Oracle on Windows

There has been much discussion as to whether Oracle on Windows or Oracle on Linux is a better platform. My opinion has always been that if you are choosing between the two, the platform that better fits into your environment is the better choice. If you are a windows shop and have extensive expertise on Windows and no Linux experience it doesn't make much sense to put a foreign Operating System into your data center. On the other hand, if you are a Unix only shop, and have no in-house Windows expertise, Linux might be a better choice.

In addition, I feel that the way Oracle had developed the Oracle Database Server for Windows using the threading model would turn into an asset once 64-bit Windows is adopted. Remember that 32-bit Oracle on Windows suffers from virtual memory issues that are solved with 64-bit Windows. Thus the liability of using the thread model has turned into an asset (see previous blog).

In order to dispel any rumors or conjecture on whether Windows or Linux works better on the same hardware we recently ran a comparison. This comparison was done using the SwingBench tool. The result of this comparison is provided in a white paper which we have just published on our website. In order to get to this whitepaper follow this link.

Choosing the best OS for your environment involves more than just the performance of the database server. The Oracle Database Server on Windows provides compatibility with Active Directory and your entire integrated environment.

I have been asked the question "Does Oracle support NAS on Windows". Officially Oracle does not support native NAS devices per-se on Windows. I am speaking specifically of the CIFS protocol. This is not true for all platforms; Oracle does support NAS on Unix with NFS, but not on Windows. However, with the introduction of iSCSI Oracle does now support NAS on Windows.

The iSCSI protocol uses embedded SCSI commands within IP packets. This allows for storage to be accessed over the network, but at the same time take advantage of a proven storage protocol. The main benefits of iSCSI is that it is cheaper and potentially easier to use than the fibre channel equivalent.

In June of 2003 Microsoft released the iSCSI initiator and driver for Windows 2003. In addition, Microsoft has qualified a number of storage vendor’s products for use with Windows 2003. At the same time, Microsoft has introduced Windows Storage Server 2003, which allows a Microsoft Server to become the iSCSI NAS.

With iSCSI Oracle on Windows is completely supported as both a stand-alone Oracle database server or an Oracle RAC server. Yes, Oracle does support NAS on Windows.