The Oracle Cloud Cookbook

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The Oracle Cloud Cookbook

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Distribution of the Oracle Cloud Cookbook or derivative of the work in any form for commercial purposes is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained from the copyright holder.

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Author: Roddy Rodstein Change Log

Revision Change Description Updated By Date

1.0 First Release Roddy Rodstein 09/10/11

1.0 Oracle Cloud Reference Design Roddy Rodstein 11/21/11 1.0 Oracle VM Licensing, Support and Packaging Roddy Rodstein 09/17/11 1.0 Oracle VM for x86 Server Sizing Advisor Roddy Rodstein 10/10/11 1.0 Oracle VM Server CD-ROM Installation Roddy Rodstein 09/10/11 1.6 Oracle VM Manager Installation Roddy Rodstein 04/06/12

1.0 Oracle VM Patch Updates Roddy Rodstein 10/05/11

1.1 Oracle Linux 6 Installation with Oracle VM Manager Roddy Rodstein 04/29/12 1.0 Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Architecture, System Design and Sizing Roddy Rodstein 10/22/11 1.0 Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Installation Roddy Rodstein 12/02/11 1.0 Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Upgrade Roddy Rodstein 10/29/11 1.0 Register Oracle VM Manager 3.0 in Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Roddy Rodstein 09/20/11 1.0 Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Architecture, System Design and Sizing Roddy Rodstein 06/13/11

1.1 Oracle Linux 5 Installation Roddy Rodstein 04/29/12

1.1 Oracle Linux 6 Installation Roddy Rodstein 04/29/12

Table of Contents

Audience Objectives About the Author

The Oracle Cloud Cookbook Introduction

Audience

The Oracle Cloud Cookbook is an on-line resource to assist our customers, prospects and partners to plan, design, deploy and support internal and external Oracle clouds using Oracle VM for x86 managed by Oracle VM Manager, Oracle Enterprise Manager and Open Source solutions. This book assumes that the reader has an architectural understanding of cloud computing, Oracle technologies, storage and network systems, and related software.

Objectives

The Oracle Cloud Cookbook intends to articulate the design considerations and validation efforts required to design, install, deploy and support Oracle VM for x86 with Oracle Linux, Solaris x86, JRockit Virtual Edition, and Microsoft virtual machines hosting Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware technologies and Oracle Applications managed by Oracle VM Manager, Oracle Enterprise Manager and Open Source solutions in internal and/or external clouds.

About the Author

Roddy Rodstein is an avid technologist, entrepreneur and author with a long history with virtualization technologies and cloud computing. After ten years supporting virtualization, cloud computing and application delivery technologies at Citrix and Oracle, Roddy

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established Mokum Solutions, Inc.. Mokum Solutions, Inc. is a consultant and integrator of Oracle technologies in private and public clouds. Earlier in his career Roddy successfully established, owned, and operated a consulting business that specialized in server and desktop virtualization solutions.

Roddy's professional achievements also extend to blogging, writing and self-publishing industry reference guides currently available on Amazon, Securing Microsoft Terminal Services (ISBN: 061514330X), Citrix CCA MetaFrame 1.8 for Windows Exam Cram (ISBN: 1576109453) and web publications like The Underground Oracle VM Manual as well as the development and ongoing management of the number one independent Oracle social media website, ITNewsCast.com.

The Oracle Cloud Cookbook Introduction

Welcome to the first edition of the Oracle Cloud Cookbook. Our goal with the Oracle Cloud Cookbook is to create a comprehensive resource to assist our customers, prospects and partners to plan, design, deploy and support internal and external Oracle clouds using Oracle VM for x86 with Oracle Linux, Solaris x86, and Microsoft virtual machines hosting Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware technologies and Oracle Applications

managed by Oracle VM Manager, Oracle Enterprise Manager and Open Source solutions. The Oracle Cloud Cookbook will cover each of the three cloud layers; Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS).

The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) chapters review how to plan, design, deploy and support Oracle VM for x86 with Oracle Linux, Solaris, and Windows virtual machines Managed by Oracle VM Manager and Oracle Enterprise Manager. The Platform as a Service (PaaS) chapters review how to plan, deploy and support Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware technologies on the aforementioned IaaS platform. The Software as a Service (SaaS) chapters review how to plan, deploy, support and deliver Oracle Applications in internal and external clouds.

Table 1 shows the Oracle cloud stack that will be covered in the Oracle Cloud Cookbook. Software as a

Service SaaS Oracle Applications

Oracle Enterprise Manager Oracle VM Manager Open Source Solutions Platform as a Service PaaS

Oracle Fusion Middleware Oracle Database Infrastructure as a Service IaaS Virtual Machines Oracle VM for x86 x86 64 Servers Storage

Oracle Desktop Virtualization Security Solution at DISA Mission Partner Conference 2012 building an appliance? physical ? virtual? production quality? use Oracle Linux

understanding memory allocation in oracle vm / xen

Oracle VM Administration: Oracle VM Server for x86 course schedule figuring out cpu topology in oracle vm

Collaborate12 Starts Today!

