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
[email protected].
Post
a comment on this blog.
Thanks
for
reading!
