Oracle VM

Julian Dyke
Independent Consultant
Web Version - October 2008
1

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Agenda

2008 Julian Dyke

Virtualization
Oracle VM
Oracle VM Server
Oracle VM Agent
Oracle VM Manager

juliandyke.com

Virtualization

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Virtualization
Overview

Virtualization is the process of abstracting computing resources

Multiple operating systems and application images share same physical

server

Benefits include:
Cost of ownership
Hardware
Licensing
Power
Cooling
Space

Functionality
High Availability
Resource Management
Cloning
Migration

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Virtualization
Types of Virtualization
Hardware
Partitions

Operating System
Partitions

Physical Partitions

Partitions

Binary Translation

- Physically isolated
- Native hardware speed
- Dedicated resources

- Must run same OS

- May support different
levels of same OS
- Limited fault isolation
- De-privileged kernel
- Near native speed
- Some code changes
required

- Run time translation

- Any hardware / OS
- Slower

Virtual Partitions
- Online Add / Remove
- Near native hardware speed
- Shared I/O

Shared Partitions

AIX and HP/UX

2008 Julian Dyke

Para-Virtualization
- Special O/S Build
- Any hardware/ Linux
- Faster

Hardware Virtualization
- Early support (Intel / AMD)
- Any O/S
- Will be fastest

- Shared CPU
- Dynamic CPU cycle allocation

Virtual
Machines

Solaris

X86 / X86-64

juliandyke.com

Virtualization
Supported Platforms
VENDO
R

Oracle

HP

IBM

SUN
1
2
3
4

Product

Virtualization
Type

Processor
Platform

Operating
System(s)

Hard
Partition
Licensing

Basic
Support

Live
Migration

DB

RAC

DB

RAC

X86

Linux,
Windows

Pinned only

Yes

Yes

Yes

Test

Physical Partition

IA, PA

HP-UX

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

N/A

vPar

Virtual Partition

IA, PA

HP-UX

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

N/A

Integrity Virtual Machines

Virtual Machine

IA

HP-UX

Capped only

Yes

No

N/A

N/A

LPAR

Virtual Partition

Power

AIX

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

N/A

dLPAR

Virtual Partition

Power

AIX

Yes

Yes

Yes

Test

Test

Micro-partitions

Shared Partition

Power

AIX

Capped only

Yes

Yes

Test

Test

VIO4

Shared storage

Power

N/A

N/A

Yes

Yes

N/A

N/A

WPAR

OS Partition

Power

AIX

No

Test

No

Test

No

zVM

Shared Partition

zSeries

Linux

No

Yes

No

N/A

N/A

Dynamic System Domains Physical Partition

Sparc

Solaris

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

N/A

Logical Domains

Virtual Partition

Sparc

Solaris

No

Test

Test

N/A

N/A

Solaris Containers

OS Partition

Sparc

Solaris

Capped only

Yes

No

N/A

N/A

Oracle Virtual Machine

Virtual Machine (PV, HVM)

nPar

Supported with Oracle Database 11.0.7

Need to disable Numa for dynamic support.
Static support only.
VIO is an option for dLPAR and micro-partitions.

Information supplied by Oracle Corporation

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Virtualization
Certified Application Server Platforms

The following virtualized platforms are certified for Oracle Application Server
Operating System

Virtualization / Partitioning Technology

Linux x86, x86-64

Oracle VM

Windows x86, x86-64

Oracle VM

IBM AIX POWER

IBM LPAR

IBM Linux POWER

IBM LPAR

Sun Solaris SPARC

Sun Containers (Solaris 10)

Sun Solaris x86, x8664

Sun Containers (Solaris 10)

HP HP/UX PA RISC

nPar, vPar

HP HP/UX Itanium

nPar, vPar

HP Linux Itanium

nPar

HP Windows Itanium

nPar

On Solaris both global and local zones/containers are supported, but LDOMs are not supported
See http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/hi_av/oracleas_supported_virtualization.html

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

VMware
Oracle Support Status

Limited support for Oracle products on VMware

Oracle has not certified any of its products on VMware

Oracle will support customers running Oracle products running on VMware

for issues known to occur on the native OS
for issues that can be demonstrated not to be a result of using VMware

