Hi all,

After numerous hours attempting to get the Suse Personal Edition 8.2
OS to work in a normal manner, I am considering another Linux.

I am familiar with the Oracle Certification matrix.
Yet, I want to ask your experienced opinions.

I want to install Linux on a 2.53 ghz processor, dual boot with
XP. Then, install Oracle and RAC on top of that, using firewire.
At home, for learning purposes.

Later on, I want to install Oracle apps, and Oracle application server.
On the same kernel.

What is a good version of Linux to work with?

Criteria:

- comes cheap on CDs (No support.)
- underlying files are common to most Linux distributions.
- OS works properly. ie. permanently set semaphores in minutes.
- OS works with firewire
- OS works with RAC
- has large user community and lots of documentation on the web

Will Redhat professional workstation work?
How about Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 2.1 Standard ED. Only $210.
How about Mandrake? Linux 9.2 is only $7.00 at Linux Central.
Is there a place to buy Redhat Enterprise or Advanced
server cheap? Or download for free?

Sorry for the dumb questions. It's not often I buy another
operating system.

Thanks a lot

<linuxquestion@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:672ceaed.0311150004.201821d0@posting.google.c om...
> Hi all,
>
> After numerous hours attempting to get the Suse Personal Edition 8.2
> OS to work in a normal manner, I am considering another Linux.
>
> I am familiar with the Oracle Certification matrix.
> Yet, I want to ask your experienced opinions.
>
> I want to install Linux on a 2.53 ghz processor, dual boot with
> XP. Then, install Oracle and RAC on top of that, using firewire.
> At home, for learning purposes.
>
> Later on, I want to install Oracle apps, and Oracle application server.
> On the same kernel.
>
> What is a good version of Linux to work with?
>
> Criteria:
>
> - comes cheap on CDs (No support.)
> - underlying files are common to most Linux distributions.
> - OS works properly. ie. permanently set semaphores in minutes.
> - OS works with firewire
> - OS works with RAC
> - has large user community and lots of documentation on the web
>
> Will Redhat professional workstation work?
> How about Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 2.1 Standard ED. Only $210.
> How about Mandrake? Linux 9.2 is only $7.00 at Linux Central.
> Is there a place to buy Redhat Enterprise or Advanced
> server cheap? Or download for free?
>
> Sorry for the dumb questions. It's not often I buy another
> operating system.
>
> Thanks a lot

Actually, SuSe is a very good distribution for Linux. But the minute you
step outside the certification matrix, you must expect problems. You just
have to google a lot to find the answers to particular issues such as your
kernel parameters one.

That said, I wouldn't touch Mandrake. It's very nice for a desktop, but it's
a bit of Mickey Mouse job as far as servers are concerned. Just my personal
bias.

Red Hat is good. If you don't want to shell out for the biggie Enterprise
stuff (and there's no need to, just to practice RAC), my vote would go (I
think) to Red Hat 8.0, but Red Hat 9.0 is workable.

Regards
HJR

(and if you do decide to go Red Hat or Mandrake, check out www.dizwell.com
whitepapers).

"Howard J. Rogers" <hjr@dizwell.com> wrote in message
news:3fb5f1f4$0$13984$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.a u...
>
> <linuxquestion@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:672ceaed.0311150004.201821d0@posting.google.c om...
> > Hi all,
> >
> > After numerous hours attempting to get the Suse Personal Edition 8.2
> > OS to work in a normal manner, I am considering another Linux.
> >
> > I am familiar with the Oracle Certification matrix.
> > Yet, I want to ask your experienced opinions.
> >
> > I want to install Linux on a 2.53 ghz processor, dual boot with
> > XP. Then, install Oracle and RAC on top of that, using firewire.
> > At home, for learning purposes.
> >
> > Later on, I want to install Oracle apps, and Oracle application server.
> > On the same kernel.
> >
> > What is a good version of Linux to work with?
> >
> > Criteria:
> >
> > - comes cheap on CDs (No support.)
> > - underlying files are common to most Linux distributions.
> > - OS works properly. ie. permanently set semaphores in minutes.
> > - OS works with firewire
> > - OS works with RAC
> > - has large user community and lots of documentation on the web
> >
> > Will Redhat professional workstation work?
> > How about Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 2.1 Standard ED. Only $210.
> > How about Mandrake? Linux 9.2 is only $7.00 at Linux Central.
> > Is there a place to buy Redhat Enterprise or Advanced
> > server cheap? Or download for free?
> >
> > Sorry for the dumb questions. It's not often I buy another
> > operating system.
> >
> > Thanks a lot
>
> Actually, SuSe is a very good distribution for Linux.

Sorry, that should have read "for Oracle".
HJR

On 15 Nov 2003 00:04:36 -0800, linuxquestion@yahoo.com wrote:

>
>I want to install Linux on a 2.53 ghz processor, dual boot with
>XP. Then, install Oracle and RAC on top of that, using firewire.
>At home, for learning purposes.
>
>Later on, I want to install Oracle apps, and Oracle application server.
>On the same kernel.

You are going to find out this combination of Oracle software on one
server is not going to work ever. Obviously you didn't read Oracle's
hardware requirements and their advice NOT to run Oracle Application
Server on a database server.
Also please do not crosspost to every group you can spell.


--
Sybrand Bakker, Senior Oracle DBA

In alt.os.linux Howard J. Rogers <hjr@dizwell.com> wrote:

> <linuxquestion@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:672ceaed.0311150004.201821d0@posting.google.c om...
....

