My use cases with Oracle Linux recently include the government of Goiás state in the Secretary of Economy, a GM concessionary of vehicles named Jorlan in Goiás, and Alnutri Alimentos, a rice and chili factory. Additionally, I have worked with the Ministry of Exterior of Brazil and many others.
Oracle Linux 8.10 with support by ProComputers
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Experienced delays with support but have consistently managed robust deployments across complex environments
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
In my opinion, the best features of Oracle Linux are its strong stability for running databases, particularly Oracle databases, and its use of DNF for package management. I believe DNF is a strong and modern way to manage Linux packages, more effective than yum and Zypper. Moreover, the memory usage and management in Oracle Linux are very robust, and the kernel is well-adapted for database users, making it one of the best options for running databases like MySQL and MariaDB as well.
What needs improvement?
I do not understand the licensing for Oracle Linux.
For how long have I used the solution?
My first use of Oracle Linux began in 2013, marking the start of my experience with this operating system.
How are customer service and support?
I find Oracle's support to be deficient in response time; it is often low, and the call options for small price forms are difficult. However, the knowledge base is very good and fair, and I believe the main feature of Oracle support, formerly known as Metalink, is an extremely useful resource.
I would rate the support as a six or seven, concluding that my score is about seven.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Currently, my company is not an Oracle customer, although it was a partner before 2010 and was involved in third-party colocation in Brazilian sales markets in 2006. After 2010, my company and I have utilized other databases too. While we still use Oracle for consulting on Oracle Linux and its databases, the market primarily uses other databases, shifting our Linux support from SUSE to Oracle Linux.
What other advice do I have?
Regarding Matillion data in ETL, I do not have experience with materialized views.
I have experience with other products besides Snowflake, including AWS RDS in the on-premise world, an OCI Oracle database, SQL Server in an on-premises environment, SQL in Azure, Big Data from GCP, and a bit of experience with Databricks and Oracle HeatWave too.
I have experience with Oracle database versions from six to 24 AI.
Oracle Linux is the Oracle operating system, specifically Oracle Enterprise Linux.
I have experience with Oracle Linux from the sixth version to the eighth version, with a small experience using the ninth version as well.
My use of Oracle Linux does not include Ksplice for zero downtime updates; I am unclear on that feature.
Regarding SE Linux security, many customers disable this feature; however, in some use cases within the Secretary of Economy and the Ministry of Exterior Commerce of Brazil, this feature is enabled. Although I don't have extensive experience with this feature, I find that SE Linux offers impressive security strength within the Linux environment, and it also restricts inappropriate access for databases.
Oracle Linux has good integration and usability with Red Hat Linux because it is based on Red Hat. Moreover, it is normally compatible with SUSE and other Linux distributions and supports standard communication protocols like SSH. Additionally, it maintains compatibility with Windows servers.
In my opinion, I don't currently see potential improvements for Oracle Linux because I believe its features are sufficient for database environments and more, particularly in the Red stack. Overall, I believe Oracle Linux is good as it is.
In my opinion, the price for Oracle Linux is fair and acceptable for companies in the market that utilize it.
My overall score for Oracle Linux as a product is ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Has improved server administration with secure configuration and stable repositories
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Oracle Linux is for administration, specifically full administration for Unix servers, such as hosting applications, monitoring the server health, and all the administration tasks I have been using it for.
I am hosting applications on those servers and monitoring the servers that are operating on Oracle Linux with full monitoring.
What is most valuable?
The best features Oracle Linux offers include security, as I have found it to be more secure than Ubuntu, Red Hat, and other Linux distributions. Additionally, it is easier to use than the other Linux operating systems.
What makes Oracle Linux more secure and easier to use than other Linux operating systems I have tried is the configuration of the firewall, SSH, and a few other configurations. These are easy to follow and set up.
I remember that the repositories for Oracle Linux are more stable than those of others. For instance, with Ubuntu, I have faced some issues related to the repository for the NFC files. The repositories of Oracle Linux are working smoothly more than others.
