Oracle 9i on Linux vs. Windows 2000 Server

I recently performed a technical, head-to-head comparison of Oracle 9i release 2 running under out-of-the-box versions of Red Hat Linux 7.2 (kernel 2.4.7-10smp) and Windows 2000 Server Edition, on identical Pentium-based hardware. The goal of these tests was identify the strengths and weaknesses of each operating system in the areas of database performance, stability, and ease of administration / support.

Notes on the Hardware, Operating Systems Compared, Etc.

Testing was performed on a Compaq DL380 with 1 GB RAM and 2 Pentium III processors with 512K of cache, running at 1.13 Gigahertz. The chassis contained five (5) 18.2 GB Drives hooked to a MegaRAID controlled (although RAID was not used on the disks containing database data files or operating system swap).

After each test run was completed, the server disks were wiped of partitioning information, reformatted and re-imaged with the competing operating system with a comparable swap configuration / layout, Oracle software installation, and eventual database configuration and layout.

The Linux configuration with ext3 filesystems with journaling enabled. The Windows filesystem used the closest equivalent on it's platform, namely NTFS.

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