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Date:      Sat, 18 Jul 1998 23:47:13 -0600
From:      Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com>
To:        allen campbell <allenc@verinet.com>
Cc:        freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: oracle 8 to be shipped for Linux
Message-ID:  <35B18861.168DAB55@softweyr.com>
References:  <19980718195306.A4564@mu.org> <19980718224902.A21361@verinet.com>

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allen campbell wrote:
> 
> Speculation at slashdot.org is Oracle will use raw devices for its
> Linux tablespaces.  Apparently the ext2fs is limited to < 2G files.
> I would guess (because I really don't know) that this would pose
> a significant emulation problem.  Speculation by someone who does
> know would be greatly appreciated.  Jordan's recent advocacy at
> www.freshmeat.net for solid Linux emulation (among many other
> things) is very relevant here.

The use of raw devices makes limitations of ext2fs unimportant; if
you use a raw device, you won't have a filesystem on it.  Typically
Oracle can run with either a file or a raw device.  The raw device
is accessed with open(2), read(2), and write(2), and thus depends 
only on the block disk device driver.

> I have been advocating FreeBSD and Linux to my employers and
> colleagues for some time now.  I am _certain_ that this will go a
> long way towards acceptance.  I advocate Oracle on anything other
> that NT anyhow; it would be nice to see FreeBSD get a piece of
> this.

Yeah, this is great: now we have an application that can make
even FreeBSD look slow.  ;^)

> I think this lends a great deal of credibility to Linux, and
> indirectly FreeBSD.  When I attended the May OAUG in San Diego
> (Oracle Applications User Group,) a presenter mentioned her preference
> for Unix as a production platform over NT during her config and
> sizing presentation.  This evoked enthusiastic applause from several
> hundred Oracle DBA types.  This market will definitely take notice
> of Linux as an alternative to NT for smaller vertical applications
> that use Oracle.  This is one place NT is gaining a lot of market
> in otherwise Unix shops (and disappointing a lot of DBAs.)  I have
> little doubt Linux (and hopefully FreeBSD) can do better.

A friend of mine is a sysadmin at a big HP and Oracle shop.  One
organization developed an application using NT and MS-SQL Server,
because they thought they were going to save a ton of money.
When they fielded it, it didn't last three hours under the load
thrown at it.  They ended up redeveloping it on Oracle and HP-UX,
and moving it to a part of a server owned by another group.

Oracle on an Pentium 200 or K6 probably could have handled their
load, they had a max of 12 users poking at the database.  ;^)

> According to the Infoworld article, Oracle will make its official
> announcement Tuesday.  It will be quite something to browse into
> the download/demo pages at www.Oracle.com and see Linux alongside
> Sun and Microsoft.  I doubt I'll download the demo; I'll probably
> just buy it ASAP and run whatever I have too to make it work. :)

I'm anxious to try it under Linux emulation.  I'll probably poke
and prod at the demo version for a little while; I've got an
OpenLinux 1.2 system at work to hack on if needed.

-- 
       "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"

Wes Peters                                                 Softweyr LLC
http://www.softweyr.com/~softweyr                      wes@softweyr.com

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