Oracle Linux has positively impacted my organization as most servers we are using are Oracle Linux. We prefer using it. The reason my organization prefers Oracle Linux is for its performance and reliability. In general, the operating system is cleaner and easy to use and follow.
What needs improvement?
I have no suggestions for improvements regarding Oracle Linux. Everything is going well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Oracle Linux for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Oracle Linux is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Oracle Linux is working fine, and there are no issues we have faced regarding scalability.
How are customer service and support?
I have not interacted with Oracle's support team. All the cases we were solving were done by ourselves in the team.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Oracle Linux, we were using Red Hat, but it was an old version.
What was our ROI?
I have not seen a return on investment with Oracle Linux.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing involved using VMware Cloud, and I have no idea about the cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not evaluate other options before choosing Oracle Linux. This is the first time I am evaluating an operating system.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend using Oracle Linux as your first choice for Linux distributions. I have rated this review a 10.
Secure environment and seamless integration provide peace of mind
What is our primary use case?
We are using Oracle ERP and Oracle Database, and we have installed Oracle tools and applications on Oracle Linux in a virtual environment.
What is most valuable?
The advantages of Oracle Linux are that it is secure and provides end-to-end support from Oracle, from the operating system to the application ERP. This gives us peace of mind. Compared to Windows, we prefer Linux to safeguard ourselves from different kinds of attacks and viruses.
What needs improvement?
Our level of expertise is not high enough. I had to find someone experienced with Oracle Linux since Windows is easier to learn, and most people have hands-on experience with it. If there were educational programs or certifications locally available, it would add more benefits. Additionally, the compatibility with the newest processor models could be improved. It takes time for Oracle to test and then make it public that a processor is supported. We often have to use an older processor model to ensure compatibility with the operating system and our ERP.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Oracle Linux for the last four to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Our environment is locally deployed, and there are no performance issues or latency problems. I find Oracle Linux very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the scalability at seven. Compatibility with the newest processor models takes time, which can impact scalability. Oracle should make the process faster, as we sometimes have to use a previous processor model to ensure compatibility.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is very good. I rate it a nine, keeping one point in reserve for anything that might come up in the future.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
For the time being, the installation is straightforward. The main task is ensuring compatibility with new hardware, but once set up, we can use a master VM for our virtual environment.
What was our ROI?
For us, the return on investment is the peace of mind provided by Oracle Linux. Our team is comfortable using Oracle Linux as it integrates well with Oracle tools, making everything work seamlessly.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Oracle Linux is affordable. While ERP might be expensive, Oracle Linux and KVMs are not on the higher side.
What other advice do I have?
I am satisfied with Oracle Linux and would rate it an eight out of ten. It is a good tool for our small company, and we've never encountered anything we couldn't do with it.
A stable solution for servers with easy deployment
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution on our server and premises.
What needs improvement?
Pricing could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Oracle Linux for a few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is 99.99% stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable. Sixty-five users are using it.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It comes with an annual subscription.
What other advice do I have?
If you were to buy Oracle Data Vault or something similar, it includes a firewall. Securing the DPU with Oracle Data Vault is great, but it costs a fortune.
In data center operations, we use distributors. As far as I know, it's distributed across sixteen sites. Besides Oracle Linux, we have other solutions such as Oracle Forms, Reports, and EDS.
I would advise knowing the number of calls and CPUs required for each application and their allocation.
Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
Provides excellent manuals and installation guides, offers good stability
What is our primary use case?
We use it for security purposes. Linux, or Solaris, offers more security and reliability than Windows operating systems. Windows is easier to attack.
Most files used by hackers are executables, and if your vendor's operating system isn't secure, that's a problem. That's why we use Oracle Linux; it's compatible with our database.
What is most valuable?
If we use Linux, Solaris, or some other operating systems, we have to build a lot of packages using RPMs (the packet manager). That's a difficult task. With Oracle Linux, we use a single command to update from the Oracle website.