See Metalink Note 249212.1 - Support Position for Oracle Products running on
VMware virtualized environments for more details

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Virtualization
Hypervisor-Based Virtualization

Applications

Applications

Guest OS

Guest OS

Guest VM

Guest VM
Hypervisor

X86 or X86/64 Bare-Metal Server

CPU

2008 Julian Dyke

Memory

I/O

Network

juliandyke.com

Xen Hypervisor
Overview

Xen hypervisor
Small, lightweight, software virtual machine monitor
Supports x86 and x86-64 only
Executes multiple virtual machines on one physical system
Each virtual machine has its own guest operating system
Originally developed at Cambridge University
Now open source
Included in
Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.0 and above
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 and above
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10

Enhanced version included in Oracle VM Server

Beware - Oracle VM Manager overrides

some Xen default properties
1

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Overview

Server virtualization software

Supports both Oracle and non-Oracle applications

Claimed to be three times more efficient than other server virtualization

products

Backed by Oracle support

Available for free download

edelivery.oracle.com/oracle/vm

Guests supported include:

Linux
Windows

Runs on x86 and x86-64 based systems

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Overview

Oracle products certified with Oracle VM include:

Oracle Database
Oracle Fusion Middleware
Oracle Applications

Consists of
Open Source server software
integrated Web browser-based management console

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Virtual Machines

Oracle VM allows users to create and manage Virtual Machines (VMs)

VMs
exist on same physical server
behave like independent physical servers

Each VM has its own

virtual CPUs
network interfaces
storage
operating system

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Components

Oracle VM Server
Self-contained virtualization environment
Provides lightweight, secure, server-based platform forrunning VMs
Based on updated version of Xen hypervisor technology
Includes Oracle VM Agent

Oracle VM Agent
Installed with Oracle VM Server
Communicates with Oracle VM Manager for management of virtual
machines

Oracle VM Manager
Provides user interface to manage Oracle VM servers and resources
Standard Application Development Framework (ADF) web applications

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Architecture
Oracle VM Manager
Web Browser-based User Interface
Java-based Management Server

Oracle VM
Manager
Repository

Oracle VM Server
OracleVM
Agent
dom0

domU

domU

domU

Hypervisor
Host Hardware CPU, Network, Memory, Disk

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Supported Hardware

Oracle VM requirements
32 bit or 64 bit host
i686-class processor
all Intel Pentium Pro or newer models
Intel Pentium 4 recommended as a minimum
all AMD Athlon/Duron processors or newer models
AMD Athlon recommended as a minimum

For unmodified guest operating systems CPU must provide hardware

virtualization support

Hardware virtualization optionally provided by the following processors:

Intel Pentium D, Core, Core2, Xeon
AMD Athlon, Opteron

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Supported Guest Operating Systems

Oracle VM supports the following guest operating systems:

Oracle Enterprise Linux 4
Oracle Enterprise Linux 5
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Microsoft Windows 2003
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Windows HP

Note that Microsoft Windows is only supported on hardware virtualization

(HV) capable hardware
Currently Windows runs significantly slower on Oracle VM than on native
hardware
Oracle is developing paravirtualized Windows drivers to improve
performance of Windows on Oracle VM

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Product Certification

Oracle VM is the only x86 based server virtualization environment on which

Oracle products are supported

Oracle products currently certified with Oracle VM (September 2008) include:

Oracle Database 10gR2 and11gR1
Oracle RAC 10gR2 (10.2.0.4)
Oracle Application Server 10gR2 and 10gR3
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10.2.0.4
Oracle Berkeley DB4.6
Oracle TimesTen 7.0.3.1
Oracle E-Business Suite11.5.10 and12
Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise 8.4.x and 9.0
PeopleTools 8.49.07and above
Oracle Siebel CRM 8.0
Oracle Hyperion 9.3.1

See Metalink Note 464754.1 - Certified Software on Oracle VM

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Product Certification

Only the following Application Server components are currently certified:

