Oracle Linux
| Company type | Linux distribution |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founder | Oracle Corporation |
| Headquarters | Redwood Shores, California , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Oracle Linux operating system |
| Owner | Oracle Corporation |
| Website | https://www.oracle.com/linux/ |
Oracle Linux (abbreviated as OL, previously known as Oracle Enterprise Linux or OEL) is a Linux distribution created and distributed at no cost by Oracle Corporation since 2006. It is partially derived from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), with Oracle substituting Red Hat’s branding for its own. Oracle Linux serves as the operating system for Oracle Cloud and Oracle Engineered Systems such as Oracle Exadata.
Users have the option to freely download Oracle Linux from Oracle’s official servers or various mirror sites and deploy it without restrictions. Oracle provides a commercial Oracle Linux Support program that delivers technical assistance not only for Oracle Linux but also for existing RHEL or CentOS installations, eliminating the need for reinstallation. By 2016, this support service had attracted more than 15,000 subscribers.
RHEL Compatibility
Oracle Corporation supplies Oracle Linux with two distinct Linux kernel variants:
- Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK), which matches the kernel used in RHEL exactly
- Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK), built on more recent mainline Linux kernels and enhanced by Oracle to improve performance in areas such as OLTP, SSD utilization, NUMA optimization, async I/O, OCFS2, Btrfs, and networking.[1]
Oracle Linux guarantees application binary compatibility with RHEL, allowing existing software to run seamlessly without modification due to identical interfaces.
In August 2023, CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE established the Open Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA) to jointly develop open and freely accessible Enterprise Linux source code. By November 2023, OpenELA had publicly released Enterprise Linux source code and reached significant technical and governance milestones.
Hardware and Software Compatibility
Oracle Linux holds certifications for deployment on servers manufactured by Cisco, Dell, HPE, IBM, and Lenovo. In July 2023, HPE and Supermicro announced support for Oracle Linux on their Arm-based server platforms.
Certified third-party software compatible with Oracle Linux and Oracle VM is cataloged in the official listing. Servers from Oracle/Sun equipped with x86-64 processors can be preconfigured to ship with Oracle Linux installed.
Oracle Linux is offered as an Amazon Machine Image on Amazon EC2 and as a virtual machine image on Microsoft Azure.
Furthermore, Oracle Linux is accessible as a Windows application through the Microsoft Store and via the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
Virtualization Support
Included within Oracle Linux is the KVM hypervisor alongside an oVirt-based management platform. The distribution also supports virtualization technologies such as VMware and Xen through Oracle VM solutions.
Starting with version 1.7, the Oracle Cloud Native Environment integrated KubeVirt to facilitate unified management of both containers and virtual machines.
Container and Orchestration Support
Linux Containers (LXC) are supported on Oracle Linux 7.
Oracle Container Runtime for Docker is compatible with Oracle Linux versions 6 and 7; however, it is not supported on Oracle Linux 8 or later releases.
In Oracle Linux 8 and 9, Podman takes the place of Oracle Container Runtime for Docker. Together with Buildah and Skopeo, these utilities facilitate the creation, execution, and administration of OCI-compliant containers across Oracle Linux platforms.
The Oracle Cloud Native Environment utilizes CRI-O to integrate container runtimes, enabling the deployment of Kubernetes-compatible OCI containers.
Oracle Linux container images can be obtained from the Oracle Container Registry, GitHub Container Registry, and Docker Hub.
Deployment within Oracle Corporation
Oracle extensively implements Oracle Linux throughout its Oracle Public Cloud infrastructure to optimize IT expenditures. More than 42,000 servers operate on Oracle Linux within Oracle Global IT, SaaS offerings such as Oracle On Demand, Oracle University, and various technology demonstration environments.
Key Oracle products—including Oracle Database, Fusion Middleware, E-Business Suite, and other components of Oracle Applications—are developed by Oracle engineers on the Oracle Linux platform.
Associated products
Oracle Linux forms the core operating system for multiple Oracle appliances:
- Oracle Exadata
- Oracle Private Cloud Appliance
- Oracle Big Data Appliance
- Oracle Exalytics
- Oracle Database Appliance
Distinctive enhancements
- Oracle Linux Automation Manager – Built on the open source AWX project, this provides a task execution engine and web interface to schedule and run Ansible playbooks.
- Oracle Cloud Native Environment – A CNCF-certified Kubernetes distribution delivering a comprehensive suite for cloud native application development and deployment.
- Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager – An oVirt-based management tool designed to configure, monitor, and oversee Oracle Linux KVM environments.
- Ksplice – Acquired through Ksplice Inc in 2011, this technology enables live kernel patching for users of Oracle Linux.
- DTrace – Adapted from Solaris as a Linux kernel module since 2011.
- Oracle Linux Manager – Facilitates management of the software lifecycle for Oracle Linux.
- OS Management Hub – A centralized update and patch management service for Oracle Linux systems hosted on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Sun Fire systems
In March 2012, Oracle presented a TPC-C benchmark result using an x86 Sun Fire server running Oracle Linux with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel. Equipped with eight Intel Xeon processors and running Oracle Database 11g Release 2, the system achieved over 5.06 million tpmC (New-Order transactions per minute), positioning it as the third-fastest TPC-C non-clustered system and the fastest x86-64 non-clustered system at that time.
Additionally, Oracle established a SPECjEnterprise2010 benchmark record using Oracle Linux combined with Oracle WebLogic Server, setting single-node and x86 world records with a performance of 27,150 EjOPS (SPECjEnterprise Operations Per Second).
Cisco UCS systems
Cisco presented two TPC-C benchmark outcomes utilizing Oracle Linux with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel R2 on UCS platforms. These UCS configurations secured the fourth and eighth positions on the leading TPC-C non-clustered rankings.
