Oracle Beefs Up Linux Support With Management Tools

The Oracle Management Pack for Linux is the latest software stemming from the company's announcement last October that it would offer support customers a version of Red Hat Linux. The announcement at the time was seen as a blow to the Linux distributor, since Oracle was exploiting the open-source license in offering Red Hat's software.

The management tools are available at no extra charge to customers of Oracle's Unbreakable Linux support service, which starts at $99 a year for a two-CPU system with software and updates. The new software is based on technology within Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g, the company's more robust systems management software.

Oracle is marketing the Linux Management Pack as a single set of tools for managing Linux servers and the applications and databases they host. The software offers many of the typical functions associated with management software, such as provisioning, patching, monitoring, and administering servers independently or in the context of their application environments.

The new tools can be integrated with Oracle Enterprise Manager, which can add service level management, automated change and configuration management, and system and application performance management to Linux environments.