Sergio's Blog

I wrote a quick summary of the Oracle Linux 5.6 release over on our Linux blog. For what it's worth, 5.6 is on public-yum.oracle.com as well.

On Thursday 16 December at 9:00 am Pacific, Martin Petersen, Linux Kernel Developer at Oracle, and I are hosting a live webcast covering:

• The impact of data corruption to the business environment
• How Oracle's Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel reduces the potential for incorrect data to be written to disk
• Data integrity features that decrease application and database errors and system down-time

Sign up here.

Today we published a new white paper on the Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Linux. This white paper covers the following topics:

• What is Oracle's Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Linux
• Installation Requirements
• Installing From Oracle's Public Yum Server
• Known Issues With installing Via Yum
• Installing from Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN)
• Verifying Kernel Installation
• Compatibility and Third Party Software
• Uninstalling Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel

Read the white paper here.

Last night, Larry Ellison announced that we have a new kernel for Oracle Linux called Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel. Read the news and see what our partners are saying.

Those of you that follow us on twitter/ORCL_Linux probably already saw this.   HP and Dell yesterday announced that they'll be certifying and reselling Oracle VM, Oracle Enterprise Linux and Oracle Solaris on their x86 servers.

On Monday June 28 at 9am PDT, our very own Greg Marsden, Senior Development Manager, will host a webcast on Oracle Enterprise Linux best practices for data center deployments. I highly recommend this session. Register here.

We've created the following Twitter handles for those of you who like your Oracle Linux and virtualization news in micro chunks * [@ORCL_Linux](http://twitter.com/ORCL_linux) * [@ORCL_virtualize](http://twitter.com/ORCL_virtualize)

It's been nearly four years since we launched the Unbreakable Linux support program and with it the free Oracle Enterprise Linux software. Since then, we've built up an extensive ecosystem of hardware and software partners. Oracle works directly with these vendors to ensure joint customers can run Oracle Enterprise Linux.

As Oracle Enterprise Linux is fully--both source and binary--compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), there is minimal work involved for software and hardware vendors to test their products with it. We develop our software on Oracle Enterprise Linux and perform full certification testing on Oracle Enterprise Linux as well. Due to the compatibility between Oracle Enterprise Linux and RHEL, Oracle also certifies its software for use on RHEL, without any additional testing.

Oracle Enterprise Linux tracks RHEL by publishing freely downloadable installation media on edelivery.oracle.com/linux and updates, bug fixes and security errata on Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN). At the same time, Oracle's Linux kernel team is shaping the future of enterprise Linux distributions by developing technologies and features that matter to customers who deploy Linux in the data center, including file systems, memory management, high performance computing, data integrity and virtualization. All this work is contributed to the Linux and Xen communities.

The list below is a sample of the partners who have certified their products with Oracle Enterprise Linux. If you're interested in certifying your software or hardware with Oracle Enterprise Linux, please contact us via oelhelp_ww@oracle.com

Chip Manufacturers

• Intel, Intel Enabled Server Acceleration Alliance
• AMD

Server vendors

• Cisco Unified Computing System
• Dawning
• Dell
• Egenera
• Fujitsu
• HP
• Huawei
• IBM
• NEC
• Sun/Oracle

Storage Systems, Volume Management and File Systems

• 3Par
• Compellent
• EMC VPLEX
• FalconStor
• Fusion-io
• Hitachi Data Systems
• HP Storage Array Systems
• Lustre
• Network Appliance
• OCFS2
• PillarData
• Symantec Veritas Storage Foundation

Networking: Switches, Host Bus Adapters (HBAs), Converged Network Adapters (CNAs), InfiniBand

• Brocade
• Emulex
• Mellanox
• QLogic
• Voltaire

SOA and Middleware

• ActiveState ActivePerl, ActivePython
• Tibco
• Zend

Backup, Recovery & Replication

• Arkeia Network Backup Suite
• BakBone NetVault
• CommVault Simpana 8
• EMC Networker, Replication Manager
• FalconStor Continuous Data Protector
• HP Data Protector
• NetApp Snapmanager
• Quest LiteSpeed Engine
• Steeleye Data Replication, Disaster Recovery
• Symantec NetBackup, Veritas Volume Replicator, Symantec Backup Exec
• Zmanda Amanda Enterprise

Data Center Automation

• BMC
• CA Unicenter
• HP Server Automation (formerly Opsware), System Management Homepage
• Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center
• Quest Vizioncore vFoglight Pro
• TeamQuest Manager

Clustering & High Availability

• FUJITSU x10sure
• NEC Express Cluster X
• Steeleye Lifekeeper
• Symantec Cluster Server
• Univa UniCluster

Virtualization Platforms and Cloud Providers

• Amazon EC2
• Citrix XenServer
• Rackspace Cloud
• VirtualBox
• VMWare ESX

Security Management

• ArcSight: Enterprise Security Manager, Logger
• CA Access Control
• Centrify Suite
• Ecora Auditor
• FoxT Manager
• Likewise: Unix Account Management
• Lumension Endpoint Management and Security Suite
• QualysGuard Suite
• Quest Privilege Manager
• McAfee Application Control, Change ControlIntegrity Monitor, Integrity Control, PCI Pro
• Solidcore S3
• Symantec Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)
• Tripwire
• Trusted Computer Solutions

OEL 5.5 was released on ULN on April 5, 2010 and on public-yum.oracle.com shortly after. Now you can also download the installation DVD or CDs from edelivery.oracle.com/linux.

