One of the most popular comparisons on IT Central Station is Oracle Linux vs RHEL.
One user says about Oracle Linux, "Compared to RHEL, it is much easier to install, configure, and run Oracle Database and Grid Infrastructure."
According to another user, "Red Hat has improved the mission critical environments running Oracle databases"
Which of these two solutions would you recommend and why?
Thanks!
--Rhea
Considering real world scenario, I'm working with CentOS which is a clone of RHEL.
My honest & neutral opinion:
1) If your business depends on Oracle Database, then use Oracle Linux only.
2) If your business don't have Oracle products use RHEL.
I heard from few friends, Oracle won't supported customers if their DB running on other Linux distro's. This may be rumor.
People mostly use oracle linux if they don't want to deal with fighting of installing all pre-requisites. On other part, if you're good at RHEL, then no mean to use oracle linux.
Also people should compare Oracle Linux V/S RHEL from CPU socket based pricing point. This is what I assume. else, both product give equal performance because of the monolithic kernel architecture.
Last Word: I'm happy with CentOS as I'm dealing with RHEL/CentOS since 11 years.
RHEL is my suggested choice. You can use ASM and cluster add-on to enhance the solution. Depending on the provided design.
Oracle Linux is developed to support specific Oracle software and works well with that, but RHEL have recently added updates to support oracle software better and is not far from as good with Oracle software. RHEL is robust and all-round good operating system for critical services. It’s worth to mention that Oracle Linux is a copy/fork of RHEL. The biggest difference in these distros is what support you get and the official packages/patches.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is in our opinion the go to.
Firstly, look at to the difference. Both of them are not having any major difference in kernel level. The major change in branding. But,
1. RHEL is a very stable OS which has been tested with multiple software/middleware/database in the LAB.
2. The major testing on RHEL are regarding compatibility, not that much depth on performance, what I feel. Regarding the performance HW vendor (HP, Dell etc.) are having different docuemnts.
3. For Oracle Linux, most of the testing are done for oracle software [Oracle DB, Oracle WebLogic, SOA etc.]
4. Documents for non Oracle product performance tuning over Oracle Linux is not highly available. but RHEL related doc works,
I recommend Oracle Linux if you are installing and configuring Oracle product. Oracle Linux comes with oracle predefined packages that makes installation and configuration easy.
SUSE Linux is a great option as well.
RHEL. Red Hat has a lot more experience with Linux, and the distribution of oracle does not stop being a CentOS clone, which in turn is extracted from Red Hat.
RHEL
If i am going to run Oracle products then i will use Oracle Linux, take the support from one vendor bottom to up. Sometimes you can see Oracle support documents say that "If this is OS specific then please take assist from your OS vendor". In order to avoid that OS decision depends on the product i will install.
I personally tend to use Oracle Linux. OL can be used for production free of licenses. Even support fees are lower than RHEL. If your workload is mainly Oracle you should use OL. One throat to choke.
I recommend Oracle Linux. Due to the ease of installation and clustering.