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Banner® |
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On Linux |
Recently there's been a lot of discussion about running Banner on a Linux platform.
Here's the latest information that we have.
1. What Distribution of Linux is officially supported?
Officially, Banner is only supported on a Redhat AS Environment running GLIBC version 2.2. There are many, many other distributions of Linux out there, but this is the only "Officially" supported distribution.
2. Should I use 64 Bit or 32 Bit Versions of Linux?
That depends on how many servers you have, and your machine type. Assuming that you have a 64 processor, you can run 64Bit Linux. However, remember that while the Oracle RDBMS binaries are available in 64Bit and 32Bit mode, the application server (iAS) binaries are only available in 32Bit mode. Thus if you plan to run the database AND app server on a single box, you are probably better off using 32Bit Linux. If you have two or more boxes, then you should run the database in 64Bit mode and the app server in 32Bit mode.
3. What type of hardware should I use?
For test systems you can pretty much use whatever you want, after all, it's test. For production systems, we recommend that you use at least a dual proc system 2GHz system, with 2 GB RAM, and dual gigabit NICs. You may need a larger system than this if you have larger numbers of users, but this is sort of minimum setup. Be sure the disk has some sort of redundancy built in (remember also to MIRROR and NOT stripe the boot volume).
4. What version of C Compiler do I need?
For the C compiler, you will need to use gcc-3.2.2 or gcc-3.2.3. There are other versions which will compile, but these seem the most stable. As gcc is GNU software, you can get this for free (yea!)
5. What version of Cobol Compiler do I need?
This is the messy step(doh!). Since there is no MicroFocus Cobol for Linux, you will need to get Netcobol for Linux Version 7 which is distributed by Fujitsu USA. You will need to get a least one license PER MACHINE THAT YOU WANT TO COMPILE ON. The price per license is about $5000 USD.
The English Site is at http://www.netcobol.com/products/unix/linux.htm. In general this is a very helpful site, but be aware that some links will take you to Japanese pages.
6. Can I use other versions of GLIBC on my system?
No, both Oracle and SCT® code require 2.2 GLIBC objects, thus if you try to compile/link on other versions you may get errors. It is usually not a problem to have multiple versions of GLIBC libraries and header files on a single system, so if you absolutely need to use another version of GLIBC, put GLIBC-2.2 on as well.
7. Are there any required packages I need to install first?
There are several. Prior to installing Oracle, install the following RPM packages:
| ORBit-0.5.17-10.4.i386.rpm |
| ORBit2-2.10.0-2.i386.rpm |
| compat-db-4.1.25-2.1.i386.rpm |
| compat-gcc-7.3-2.96.126.i386.rpm |
| compat-gcc-c++-7.3-2.96.126.i386.rpm |
| compat-glibc-7.x-2.2.4.32.6.i386.rpm |
| compat-libstdc++-7.3-2.96.126.i386.rpm |
| compat-libstdc++-devel-7.3-2.96.126.i386.rpm |
| gnome-libs-1.4.1.2.90-40.i386.rpm |
| imlib-1.9.13-15.1.i386.rpm |
| libpng-1.2.2-22.i386.rpm |
| libpng10-1.0.13-13.i386.rpm |
| openmotif21-2.1.30-9.i386.rpm |
| orarun.rpm |
| pdksh-5.2.14-24.i386.rpm |
| setarch-1.4-1.i386.rpm |
| sysstat-5.0.1-2.i386.rpm |
| tcl-8.4.5-7.i386.rpm |
Install each using the Redhat Package Manager, using the -f option.
8. Will other x86 distributions of Linux run Banner®
While SCT® has said that only Redhat is supported, for the most part, Linux is Linux. Binaries that are compiled on one distribution will usually work on another. The fundamental difference in various Linux distributions are in system file layouts and in the tools used to configure the system. Each distribution of Linux has its own directory structure for header files/libraries, configuration files, etc. For example, Redhat stores libraries in /usr/lib/i386-redhat-linux/lib where as SuSe stores these files under /usr/i586-suse-linux/lib.
Problems can arise across distributions in the execution of programs which are dynamically linked to libraries which are in different directories. Problems can also occur when you try to compile programs which will try to look for header files/libraries in specific directories. In both cases, you need to get the directory structures correct before things will work.
A "quick and dirty way" to get all the required libraries and header files in the right place and all at once is to install the install Redhat RPM package for gcc (example: gcc-3.2.2-5.i386.rpm)
In most of our tests, once you get the libraries and header files into the correct directores for a Redhat Environment, things do seem to work..
For the most part, if you have a admin that is well-versed in Linux, you will most likely be ok. If you decide to go this route, be sure to test and be sure to plan.
SCT does seem to provide some limited help on other distributions, but will remind you that this is basically "unsupported". BE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
For more information about running Banner® on Linux, contact Nyquest Consulting!
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