Ivan Kartik - Oracle and Linux Blog

Is a RTFM/STFW an answer?

Yesterday I was reading Hector's blog where he described "Forums Code of Conduct". Generally I agree with all paragraphs except the 12 where we can find text as following:

"RTFM is not an answer. I have seen several times self-qualified senior level whatever providing this kind of answers. RTFM is equal as saying "don't bother me, stop @%##~ me", and this is not an acceptable technical answer, specially for those who pretend to be self qualified as senior." "RTFM is not an answer." - I can't agree with this point. In my opinion RTFM is an answer which could be also interpreted "Don't be lazy to read basics". Especially if questions are taken from some "braindump" list of questions for certification. Btw look at 5th paragraph: "Search before you post. Don't try to reinvent the wheel when someone else has already done it for you. A suitable answer can be found, a 10 minute goggling effort could find you an answer." In my opinon "Search before you post" = STFW (which is younger sister of RTFM) because RTFM we can rewrite to "Read before you post". In fact many users are using RTFM or STFW regulary in their answers on OTN forums but they do it a smart way (rather than rude way). Because RTFM/STFW could be posted in many forms for example: - hyperlink to documentation (specific section in documentation related to topic) - man - hyperlink to Google results for exact search phrase In my opinion RTFM and STFW definitely is an answer but it depends in which form you post it.

Forums Code of Conduct are described in great document How To Ask Questions The Smart Way which is available on Internet since 2001 and still(!) updated. It also explains why you can get RTFM/STFW answer on your question or what the poster of this answer want to tell you. Note, this post is not an offense on Hector's person or as criticism of his blog post. It only represents my opions. In fact I like Hector's posts and especially on OTN forums.

Choosing X client for graphical installation

You are using MS Windows and you want to install Oracle product on Unix (or Unix-like server) and you don't want to perform silent installation for some reason. You are facing to common question what X client to choose to perfom this task. Here is list of most known (free) clients along with some advantages and disadvantages for each solution.

Virtual Network Computing aka VNC VNC was developed at the Olivetti & Oracle Research Lab owned by Olivetti and Oracle Corporation. It consists of three parts: Server, Client and Protocol. For us there are intersting just two parts: Server - resides on the server machine and shares its screen. Client - resides on the local (client) machine and interacts with the server. Pros: + Small and easy to install application Cons: - X server must be installed and running on server (Maybe I'm old fashioned but I belive that X server should not be installed on server nor running on server) - VNC server is not installed by default on server, you need to install it - Unencrypted communication Homepage: http://www.tightvnc.com, http://www.realvnc.com

Cygwin Cygwin is Linux-like enviroment for Windows which was developed at Cygnus Software and currently is mantained by Redhat. Cygwin comes with pretty long list of software such as X server, KDE, SSH, Apache, gcc and so on. You can choose the packages to install during installation of Cygwin. Pros: + All in one. X server, SSH, shell (terminal) so the feelings are the same as you are using Linux as client/machine. + You can use X11 forwarding via SSH Cons: - As you need install X server, installation is quite long and Cygwin occupies significant amount of space. Homepage: http://www.cygwin.com

WeirdX WeirdX is Java implementation of X Window Server/Client. It is not designed for running of "heavy" X clients but for Oracle installation is pretty suitable. It supports X11 forwarding via SSH and is platform independent. Pros: + X11 forwarding via SSH + Platform independent Cons: not discovered Homepage: http://www.jcraft.com/weirdx/

Xming Xming is small and fast X Server/Client for Windows. This is probably best solution for Windows users. For SSH shell you need to use Putty. Pros: + Small, stable and fast X Window implementaion +- Features like X11 Forwarding are provided by external SSH client Homepage: http://sourceforge.net/projects/xming

Bootable Linux distribution CD / USB Key If you don't want install anything (or you can't install software to your local machine), you can use any of existing bootable Linux distributions. You will get full Linux distribution with SSH, X Server and other builtin utilities and features. Well known bootable distributions are: Fedora Live CD, Damn Small Linux (only 50M), Knoppix and others. This is my case. I'm using bootable USB key with Live Linux distribution with all software (including Oracle SW) or scripts that I need for installation or maintenance of Oracle products. Pros: + You will get everything and you don't need to install anything Cons: - You need to reboot PC and boot different OS :-) Conclusion: Which of these solutions is best? This conlusion is up to you.

Following chart is based on my personal feelings where 1 means best solution and 5 worst solution. 1. Xming 2. Linux bootable CD/USB key 3. WeirdX 4. Cygwin 5. VNC

 

 

Update: Linux in Virtual Machine This another option how to use Linux as client without installation and of course without need to reboot computer (which is needed to use previous option). To use this option you need to download just two things: VMware Player and some image (virtual appliance) of Linux distribution for VMware Player. Of course in case you have VMware Server/Workstation you can make your own installation of Linux. Pros: + Easy to install solution + You can use more operating systems at once + Plenty of Linux images availble for download Cons: - Memory requirements http://www.vmware.com/products/player http://www.vmware.com/appliances http://www.thoughtpolice.co.uk/vmware Thanks to Hans Forbrich for this option.

Sun's project Blackbox

Datacenter built into shipping container? What a hell...?

  • A single Project Blackbox could accommodate 250 Sun Fire T1000 servers with the CoolThreads technology with 2000 cores and 8000 simultaneous threads.
  • A single Project Blackbox could accommodate 250 x64-based servers with 1000 cores.
  • A single Project Blackbox could provide as much as 1.5 petabytes of disk storage or 2 petabytes of energy-efficient tape storage.
  • A single Project Blackbox could provide 7 terabytes of memory.
  • A single Project Blackbox could handle up to 10,000 simultaneous desktop users.
  • A single Project Blackbox currently has sufficient power and cooling to support 200 kilowatts of rackmounted equipment.

Check this... http://www.sun.com/emrkt/blackbox/story.jsp http://www.sun.com/emrkt/blackbox/scenarios.jsp

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