Steven Chan writes that OCFS2 is now certified for use as a clustered filesystem for sharing files between all of your E-Business Suite application tier servers.  OCFS2 (Oracle Cluster File System 2) is a free, open source, general-purpose, extent-based clustered file system which Oracle developed and contributed to the Linux community.  It was accepted into Linux kernel 2.6.16.

OCFS2 is included in Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) and supported under Unbreakable Linux support.

If you use OCFS2 for purposes other than running Oracle software, please leave a comment or drop me a line: sergio[dot]leunissen[at]oracle[dot]com I'm curious how you use OCFS2, how big your filesystems are, how many nodes are in the cluster, what you like about OCFS2, etc.

I found this article about btrfs helpful.

Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 Update 4 has been added to Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) Customers with Linux support from Oracle may download and install OEL 5.4 packages for i386 and x84_64 architectures. Itanium packages are coming soon. Also coming soon: OEL 5.4 on public-yum.oracle.com and installation media on edelivery.oracle.com/linux

As for the rumors that OEL is based on CentOS? Only in a universe where time flows backward. Hint: Centos 5.3 was announced on April 3rd, 2009 and OEL 5.3 was announced on January 28th, 2009, more than two months earlier. We have no relationship with CentOS and do not rely on them.

Update:Installation media now available via edelivery.oracle.com/linux

Last week, ULN was updated with Oracle VM 2.1.5 RPMs. One of the main new features in Oracle VM 2.1.5 is a web services-based API to perform any of the operations in Oracle VM Manager, for example, create a server pool, add servers, or create virtual machines. Read the Oracle VM Web Services API documentation. ISOs will be published on edelivery.oracle.com/oraclevm soon.

Download OEL 4 Update 8 for i386 and x86_64 architectures for free from edelivery.oracle.com/linux. ia64 ISOs will be published in the same location a bit later.

We've just released Oracle Enterprise Linux 4, Update 8 on ULN (linux.oracle.com) and on public-yum.oracle.com. DVD ISOs are available for Unbreakable Linux support customers by calling support. They'll be available soon on edelivery.oracle.com/linux

Next week I'll be in Tokyo to deliver two sessions on Oracle VM. Consider this post an introduction to the Virtualization blog, where Adam Hawley has been writing about Oracle VM for a few weeks now. I'll be adding this to the blog roll.

We've just launched a new public yum server for Oracle Enterprise Linux and Oracle VM. This yum server offers a free and convenient way to install packages from the Enterprise Linux and Oracle VM installation media via a yum client.
To get started: public-yum.oracle.com

My good friend Joel showed me how you can connect to a (remote) database using an easy connect identifier. Here's how it works:

    sqlplus sergiodb/sergiodb@//127.0.0.1:1521/mvl

It looks to be a way of constructing a connect identifier that's new since database 10g Release 1. The syntax is as follows:

   [//]host[:port][/service_name]

The documentation sums it up nicely: The easy connection identifier can be used wherever you can use a full connection identifier, or a net service name. The easy syntax is less complex, and no tnsnames.ora entry is required.

I came across a forum post in which one of my co-workers, Avi Miller, explained how to install Oracle Enterprise Linux from DVD so that all software requirements are met when you fire up the Oracle Database 10g or 11g installer.

There are several ways to deal with the software preinstallation requirements for the Oracle Database. And, while it's not very difficult to install the required RPMs, it can be somewhat awkward to do so in the correct dependency order.

To simplify this task, Oracle provides the oracle-validated RPM, discussed here, here, and here previously on this blog. The Oracle® Database Installation Guide 11g Release 1 (11.1) for Linux also describes how to install the oracle-validated RPM if you have access to Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN)

If you're installing Oracle Enterprise Linux, to run Oracle Database 10g or 11g, following the steps Avi outlined will save you time. Especially if you don't have access to ULN.

1. Follow the installation process as normal until you get to the first software selection screen (it lists a series of tasks that you can add support for, and has an option at the bottom: "Customize Later" and "Customize Now"
2. Select the "Customize Now" option and click Next





3. Select "Base System" in the left-hand list and then "System Tools" in the right hand list. Click the checkbox next to "System Tools", then click the "Optional Packages" button.









4. Scroll down and select the "oracle-validated" package and click "Close"

Avi continues: "You can now click "next" and continue the installation as normal. This also creates the oracle user/groups, sets up sysctl.conf, limits.conf, etc. It's fairly nifty." I followed these steps using the Oracle Enterprise Linux 5, Update 3 DVD I downloaded via edelivery.oracle.com, and it works like a breeze. Here's a final screen shot of the installer looking happy: