Oracle Linux Reviews

We use this solution for deploying and managing operating systems and web servers. It is good for web, network, and file management.

The ease of deployment is very valuable because the deployment process is straightforward to manage.

The documentation capabilities could be better. Although it is sufficient, other solutions provide better documentation. 

We have been using this solution for two years and have used a variety of versions.

The solution is stable and we have no issues with it.

The solution is scalable, and it is easy to patch.

We have no experience with customer service and support. 

The initial setup was straightforward. However, it may be more challenging to set up for people with no experience.

I rate this solution a seven out of ten because there can be improvements to the documentation capabilities and the communities around them.

What is most valuable is that it's supported by Oracle. It's performing, we are not facing any performance problems. Of course, it's open source, so we are saving on the licensing costs that we have when using with other proprietary license software.

At the end of the day, we are getting Oracle performance in the optimal manner with a Linux operating system, which we had before, but in a different flavor.

I think the biggest benefit that we have is cost savings. That's what the company is looking for at this point. We don't have to spend a high amount of licensing costs on the previous solution that we were using with the HPE operating system. Now, we are on the Linux flavor, which is open source, as I said, and it saves us a lot of money on licensing.

It is fully supported by Oracle. If we look at the certification matrix on the Oracle MOS (My Oracle Support) site, Oracle is supporting it, all the features are supported. We are using Linux HugePages with it, which saves us a lot of money for memory. We are defining our memory using Linux HugePages for growing our system in global areas, which is helpful for performance. Those are the few features I can think of off top of my head at this point.

It's pretty stable. We haven't seen any major problems so far. If we have issues, then we have to open an open source ticket with Red Hat. And they do resolve those, with solutions, but so far we haven't seen any roadblocks.

The set up is basically Linux servers, and we have Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 running there. Non-RAC, but a Data Guard environment, where we have a primary instance set up, and that application is done on the standby. The primary and the standby are running on Oracle Red Hat Linux, actually.

I would say, from my experience, that you need to make sure that all the features you are using are compatible with the OS version, the Oracle version that you are going for.

So far, we haven't seen any problems, it is fully certified with Oracle, and all the features are working without any issues, it is very performant. You can go for it as long as all your features are supported with this operating system.

We are very happy.

The most valuable features are:

• It’s free.
• Kernel 4.x.
• RPM-based.
• RedHat clone.
• Support for Spacewalk.
• Easy and stable upgrades.

We use Oracle Linux for all Oracle database servers.

Updates are very slow in our part of world (Slovenia). Now, we use Spacewalk for distribution of updates, but replication to Spacewalk is slow.

I have been using Oracle Linux for seven years.

We have not encountered stability issues.

We have not encountered scalability issues.

I have never used support for Oracle Linux.

We are still using RHEL 5.x, 6.x and 7.x, SLES 9,10 and 11 and CentOS 6.x and 7.x.

Setup is straightforward.

I recommend Oracle Linux to everyone who needs the stability of RHEL and the newest kernel.

We did not evaluate alternatives.

Just use it.

For me, I like that fact that Oracle Linux is very similar, of course, to CentOS and Red Hat. Plus, Application Testing Suit makes it a lot more customizable for us. We're also able to monitor it with our software. These features make Oracle Linux very simple with very little configuration changes needed.

When we work with customers who are more Oracle-based, then Oracle Linux seems to follow more along the lines of what they want to do. The licensing is simpler because they usually don't have to go to VMware, Microsoft, or any other company to get different things. The functionalities they need are already built-in.

The installation needs some improvements because, as my admins have told me, it's a little bit tedious compared to others. Also, it takes a little bit of time to actually find files, download them, and install them. That kind of goes for anything with Oracle in that unless you know exactly where to go, it can take a bit of time. But once it's installed, it just works.

We've had no issues with the deployment.

A handful of customers that are using it haven't had any issues with the stability.

We have been able to scale using Linux just fine.

I would say that the initial setup is pretty much straightforward. It falls along the lines of the others. Some of the newer versions of other flavors of Linux make it a little bit simpler, but overall it's straightforward and we've hadn't had any trouble once it's been installed.

We implemented it ourselves with our in-house team.

I would probably have them explain, at least to themselves, what they're going to use it for, what applications are going to be running on it. And if it's going to be Database or something more Oracle-based, it's going to be great for that. If it's going to be something else, it may not be the best fit, depending on exactly what they are going to do with it.

The feature I've found more useful is that this distribution is easily configurable for Oracle applications (mostly Database) due to the Oracle-validated meta-package.

Oracle Linux has considerably shortened the time I need to install the OS for Oracle databases, and it has lowered the risks of misconfigurations for it.

Given that it's a distribution for servers and not for gaming, I would like it if useless things like bluetooth were not installed by default. It also needs a better text installation interface.

I've been using Oracle Linux for four or five years, and I think I'll continue to use it as long as I'm going to work with other Oracle products.

Deployment was fine until version 5.8, and when I tried 5.1.x, the troubles began due to kernel bugs in the network section which isolates the machine from other networks, even though I'm able to recompile the kernel. I prefer not to host it on a machine that will also host an Oracle database.

There have been no issues with the stability.

There have been no issues with the scalability.

As with everything owned by Oracle, the technical support is overly expensive and the service request management system is draining, but the knowledge base section is good.

Previously, I used Red Hat, but their licensing policy wasn't clear to me and the uncertainty about availability of repositories, plus the necessity to use Oracle Linux only with other Oracle applications, made me move in this direction.

If you have basic to intermediate Linux knowledge, the initial setup was straightforward. We're far away from the time a system admin should know exactly the name of the module your hardware needs.

I tested and implemented it by myself. My advice is to start with a minimal installation and disable all useless services after the first startup, e.g. bluetooth, IRDA, etc.

The only return I had was time savings, avoiding mistakes, and, being free of charge, I'd advise Oracle to keep it that way.

I can only recommend it to everyone has to work with Oracle products and Linux environments.

We use Oracle Linux with multiple clients for multiple applications.

Over a period of time, feature-wise, functionality wise, the reliability is important for us. 

First of all it is a zero-dollar value, it is free. We only have to pay for support. So it brings down the overall cost. And it is providing the same functionality as any other Linux system that is out there in the market.

Some customers feel about Oracle licensing, while it is free, they are not able to understand the support model for it. They feel the price is high for support. 

I have seen running production systems on it, there is no issue at all, because of the operating system.

I have no experience with scaling, but I believe scalability is as part of it as any other Unix based operating system that is out there in the market.

It is world-class.

It is straightforward and well documented. If people have basic Unix knowledge, they can jump on it. But I would definitely recommend going through the documentation before implementing any operating system in an enterprise environment.

Regarding criteria when selecting a vendor, if I am working in an Oracle world, I would what's important is being "family." If you are using Oracle as a database, using Oracle Linux is a good choice, because you are in the same family. Support is coming from the same vendor. The chances of vendor conflict - for example, being able to pull in people from different vendors; if I'm using Red Hat Linux I would be pulling people from Red Hat Linux, I would be pulling people from Oracle databases - that kind of scenario would not be there. Support would be seamless.

In terms of advice I would say, know your needs first, and if you know your needs, compare Oracle Linux with other operating systems. If you are running Oracle systems, Oracle databases, Oracle Linux is certified by Oracle. I believe all of Oracle is using it internally when building the system. For example, when they're developing Oracle databases or when they're developing Oracle EBS, they're running it on Oracle Linux.

Go for it. Evaluate it, know your needs first, and then see what solution is addressing your need.

It provides us with templates and Oracle-validated configurations that allows quicker install and configuration of Oracle Database software.

The existence of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is special adjusted for the best performance of Oracle software. It updates the OS using Ksplice.

We have no downtime for OS upgrades, hence customer production isn't affected, and we have no security breaches and higher performance of Oracle stack software due to its usage of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel.

Although Btrfs does a great job, I would like to see ZFS being part of future distributions.

Also, a distributed replicated block device (DRBD) feature would better provide a sort of mirroring over a network of block devices, becoming a superset of Oracle Database Data Guard for a range of applications with storage residing on related block devices.

From another perspective, the adjustments needed for implementing a powerful PPPoE server (PPP over Ethernet) in a similar way, what the guys from Mikrotik (www.mikrotik.com) did for X86 platforms (also starting from Linux kernel) could be interesting. Imagine how secure the connection to related OS using PPPoE would be, the simplicity of routing in the environment, and many more advantages.

We've been using it for two years.

For small and medium clients, there were no issues with deployment. For larger enterprises, Oracle VM is preferred.

For small and medium clients, there were no issues with stability. For larger enterprises, Oracle VM is preferred.

For small and medium clients there were no issues with scalability. For larger enterprises, Oracle VM is preferred.

They get an A for the outstanding customer service and technical support.

We had to choose this solution in order to have the technology used on the same line. Since Oracle Databases is the market leader, as well as other successful software platforms on the stack, the OS from the same provider needed to be considered and analyzed in-depth from technical and cost perspectives also. To keep the answer short, the balance leaned towards Oracle Linux and Oracle Solaris.

The initial setup was straightforward. The fact that the images can be freely downloaded from OTN allowed us to set up a lab environment and perform initial simulations of the targeted environment. The large number of existing templates saved lots of time for “in-depth” documentation, adjustments, configurations, and so on. Since the testing provided more than sufficient positive signs, the solution was chosen.

The operating system implementations were in-house. There is no need for a vendor team to perform the OS install once you have in-house system administrators with needed skills. Related skills can be quickly gathered by professionals familiar with various Linux flavors, and certification for Oracle Linux can be achieved by taking a rather simple exam in one of the many Pearson Vue centers. I've heard that for other Linux distributions the process isn’t as simple.

Yes, RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.5, but improvements in Oracle Linux and better support price incline the balance to that one.

My advice is to act on the pattern: Plan – Do – Check – Act. From the way the question is formulated, the first step is done. They should now download the product, install an in-lab environment along with the related applications, check how the framework responds to the specific needs, and make the Go / No-Go decision. My estimation is that for most cases the Go decision will be taken, but that can depends on specific other elements.

Another advice is to have one person providing infrastructure support with at least one Oracle Certification in this area, so easy issues become solved in agile style.

The most valuable feature is that it's supported by Oracle with a kernel called Unbreakable Linux, which I believe is being used by most customers. It's the same flavor as Red Hat, but it's better because it's supported by Oracle.

Right now a lot of people are migrating from traditional Unix to Linux, which performs much better. I'd like to see Oracle continue to improve on the performance of Linux, particularly in regards to scalability, so that we can move completely away from Unix. We'd like to have all our applications on Linux as Unix is fading away.

I've been using Linux for maybe five or six years.

We've had no issues deploying it.

Linux is always stable and Oracle Linux is no different. Customers are predominantly running their systems on Linux.

Scalability is related to how much compute power you are providing. The OS is there but you'll run your application on top of Linux. So that's where you'll scale Linux, which will depend on your application.

They're overall knowledgeable, but I've seen some instances where they're completely focused on a single product instead of seeing the end-to-end solution for a customer. That's where they get lost.