> > Will Redhat professional workstation work?

You could make it working, as almost any other distro.

> > How about Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 2.1 Standard ED. Only $210.
> > How about Mandrake? Linux 9.2 is only $7.00 at Linux Central.
> > Is there a place to buy Redhat Enterprise or Advanced
> > server cheap? Or download for free?

Not that I'm aware of, at least not legal.

[..]

> Red Hat is good. If you don't want to shell out for the biggie Enterprise
> stuff (and there's no need to, just to practice RAC), my vote would go (I
> think) to Red Hat 8.0, but Red Hat 9.0 is workable.

AFAIR you need the proper gcc version to even install Oracle probably. The one
that comes with RH 8.0/9.0 is just too new.

RH AS/ES 2.1 don't come with lvm, making it unusable as db server, AS/ES 3.0
come with lvm, however I'm still waiting for the install media, can't comment
on those.

Oracle runs fine on SuSE SLES8, but you don't get this enterprise distro for
free and you need a special account to be even able to download patches.

Best idea, get someone you know to make you a copy of the SLES media kit
and the patches. While this might not be legal, I wouldn't care much if
this is really for private educational purposes only!

Good luck

--
Michael Heiming

Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM

"Sybrand Bakker" <gooiditweg@sybrandb.nospam.demon.nl> wrote in message
news:m9rbrvg00460oq1pkfpon03ddspdsvqbdm@4ax.com...
> On 15 Nov 2003 00:04:36 -0800, linuxquestion@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> >
> >I want to install Linux on a 2.53 ghz processor, dual boot with
> >XP. Then, install Oracle and RAC on top of that, using firewire.
> >At home, for learning purposes.
> >
> >Later on, I want to install Oracle apps, and Oracle application server.
> >On the same kernel.
>
> You are going to find out this combination of Oracle software on one
> server is not going to work ever. Obviously you didn't read Oracle's
> hardware requirements and their advice NOT to run Oracle Application
> Server on a database server.
> Also please do not crosspost to every group you can spell.

He wants to learn, Sybrand. Not put it into production.

Right now, I have a single Windows 2003 server running VMware hosting 2 Red
Hat 9 virtual machines running Oracle 9.2 in one with a logical standby in
the other, 1 Red Hat 8.0 virtual machine running 9iAS, and 1 virtual machine
running Windows XP acting as the Management Server and RMAN repository. It
all works perfectly and pretty fast, and is an excellent platform to learn
on. It requires only a bit of gumption and a couple of Gigabytes of RAM to
run.

There is, in short, no reason why a learning environment should not be as
challenging as you want to make it.

Regards
HJR

> > Red Hat is good. If you don't want to shell out for the biggie Enterprise
> > stuff (and there's no need to, just to practice RAC), my vote would go (I
> > think) to Red Hat 8.0, but Red Hat 9.0 is workable.

So, you have got RAC to work on regular Red Hat 8 and 9?


> AFAIR you need the proper gcc version to even install Oracle properly.
> The one that comes with RH 8.0/9.0 is just too new.

As was my bad experience attempting to install 817 on the newest Redhat 7
a few years ago. After days of struggle, I went back to 6.2, and 817
installed in an hour. I was not impressed.


> RH AS/ES 2.1 don't come with lvm, making it unusable as db server, AS/ES 3.0
> come with lvm, however I'm still waiting for the install media, can't comment
> on those.

Really? I noticed that my Suse Personal 8.2 had a GUI to configure
RAID, and LVM.

> Best idea, get someone you know to make you a copy of the SLES media kit
> and the patches. While this might not be legal, I wouldn't care much if
> this is really for private educational purposes only!

As the Oracle sales reps said regarding ordering their CDs for $40.00.

Thanks everyone for all your help and support.

HI Howard,

Thanks a lot for all your help and support. You will no doubt
be seeing some more questions on fine points in here.

I took a look at your website. Thanks for making your PDFs
available. I'll be sure to check them out.

Thanks again!


> That said, I wouldn't touch Mandrake. It's very nice for a desktop, but it's
> a bit of Mickey Mouse job as far as servers are concerned. Just my personal
> bias.
>
> Red Hat is good. If you don't want to shell out for the biggie Enterprise
> stuff (and there's no need to, just to practice RAC), my vote would go (I
> think) to Red Hat 8.0, but Red Hat 9.0 is workable.
>
> Regards
> HJR
>
> (and if you do decide to go Red Hat or Mandrake, check out www.dizwell.com
> whitepapers).

In alt.os.linux linuxquestion@yahoo.com wrote:
> > > Red Hat is good. If you don't want to shell out for the biggie Enterprise
> > > stuff (and there's no need to, just to practice RAC), my vote would go (I
> > > think) to Red Hat 8.0, but Red Hat 9.0 is workable.

> So, you have got RAC to work on regular Red Hat 8 and 9?

Nope, nor did I wrote that, you snipped too much away.

[..]

--
Michael Heiming

Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM

<linuxquestion@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:672ceaed.0311151022.509e46be@posting.google.c om...
> > > Red Hat is good. If you don't want to shell out for the biggie
Enterprise
> > > stuff (and there's no need to, just to practice RAC), my vote would go
(I
> > > think) to Red Hat 8.0, but Red Hat 9.0 is workable.
>
> So, you have got RAC to work on regular Red Hat 8 and 9?
>

Careful with your snipping. It was me that said I had RAC working on RH8 and
RH9. And yes, I do. It's not difficult.

Regards
HJR