SOA 10.1.3.1.0 with 10.1.3.3.0 patchset

WebCenter 10.1.3.2.0 with 10.1.3.3.0 patchset
Oralce Communication and Mobility Server 10.1.3.3.0 (Linux x86 only)
Oracle Data Integrator 10.1.3.3.0
Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 10.1.3.3.0
Identity Management 10.1.4.0.1 and 10.1.4.2.0
Oracle Identify Federation 10.1.4.0.1 and 10.1.4.2.0
Oracle Virtual Directory 10.1.4.2.0
Oracle Access Manager 10.1.4.2.0
Oracle Identity Manager 9.1.0.0
Oracle Universal Content Management 10.1.3.3.1 (Linux x86 only)
Oracle Universal Records Management 10.1.3.3.1 (Linux x86 only)

See Metalink Note 464754.1 - Certified Software on Oracle VM

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Oracle Single Instance Database Support

As of September 2008 Oracle single instance databases are certified with

Oracle VM with the following restrictions

x86 and x86-64 platforms

Oracle Enterprise Linux 4.x, 5.x, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.x, 5.x
Oracle 10.2.0.3 or above
Oracle VM 2.1 or above
Para-virtualized and hardware virtualized modes
Use para-virtualized drivers in both modes
Windows supported in Oracle 11.1.0.7 and above
Live migration supported in Oracle 11.1.0.7 and above

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Oracle RAC Database Support

As of September 2008 RAC is certified with Oracle VM with the following

restrictions

X86 32-bit platform only

Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.1 or above
Oracle 10.2.0.4 only
Oracle VM 2.1.2 only
Para-virtualized mode only
Static mode support only
No dynamic resource changes
No live migration

Oracle Recommendations
Each RAC node should be deployed on a different physical server
Use physical block devices for database files
Do not over-commit CPUs

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Oracle RAC Database Support

Why would you want to run RAC on Oracle VM?

Resource Management
Control amount of CPU and memory used by each instance
Cloning
For development, test and pre-production
Migration
Move instance from one node to another
Hardware must currently be identical
Live Migration
Not supported with RAC

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Oracle Support Costs

Support costs (August 2008):

Price per system
Up to 2 physical
CPUs (sockets)

Price per system

Unlimited physical
CPUs (sockets)

Installable binaries
(both server and manager)

Free

Free

Oracle VM Premier Support (1 year)

$599

$1,199

Oracle VM Premier Support (3 year)

$1,797

$3,597

Oracle VM Premier Support includes

Access to software and updates through the Unbreakable Linux Network
24x7 global support
Pricing / licensing for Oracle products used with Oracle VM is unaffected
CPU licensing is still based on physical processors

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Server

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Installation

Oracle VM Server installation is similar to current Enterprise Linux installation

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Installation

Default partitioning layout for an 80GB disk:

Device

Start

End

Size

Type

Mount
Point

hdb1

13

101M

ext3

/boot

hbb2

14

485

3074M

ext3

hdb3

486

9598

72112M

ocfs2

/OVS

hdb4

9599

9729

1027M

Extended

hdb5

9599

9729

1027M

swap

/dev/hdb

Defaults can be overwritten during installation

Note that all unallocated storage is assigned to /OVS

Component list cannot be updated

Package installation takes around 6 minutes

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Virtualization Types

Oracle VM servers can be

Para virtualized
Hardware virtualized

Para virtualization
Requires virtualization aware kernel
Available in Enterprise Linux 4 and 5 (Oracle and Red Hat)
Currently best performance

Hardware virtualization
Can run unmodified kernels e.g Enterprise Linux 3, Windows etc
Requires virtualization aware CPUs
Virtualization must be enabled in BIOS

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Hardware Virtualization

Why is para-virtualization currently faster?

Intel currently supports hardware virtualization of CPU

VT-x on x86 / x86-64
VT-i on Itanium

In future processors Intel will support hardware virtualization for:

Directed I/O
VT-d
Memory / Page Tables
Extended Page Tables (EPT)
Networking Devices
VT-c

When these are available hardware virtualization will be faster then paravirtualization

Note: AMD also provides hardware virtualization

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Hardware Virtualization

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Paravirtualization

Para-virtualization requires a xen-aware kernel

Available in Enterprise Linux 4 Update 5 and above

For example for paravirtualized kernel /etc/grub.conf contains:

default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Enterprise Linux (2.6.18-8.el5xen)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-8.el5xen ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
console=xvc0 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.18-8.el5xen.img

