In support of the new Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Ampere A2 launch announced last week, let’s talk about some of the work done in Oracle Linux 8 and 9 with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) Release 7 to support this exciting release.
Oracle and Ampere have partnered to deliver Arm compute solutions since 2021, when the first-generation Arm-based compute offering was released for Oracle Cloud. Oracle Linux with UEK has been designed and optimized for Ampere® CPUs with a goal to deliver performance, scalability, and cost efficiency for a wide range of cloud workloads and for development of enterprise software on the Arm 64-bit architecture. As mentioned in the OCI announcement, today over 100 OCI services, including critical services like Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, run optimally on Oracle Linux and Ampere-based OCI A1 instances. Oracle Linux is the foundation for Oracle Cloud, and we continue this work in our joint development with Ampere on A2 instances.
OCI Ampere A2 instances represent the next generation of Arm-based processing, providing higher core count virtual machines (VMs) and high-density containers within a single server. These instances take advantage of the lowest latency interconnection, making them ideal for services like containers, analytics/databases, media services/video streaming, and cloud native services, while offering optimal price for performance.
When talking with Robert Shimp, senior vice president Linux product management, Oracle, about this, he commented, “Oracle Linux is at the heart of Oracle Cloud and has been optimized to run the most demanding workloads at cloud scale. With Oracle Ksplice zero-downtime patching for security, cloud-based management across multicloud and on-premises, and a kernel that is built for performance and reliability, Oracle Linux delivers an industry-leading Enterprise Linux that is freely available to everyone. And now our integration work with Ampere has further enhanced our operating system and the A2 processor for OCI.”
Likewise, Mauri Whalen, senior vice president software engineering, Ampere Computing, noted, “Ampere processors provide a computing platform purpose built to handle today’s cloud workloads like database-intensive analytics, video streaming, and cloud native computing–which require predictable high performance, platform scalability, and power efficiency. Our collaboration has proven that Oracle Linux is the ideal operating system for these environments. OCI Ampere A2 compute shapes running Oracle Linux deliver truly exceptional performance and cost efficiency.”
To get started, select Oracle Linux 8 or 9 platform images in OCI when launching the Ampere A2 shape (VM.Standard.A2.Flex). Customers using Oracle Linux in OCI receive Oracle Linux Premier Support at no additional charge as part of their Oracle Cloud compute subscription. This includes access to zero-downtime updates with Ksplice, simplified management and monitoring of updates with OS Management Hub, and access to Oracle Linux Extended Support programs, making Oracle Linux an exceptional value.
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