SPARC version
In December 2010, Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison announced plans for Oracle Linux to be compatible with Oracle's SPARC hardware. Later, at Oracle OpenWorld 2014, EVP John Fowler reaffirmed that Linux support for SPARC was on the horizon.
By October 2015, Oracle introduced a Linux reference platform tailored for SPARC machines, based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Subsequently, in September 2016, Oracle revealed the forthcoming Oracle Exadata SL6-2, a database server powered by SPARC processors running Linux.
On 31 March 2017, Oracle officially launched Oracle Linux for SPARC processors, compatible with SPARC T4, T5, M5, and M7 series. This version is intended primarily for developers and partners and enjoys official support exclusively on Exadata SL6 systems.
Software updates and version history
Starting in March 2012, Oracle made software updates and errata for Oracle Linux freely accessible through its public yum repositories. By September 2013, these repositories handled approximately 80 TB of monthly data transfer, leading to a migration to the Akamai content delivery network to better accommodate the increasing traffic.
Release history
- Oracle Linux 10
- Oracle Linux 9 series (versions 9.0 through 9.6)
- Oracle Linux 8 series (versions 8.0 through 8.10)
- Oracle Linux 7 series (versions 7.0 through 7.9)
- Oracle Linux 6 series (versions 6.0 through 6.10)
- Oracle Linux 5 series (versions 5.0 through 5.11)
- Oracle Enterprise Linux 4 series (versions 4.4 through 4.9)
Oracle Linux synchronizes its version numbering with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), adopting identical base versions (for example, Oracle Linux 4.5 corresponds to RHEL 4.5), although it operates under separate support timelines.
| Oracle Linux Release | Architectures | RHEL base | Oracle Linux release date | RHEL release date | Days after RHEL release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.5 | i386, x86-64 | 4.5 | Template:Dunno | 2007-05-01 | Template:Dunno |
| 4.6 | 4.6 | 2007-12-10 | 2007-11-16 | 24 | |
| 4.7 | 4.7 | 2008-08-05 | 2008-07-24 | 12 | |
| 4.8 | 4.8 | 2009-05-26 | 2009-05-18 | 8 | |
| 4.9 | 4.9 | Template:Dunno | 2011-02-16 | Template:Dunno | |
| 5.0 | 5 | 2007-06-26 | 2007-03-14 | 104 | |
| 5.1 | 5.1 | 2007-11-26 | 2007-11-07 | 19 | |
| 5.2 | 5.2 | 2008-06-02 | 2008-05-21 | 12 | |
| 5.3 | 5.3 | 2009-01-28 | 2009-01-20 | 8 | |
| 5.4 | i386, x86-64, ia64 | 5.4 | 2009-09-09 | 2009-09-02 | 7 |
| 5.5 | 5.5 | 2010-04-07 | 2010-03-31 | ||
| 5.6 | 5.6 | 2011-01-22 | 2011-01-13 | 9 | |
| 5.7 | 5.7 | 2011-08-16 | 2011-07-21 | 26 | |
| 5.8 | 5.8 | 2012-03-02 | 2012-02-21 | 10 | |
| 5.9 | 5.9 | 2013-01-16 | 2013-01-07 | 9 | |
| 5.10 | string=5.10 | string=2013–10–08 | string=2013–10–01 | 7 | |
| 5.11 | string=5.11 | string=2014–09–23 | string=2014–09–16 | ||
| 6.0 | i386, x86–64 | string=6 | string=2011–02–11 | string=2010–11–10 | 93 |
| 6.1 | string=6.1 | string=2011–06–01 | string=2011–05–19 | 13 | |
| 6.2 | string=6.2 | string=2011–12–15 | string=2011–12–06 | 9 | |
| 6.3 | string=6.3 | string=2012–06–28 | string=2012–06–21 | 7 | |
| 6.4 | string=6.4 | string=2013–02–28 | string=2013–02–21 | ||
| 6.5 | string=6.5 | string=2013–11–27 | string=2013–11–21 | 6 | |
| 6.6 | string=6.6 | string=2014–10–21 | string=2014–10–14 | 7 | |
| 6.7 | rowspan=2 |6.7 | 2015–07–31 | rowspan=2 |2015–07–22 | style="text-align:center;" |9 | |
| SPARC | 2017–03–31 | style="text-align:center;" |618 | |||
| 6.8 | i386, x86−64 | 6.8 | 2016−05−16 | 2016−05−10 | style="text-align:center;" |6 |
| 6.9 | 6.9 | 2017−03−28 | 2017−03−21 | style="text-align:center;" |7 | |
| 6.10 | 6.10 | 2018−07−02 | 2018−06−19 | style="text-align:center;" |13 | |
Support Duration
| Version | Premier Support Ends | Extended Support Ends | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 31 October 2011 | Not applicable | ||||
| 4 | 28 February 2013 | Not applicable | ||||
| 5 | 30 June 2017 | 30 November 2020 | ||||
| 6 | 31 March 2021 | 31 December 2024 | ||||
| 7 | 31 December 2024 | 30 June 2028 | ||||
| 8 | 31 July 2029 | 31 July 2032 | ||||
| 9 | 30 June 2032 | 30 June 2035 | ||||
| 10 | 30 June 2035 | 30 June 2038 | ||||
| Details on support lifecycle | ||||||
Oracle OpenStack for Oracle Linux
Oracle launched OpenStack for Oracle Linux in September 2014; however, by October 2020, the company discontinued support and halted further releases, signaling a realignment of its cloud infrastructure strategy.
See also
- Oracle Solaris
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux derivatives
- List of commercial products based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
External links
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).