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ORACLE SUN EXADATA DB LINUX SW IMAGE

Mfg # 7113141 CDW # 3818959

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This item was discontinued on October 06, 2022

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ORACLE SUN EXADATA DB LINUX SW IMAGE is rated4.45 out of5 by29.
Rated 5 out of 5 by from ASMLib is pre-installed. All Red Hat-certified applications are also certified on this platform, by default.What is most valuable?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.How has it helped my organization?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.What needs improvement?Desktop environments should be designed better. Red Hat Enterprise Linux's desktop environments are much better.For how long have I used the solution?I have been using Oracle Linux for 3.5 years.What do I think about the stability of the solution?We have never had stability issues.What do I think about the scalability of the solution?We have not had scalability issues.How is customer service and technical support?Technical support gets 3.5/5.Which solutions did we use previously?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.How was the initial setup?Setup was straightforward.What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?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.Which other solutions did I evaluate?I have worked on AIX, Solaris, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.What other advice do I have?The UEK kernel is optimized for Oracle databases, Oracle applications, and Oracle engineered systems. So, go for it.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-02-15T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from With the licensing, it was clear what we had to pay for it, what we got, and what we can get in the future.Valuable Features:The most valuable feature of Oracle Linux is that it's a very stable product. It seems to be based on Red Hat. We waited for a few years before adopting it, but now that we've adopted it, it's been very stable for us. The license and adaptability of it is probably be the biggest selling point for us.In this day and age, we'd be very cautious in terms of licensing, but with the Oracle Linux it's very clear how you license it, and also it's the flexibility of it. Sometimes we find with the Oracle licensing it's quite vague in some of the products. With this here, it was very, very, clear what we had to pay for it, and what we got, and also what we can get in the future.Room for Improvement:Oracle's products are quite expensive. The reason why they're expensive is probably the reason why we purchase them, in terms of the stability, and we know that even though we're paying heavily for the product, we can't afford to be going with other inferior products.Deployment Issues:We want to run -- we do run -- a High Availability environment. The documentation in and around Oracle Linux and the hosting of WebLogic on Oracle Linux from a clustering point of view was, at best, average. We had to search for many, many articles and get MyOracle support involved to get to the point where we actually ended up with the High Availability solution that our business needed. Again, when they put these products on the market, their documentation needs to be an awful lot clearer about how you get to the places you want to be.Stability Issues:It's incredibly stable. We've had little to no issues with instability.Scalability Issues:Before any major software releases or major changes to our infrastructure, everything is tested to a really, really high level. We would never actually go live with anything without being stable, but it took us longer than it should have to get there.Previous Solutions:The reason why we went for Oracle Linux ahead of even Red Hat or, originally HP-UX, was because the product licensing was very, very, clear, whereas it was a little bit vague with the other products. In this day and age, there's very much a focus on cost, keeping the costs down, and spending wisely.Initial Setup:The initial setup was difficult. We wanted High Availability, and it was that part in particular that was giving us severe problems. It uses a repository to holder details between the High Availability instances, and we found that that was quite complicated to set up, and even now it's a little bit buggy.It would have been difficult. We try to have high availability, and in particular the high availability part of it gave us severe problems. It uses what's known as a repository to hold details between your high availability instances, and we found that they're quite complicated to set up, and even now a little bit buggy.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-05-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It gives us the ability to cover kernel bugs by using Oracle Ksplice online patching, which can be done without any unnecessary downtime.What is most valuable?The most valuable feature for us with Oracle's Linux product is the online kernel patching.How has it helped my organization?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.What needs improvement?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.For how long have I used the solution?I've been using Oracle Linux for about four years.What was my experience with deployment of the solution?I've had no issues with the deployment.What do I think about the stability of the solution?I've had no issues with the stability.What do I think about the scalability of the solution?There have been no issues scaling it for my needs.How is customer service and technical support?I'd say that technical support is good.How was the initial setup?For the initial setup, you need some expertise to configure a good and stable system.What about the implementation team?I perform all Oracle Linux implementations myself. The most important point that I've found is to plan, plan, plan, and then deploy.What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?The price is good.