Overview
The Oracle Certification
Environment (OCE) group provides support and tooling (OCE Kits) for
Oracle certification and validation projects. OCE kits allow
self-service certification and validations by Oracle partners,
facilitating a streamlined certification and validation process. The
OCE group with input from development and product management develops
the Oracle certification standard that certification owners must meet
for qualification, approval, validation, or testing of a component or
technology stack.
Once a certification and
validation is completed the results are audited and qualified
certifications and validations will be posted on Metalink.
The OCE team works with Oracle
Partner Management and third party vendors for approving support
statements published by third party vendors with respect to
certification projects with Oracle.
The Oracle Certification Environment (OCE) Kits are
used to certify and/or validate components of a technology
stack. (Refer to Testing
Requirements and General
Support Policy for description of Certify and Validate). The OCE
kit focuses on delivering tools that will measure the effectiveness of
a technology stack against the defined certification/validation
standards. The OCE Kit contains tests that vendors run against the
technology stack. It includes a checklist used for auditing the testing
results. The certification/validation kits are built based on Oracle QA
strategy and are also designed to allow Oracle Partners to certify and
validate their own technology stacks.
Certification and
Validation Project details
Certification and
Validation Types
|
An OCE kit may be used to perform the following
testing categories:
- Operating System (OS) Certification
- Vendor Clusterware Validation
- Third party Cluster File System (CFS) Validation
- Virtualization
Technology Validation
- Interconnect Protocol Validation
See Certification
and Validation kit availability section for Certification and
Validation kit availability
An OCE kit may be used to perform the following
testing categories:
i. Software Install
Scenarios
ii. Manual Tests
iii. OAST Oracle Automated Stress Tool
iv. Virtualization-specific OAST
v. Functional Regressions for Oracle Database (Single Instance)
vi. Virtualization-specific Functional Regressions for Oracle
Database (Single Instance)
vii. Functional Regressions for Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC)
viii. Clusterware Compatibility Destructive/Stress TestsCluster File
System Compatibility Test
x. Virtualization-specific Destructive Tests
The following table provides the testing
requirements:
|
Test Category
|
Support Level
|
Requirement
|
|
|
Certified
|
i-iii,
v, vii-ix
|
|
|
Validated
|
i, iii, vii, viii, ix*
|
|
Third party Storage/Cluster
File System
|
Validated
|
i, iii, vii, viii-ix
|
Virtualization
Technology
|
Validated |
i, ii,
iv-vi, x
|
|
Interconnect Protocol
|
Validated
|
|
ASM Testing Requirements
ASM is an integral part of the Oracle Database. As
such, there is no separate ASM certification; however, vendor
certifications on a given platform must include ASM. In particular,
- The configuration where ASM is deployed on raw
disks (i.e., without a volume manager underneath ASM) is now mandatory
for certification with the exception of Clustered File Systems.
- ASM support (on raw disk) must be included in
the official support statement for Oracle Database on your platform.
- Other optional configurations, including a
volume manager or NAS/NFS filers underneath ASM, may also be tested and
supported if vendors want to provide additional options to their
customers. This will ensure full interoperability and correctness of
the Oracle Database on a given platform.
Details:
- Testing and certification of ASM on raw disks is
a requirement for components i. and
vii. of OCE.
- ASM is a requirement for both Oracle Database
single instance and RAC certifications. This requirement is for all
Oracle Database supported OS platforms. However, note that this
requirement is satisfied by the ASM-specific tests within OCE; ASM
cannot be used for non-ASM tests.
- Oracle strongly recommends that vendors run the
OCE with their storage multipathing solution enabled. This step is
optional, but highly recommended since customers desire
interoperatbility between, and support for, ASM with storage
multipathing solutions.
- Here is an example of a solution stack that
Oracle would approve for certification:
- Solaris operating system
- Sun Cluster
- Oracle Clusterware
- Oracle RAC
- Traffic Manager (for multi-pathing)
Support
Depending on the type of testing being performed,
one of the following support levels will be granted:
|
Support Level
|
Support Level
Description
|
|
Certified
|
Oracle Support makes every
effort to identify and resolve a platform related problem. If required,
Oracle will jointly own the issue with the platform partner until
resolved. Cross company escalation of platform-related issues occurs
using the Cooperative Support Agreement (CSA) and Joint Escalation Team
(JET) processes that are in place for certain platform partners.
