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Does your penguin wear metal armor?
Then you might be using Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) Unbreakable kernel. There are so many flavors of Linux that specializing makes sense, right? We enjoy having a selection to suite our needs. For example, a large family might be interested purchasing a minivan and the young professional a sports car. Oracle is in the unique position of being able to create its own flavor of Linux specialized for, “Oracle.” To read about some of the new features go to this blog: http://blogs.oracle.com/linux/entry/looking_back_at_oracle_openworld?msgid=3-5327215462 So the question is: In specializing Linux should utilities, packages and other apps remain limited to that flavor? Examples, include ASMLIB and possibly Ksplice in the future. With regard to ASMLIB the ASM kernel driver is not packaged for Red Hat Compatible kernel. https://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=2282077 Ksplice supports multiple versions of Linux (Oracle, Ubuntu Desktop and Fedora) but will it to go the way of ASMLIB and not be compatible with a Red Hat kernel? On the www.ksplice.com website it says, “Ksplice is available for Oracle Linux, free of charge, for Oracle Linux customers with a Premier support subscription.” Ksplice enables the kernel security updated to Linux without rebooting.
Specializing Linux is good business because it adds value to customers and creates a competitive market place. Is this wrong? I believe we all understand that part of specializing Linux is also about the grab for to the support revenue but by no means is an Oracle only approach. What do you think?
jweinshe
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November 15th, 2011 11:00
Sam, you might want to see the blog post I did on July 22nd, the day Oracle's acquisition of Ksplice was completed - it's at http://weinshenker.net/blog/2011/07/22/oracles-commitment-linux/
Oracle/Ksplice dropped Ksplice support for RHEL the day Oracle completed the acquisition. Oracle then even bragged about it in their official twitter (@ORCL_Linux ). As an Oracle customer, I find this behavior deplorable.
To simplify Oracle database installations on Linux, Oracle has for years published an oracle-validated RPM (publicly at http://oss.oracle.com/ol5/oracle-validated/ ) that make sure all the required RPMs and /etc/sysctl.conf settings are configured appropriately. With Oracle's 1.1.0-7 release on the website, that RPM now has Oracle's UEK kernel as one of the required RPMs and will no longer install cleanly without Oracle's UEK kernel.
I have an upcoming blog entry on how to get around this behavior, but it's another example of how Oracle's customizations of Linux aren't in the customer's best interest. These behaviors do NOTHING to add value to customers. Both practices are anti-consumer and the sort of behavior that got Microsoft declared an unlawful monopoly when they tied Internet Explorer in to Windows.
You should also note Oracle's UEK isn't a supported Kernel under VMware because of Oracle's customizations including the intentional removal of PVSCSI kernel modules among other things.
No one likes a bully, and Oracle's behavior strikes me as bullying (and monopolistic) behavior.
slucido
109 Posts
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November 16th, 2011 04:00
Jay,
Interesting that Oracle is removing the PVSCSI kernel modules from the UEK kernel! By no means is this an Oracle only problem, right? Not long ago I was using Tora as it was free and comparable to functionality of database software offered by Quest. Unfortunately, Quest software acquired Tora and Tora took two steps backwards in terms of functionality.
In terms of Oracle acquiring Ksplice perhaps that becomes an opportunity to another company to do the same for all Linux flavors except Oracle’s UEK kernel. Acquiring small startups is an industry trend that I believe provides competitive advantages for the buyer but not necessary the entire community.
jweinshe
40 Posts
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November 16th, 2011 06:00
Just to document and backup my claim that Oracle is removing the PVSCSI kernel modules from UEK - I wrote a longer blog post about this at http://weinshenker.net/blog/2011/07/26/oracle-redhat-vmware/ but you can also check out the Oracle Linux release notes at http://oss.oracle.com/ol6/docs/RELEASE-NOTES-GA-en.html which states as issue 13 in the known issues:
As far as other companies: I do understand the idea of companies acquiring other companies to provide competitive advantage. However, I don't think most (any?) of those companies go so far as to then kill support / intentionally remove functionality to not support the community while at the same time brag about the company's technical contributions and support of the larger community - Oracle does it at http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/linux/026042.htm
slucido
109 Posts
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November 18th, 2011 04:00
Jay,
Talked with a few customers over the last two weeks and it's interesting how they have tested the UEK kernel and decided to go with Red Hat or the RH compatible version of OEL. Most of the reasons cited related to stability and compatibility in remaining with RH. It seems that despite the advances and features of UEK customers are focused on standardization and supportability. Cheers.