Default kernel is:

[root@server11 ~]# uname -r

2.6.18-8.1.15.1.16.el5xen

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Installation

Example of /etc/issue for para-virtualized guest

Oracle VM server release 2.1.2

Hypervisor running in 64 bit mode with NO Hardware Virtualization support.
Network :
Management Interface :
If : eth0(Up) Mac : 00:17:3F:99:F3:7C IP address : 192.168.2.111
Configured Networks and Bridges :
If : eth0
Mac : 00:17:3F:99:F3:7C
If : eth1
Mac : 00:17:3F:9A:03:B9
If : xenbr0
Mac : FE:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
If : xenbr1
Mac : FE:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
CPU :
cpu family
model
model name

: 6
: 15
: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual

CPU

E2160

@ 1.80GHz

[root@server11 ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release

Oracle VM server release 2.1.2

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Installation

Example of /etc/issue for hardware virtualized guest

Oracle VM server release 2.1.2

Hypervisor running in 64 bit mode with Hardware Virtualization support.
Network :
Management Interface :
If : eth0(Up) Mac : 00:04:23:DC:1E:78 IP address :
Configured Networks and Bridges :
If : eth0
Mac : 00:04:23:DC:1E:78
If : eth1
Mac : 00:04:23:DC:1E:79
If : xenbr0
Mac : 00:04:23:DC:1E:78
If : xenbr1
Mac : 00:04:23:DC:1E:79
CPU :
cpu family
model
model name

: 6
: 15
: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Dual

CPU

X5355

@ 2.66GHz

[root@server11 ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release

Oracle VM server release 2.1.2

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Xen Configuration

Xen is configured in /etc/sysconfig/xendomains

It should not be necessary to modify this file

Services installed for xen include:

xend
xendomains

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
OCFS2 Configuration

OCFS2 is configured in /etc/ocfs2/cluster.conf

Initially configured as single node. For example:
node:
ip_port = 7777
ip_address = 192.168.2.111
number = 0
name = server11.juliandyke.com
cluster = ocfs2
cluster:
node_count = 1
name = ocfs2

Should be extended to contain all servers in pool

Services installed for OCFS2 include:

o2cb
ocfs2

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
OVS Configuration

OVS release is reported in /etc/ovs-release

[root@server11 ~]# cat /etc/ovs-release

Oracle VM server release 2.1.2

Services installed for Oracle VM include:

ovs-agent
ovsrepositories

Oracle VM agent is configured in /etc/ovs-agent/agent.ini

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Shared Storage

Multiple Oracle VM Servers must share storage

Oracle VM uses OCFS2 by default

Shared directory is created by Oracle VM Server installation

Called /OVS
Created as ocfs2
Must be manually extended to other VM servers in pool
Contains various pools including:
iso_pool - contains ISO images
running_pool - contains run-time images for guests
seed_pool
publish_pool

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Guest Installation

Linux guest installation uses Anaconda

Guest operating system MUST be installed from ISO images

Cannot directly mount CD/ROM

Installation can use

NFS - from local or remote server
HTTP - from remote web server
FTP - from remove FTP server

See Metalink Note 466005.1 - Mounting an ISO for Paravirtualized Guest

Operating System Installation

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Guest Installation

Guest can be installed using

virt-install
operating system utility
VM Manager
GUI-based installation

Install utilities are not entirely compatible e.g.

virt-install creates configuration file in /etc/xen
e.g. /etc/xen/guest11
VM Manager creates additional configuration file called vm.cfg
e.g. /OVS/running_pool/guest1/vm.cfg

Prior to first installation create Oracle VM standard pools in /OVS:

[root@server11]# mkdir /OVS/running_pool

[root@server11]# mkdir /OVS/iso_pool

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Guest Installation using NFS

NFS can be mounted on the local host

NFS services must be started:

[root@server11]# service portmap start

Starting portmap:

[ OK ]

[root@server11]# service nfs start

Starting NFS services:
Starting NFS quotes:
Starting NFS daemon:
Starting NFS mountd:

[
[
[
[

]
]
]
]

Firewall must be disabled:

