Hey all,

Question... our architect's are trying to push us to install Solaris
10 on our new dev/test boxes instead of 8, which is our production
version. There are currently no plans to upgrade prod to Solaris 10.
With the hardware we ordered there are no issues with installing
Solaris 8. I've been resisting because I don't want to support an
environment where the OSes are out of sync. While I agree that the
risk is probably minimal I want a plan in place to upgrade prod before
I signoff on test.

Am I being anal? I've talked to other DBA's and they agree with me,
but to make my problem a bit more difficult, a DBA in my group has
already let this happen in one of their environments.

tnx.

Are your database versions them same regardless of the os version?

The solaris mantra is "binary compatibility" that the operating system
provides to application executables. It really is quite proven and has
an established track record.

If you are not doing "unusual things" like copying software installed
and linked on one os version over to another os version, it may be more
of a "thing to worry about" than a real problem. Then again it's your
environment.

How solid are your backup and recovery practices and documentation?
How much of that, if any, is dependent on doing things "between" the
dev/test/production boxes that might be at different solaris releases?

Those are some of the things that seem most relevant to your
considerations to me.

"Dave" <david.best@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1143669554.197833.80550@j33g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> Hey all,
>
> Question... our architect's are trying to push us to install Solaris
> 10 on our new dev/test boxes instead of 8, which is our production
> version. There are currently no plans to upgrade prod to Solaris 10.
> With the hardware we ordered there are no issues with installing
> Solaris 8. I've been resisting because I don't want to support an
> environment where the OSes are out of sync. While I agree that the
> risk is probably minimal I want a plan in place to upgrade prod before
> I signoff on test.
>
> Am I being anal? I've talked to other DBA's and they agree with me,
> but to make my problem a bit more difficult, a DBA in my group has
> already let this happen in one of their environments.
>
> tnx.
>

Well,
How can you test something properly when the OS is different between
dev/test and production ? I don't know that much about Solaris, but version
8 versus version 10 seems like a big leap for me. You also have the risk
that developers start using new features that don't exist in the older
Solaris version. But, you can't keep Solaris 8 forever, can you ? Is Solaris
8 still supported by Sun ?


Matthias

"Dave" <david.best@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1143669554.197833.80550@j33g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> Hey all,
>
> Question... our architect's are trying to push us to install Solaris
> 10 on our new dev/test boxes instead of 8, which is our production
> version. There are currently no plans to upgrade prod to Solaris 10.
> With the hardware we ordered there are no issues with installing
> Solaris 8. I've been resisting because I don't want to support an
> environment where the OSes are out of sync. While I agree that the
> risk is probably minimal I want a plan in place to upgrade prod before
> I signoff on test.
>
> Am I being anal? I've talked to other DBA's and they agree with me,
> but to make my problem a bit more difficult, a DBA in my group has
> already let this happen in one of their environments.
>
> tnx.
>

No, you are not being anal. You are just doing your job.

The same version of Oracle should behave the same on Solaris 8 or 10. Your
existing apps should work fine, unless in an unlikely case there are Oracle
bugs affecting only one version of Solaris.

Bob Jones wrote:
> "Dave" <david.best@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1143669554.197833.80550@j33g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>> Hey all,
>>
>> Question... our architect's are trying to push us to install Solaris
>> 10 on our new dev/test boxes instead of 8, which is our production
>> version. There are currently no plans to upgrade prod to Solaris 10.
>> With the hardware we ordered there are no issues with installing
>> Solaris 8. I've been resisting because I don't want to support an
>> environment where the OSes are out of sync. While I agree that the
>> risk is probably minimal I want a plan in place to upgrade prod before
>> I signoff on test.
>>
>> Am I being anal? I've talked to other DBA's and they agree with me,
>> but to make my problem a bit more difficult, a DBA in my group has
>> already let this happen in one of their environments.
>>
>> tnx.
>>
>
> No, you are not being anal. You are just doing your job.
>
> The same version of Oracle should behave the same on Solaris 8 or 10. Your
> existing apps should work fine, unless in an unlikely case there are Oracle
> bugs affecting only one version of Solaris.

I was going to stay out of this but you've hit a hot button.

In theory what you say is true. But in reality we know it is not.

While I will acknowledge using vanilla Oracle functionality you likely
will see no issues ... move to RAC or Grid Control other pieces of the
puzzle and this is clearly not the case.

The answer to the OP should be ... "depends" ... which most often is
the correct answer to any question asked.
--
Daniel A. Morgan
http://www.psoug.org
damorgan@x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)

Thanks for all the feedback.. I realize that solaris is binary
compatible but has anyone hit a situation where Oracle wouldn't help
them becasue their OS's were out of sync? If I hit a problem in prod
that I can't reproduce in test, for whatever reason which may not be
related to OS at all, will Oracle just say get your environments in
sync before we help?

