Comment by chasil | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chasil | Hacker News Reader

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It has a few add-ons.

The "Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel" includes full btrfs, extensive device support (that is removed from the stock kernel), is tuned for the eponymous database, and is always more current. There are several scenarios where it is very attractive.

Oracle bought K-Splice several years ago, which was the first rebootless patch solution for Linux. It's only available with a premium license; Kernelcare is a lot cheaper.

Supported Oracle Linux versions are also available for WSL1 inside of Windows.

  C:\>wsl.exe -l -o
  The following is a list of valid distributions that can be installed.
  The default distribution is denoted by '*'.
  Install using 'wsl --install -d <Distro>'.

  NAME                                   FRIENDLY NAME
  Ubuntu                                 Ubuntu
  Debian                                 Debian GNU/Linux
  kali-linux                             Kali Linux Rolling
  Ubuntu-18.04                           Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
  Ubuntu-20.04                           Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
  Ubuntu-22.04                           Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
  OracleLinux_7_9                        Oracle Linux 7.9
  OracleLinux_8_7                        Oracle Linux 8.7
  OracleLinux_9_1                        Oracle Linux 9.1
  SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-Server-15-SP4    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4
  openSUSE-Leap-15.4                     openSUSE Leap 15.4
  openSUSE-Tumbleweed                    openSUSE Tumbleweed

Oracle Linux came into existence shortly after Red Hat bought JBoss. As Oracle had also bought BEA Weblogic (IIRC), this was not taken well.

> The "Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel" includes full btrfs, extensive device support (that is removed from the stock kernel), is tuned for the eponymous database, and is always more current. There are several scenarios where it is very attractive.

I'd never go for btrfs in anything enterprise.

But it does annoy me how RHEL moves normal open source software to the separate repos that are available with extra support packages, it just makes managing it annoying

It also annoys me to great extents when Red Hat removes support for SAS raid cards that are perfectly usable.

Oracle fixes that.

Removed it midstream or between releases ?

RH generally only removes features in major releases. The exception is when they introduce features as a technology preview. Those are subject to potential removal before the EOL of that major release, though they rarely do.

That was what I had thought. I'm confused with the original statement being a problem as both vendor and the os both need to support the hardware. If there is a problem with the firmware who will RHEL go to keep its agreements ?

OEL is dependent on RHEL for patches, so how can it be "always more current."?

The UEK is more dedicated to following long-term-release kernels. Oracle's re-wrap is known as the "Red Hat Compatible Kernel."

v7-rhck-3.10.0-1160.92.1.0.1

v7-uek-5.4.17-2136.320.7.1

v8-rhck-4.18.0-477.13.1

v8-uek-5.15.0-102.110.5

v9-rhck-5.14.0-284.11.1

v9-uek-5.15.0-102.110.5.1

Kernel version 3.10 has always been stock rhel7's version, but the UEK has jumped through v4 to v5.

Red Hat made a big deal about io_uring availability in v9, but I am guessing that it is available in v8's UEK.

I will say that the Oracle database group's support for v9 is very poor at this point; for some reason, they are holding to v8, and releasing few products for the newer platform.

Don't forget OCFS2 as well! I am surprised that HN didn't know OEL wasn't just s/redhat/oracle/

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