Oracle works better with Windows or Linux? give your answer based on your experience

Question

In most cases I am used to work with Windows, some weeks ago I started to work with Oracle, I have experience with other DBMS like SQL and MySql and I have worked with them in Windows.

Now I am learning Oracle and I don't know in which OS oracle works better. I have installed it in windows but not in Linux. I also downloaded the Oracle Enterprise Linux which is an Linux OS for Oracle (similar with RedHat).

I want to know if Oracle Enterprise Linux is the only one Linux OS where Oracle can be installed or we can install Oracle even in RedHat, Ubuntu etc.

Also if someone has experience with this issue please let us know in which OS Oracle works better. I am confused with this problem and an answer from a profesional DBA will be very helpful for me.

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So who can tell us which version of Oracle 11 is for linux, since i want to install Oracle on RedHat it will be good if some one let me know what is the Oracle version for Linux (redhat). Also it will be good if i have some link where it shows step by step Oracle installation on redhat. Thanks for your answer. You helped me to make the decision in which os to run Oracle.

Solution 1

Here you can download the Oracle 11 instalation files for linux. 32 and bits are available. RedHat is one of the easiest distros for installing oracle, but there are some differences between the different versions of RedHat (and the different versions of Fedora core too) so search for the right "step by step" document of you don't have any experience in the setup process.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/index.html

Good Luck ;)

Solution 2

At our company, we administer dozens of databases. They are split pretty much 50/50 between Windows servers and *nix (UNIX or Linux). Both of which are running significant applications (health and financial sectors). I suppose it's a matter of personal preference (and licensing fees!). You should be safe going with either. Note that Oracle Enterprise Linux is pretty much a re-packaged version of Red Hat. If you want to try a Red Hat derivative out for cheap free, try CentOS. However, CentOS is not officially supported by Oracle.

Solution 3

I've used Oracle on both for several years. I prefer Linux because:

1. Oracle releases patches, new versions, and sometimes security updates for Linux significantly before they are available for Windows - there's usually about a two month lag for Windows.
2. Our Windows servers have crashed or locked up occasionally, and very frequently require reboots for patch installation. Oracle itself stays up very nicely, but Oracle can't keep running on a machine that is down. This hasn't been a problem for me on Linux.
3. Oracle's interaction with Vista's User Access Control is a nightmare. I'm constantly finding that the dedicated Oracle user account, which was used to install Oracle, nonetheless lacks permission to edit or even see Oracle-generated files - like newly generated logfiles. It could be that I'm making some mistake, but permissions shouldn't be confusing; and on Linux, they aren't. (Most servers don't run Vista, but I'm afraid of what this forebodes for future versions of Windows Server.)
4. Thanks to the Windows Registry, cleanly removing an installation of Oracle from Windows is tricky and tedious. The Oracle Installer has gotten better at this since version 10g, though.
5. Better tools. Linux find is infinitely better than any native Windows search tool. Also, Oracle uses and generates plenty of plain-text files, and Linux comes with better tools for handling text files - good text editors (unlike Notepad), shell commands like grep. You can try to catch Windows up by installing Geanie, Cygwin, Google Desktop, etc. on a Windows machine, but it's better not to have to (especially since Cygwin installation is not completely newbie-friendly).

I can only think of one Windows advantage over Linux:

1. In Oracle's command-line tools like sqlplus, rman, etc., you can scroll through and re-run past commands using the up- and down- arrow keys - but only on Windows. You can fix this on Linux by installing rlwrap and always invoking the Oracle tools under rlwrap: "rlwrap sqlplus me/mypassword@myinstance".

Solution 4

In my experience, the main issues with Oracle on Windows are a result of Windows file locking. For example, if the database was running and the data files for Oracle were locked by another process (i.e. a file system backup agent), we've had occurrences where the file has become corrupt.

Unix/Linux on the other hand doesn't seem to have those issues (according to our DBA).

In general, I've had no major issues with Oracle on a Windows Platform if steps are taken to ensure files are not locked by other processes. We now use RMAN to perform online backups and exclude all Oracle data files from the file system backup. It has been very stable for over 2 years now.

Solution 5

I've experienced Oracle installations on both Windows and Linux, all of them work as expected. Technically, you can install Oracle on almost every version of Linux, but if you want official support, you have to stick to Oracle's list of supported distros.

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