"DA Morgan" <damorgan@psoug.org> wrote in message
news:1143738407.810442@yasure.drizzle.com...
> Bob Jones wrote:
>> "Dave" <david.best@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:1143669554.197833.80550@j33g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>>> Hey all,
>>>
>>> Question... our architect's are trying to push us to install Solaris
>>> 10 on our new dev/test boxes instead of 8, which is our production
>>> version. There are currently no plans to upgrade prod to Solaris 10.
>>> With the hardware we ordered there are no issues with installing
>>> Solaris 8. I've been resisting because I don't want to support an
>>> environment where the OSes are out of sync. While I agree that the
>>> risk is probably minimal I want a plan in place to upgrade prod before
>>> I signoff on test.
>>>
>>> Am I being anal? I've talked to other DBA's and they agree with me,
>>> but to make my problem a bit more difficult, a DBA in my group has
>>> already let this happen in one of their environments.
>>>
>>> tnx.
>>>
>>
>> No, you are not being anal. You are just doing your job.
>>
>> The same version of Oracle should behave the same on Solaris 8 or 10.
>> Your existing apps should work fine, unless in an unlikely case there are
>> Oracle bugs affecting only one version of Solaris.
>
> I was going to stay out of this but you've hit a hot button.
>
> In theory what you say is true. But in reality we know it is not.
>
> While I will acknowledge using vanilla Oracle functionality you likely
> will see no issues ... move to RAC or Grid Control other pieces of the
> puzzle and this is clearly not the case.
>
> The answer to the OP should be ... "depends" ... which most often is
> the correct answer to any question asked.
> --

Ok, so what specifically is the difference between RAC on Solaris 8 or 10?
In fact, I could answer all questions here with simply "depends", but that's
not very helpful, is it?

Bob Jones wrote:
> "DA Morgan" <damorgan@psoug.org> wrote in message
> news:1143738407.810442@yasure.drizzle.com...
>> Bob Jones wrote:
>>> "Dave" <david.best@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:1143669554.197833.80550@j33g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>>>> Hey all,
>>>>
>>>> Question... our architect's are trying to push us to install Solaris
>>>> 10 on our new dev/test boxes instead of 8, which is our production
>>>> version. There are currently no plans to upgrade prod to Solaris 10.
>>>> With the hardware we ordered there are no issues with installing
>>>> Solaris 8. I've been resisting because I don't want to support an
>>>> environment where the OSes are out of sync. While I agree that the
>>>> risk is probably minimal I want a plan in place to upgrade prod before
>>>> I signoff on test.
>>>>
>>>> Am I being anal? I've talked to other DBA's and they agree with me,
>>>> but to make my problem a bit more difficult, a DBA in my group has
>>>> already let this happen in one of their environments.
>>>>
>>>> tnx.
>>>>
>>> No, you are not being anal. You are just doing your job.
>>>
>>> The same version of Oracle should behave the same on Solaris 8 or 10.
>>> Your existing apps should work fine, unless in an unlikely case there are
>>> Oracle bugs affecting only one version of Solaris.
>> I was going to stay out of this but you've hit a hot button.
>>
>> In theory what you say is true. But in reality we know it is not.
>>
>> While I will acknowledge using vanilla Oracle functionality you likely
>> will see no issues ... move to RAC or Grid Control other pieces of the
>> puzzle and this is clearly not the case.
>>
>> The answer to the OP should be ... "depends" ... which most often is
>> the correct answer to any question asked.
>> --
>
> Ok, so what specifically is the difference between RAC on Solaris 8 or 10?
> In fact, I could answer all questions here with simply "depends", but that's
> not very helpful, is it?

Don't have the exact answer here at my desk but I would expect
differences in libraries, differences in compilers, and differences in
security implementation for sure.

I'll give you a simple example from RedHat Linux. Want to run Grid
Control? Better be in RedHat 3: Not 4.

A check of metalink may show differences in patches required between
Solaris 8 and 10 ... undoubtedly will methinks.
--
Daniel A. Morgan
http://www.psoug.org
damorgan@x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)

Sounds somewhat farfetched to me. If you have a problem in production
and you have a support contract, oracle support is obliged to lend
assistance. Solaris 8 is still supported by sun and as long as you
stick with things that are on the support/compatibility matrix ( which
oracle databases releases are supported on what os versions ).

Yes granted the workers within oracle support and oracle development
have to do less if you can produce a test case that is reproducible at
will.

I go back to an earlier question, how solid are your backup and
recovery procedures and what dependencies or problems are introduced
there ( or not ) by the different solaris versions.

If you have issues there, then you should address those issues. If you
are clean in that area, then perhaps you are worrying about things that
oracle is obliged to support you in any regard.

I agree that risk is minimal but I guess i'm wondering if I should put
myself in a situation where they are out of sync if I don't need to. I
fully agree that we should upgrade to Solaris 10 but I would rather
have a plan in place to upgrade all our environments instead of having
descrepancies.

Just knowing how long it takes to get things done in our environment,
if there is no plan now, then it isn't on the radar for the forseeable
future. I'd have no issues with them being out of sync for 6 months
but no more than that.

Backup and recovery isn't an issue, we have a good plan for that. I
don't think there are any dependancies based on OS version.