It's been quite awhile since we last blogged. This blog is written by Leif Lourie, a Curriculum Developer for the Oracle Communications Service Delivery Platform (SDP) products. For the last 8 years, Leif has worked as a Curriculum Developer for many of the telecom-oriented products that Oracle offers. He has been working in the telecom industry for about 25 years and has also worked as a software developer, project manager, and solutions architect. He is currently working on courseware for an upcoming release for one of the Service Delivery Platform products. Thanks to Leif not only for this blog, but for making the VM described in the blog available.
Cheryl Lander, Oracle Communications InfoDev Senior Director
To
be able to download, install and test a product within a day is many times very
important for people that are doing the primary evaluation of a software
product. If it takes longer, it will require a bigger effort, like a
proof-of-concept project with many people involved. Of course, if the product
is chosen for a more thorough test, it will probably happen anyway, but then
maybe with focus on integration instead of product features.
We
have a long tradition of creating complex software that is easy to install and
test and we have often been praised for the ease of getting our products up and
running.
One
key for this has been that there has always been an installer for Windows, as
well as for the production environments that usually are Unix and Linux. And,
the windows installer has, in most cases, been released for developing and
testing purposes.
Lately,
this has changed. Our products are very seldom released for the Windows
platform, at all. And even the Linux versions are almost always released for
64-bit systems.
This
is creating problems for many of the people that want to try out our products,
since few have access to a 64-bit Linux system of the right platform. Most of
us are using a laptop with Windows or Mac OS. Some of us are using Linux or
Solaris, but probably a non certified distribution for the product you want to
test.
My
job, among other things, is to develop hands-on practices for our products. For
me, it is crucial to have access to environments for installing and using our
products. For this reason I have been using virtual machines for many years.
I
have a ready-made base system, with the necessary tools installed for all the
products I create hands-on practices for. Whenever I start working on hands-on practices
for a new product or a new version, I just copy the base system and start
working with a clean slate. This saves me a lot of time!
Now,
I would like to start saving time for my favorite student: You!
If
you are using our products and regularly test new versions you might benefit
from the virtual machine that is now available on Oracle Technology Network: The Virtual Machine for
the Oracle Communications Service Delivery Platform (SDP) Products.
This
virtual machine contains an installation of the 64-bit version of Oracle
Enterprise Linux, version 6. It also has Oracle Database Express Edition (XE),
Oracle Java and Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse installed.
By
using Oracle VM VirtualBox you may use Windows, OS
X, Linux or Solaris on your laptop. VirtualBox can be installed on top of any
of these platforms and give you the ability to run virtual machines in your
laptop.
After
downloading and starting the virtual machine you will also need to download the
installation files for the product you want to test; for example Oracle
Communications Services Gatekeeper or Oracle Communications Online Mediation
Controller.
In
some cases there are lessons and practices available for the products. The
freely available courses are listed in Oracle Learning Library as a Collection of Oracle
Communications Service Delivery Platform Courses. As time goes by, we
will make this list collection bigger.
Also,
the goal is to update the virtual machine about one to two times per year. So
you will always be able to get a well maintained virtual machine for the
Service Delivery Platform products from us.
We Value Your
Feedback
If you would like to suggest
improvements or report issues on any of the product documentation, curriculum,
or training produced by the Oracle Communications Information Development team,
you can use these channels:
Email
cgbu_docfeedback_us_grp@oracle.com.
Post
a comment on this blog.
Thanks for
reading!