It updates in minutes and downloads all necessary RPMs required for your database. This allows us to install our Oracle database without errors on Oracle Linux. We can prepare our server within 30 minutes if we have a good internet speed. Oracle platforms are steady and robust.
What needs improvement?
The main challenge can be compatibility with products from other companies. When you mix products from different vendors, you might experience difficulties. Using products from the same platform simplifies things.
Before Oracle Linux existed, back in 2001 and 2003, Oracle didn't have its own operating system and used other versions of Linux. We faced problems with these. For example, the earlier Linux versions were 32-bit operating systems. This limited the amount of memory we could allocate to our Oracle database instances. Let's say we had a server with 128 GB of RAM; with a 32-bit Linux operating system, we couldn't use all of it for the database.
When later Linux releases became 64-bit, this limitation disappeared, giving us much more memory to work with. The compatibility with Oracle products is a big advantage. It makes it easier for DBAs (Database Administrators) to manage our databases. If my boss tells me two or three new servers are arriving tomorrow, it's not a problem. I can quickly set them up and prepare them – even doing installations on multiple servers at the same time.
Sometimes we have applications that only run on operating systems like Windows, creating difficulties. Microsoft's platform is easier for some people to understand, but troubleshooting issues can be quite challenging, even for experienced programmers. In contrast, troubleshooting on the Oracle platform is much simpler, which is a key benefit.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it since 2004.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
When we start the installation, we decide the purpose of the server based on the expected database size. If the database is under 100 GB, we will allocate resources accordingly. If the database will be about 100 terabytes or 500 terabytes, then we adjust our allocation. Sometimes, in our UAT (User Acceptance Testing) databases, we allocate less memory, which can cause some minor issues.
Otherwise, in production environments, we take our time. When switching to new hardware, we dedicate at least three months to proper testing. We purchase hardware licenses, software licenses, and database licenses all together.
We never rush installation because we conduct thorough testing. We test everything from the production database to the standby database. We heavily load the standby database, and if it performs perfectly, then we switch roles – standby becomes production and vice versa. We perform many transactions on both sides to check the load balance.
Once satisfied, let's say we have 20,000 users, each with approximately three active sessions – that's potentially 60,000 sessions. We observe how the server handles this, how much CPU is consumed during peak times.
Peak times in most organizations are generally from nine to five, with cool down from ten to twelve, then after breaks, again from 02:00 to 04:30 P.M. We monitor CPU consumption and RAM utilization during these peak hours. We check every step, and only when we say, "Okay, this server can support our new hardware and software, we have no issue" – only then do we make the switch.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
How are customer service and support?
We are happy. We are using it. We recommend it to our students. We also recommend it to our friends.
How was the initial setup?
Oracle installations are never a problem for us. We've been using Oracle for over 23 years. Even with new features added in later versions, we have no issues because of our extensive experience.
Oracle provides two options for installation:
- GUI (graphical user interface) and
- CLI (command-line interface).
We use both and have no problems.
We have a separate database server. It's not part of the cloud; it's an Oracle RAC.
Oracle RAC is a combination of multiple servers: two servers, four servers, eight servers, even sixteen servers. It's a combination of multiple servers. Oracle Linux is only just used on the server side, not on the client side.
What about the implementation team?
Primarily, it's the DBAs (Database Administrators) who control and use the database servers. Network and security departments generally use Windows operating systems. They don't deal with Linux commands as much because they have limited access and manage fewer servers – maybe two, three, four, or a maximum of ten. In contrast, we have many database servers, and for security reasons, we prefer Linux. We don't have Windows servers for our database work.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Oracle is expensive compared to the Microsoft platform. with much money.
We have a license for each and every one, but we have a separate Oracle IT procurement department that deals with the costs.
What other advice do I have?
I'd recommend that you use it. The main challenge for new users of Linux is the command-line interface (CLI). It can be intimidating if you're not familiar with it.
However, Oracle provides excellent manuals and installation guides on its website. If you follow those guidelines, you won't have problems. Oracle Linux is secure and reliable.
Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten. It is a good product.
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