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Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS2) Software Support and Update Policy for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Supported by Red Hat [ID 1253272.1]
Modified 03-NOV-2010 Type ANNOUNCEMENT Status PUBLISHED
In this Document
What is being announced?
Purpose
What do you need to do?
Who to contact for more information?
Applies to:
Unbreakable Linux and Virtualization
Linux OS - Version: 1.2.1 to 1.6]
Information in this document applies to any platform.
What is being announced?
Purpose
This document outlines Oracle's support Policy for customers using OCFS2 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) supported by Red Hat.
What is OCFS2?
OCFS2 is a general purpose shared-disk cluster file system for Linux capable of providing both high performance and high availability. As it provides local file system
semantics, it can be used with almost all applications. Cluster-aware applications can make use of cache-coherent parallel I/Os from multiple nodes to scale out
applications easily. Other applications can make use of the file system facilities to fail-over running application in the event of a node failure.
The file system is currently being used in virtualization (Oracle VM) in both the management domain, to host virtual machine images, and in the guest domain, to
allow Linux guests to share a file system. It is also being used in database clusters (Oracle RAC), middleware clusters (Oracle E-Business Suite), appliances (SAP's
Business Intelligence Accelerator), etc.
Software Update Policy for OCFS2 running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Oracle provides OCFS2 software and support for database file storage usage for customers who receive Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system support
from Red Hat and have a valid Oracle database support contract. When a new RHEL update comes out, Oracle will provide the current release of OCFS2 for it. The
older releases of OCFS2 will not be built for the new update versions of RHEL. OCFS2 is not supported for general filesystem use on RHEL without an Oracle Linux
support subscription. Furthermore, OCFS2 software is not provided under Red Hat’s Extended Update Support (EUS or "z-stream”) or Extended Lifecycle Support
(ELS).
Requirements for OCFS2 Software Updates
To receive software updates for OCFS2, both the release of the Oracle database in use and the version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux in use must be fully supported
by Oracle and Red Hat respectively. Specifically, the Oracle Database release must be covered under Premier support or Extended support as defined in the Oracle
Lifetime Support Policy for Oracle Technology Products and the RHEL version must be supported under one of the Production Lifecycle Phases as defined in the
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5) x86, x86-64, Itanium, and PowerPC
OCFS2 software can be downloaded from the Oracle OCFS2 Downloads for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 page on OTN. Updates and bug fixes to OCFS2 are
provided for Linux kernels that are part the latest supported release of RHEL5 listed in the Enterprise Linux Supported Releases document and three update releases
prior to that. For example, if the latest supported release of RHEL is RHEL5, Update 5 (RHEL5.5), then updates to OCFS2 will be provided for RHEL5.2, RHEL5.3,
RHEL5.4 and RHEL5.5 kernels.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (RHEL4) x86, x86-64, Itanium, and PowerPC
OCFS2 software can be downloaded from the Oracle OCFS2 Downloads for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 AS page on OTN. Updates and bug fixes to OCFS2 are
provided for Linux kernels that are part of the latest supported release of RHEL4 listed in the Enterprise Linux Supported Releases document and three update
releases prior to that. For example, if the latest supported release of RHEL is RHEL4, Update 8 (RHEL4.8), then updates to OCFS2 will be provided for RHEL4.5,
RHEL4.6, RHEL4.7 and RHEL4.8 kernels.
Software Update Policy for OCFS2 running on future releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL6)
Starting with RHEL6, Oracle will provide OCFS2 software via ULN only. ULN requires an Oracle Linux support subscription, even for those customers using OCFS2
just to store database files.
What do you need to do?
To ensure your OCFS2 is supported by Oracle on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux supported by Red Hat, please update your RHEL and OCFS2 software to the
supported version.
Who to contact for more information?
You can get help in the following ways:
• If you have purchased Basic or Premier support, you can open a service request with Oracle support
• If you have purchased Network support, you may discuss technical issues on the OTN Linux forum
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Related
Products
Unbreakable Linux and Virtualization > Unbreakable Linux > Operating • System > Linux OS
• Unbreakable Linux and Virtualization >
Keywords
CLUSTER; ULN; ENTERPRISE; LINUX; OCFS2; SOFTWARE UPDATE
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