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Re: ORACLE on OpenVMS - declining?

 
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Richard W Hunt
Valued Contributor

ORACLE on OpenVMS - declining?

This is a request for any clarification that anyone can offer.

Recently one of our database admin staff members was checking into something related to patch availability for ORACLE. He found a reference that suggests that ORACLE has declared an end to OpenVMS support at ORACLE 10gR2. However, the person was not sure from context whether that was "no more OpenVMS versions after ORACLE 10.0.2" or "no more OpenVMS/Alpha versions after ORACLE 10.0.2" and he can't find more about it.

We were planning an upgrade to the Integrity server line anyway, but this sort of thing makes us pause. If they meant "no more Alpha versions after 10.0.2" then this is nothing to concern us. If they really meant "no more OpenVMS versions, any platform, after 10.0.2" then we have a different problem facing us.

We are at a U.S. Dept. of Defense site so it is technically illegal for us to continue to use a product once it falls off the "support" matrix. Before I advise my government point of contact of the best way to go forward, I was hoping that someone else might have heard about this and could clarify it for me.

I've searched the web but so far, no joy in finding any announcements. But then again, I might not have asked quite the right question. Some search engines are a bit touchy, after all.

Sr. Systems Janitor
7 REPLIES 7
Hoff
Honored Contributor

Re: ORACLE on OpenVMS - declining?

It might help to post a pointer to whatever statement was located.

That written and given your particular local requirements, please consider calling Oracle and ask directly for a statement. Your organization might find, have or be offered different requirements or options available, for instance. And you'll get an official statement.

ITRC and c.o.v. are not good resources for these questions.
Hoff
Honored Contributor

Re: ORACLE on OpenVMS - declining?

ps: this popped up in one of my feeds recently: http://de.openvms.org/stories.php story=10/02/26/5920787 (German)
Volker Halle
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: ORACLE on OpenVMS - declining?

Richard,

I've heard about this as well.

And I've found an Oracle Product Update presentation from the OpenVMS TUD 2008, which seems to confirm this:

http://www.woertman.com/VMSTUD2008/Oracle%20Product%20Update.pdf

Product overview
Oracle database on Alpha
├в ┬в 10g porting through terminal release
├в ┬в Support until 2013

Oracle database on Itanium
├в ┬в 10gR2 Transition Release
├в ┬в New major database release to be ported to OpenVMS Itanium only
├в ┬в (e.g. 11gR2 and so on ├в ┬ж)

You still would want to ask for an official statement from Oracle.

Volker.
Volker Halle
Honored Contributor

Re: ORACLE on OpenVMS - declining?

Rciahrd,

and here is a 'Statement of direction' from Oracle dated SEP-2006:

http://www.oracle.com/partnerships/hw/VMS-directions-080305.pdf


Oracle is planning to deliver Oracle Database 10g through terminal release on the Alpha platform. Post 10g, the plan is to provide new releases of the Oracle database on OpenVMS Itanium only. Support for Oracle Database 10g on OpenVMS Alpha will be provided ├в in accordance with Oracle Standard and Extended Support policies ├в at least until 2011.


Volker.
John Gillings
Honored Contributor

Re: ORACLE on OpenVMS - declining?

Richard,

It might be better to clarify the title. My reading isn't "ORACLE on OpenVMS - declining", but "ORACLE on OpenVMS/Alpha - declining"

"New major database release to be ported to OpenVMS Itanium only"

Which seems fair enough, given that I haven't heard much noise from HP about extending the projected end of support for Alpha hardware from "at least 2012" (which is looming very close!)

Why would Oracle want to spend time and money developing software for an unsupported hardware platform?
A crucible of informative mistakes
Toine_1
Regular Advisor

Re: ORACLE on OpenVMS - declining?

Hi Richard,

Oracle 10gR2 (10.2.0.4) is running excellent on OpenVMS 8.3-1H1 on I64 Servers.

Patches for Oracle 10g are available and also Oracle is supporting the I64 VMS platform.

RMAN works fine for backup on OpenVMS
You can also use Oracle grid ocntrol to manage/monitor your databases on OpenVMS I64 Servers.

/Toine
Richard W Hunt
Valued Contributor

Re: ORACLE on OpenVMS - declining?

I tried to post closure yesterday but my site network was having trouble, even with our own internal Outlook stuff. So I thought I'd revisit this today. Thanks to all who contributed.

I have enough feedback to know that my wayward junior DBA who spun up the staff here was careless in two ways... not reading more carefully and not stopping to ask follow-up questions.

My senior DBA, once spun up like the rest of us, found a few helpful articles eventually, though ORACLE takes their own sweet time in answering anything.

Just to clarify, for those saying that we can run on 10g2 Client on our Alphas just fine even after 10g becomes a deprecated product,... no we can't. Once the government determines that we can no longer obtain patches and security fixes for some piece of software, we are mandated to upgrade to something that is supported. (Something to do with the government always needing a way to hold feet to the fire... and none of us want it to be OUR feet!)

If 10g on Alpha becomes unsupported (which it eventually will), we MUST move to something else. Which is why the Itanium migration is in our future. My question was intended to help us verify the direction we wanted to go.
Sr. Systems Janitor