Re: RAC on linux?

I'm a bitter, old, twisted man. And I feel like it when I read this thread.

Here's why.

A lot of good people are celebrating the fact that Oracle RAC can run on a two-node Intel cluster with Linux on top. Very cost-efficient, they say.

Well, here's my small calculation:

1. Two 4-cpu Intel boxes: $8.000,-
2. Linux: 50 cents
3. Oracle RAC for 8 CPUs: $480.000,-

So that's 60 dollars to Oracle for every dollar to Dell/HP/whatever.

Here's a really bad picture, which I apologise for. It's not good. But I cannot come up with a better, so please help me...

Imagine buying a car which can run, has seats, a roof, four wheels, brakes, the ability to turn and go backwards, built-in radio, etc. Price $8.000,-

Imagine that ABS brakes, airbags, anti-skid stuff and such cost $480.000,- .

It's not that you don't appreciate ABS, airbags, etc. It's not that you think it's expensive to get such fantastic devices. But it's a lot compared to the basic price of the car.

Now, excuse me for being old and bitter: What exactly is the reason for going RAC in the first place? And why would you buy into something which is really expensive ($60.000,- per cpu) running on platforms that are - well - not as well-defined as the old (and dying) UNIXes?

Why are you so fascinated by the fact that Intel is cheap and Linux is cheap when Oracle is so expensive?!?

How can we talk about cheap Linxu clusters with RAC, when the pricing is as it is? I'd say it sounds a bit like an oxymoron :)

Mogens

Richard Ji wrote:

>The NBD is a very interesting thing. Thanks for sharing that.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 12:19 AM
>To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>I've just finished a test implementation for a paper I'm presenting at IOUG
>this spring.
>
>Basically, I did an implementation on two Pentium II boxes running RedHat
>7.2. It's not too tough to install, but the real problem is figuring out
>the shared storage pieces. Since I was doing this on really low-end
>hardware, I wound up doing the shared storage using NBD's over TCP/IP, which
>got around the issues.
>
>The two docs that help best are the Implementing RAC on Linux doc on
>Metalink and a document on using NBD's for RAC that can be found at
>http://www.fi.muni.cz/~kripac/orac-nbd/.
>
>I haven't finished my paper yet, but when it's done I'd be happy to forward
>it along to you. If you are going to try this out in a 7.2 environment,
>drop me an email, and I'll be happy to share the experiences I had.
>
>--Brian
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Brian J. Hengen
>Sr. Software Consultant, BMC Software
>(303)474-4481 (voice), (303)474-4509 (fax)
>bhengen_at_bmc.com
>Technology doesn't stop moving forward. Neither should you.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2003 4:24 PM
>To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>Hello everyone, i've been quiet recently, for those of you who know what
>I've been up to class has been great, emergency medicine is really kewl.
>
>Now to the oracle stuff,
>
>We're having new requirements by multiple clients to ask about RAC(not
>necessarily on linux), so a couple of us thought, we'd try to implement
>it on a few linux servers, as an experiment to see how its done, etc.
>
>I'd really not purchase RH advanced Server 2.1 and just try it on rh
>8.0, is this even possible?, I've got like no experience on the
>clustering side of operating systems.
>
>I've searched the OTN, oracle and RH sites to not much luck.
>
>Anyone tried this on non RH AS 2.1 and just used regular RH 8.0 and if
>so are you willing to share the good/bad and otherwise of your luck with it?
>
>If there is something I missed in the docs on what I need to do to make
>it happen, point me that way and I'll be glad to read up on it.
>
>thanks, joe
>
>
>
>

-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Mogens_N=F8rgaard?=
  INET: mln_at_miracleas.dk

Fat City Network Services    -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California        -- Mailing list and web hosting services
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).