Re: Comparison shopping.....
In article <3ss8jq$8ds@chaos.dac.neu.edu>, johnson@chaos.dac.neu.edu (Chris Johnson) writes: |> I'm new here so please excuse me if this kind of thing has been |> asked before. |> |> I'm inheriting an RS6000 with AIX, SYBASE, and Remedy. SYBASE is |> trying to act as a backend to Remedy. The person I've assigned to the |> RS6000 AIX UNIX end hates AIX. After managing a digital UNIX system I |> don't blaim him. |> |> We're having many problems with SYBASE and Remedy as well. I think |> I'm stuck with Remedy for the moment. |> |> What I'm looking for is a comparison between Informix, Oracle, and |> SYBASE. I need the answers to all the good questions one needs to ask |> about any piece of a critical system: |> |> o How good/acurate is the documentation? Both Sybase and Oracle are as good as any I suppose. I can usually find what I want in the manuals, but I confess that was not as true when I first started with both products. I think this is fairly typical of application documentation in general. |> o How is installation and maintenance? Sybase installations have been pretty easy (I've installed on VAX/VMS, SunOS and SGI's Irix). I have never installed Oracle software. |> o How difficult is crash recovery? Pretty straight forward, but Sybase's backup tool does not provide object level recovery. There's a thread going on now about SQL-Backtrack that you might want to read if you are in a position to consider a 3d party tool and you need that capability. Oracle's recovery is also pretty straight forward and it does have object level recovery capabilities. |> o How is service response when I call with a problem? I have had very good experience with Sybase Tech Support with few exceptions. They were having problems in this area a few years ago, but they appear back on track -- at least in my experience. Oracle seems to be having problems. I am not presently working with Oracle, but stay in touch with friends on my old project and it sounds like this is still a peave. |> o How is training (install, maintenance, and user level)? I have been pleased with the classes I have taken with both Sybase and Oracle. (DBA and developer classes) |> o How frequent are bug fixes? I never tracked it. Not as frequent as Irix, I know that. |> o How easy do the bug fixes go in? Sybase's have been straight forward. I don't have installation experience with Oracle. |> o Anything else you can think of. I think that Oracle's SQL*Net injects another level of complexity for the DBA. We did as much work managing that as the databases at times. |> Obviously I want it to go in like a dream, never crash, have no |> bugs, the documentation is alway correct and complete .... ;-). I have only worked with Sybase and Oracle and I can tell you neither of them will give you that. :-) Oh well. IMHO Sybase is less complicated to manage, but both are good products that have features I like and some that bug me. I'd be curious to know what your problems have been. My group is planning on purchasing Remedy, so I'd like to know what I might be getting into. Teresa Larson +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ | Teresa A. Larson ------ Hughes STX Corporation | | NASA/GSFC Code 933.0 voice: (301) 286-7867 | | Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 fax: (301) 286-1777 | | Teresa.Larson@gsfc.nasa.gov ISUG Electronic Media Chairperson | +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ Standard disclaimer ...