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-04-24T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It is cost effective. The platform provides good uptime and runs on commodity hardware.What is most valuable?It’s a good product. It’s Linux.Oracle Linux is Red Hat Linux ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/rhel ) 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.How has it helped my organization?Linux is a cost effective substitute for Unix.What needs improvement?Support could be improved.For how long have I used the solution?I have been using Oracle Linux for over five years.What do I think about the stability of the solution?Of course, we have had stability issues. Linux is a work in progress.What do I think about the scalability of the solution?We have not had any scalability issues.How is customer service and technical support?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.Which solutions did we use previously?We were using Red Hat Linux ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/rhel ). We went to Oracle because of licensing problems. We went back to Red Hat because of support problems.How was the initial setup?Setup is somewhat complex. It’s Linux.What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?Oracle Linux saves money, but it is at the expense of support.Which other solutions did I evaluate?We evaluated Red Hat Linux ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/rhel ).What other advice do I have?Support for difficult problems is lacking.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-02-08T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Virtualisation, Linux have contributed to reduced cost and time to create customer bidsWhat is our primary use case?Fujitsu uses OVM and Oracle Linux extensively with Fujitsu hardware to provide our customers with a certified, scalable, pre-tested platform to run Oracle Applications and technology.How has it helped my organization?The use of a pre-defined and certified architecture that combines a market leading Fujitsu server architecture along with Oracle's virtualisation technology and Linux operating system, has allowed Fujitsu to reduce the cost and time to create customer bids.What is most valuable?Optimising the use of Oracle licenses on behalf of our customers to get most efficient cost of ownership.What needs improvement?Fujitsu works closely with Oracle's product development team to provide feedback on areas for improvement on behalf of our customers.For how long have I used the solution?More than five years.What do I think about the stability of the solution?In the early days of using the product, Fujitsu had some issues with both the stability and functionality of the product. Oracle was very responsive to this feedback and, as a result, has incorporated many of the ideas that were shared by Fujitsu. The result is a market-leading solution.What do I think about the scalability of the solution?No issues with scalability.How is customer service and technical support?Excellent. Oracle also encouraged a direct working relationship with the product development team, which has served to help in getting support.What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?Work with Fujitsu to learn from our experience. We are able to provide a pre-certified architecture that incorporates the best of both Oracle and Fujitsu technology to provide a highly scalable platform for Oracle workloads.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner.
Date published: 2018-04-25T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from The container engine is built on the Enterprise Linux kernel, it's extremely stable and secureWhat is most valuable?Docker containers allow you to deploy a lot of workloads at scale. If you can think of the old batch jobs, what they do is allow us to deploy that into the cloud so we can elastically expand or contract and only pay for what we use. I think that's part of it.How has it helped my organization?You have high availability, so you can run your containers in multiple availability zones. They're very cost-effective, much more cost-effective than writing your own scripts. And they're layered so they're very lightweight; they don't consume quite as many resources as how we would traditionally deploy this.What needs improvement?I would really like to see more frequent releases and I would like to see a very lightweight kernel for embedded systems. I'm really anticipating the new Oracle Database XE as it relates to Oracle Linux because now I can run that in production, and that was just announced as well.It's young, so I think it's fair that they have some work to do. A little bit more variability, the ability to expand, take advantage of bare metal. I think that that's really going to be a key as they grow.What do I think about the stability of the solution?The Oracle container engine is actually built on the Enterprise Linux kernel. So I think it's extremely stable and secure. I think it's one of the most stable and secure Linux variants in the world. When we actually build our Docker containers we utilize Oracle Linux as a basis for those as well.What do I think about the scalability of the solution?I think what's great about it is if you're a small customer you can install Oracle Linux, just pull it down off of the site, update it. And if you're a large customer you can go with the unbreakable kernel. You can run that on on-premise, and when you go to the cloud which, of course, is scaled out to literally millions of nodes, it's the basis for all of Oracle's cloud.How is customer service and technical support?What's great is having the Oracle Linux, also having Oracle products. You've really goy one vendor to call. Some people like to say one neck to choke but I say one hand to high-five.Which solutions did we use previously?You might have a development team that kind of runs off and goes rogue and installs several different operating systems. Or they've assembled a Docker container and deployed it in the Cloud under the guise of microservices. The first time you have a hiccup with that, or the credit card doesn't process and you don't know where to find the code or the developer, I think at that point you really need to put some controls in place.What other advice do I have?When it comes to important criteria when selecting a vendor, I think experience is there, but they really have to care. They have to own the problems; I think owning your client's problems is the number one thing.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner.