[root@server11]# service iptables stop

Flushing firewall rules:
Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: filter
Unloading iptables modules:

OK
OK
OK
OK

2008 Julian Dyke

[
[
[

OK
OK
OK

]
]
]

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Guest Installation using NFS

If the installation software is delivered in a single (DVD-ROM) image

Create a mount point

[root@server11]# mkdir /el

If the installation is on a DVD then mount the device

[root@server11]# mount /dev/cdrom /el

If the installation software is in an ISO file mount as a loopback device

[root@server11]# mount -o ro,loop /dev/cdrom /el

Export the file system

[root@server11]# exportfs *:/el

Verify the file has been exported

[root@server11]# exportfs
/el
<world>

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Guest Installation using NFS

If the installation software is delivered in multiple (CD-ROM) images

Create a directory

[root@server11]# mkdir /el

If the installation is on a CD-ROM then mount the device

[root@server11]# mount /dev/cdrom /media/iso

If the installation software is in an ISO file mount as a loopback device

[root@server11]# mount -o ro,loop <filename> /media/iso

Copy the contents to the /el directory

[root@server11]# cd /media/iso
[root@server11]# cp -var * /media/iso

Unmount the directory

[root@server11]# cd
[root@server11]# umount /media/iso

Repeat for remaining disks or ISO images

Export the file system as shown on previous slide

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
virt-install

The virt-install can be executed by the root user either interactively or using
arguments
For example interactively (as root)
[root@server11]# virt-install
What is the name of your virtual machine? guest1
How much RAM should be allocated (in megabytes?) 512
What would you like to use as the disk (path)? /OVS/running_pool/guest1
How large would you like the disk (/OVS/running_pool/guest1) to be
(in gigabytes)? 5
Would you like to enable graphics support? (yes or no) yes
What is the install location? nfs:server11:/el

Using arguments:
[root@server11]# virt-install \
--name guest1 \
--ram=512 \
--file=/OVS/running_pool/guest1 \
--file-size=5 \
--location=nfs:192.168.2.111:/el \
--nographics

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
virt-install

During installation of Enterprise Linux guest you will be prompted for a TCP/IP
configuration

Ensure that a Gateway IP address is specified otherwise installation will fail

with the following error:
That directory could not be mounted from the server

By default guest O/S will be installed in /dev/xvda

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
virt-install

During initialization virt-install always reports the following error

libvir: Xen Daemon error: GET operation failed:

This error can be ignored

Folllowing restart of new operating system virt-install using text graphics reports the following error

libvir: Xen Daemon error: internal error domain information incomplete,

missing kernel
Entity: line 25: parser error : Opening and ending tag mismatch: os line 5
and domain
</domain>
Entity: line 26: parser error : Premature end of data in tag domain line 1

This error can also be ignored

See Metalink Note 466563.1 - Oracle VM: First Boot after Installation of Guest OS Fails with Text Console

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
Xen Configuration

Default virt-install of a guest O/S creates configuration /etc/xen

e.g. /etc/xen/guest1
# Automatically generated xen config file
name = "guest1"
memory = "512"
disk = [ 'file:/OVS/running_pool/guest1,xvda,w', ]
vif = [ 'mac=00:16:3e:6d:c2:92, bridge=xenbr0', ]
uuid = "286c380b-4cd6-9308-5987-4ff05d4d2278"
bootloader="/usr/bin/pygrub"
vcpus=1
on_reboot
= 'restart'
on_crash
= 'restart'

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
xm utility

xm is the Xen management user interface

To list valid options

[root@server11]# xm help

To print the message buffer

[root@server11]# xm dmesg

To start a VM
[root@server11]# xm create -c /etc/xen/guest1

To shutdown a VM
[root@server11]# xm shutdown guest1

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
xm utility

To list running VMs

[root@server11]# xm list
Name
Domain-0
guest1
guest2

ID
0
9
10

Mem VCPUs
468
2
256
1
256
1

State
r-----b----b----

Time(s)
254.1
19.7
16.0

To start a console session

[root@server11]# xm console 9

where 9 is the ID in xm list

To end the console session press CTRL-]

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Server
xentop utility

Similar to top
Same as xm top
Executed from dom0
Shows current state of all domains including dom0 and guests

