Oracle updates Linux FAQs (page 2 of 2)

Will Oracle provide support if a customer recompiles the kernel or uses third-party software that modifies the kernel?

Customers can take the latest patches/kernels from Red Hat for Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES, from Novell for SLES, or from Asianux, and they will be supported by Oracle for Oracle products running with these operating systems.

It is important for customers and third-party vendors to NOT modify or add anything with the latest kernel/glibc version, in order to receive Unbreakable Support.

If the customer decides to deploy a third-party kernel module, which is not shipped with Oracle supported distribution, Oracle will provide full OS support with the exception that if a problem is determined to be caused by this module, Oracle will defer the customer to the system vendor.

If a generic kernel bug fix can cause the third-party no longer to load after applying the fix, a bug number made available by Oracle will allow the customer to follow up with the third-party vendor to fix the module.


7. Why doesn't Oracle provide technical support for all Linux distributions?

Oracle does not want to support fragmentation in the Linux operating system market. Customers have consistently asked for stability, better performance, and reliability of the Linux platform as well as enterprise-class support. Oracle cannot be effective in addressing these customer needs if we attempt to provide Unbreakable Linux Support for a large number of different Linux distributions.


8. What filesystems are supported for Oracle on Linux?

Supported filesystems include Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM), ext3 (with O_SYNC), NFS, OCFS, ReiserFS, and raw. XFS is not supported.


9. How does Oracle contribute to the enhancement of Linux technology?

Oracle works with the key Linux distributors to test and optimize the OS to effectively handle mission-critical applications. For example, Oracle has collaborated with Red Hat and Novell to create a core set of enhancements in the areas of performance, reliability, clustering and manageability in order to enable Linux to support our customers' enterprise-class deployments. These efforts have been integrated into Red Hat Enterprise Linux, as well as into Novell's SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server. We believe that our work with Red Hat and Novell to enhance the Linux kernel benefits all Linux distributions.

Oracle is actively supporting the Linux open source community by contributing source code for products like Oracle Cluster File System, to drive development of the Linux operating system.


10. Why are Linux developers developing their applications using Oracle's software?

Oracle8i was the first commercially available RDBMS to be certified on Linux. Since then Oracle has been enabling and enhancing Linux and the same enterprise-class Oracle products with proven track records are available for Linux. Oracle continues to attract Linux developers with database technology innovations that are highly available via scalable clustering technology.


11. Does Oracle run its business on Linux?

Oracle has realized first-hand the benefit of lower IT costs from using Linux in a grid computing infrastructure. Oracle On Demand, Oracle's outsourcing business, runs on Linux and we run our Application Demo Systems and Technology Demo Systems, which consist of several hundred servers, on Linux. These systems are utilized by Oracle's worldwide sales organization to provide Oracle product demonstrations to customers and prospects. In addition, several of our Global IT systems are now running on Linux. With more than 9,000 developers using a Linux infrastructure to do product development, Oracle boasts one of the world's largest commercial Linux development organizations.