.

I haven't seen any big stability issues with a couple of customers that are doing Oracle Linux. The only issues we have seen are more generally kernel-related, so Red Hat would have the same issue.

The big benefit is that you have additional stability if you run Oracle products, because you always have the guarantee that if you upgrade anything, Oracle software will continue running. You're not running the risk that you'll break anything, within reason. A bug is always possible, but if you're running an Oracle shop, running Oracle Linux makes absolute sense because it is part of their testing strategy to ensure that the databases work if they bring out stuff.

That is, in general, what I tell my customers: "You're running an Oracle database, use Oracle Linux." There is stuff in there that helps you run your database optimally and those guys always have their own products in mind. If you are an Oracle shop, don't go for Red Hat. You've got the financial part, but also it's from the same vendor. They know the guys from database themselves, and they keep them in mind when they bring out a patch. That makes absolute sense.

With scalability, we have customers that are scaling up their machines, but also scaling up cluster-wise. In general, there is no big issue with scalability. It is really stable; Oracle puts out really stable releases.

I do not engage a lot with Oracle's customer support or technical support. In general, we do the outsourcing part. Our teams engage a lot with Oracle and we step in when things are not going that smoothly. If it is a really big issue and they can't find the root cause or a solution, that's when I step in. It's not that much, but every now and then I need to engage with those guys. Sometimes support is good, sometimes support is bad. I think that's the case with every vendor, but in general they have quite knowledgeable teams. What I see with Oracle is that they are willing to build you a solution if you can tell them what's wrong with something. If you find a bug, you quite quickly know that it's being promoted to the development teams. And you see that ending up in the next version, you see it ending up in patches. That's quite good.

There is not really that much to say about setup and the transition. It was quite a walk in the park for a lot of our engagements where we had a very simple transition, especially for databases. You have to remember everything is binary-compatible, so we just brought the new machines and moved over all the applications and all the databases we were running with Red Hat for those specific customers. We anticipated undergoing quite a heavy transformation, but it turned out that, in general, it was quite a simple transformation.

We still do that today, for new customers that onboard that are running IT professionally and say "We would like to move to a cloud-generated data center". We say, "Okay, you can stick with Red Hat, but for the same money, we can move you off to Oracle Linux and then you actually get a discount."

Because we already have Oracle Linux, we don't charge them for that and it makes our lives easier. Every now and then, you have an off-case where they did some funny stuff, but in general it is a very simple transformation. Nothing scary, nothing complicated over there. Quite easy.

My general feeling would be "Don't worry too much." It is not that complicated. It's a very stable Linux distribution, and especially when you're in doubt, you can always reach out to the guys from Oracle. That is, of course, if you chose to pay for it, but you can try this stuff for free. You can spin it off on a VirtualBox image. Just download stuff, just give it a try and you will see how easy it is. That's my general advice.

If you're an Oracle shop, it should be the first operating system in the Linux sphere to think about. Don't start doing stuff yourself with Red Hat or other distributions.

If you like it, buy the support. It is a stable release and in my honest opinion, I think we will see more and more that Oracle is optimizing their kernels for their software. In that case, it will continue to grow. I think in a couple of years, you will see much more Oracle software-specific stuff within that kernel. For the future, it's a good direction to head into if you're running Oracle shop and also if you're not running on Oracle shop.

The most valuable feature is that it's supported by Oracle with a kernel called Unbreakable Linux, which I believe is being used by most customers. It's the same flavor as Red Hat, but it's better because it's supported by Oracle.

Right now a lot of people are migrating from traditional Unix to Linux, which performs much better. I'd like to see Oracle continue to improve on the performance of Linux, particularly in regards to scalability, so that we can move completely away from Unix. We'd like to have all our applications on Linux as Unix is fading away.

I've been using Linux for maybe five or six years.

We've had no issues deploying it.

Linux is always stable and Oracle Linux is no different. Customers are predominantly running their systems on Linux.

Scalability is related to how much compute power you are providing. The OS is there but you'll run your application on top of Linux. So that's where you'll scale Linux, which will depend on your application.

They're overall knowledgeable, but I've seen some instances where they're completely focused on a single product instead of seeing the end-to-end solution for a customer. That's where they get lost.

The valuable features are the performance, the backup and the restore mechanism. We have had to restore once, and everything was able to restore.

It’s up and running the way the business wants it to be, and it doesn’t go down like other systems do.

Performance and storage could be improved. Dashboard reporting could also be more dynamic, and it would be nice if future versions were easier for users to navigate and drill down into.

We have been using the product for six years.

It is a very stable platform. It never goes down.

We have a couple environments, which have scaled according to business requirements and user growth. So far, it is going well.

We use partners for Oracle, so when we ask for support, we are forwarded to the partner that works with the solution in question. They are really good. If there is an issue where I can just drill down or look into the online forums, I do that as well.

Performance is amazing, and it’s better than Windows. I would give it a ten out of ten.