[root@server11 ~]# xentop

For example

xentop - 10:23:58
Xen 3.1.4
3 domains: 1 running, 2 blocked, 0 paused, 0 crashed, 0 dying, 0 shutdown
Mem: 1037820k total, 1034928k used, 2892k free
CPUs: 2 @ 1800MHz
NAME STATE
CPU(sec) CPU(%)
MEM(k) MEM(%) MAXMEM(k) MAXMEM(%) VCPUS
NETS NETTX(k) NETRX(k) VBDS
VBD_OO
VBD_RD
VBD_WR SSID
Domain-0 -----r
256
0.3
479232
46.2
no limit
n/a
2
8 1358489
9219
0
0
0
0
0
guest1 --b--20
0.1
262144
25.3
262144
25.3
1
1
6
9
1
0
3295
1834
0
guest2 --b--21
0.1
262144
25.3
262144
25.3
1
1
7
0
1
0
3240
1727
0

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Agent

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Agent
Management

By default Oracle VM Agent is configured with username admin and the

password specified during installation
To check current status of Oracle VM Agent
[root@server11 ~]# service ovs-agent status
ok! process OVSPolicyServer exists
ok! process OVSMonitorServer exists
ok! process OVSLogServer exists
ok! process OVSAgentServer exists
ok! OVSAgentServer is alive

To start Oracle VM Agent

[root@server11] service ovs-agent start
OVSAgentServer is now starting...
OVSAgentServer started.

To stop Oracle VM Agent

[root@server11] service ovs-agent stop
OVSAgentServer shutdown...
OVSAgentServer stopped.

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Manager

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Overview

Oracle VM Manager
Provides user interface to manage Oracle VM servers
Standard Application Development Framework (ADF) web applications
Manages VM lifecycle
Creates VMs
from installation media
from VM templates
Deletes VMs
Power On / Off VMs
Uploads VMs
High Availability Deployment
Live migration
Dynamic Resource Management
CPU, memory etc
Static Resource Management
ISO files, VM templates etc

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Installation

Insert CD-ROM or mount ISO image as loopback device

[root@server12]#

mount -o ro,loop /dev/cdrom /mnt

Run installer
[root@server12 ~]# /mnt/runInstaller.sh
Welcome to Oracle VM Manager 2.1.2
Please enter the choice: [1|2|3]
1. Install Oracle VM Manager
2. Uninstall Oracle VM Manager
3. Upgrade Oracle VM Manager
Starting Oracle VM Manager 2.1.2 installation ...
Do you want to install a new database or use an
existing one? [1|2]
1. Install a new Oracle XE database on localhost
2. Use an existing Oracle database in my network

Installer prompts for port numbers and passwords

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Starting and Stopping VM Manager

The Oracle VM Manager application runs within an OC4J container

To check the status of Oracle Containers for J2EE:
[root@server12]# service oc4j status

To start the Oracle VM Manager:

[root@server12]# service oc4j start

To stop the Oracle VM Manager:

[root@server12]# service oc4j stop

To access Oracle VM Manager home page from a browser use:

http://<server_name>:8888/OVS

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Accessing VM Manager

To access Oracle VM Manager home page from a browser use:

http://<server_name>:8888/OVS

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Server Pools

Multiple Oracle VM servers can be grouped into Server Pools

Each server in a server pool has access to shared storage

Can be NFS, SAN or iSCSI

VMs can be started on any server in the pool that is available and has
resources free

VMs can be live Migrated between any servers in the pool

Except for RAC instances

VMs can be auto-restarted across any servers in the pool

For each VM a Preferred Server List can optionally be specified

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Server Pools
Oracle VM Manager

VM

VM

VM

VM

VM

VM

Server Pool 1

VM

VM

VM

Server Pool 2

Oracle

Oracle

Oracle

Oracle

Oracle

VM
Server

VM
Server

VM
Server

VM
Server

VM
Server

Shared
Storage

VM

2008 Julian Dyke

Shared
Storage

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Server Pool Roles

Each Oracle VM Server can have up to three roles:

Server Pool Master Agent
Utility Server
Virtual Machine Server

Each Server Pool must contain

One Server Pool Master Agent
One or more Utility Servers
One or more Virtual Machine Servers