For more information
please refer to Metalink doc 199389.1: The
Oracle Support Services Escalation Process Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ).
|
|
Validated
|
Oracle does not directly
support third party products. All issues known to be related to the
third party product must be opened with that vendor directly. Where
Oracle is a partner with the vendor, Support will make a reasonable
effort to identify platform related issues and pass the call or work
with the vendor to help resolve the mutual customer issue. Oracle will
continue to provide support for all Oracle products on the Unbreakable
Linux platforms. For a list of the Unbreakable Linux Partners, please
refer to Metalink doc 266043.1: Support
of Linux and Oracle Products on Linux.
To ensure compatibility the
partner performs the testing and Oracle reviews the OCE kit test
results.
Vendor Support
Responsibility
Vendors have full
responsibility for the quality of their Clusterware/Cluster File
System/ Storage products and are responsible for supporting their end
users. End users call the vendor regarding any problems related to the
product. If needed, the vendor calls Oracle Support Services for
assistance in problem resolution. For more information please refer to
Metalink doc 199389.1: The
Oracle Support Services Escalation Process Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ).
Limitations
Validations are for
ensuring, but not guaranteeing the compatibility of third party
Clusterware/Cluster File System products with Oracle products. The
following policy applies:
“Oracle cannot guarantee
customers data integrity and product functionality where third-party
products alter the internal contents of the Oracle database files, data
blocks, log files or control files. Third-party products or
customer-developed programs, which alter the internal contents of these
files, may introduce inconsistencies that render the data to be
unusable. In such situations, customers may be required to restore from
the last backup prior to the first use of the third-party product in
order for Oracle to provide effective assistance. Examples of such
products include data reorganization tools, data loaders,
defragmentation tools, or any product that attempts to alter the
contents of the Oracle data files, blocks, logs or control files.”
|
Third Party Clusterware and
Cluster File System Support Policy for Linux
|
Clusterware Software:
- Oracle RAC on Linux is supported only with
Oracle Clusterware.
- Oracle provides Unbreakable Linux Support only
with Oracle Clusterware.
-
If an unsupported third party clusterware is
implemented, all Oracle RAC issues must be reproduced in a supported
configuration. (i.e. in an environment without using the third party
software) before reporting to Oracle.
Cluster Files System Software:
- Oracle provides Unbreakable Linux Support only
for Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and OCFS on RAC
on
Linux.
- Third party Cluster File Systems are not
included in the Unbreakable Linux Support.
- Support for Cluster File Systems is provided by
the third party vendors.
- If an unsupported third party Cluster File
System is implemented, all Oracle RAC issues must be reproduced in a
supported configuration (i.e. in an environment without using the third
party software) before reporting to Oracle
Posting of Certifications
and Validations
|
The following table describes how approved
certifications and validations will be published:
|
Testing Categories
|
Certification or
Validation Status
|
|
Operating System
|
Certified combination will be published on the
Certify & Availability section of Metalink under the Single
Instance and RAC sections
|
|
Vendor Clusterware
&
Third-Party Storage or
Cluster File System (CFS)
&
Virtualization Technologies
&
Interconnect Protocol
|
Validated combinations will be published on
the Certify & Availability section of Metalink under the RAC
Technologies Compatibility Support Matrix.
Oracle Support Services and the Vendor
jointly write and publish support note to accompany Validation. See
example: Red Hat GFS Metalink Note 329530.1
Oracle to provide a link to the vendor’s
website where the vendor will publish a support statement. All
verbiage on the vendor’s website relating to testing done with Oracle
must be first approved by Oracle Partner Program and ST Partner
Management.
|
|
Pre-Release testing
|
No information is published
for pre-release testing projects.
|
Certification and Validation Request process
Certification and
Validation Request process
|
- Vendor fills out Certification
and Validation Request Template and the relevant eBOM template
(available at the same URL) and sends it to certsup_ww@ORACLE.COM.
- Clusterware & CFS validation
pre-requisite - Must be OS vendor, see notes below.
- The certification or validation request will be
either approved or rejected within 1 week provided
vendor provides all necessary information.
- If approved, the OCE Support team will provide
the vendor via email:
- A Unique ID. This Unique ID is to be used by
the vendor in all correspondence with OCE support team.
- URL to OCE Kit download links.
Notes for Clusterware & Clustered
File System (CFS) Vendors:
- Vendor must be approved by RAC Product
Management and have signed the Oracle Platform Test Tools License
Agreement. The Test Tools License Agreement is managed by Oracle
Partner program office.
- The validation request is initiated and
sponsored by a third party OS vendor for which the certification is
being performed.
- The OS vendor submits an OCE kit request and
support ID.
- All issues to be worked through the OS vendor
and not the CFS vendor.
- OS vendor submits OCE test results for
auditing.
- Vendor works with Oracle Support Services to
jointly develop a support plan.
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