Dell, Oracle Strengthen Ties

Dell Computer Corp. announced on Tuesday it is adding support for the latest Dell/EMC storage systems to the hardware/software bundle that includes Dells PowerEdge servers and Oracle Corp.s 9i Database with Real Application Clusters in Red Hat Linux Advanced Server environments.

The new clustering options include a setup with two clustered PowerEdge 2650 (two-way) servers with a Dell/EMC CX400 storage array. Another option is a high-end configuration of clustered eight-way PowerEdge 8450 servers with the Dell/EMC CX600 storage array. Dell will still offer clustering options that feature its four-way PowerEdge 6650 servers with Dell/EMC storage arrays.

The Dell configurations will support Oracles OCFS (Oracle Cluster File System) and EMCs PowerPath high-availability software. OCFS enhances management and scaling between cluster nodes. PowerPath enables data multi-pathing capabilities and load balancing from servers to storage, improving performance, enabling redundancy and eliminating single points of failure with the cluster.

The announcement, delivered during Michael Dells keynote at OracleWorld, in San Francisco, is another step in the evolution of the relationship between Dell and Oracle. In June, Dell certified its PowerEdge servers to run on Oracle 9i Release 2 software and Red Hats Linux Advanced Server. This setup, which relies on new Linux clustering technology to tie together multiple servers that run large databases, allows for server failover and work sharing.

The announcement was part of CEO Dells keynote on the evolution of enterprise computing to modular, distributed computing architectures—architectures that can dramatically reduce costs for customers and allow businesses of any size to have access to powerful systems, Dell said.

“Systems based on proprietary UNIX architectures are at risk as standards-based systems continue to move up the enterprise computing food chain,” Dell said. “It is clear that standards-based hardware and software, combined with the modular approach to computing, is the future of the enterprise data center.”

The new support for Dell/EMC storage systems will be available in December, and certified software support for OCFS and EMC PowerPath for Linux will be available Q1 2003. Pricing for a two-node Dell cluster for Oracle9i Database with Real Application Clusters with Red Hat Linux Advanced Server starts at $16,000. Dell will also ship Oracle9i with Real Application Clusters with Microsoft Corp.s Windows 2000.