One Oracle VM Server can perform all three roles

Alternatively each role can be performed by different servers

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Server Pool Master Agent

Each Server Pool has one (and only one) Server Pool Master Agent

Master agents manage:

Load balancing
Live migration
HA restarts

All Management Agents in pool communicate with Master Agent

Master Agent communicates with Management Server

Server Pool Master Agent can:

be dedicated server (recommended for availability)
host guest VMs

If Management Server fails, Server Pool Master Agents continue to operate

If Server Pool Master Agent fails

Virtual machines within Server Pool continue to operate
Live migration or High Availability functionality is not available

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Utility Server

Responsible for I/O intensive operations such as copying or moving files

Used when creating or removing

virtual machines
servers
server pools

There can be one or more utility servers in a Server Pool

If there is more than one, Server Pool Master chooses Utility Server with
maximum CPU resources to complete task

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Server Pool Configuration

After installation Oracle VM Manager will automatically run the Server Pool
Wizard

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Server Pool Configuration

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Server Pool Configuration

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Server Pool Configuration

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Templates

Oracle supplies some templates which can be used to rapidly create VMs
Operating system templates available in September 2008 included:

Template

Kernel

VCPU
s

RAM(GB)

OVM_EL4U5_X86-HVM-10GB

2.6.955.0.1.2.100.1.ELsmp

10

OVM_EL4U5_X86_64-HVM-10GB

2.6.955.0.1.2.100.1.ELsmp

10

OVM_EL4U5_X86-HVM-4GB

2.6.955.0.1.2.100.1.ELsmp

OVM_EL4U5_X86_64-HVM-4GB

2.6.955.0.1.2.100.1.ELsmp

OVM_EL4U5_X86-PVM-10GB

2.6.9-55.0.1.2.9.1.ELxenU

10

OVM_EL4U5_X86-PVM-4GB

2.6.9-55.0.1.2.9.1.ELxenU

OVM_EL5_X86_64_HVM_10GB

2.6.18-8.1.15.100.1.el5

10

OVM_EL5_X86_64_HVM_4GB

2.6.18-8.1.15.100.1.el5

OVM_EL5U1_X86_64_HVM_10GB

2.6.18-53.0.0.100.1.el5

10

OVM_EL5U1_X86_64_HVM_4GB

2.6.18-53.0.0.100.1.el5

OVM_EL5U1_X86_64_PVM_10GB

2.6.18-53.1.4.9.1.el5xen

10

OVM_EL5U1_X86_64_HVM_4GB

2.6.18-53.1.4.9.1.el5xen

2.6.9-55.0.12.100.1.ELsmp

OVM_EL4U5_X86_HVM_ORACLE_11G
2008
Julian Dyke

Storage(GB)

1
4
juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Guest VM Creation

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Guest VM Creation

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Guest VM Creation

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Guest VM Creation

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Guest VM Creation

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Guest VM Creation

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM Manager
Templates

Oracle Database 11g disk images available in September 2008 included:

Oracle Database 11g x86

Oracle Database 11g x86-64

Disk images are also available for:

Oracle Enterprise Manager
Siebel

See Metalink Note 551261.1 - Oracle VM Guest Templates for Oracle Enterprise
Linux

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Oracle VM
Conclusions

Promising technology
Full hardware virtualization should be very impressive
Could be really useful for High Availability

Still relatively immature technology

Few customers using Oracle VM in production

Still numerous installation and operational issues

Beware of conflicts between Oracle VM Manager and Xen tools
Use Oracle VM Manager if possible
Documentation is relatively weak
Often several ways to achieve same goal
Not obvious which is best

Start investigating now

Worth considering when planning
Probably not production-ready yet but not far away

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

References

http://www.oracle.com/technologies/virtualization/index.html

http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/vm.html

http://wiki.oracle.com/page/Oracle+VM

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following for their assistance with the development of this
presentation:

Steve Shaw - Intel Corporation

Martin Bach - eDBA
Simon Haslam - Veriton
Michael Timpanaro-Perrotta - Oracle
Adam Hawley - Oracle

info@juliandyke.com
7

2008 Julian Dyke

juliandyke.com