Oracle Linux Reviews

By far, the most valuable feature of Oracle Linux is the fact that the unbreakable UEK kernel is optimized to run Oracle databases. Basically out of the box, the kernel parameters are automatically set up for I/O, for memory, and for performance.

Benefits of Oracle Linux for a lot of customers include things like Ksplice, for example, the ability to perform online kernel patches with zero downtime. In fact, a lot of the other vendors like Red Hat and SUSE are starting to embrace that technology, but they’re years behind.

Overall, Oracle Linux is full of great features and functionality. Because it is an Oracle product, what would be nice is if there better integration between the Linux operating system and Oracle ASM and things like ASMLib and the integration with Oracle RAC.

From a stability perspective, Linux has been around for decades, and Oracle Linux is going to be around for a long, long time, and it’s going to be a dominant player.

It is a derivative of Red Hat, but for all practical purposes, it’s immensely scalable, especially as you're talking about doing multi-node clusters with Oracle Linux. There are numerous customers who are leveraging Oracle RAC on Oracle Linux, that’s a very common platform for a lot for customers today. 

A lot of customers who are on Red Hat, for example - it’s all pricing. Again, this is another key benefit of being on Oracle Linux. If you buy Oracle hardware, for example, be it x86 or ODA or even Exadata, all those platforms will run on Oracle Linux, but because you're paying annual support for the hardware, you will automatically get free support on Oracle Linux. That’s by far, probably, the biggest benefit of going on Oracle Linux. 

If you compare also from cost of support of Red Hat versus Oracle Linux, Oracle Linux is going to be a lot cheaper overall.

When selecting a vendor, the cool thing about Oracle Linux is that the customers are going to be running an Oracle database on it. At the same time, if they’re going to be running Oracle databases on top of Oracle Linux, you have one vendor to call for support, you have one vendor to choke at the end of the day if things go wrong.

It's a 10 out of 10. You are going to get great support from Oracle Linux. The portal that you would log into for support for Oracle Linux is going to be the same portal that you would log into to get your database support. It will be the same portal that you log into to get your Exadata and ODA if you're running those hardware appliances as well.

I learned Linux on Red Hat, so Oracle Linux was an easy transition. When I first started using Oracle Linux, it wasn't that much different from Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but now, the differences are dramatic. It is much easier to install, configure, and run Oracle Database and Grid Infrastructure on Oracle Linux than Red Hat.

Many of the customers I work with are used to working with Oracle Database on Unix or Windows and are new to Linux. It is much easier to get a customer who is not familiar with Linux running on Oracle Linux than on most other Linux platforms because there are fewer prerequisites. For example, ASMLib is included with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK is the default kernel in Oracle Linux) and the preinstall RPMs take care of almost all of the prerequisite OS requirements.

I had some issues going from versions 5 to 6 to 7 because of the change from SysVinit to Upstart to Systemd.

Also, you wouldn't fully replace another Linux product with Oracle Linux. Although it is a full Linux distribution, Oracle Linux is formulated (especially the kernel) for Oracle software and hardware products.

I've been using it since 2010.

Deployment methods and software used for other Linux variants should have no problem provisioning Oracle Linux. In addition, Oracle Enterprise Manager has a number of features that make it much easier to deploy dozens or hundreds of Oracle Linux installations. I have found that the kernel enhancements make the OS perform better under heavy loads, especially when running Oracle Database and Enterprise Manager.

We've had no issues with stability.

We've had no issues with scalability.

Oracle Linux is free and open source, just like Red Hat, so a support contract is not required. If there are issues with the product requiring support, the answers are almost always the same as those for similar issues in Red Hat or CentOS. If you do have a support contract and access to My Oracle Support, there is a ton of information available on Linux in general and Oracle Linux specifically. I have found My Oracle Support issues involving Oracle Linux are generally resolved quicker and with less back-and-forth than issues involving the database.

I continue to use Oracle Linux, Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu, Debian and a number of other distributions. They all have different purposes and complimentary strengths and weaknesses. When it comes to running most Oracle products on Linux, I almost always choose Oracle Linux because of its familiarity and ease-of-use.

Setup is almost exactly the same as Red Hat, so those familiar with that distribution should have no trouble porting their knowledge to Oracle Linux. The most difficult transition I had was going from versions 5 to 6 to 7 because of the change from SysVinit to Upstart to Systemd.

Implementation of all OS's has always been through our in-house team. Once we have a repeatable build, we usually turn it over to an automated deployment tool like Puppet, Ansible, or the native Anaconda kickstart.

This probably isn't something you would replace another product with completely. Although it is a full Linux distribution, it is formulated for Oracle software and hardware products. Try it first for the Oracle database and see if you like it. Make sure to test out support as well. Oracle isn't the only vendor that will support this product, but they do have direct influence when something needs to change or troubleshoot.

We are using the latest version. 

It is useful for running our applications. 

I feel the stability to be the best feature. 

The licensing price could be better. 

We have been using Oracle Linux for six years.

I feel the stability to be the solution's best feature. 

We have contacted technical support on a couple of occasions and found them to be fine, super in fact. 

I am not in a position to comment on the installation process. Another party handled this for us. 

The deployment and maintenance is all being monitored by another company.

The solution should have a better licensing price. 

We pay a monthly subscription fee. 

There are 600 users making use of the solution in our organization. 

I would certainly recommend the solution to others. 

I rate Oracle Linux as an eight out of ten. 

Areas for improvement would be the manager and the use of case space coordinates.

I've been using this solution for nine years.

Oracle Linux is very stable.

This product is scalable.

Technical support needs to improve their response time.

Implementation was easy.

This is a low-cost solution.

This is a good solution for implementation. I would rate this solution as ten out of ten.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We've had no issues at all deploying it.

I think it's fine, there's no issue there. It's been very, very stable.

We have no issues scaling it for our needs.

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.

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.

We did the implementation ourselves.

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.

We use Oracle Linux as an operating system in my organization.

The security and integration could improve.

I have been using Oracle Linux for approximately two years.

The solution is stable.

Oracle Linux is scalable.

We have approximately 10 people using this solution in my organization.

Technical support could improve by being more knowledgeable, faster, and friendly.

The installation is straightforward and it did not take very long.

When you install Oracle Linux you will need to have help from consultants and integrators.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Oracle Linux a seven out of ten.

We use this solution for business as an operating system for applications.

The solution is easy to use.

The security could improve in the solution.

I have used Oracle Linux for many years.

I have found the solution to be stable.

We have approximately 1,000 users using this solution.

I have been satisfied with the technical support from Oracle.

We have a team of 10 that does the implementation and maintenance of the solution.

We pay for a license for this solution annually.

I would recommend this solution.

I rate Oracle Linux an eight out of ten.