jweinshe
40 Posts
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November 18th, 2011 07:00
Glad to hear it - it matches up with my experience as well. I attended the Austin Texas Oracle Users Group meeting a week or so ago and Oracle Linux vs RedHat Linux came up. The speaker asked for a show of hands on who was using Oracle Linux: Of all the DBAs / attendees in the room, one was using Oracle Linux and UEK. That was out of about 100 or so people.
BartS
46 Posts
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November 22nd, 2011 05:00
I'm missing an important point here.
Linux is Open Source (GPL) including the kernel.
Therefore the OEL "specialized" Oracle kernel is Open Source and GPL-licensed
KSplice is Open Source (GPL)
The validated RPM is derived from open source code and therefore open source itself (or?)
So why are pure-play Linux vendors (Red Hat, Suse, ...) not picking up the pieces and publish the same:
- Oracle optimized kernel
- Ksplice enhancements
- Oracle tuned RPM with settings
themselves? As many Red Hat / SUSE servers run Oracle databases and this generates a big revenue stream, I completely cannot figure out why they let Oracle get away with dropping support. Everyone can support Open Source, customers don't need to go to Oracle.
Seems like they are missing the boat here. If they don't start doing something about it then they will lose a lot of revenue to Larry.
jeff_browning
256 Posts
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November 23rd, 2011 13:00
Yet another example of monopolistic behavior on the part of Oracle in recent days.
My favorite story has to do with auditing. Oracle shows up to audit their customer. At the end of the audit, the Oracle folks tell the customer that this is a "good news / bad news" situation.
First the bad news: The customer owes Oracle $15 million in back license and maintenance fees.
Now the good news: If the customer is willing to sign a PO for a measly $4 million, they will be the proud owner of a brand new ExaData box, for which they will also be obligated to be a reference customer.
Cute, huh?
And, yes, the ksplice code is GPL. I would not be surprised to see Oracle move away from open source now that they have bought Sun, though. In fact, I have always believed that Sun was killed off by Oracle in a cynical plan to pluck them later. But that is another story.
BartS
46 Posts
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November 24th, 2011 01:00
That's too easy. They tried to kill MySQL too and we all know what happened there.
Same for OpenOffice and again, we all know what happened.
My latest Ubuntu Desktop and Suse Desktop downloads now have LibreOffice instead of OpenOffice. Larry can bite the dust...
MySQL is now also re-invented as MariaDB (they need to work on marketing BTW as the name is not very catchy). A lot of MySQL developers left Oracle to go work for others.
If I were, say, Red Hat, I would get the (GPL'ed) source code modifications that Oracle used for their Oracle Optimized kernel, and build a 100% compatible kernel, include that as a selectable option in the standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution and thus make sure my RHEL customers that run Oracle will not need to move to OEL.
Then I'd pick up the source code for Oracle VM (intel) which is XEN based (again GPL'ed) and include that too (in addition to KVM which is not a serious option for an Oracle DB customer). And then (if possible) for ASMlib. And whatever else is needed to support my customers.
It's exactly what Oracle did a few years ago when they created OEL. 100% copy of RHEL (except maybe the logos, update repositories and some other stuff).
Finally, I'd offer a support package for MySQL (priced cheaper than Oracle's own). Maybe bring PostgreSQL support under the same contract. Just to support customers and fight Oracle at it's own game (and Red Hat knows Open Source better than Oracle does).
What are Red Hat and Novell/Suse waiting for?
And that said, VMware could do the same (now that they have a reseller agreement for SUSE linux it would make sense, too).