Oracle Touts Linux Support

BOSTON—Oracle Corp. Vice President of Marketing Rene Bonvanie on Wednesday opened the Enterprise Linux Forum Conference & Expo 2002 by demonstrating a simulation of an “unbreakable” eight-node cluster running the companys Oracle9i RAC (Real Application Cluster) technology on top of Linux.

With equipment set up to resemble database servers and four application servers, Bonvanie flipped off various nodes to demonstrate a facsimile of the near-instantaneous redistribution of resources to functioning nodes that is enabled by RAC technology.

Besides Oracles familiar claims of unbreakability, Bonvanie took pains to point out the cost benefit of running Oracle on Linux compared with purchasing $50 million IBM mainframes on which to run the free open-source operating system. The hardware for the cluster system set up for the show, his assistant pointed out, cost $3,000 at the most.

Bonvanie also alluded to the work Oracle has been doing to make Oracle “unbreakable” on Linux, including releasing code for Oracle Cluster File system, which Red Hat Inc. made available to enterprise customers last month. Oracles Cluster File system supports database files, archive logs, redo files and control files.

Moves such as offering Cluster File code, which Bonvanie called “very unusual for a very large [independent software vendor]” like Oracle, are designed to allow customers to manage their database storage in an Oracle9i RAC configuration as easily as on a single system—evidence that Oracle is committed to supporting Linux throughout its product line.

“All of our products will become available on Linux, and we will work with the Linux vendors to make that happen,” Bonvanie said. “Were very focused on bringing quality of service to Linux that is competitive or better than what you would get from any operating system or system vendor.”