Date published: 2017-11-26T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We wanted to move to a Linux operating system for our backend servers, and we used Oracle Linux to do that.Valuable FeaturesThe stability and security of the product is at the top of its class. These features are really the most valuable for us in our experience with it.Improvements to My OrganizationWe wanted to move to a Linux operating system for our backend servers, and we used Oracle Linux to successfully do that.Room for ImprovementWe would like Oracle to add more functionality in terms of the GUI. There are more things we'd like to be able to do straight from the GUI itself.Use of SolutionWe used this solution as a prerequisite for deployment of a Keyword driven Automation Framework (Oracle Flow Builder).Deployment IssuesThere were no issues with the deployment.Stability IssuesThe stability was great. We haven't had any issues with instability.Scalability IssuesWe had no issues scaling it for our needs.Customer Service and Technical SupportCustomer Service: Customer service has been good in our experience.Technical Support: Technical support has been good in our experience.Initial SetupThe initial setup was complex in a Linux environment compared to setting up on a Windows OS.Implementation TeamWe implemented it through our own in-house team.ROISince it is open source, you'll have a great ROI.Other Solutions ConsideredWe had previously tried Red Hat Linux but stuck with Oracle Linux for our installation of other native Oracle products.Other AdviceMy advice would be to follow instructions and have a Linux technician at hand. You could try to install it in a sandbox before using it in a production machine.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:My company is an Oracle Partner.
Date published: 2016-04-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from The stability and supportability are valuable. The vendor releases security fixes and bug fixes for this product first.What is most valuable?* 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.How has it helped my organization?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.What needs improvement?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.For how long have I used the solution?We have used this solution for seven years.What do I think about the stability of the solution?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.What do I think about the scalability of the solution?The platform is extremely scalable, either in a virtualized fashion or by using the available clustering technology.How is customer service and technical support?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.Which solutions did we use previously?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.How was the initial setup?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.What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?Oracle Linux is roughly half the cost in terms of licensing and support when compared to other comparable Linux distributors.Which other solutions did I evaluate?We had primarily been using Red Hat Linux in the past. We also evaluated SUSE Linux and CentOS.What other advice do I have?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.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Cintra offer a full suite of services including procurement, design, implementation and ongoing support for Oracle Linux.
Date published: 2017-02-20T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Tuned for the performance of Oracle Stack; mature, stable, scalableWhat is most valuable?I think it is very specially tuned for the performance of Oracle Stack, and therefore all of the things that Oracle Stack works on work really well on Oracle Linux.What needs improvement?In terms of improvement, I think actually it is the other way around. Oracle Linux is specially tuned for Oracle Stack, and therefore it works better with the Oracle Stack.What do I think about the stability of the solution?Very stable. I think it's a very mature system, so I think it is, in general, quite stable and in a high performing state.What do I think about the scalability of the solution?Most of the Linux systems are designed for high scalability, so it should not be an issue.How was the initial setup?It's as easy as any other operating systems, so there is no issue.What other advice do I have?It is not only the Oracle operating system, but also the support that goes with it, and also the reliability and the backing of a large company. That is most important.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner.
Date published: 2017-11-26T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We can get support for it as part of our Oracle infrastructure.Valuable Features:The biggest advantages of going with Oracle Linux are that it's very stable and it's an open source solution. Also, because we run a lot of other Oracle products, it's great that we can get support for it as part of our Oracle infrastructure.Improvements to My Organization:It's really improved the reliability of our applications both in terms of the fact that Oracle Linux is so stable and because it works well with our other Oracle products. That's very valuable as we maintain an infrastructure that includes basic, high quality technologies from a one vendor.Room for Improvement:It would be nice if they could release newer versions quicker. Sometimes we have to wait a while for some new versions to come out with features that we need. You want to be taking advantage of some newer features as soon as possible in order to function better.Deployment Issues:We've had no issues at all deploying it.Stability Issues:I think it's fine, there's no issue there. It's been very, very stable.Scalability Issues:We have no issues scaling it for our needs.Previous Solutions:We use Red Hat as well. They're pretty comparable. I think they're pretty much the same from what I could tell, the differentiator being, of course, that we also run other Oracle products.Initial Setup:It's implemented just fine. The installer is pretty easy and straightforward. The ease of setting it up was a combination of the product and knowledge on our part.Implementation Team:We did the implementation ourselves.Other Advice:Study ahead of time so you know what you're working with. It's not difficult, but you should know enough to make it easier on yourself.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:We're partners.
Date published: 2016-05-29T00:00:00-04:00

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