Author: Burleson

Why Intel-based servers?

Intel-based servers are now moving out of the monarchy of personal computing and are morphing into industrial-strength servers. The low cost of Intel-based servers is taking the IT industry by storm. With costs as little as one-tenth of proprietary UNIX such as AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris, companies are saving millions of dollars by migrating to Intel platforms.

Why not Intel-based servers?

The only limitation of Intel-based servers is their 32-bit architecture. For Oracle, the 32-bit architecture means that very large memory regions (e.g., the Oracle System Global Area) cannot grow beyond four gigabytes—a size far smaller than their 64-bit cousins, where Oracle RAM regions commonly exceed 20 gigabytes. However, this 32-bit limitation is about to change. The impending availability of Intel 64-bit architecture has caused widespread excitement, and Intel-based servers will soon be able to compete with giant proprietary UNIX servers.

Oracle on Linux OR Oracle on Windows:

Oracle professionals now have a choice: They can use the Intel-based server on Oracle with Linux or Microsoft Windows. There is a huge debate about which OS is best.

• Linux has significant advantages over Windows in performance.
• Linux is more flexible in the context of flexibility of administration and management.
• Windows lack the consistency between many database administrative functions e.g., automated startup, shutdown, service creation, scripting compared to what DBAs are already used to in many mainstream UNIX environments (e.g., Solaris and HP-UX)
• Oracle and Oracle9iAS run far faster using a Microsoft OS. Windows is faster than Oracle according to a performance benchmark of Oracle's application server (Oracle9iAS)
• Oracle professionals with hands on the Windows GUI fear to learn cryptic Linux commands.
• UNIX Oracle professionals despise the complex Windows registry and lack of a command-line interface.

I run a 64-bit PC with a 32-bit Windows OS, and I'm used to dealing with the inevitable memory leaks, unplanned locks-up and re-boots.  I even use IE7 Beta, guaranteeing that I have frequent memory-related problems.  Its fun to watch Windows freak-out with memory problems, as bits and oddments from Random RAM heaps show on your screen.  It makes me wonder what it might be like on a shared Windows platform.  I first remember seeing buffer overflow RAM leaks in COBOL programming where a S0C4 would include RAM from other regions.

Anyway I wonder what Linux would be like if we had stable automaton processes, core dumps from RAM trace files, kernel panics and Linux-level enqueues on shared resources?  Of course, the well-informed individuals never get into the Linux GUI components because they know the command syntax.  Knowledge of Linux commands can out-do any GUI, any day, and that's why you can't fake knowing Linux.

It's fun to watch so-called Linux GUI experts wriggle when you ask them to use vi for a complex alteration, write a shell script or modify a crontab.  If it's not in the GUI they can't do it and they are lost at the command prompt.  Now, I appreciate the point-and-click features of a GUI, but I still write DOS scripts (SFU, Windows services for UNIX) when I need a series of tasks.

Final Thoughts:

From a performance perspective, the debate between oracle windows and oracle linux continues, with neither Linux nor Windows taking a clear lead. However, one thing is clear that if Intel-based processors leap into a 64-bit architecture, Oracle shops will be hastening to take on these lower cost server substitutes, and proprietary UNIX vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, Sun, and IBM will be enforced to lower their cost to remain competitive.

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