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More Oracle VM templates for PeopleSoft and Oracle Enteprise Manager Oracle Ebusiness Suite 12.1.3 Oracle VM templates

Eight New Oracle Database Assemblies Ready to Run In Your Oracle VM Cloud with Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c

Oracle Cloud Reference Design

Show a printer friendly, save as PDF version of the Oracle Cloud Cookbook

1.1 Content Refresh Roddy Rodstein 04/15/12

1.2 Oracle VM for x86 Disaster Recovery Roddy Rodstein 04/16/12 1.3 Oracle VM Servers backup and restoration Roddy Rodstein 04/20/12

The Oracle Cloud Reference Design Introduction

The Oracle Cloud Reference Design Implementation Overview The Oracle Cloud Reference Design Support Infrastructure Cloud Infrastructure Architecture

...Oracle VM for x86 Hardware Architecture ...Oracle VM for x86 Server Pool Design ...Oracle VM for x86 Disaster Recovery ...Oracle VM for x86 Security Standards

...Oracle VM for x86 Administration and Monitoring Standards ...Virtual Machine Operating System Standards

...Support Service Standards

The Oracle Cloud Reference Design Introduction

This chapter of the Oracle Cloud Cookbook presents the Oracle Cloud reference design. The Oracle Cloud reference designs encompass the software, hardware, storage, and network components required to deploy a scalable, secure, and supportable internal or external Oracle cloud.

The Oracle Cloud reference design is a field-tested best-practice standard, designed with simplicity, reproducibility, usability, scalability, supportability and security. The Oracle Cloud reference designs represent a complete Oracle Cloud standard that can be leveraged as a vanilla solution or modified to more accurately reflect organization-specific needs. The Oracle Cloud reference design includes the following categories and solutions:

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Software as a

Service SaaS Oracle Applications

Oracle Enterprise Manager Oracle VM Manager Open Source Solutions Platform as a Service PaaS

Oracle Fusion Middleware Oracle Database Infrastructure as a Service IaaS Virtual Machines Oracle VM for x86 x86 64 Servers Storage

Note: A detailed explanation of each category and solution in the Oracle Cloud reference

design is presented in the architectural overview section.

The Oracle Cloud Reference Design Implementation Overview

The Oracle Cloud reference design provides a well defined starting point for each Oracle Cloud implementation. It also serves as a baseline upon which all solution additions, revisions, and tools will be based. As such, there is an increasing value to Oracle Cloud reference design in keeping implementations as close to the reference design as possible. Prior to implementing an Oracle Cloud, it’s important that an infrastructure assessment (IA) and gap analysis (GA) be performed. During the IA/GA, the architecture of the solution will match the customer’s business needs while maintaining the integrity of the Oracle Cloud reference design. Implementation and support will follow the analysis phase after careful consideration has been given to any specific design modifications that deviate from the Oracle Cloud reference design.

This document outlines the decision points necessary for implementing the Oracle Cloud reference design. For decisions that rely on preexisting factors or specific organizational needs, the appropriate best practice will be discovered in the infrastructure assessment (IA) and gap analysis (GA). The best practices should be analyzed carefully and decisions should be made based on organizational needs, existing architecture, and budget resource availability.

The Oracle Cloud reference design is designed to be scalable and resilient for ease of implementation, high availability, and ease of maintenance for internal and external Oracle clouds. The complete solution is made up of three architectural components that work together to provide flexibility and options with respect to on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, elasticity, measured service, high availability, security and ease of maintenance. The design breaks down into the following three components:

Software as a Service (SaaS). Software as a Service is the capability to host and

deliver applications over the Internet, accessible from various client devices. The provider manages the cloud infrastructure and application portfolio that is

accessed by the consumer. The Oracle Cloud reference design outlines the decision points necessary for implementing an Oracle cloud infrastructure and Oracle Software as a Service delivery model.

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service is the capability to host and

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development. The provider hosts the computing platform and software stack on the cloud infrastructure that is accessed by the consumer. The consumer manages the computing platform and software stack used for application development. The Oracle Cloud reference design outlines the decision points necessary for

implementing the cloud infrastructure and the Oracle Platform as a Service delivery model.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Infrastructure as a Service is the capability to

provision and deliver fundamental computing resources as a service to the consumer. The Oracle Cloud reference design outlines the decision points

necessary for implementing the cloud infrastructure to deliver Oracle Software as a Service and Oracle Infrastructure as a Service.

Figure 1 shows a high-level overview of the Oracle Cloud reference design components.

The Oracle Cloud reference design isolates Oracle VM server pools into the following four security domains:

Controlled: A controlled security domain is used to restrict access between security

domains. A controlled security domain could contain groups of users with their network equipment or a demilitarized zone (DMZ).

Uncontrolled: An uncontrolled security domain refers to any network not in control

of an organization, such as the Internet.

Restricted: A restricted security domain can represent an organization’s

production, test and development networks. Access is restricted to authorized personnel, and there is no direct access from the Internet.

Secured: A secured security domain is a network that is only accessible to a small

group of highly trusted users, such as administrators and auditors.

Note: The classification of security domains is very similar to data classifications. FIPS

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Information Systems. FIPS PUB 199 can be used to determine the security category of systems and within which security domain systems should reside.

The Oracle Cloud Reference Design Support Infrastructure

Support is an integral part of the Oracle Cloud reference design and includes a combination of Oracle support agreements and on-site and off-site support from the implementing party. Administrators will have several options for support, including live assistance, phone support, and forums.

Cloud Infrastructure Architecture

This section provides a decision matrix for the Oracle Cloud reference design.

Implementers of the Oracle Cloud reference design can use the decision matrix as quick reference guide to identify settings and configuration decisions to be implemented in the environment. These decisions should be carefully analyzed during a gap analysis phase.

Oracle VM for x86 Hardware Architecture

Selecting the right hardware for your Oracle VM environment is a critical component in the success of your Oracle Cloud project. The resource requirements of all the virtual machines provides the aggregate CPU, RAM and storage requirements necessary to calculate the Oracle VM Servers hardware requirements. For example, a single Oracle VM Server supports up to 160 CPU cores or threads, 2TB of memory and a maximum of 128 virtual disks.

Tip: Please use our Oracle VM for x86 Server Sizing Advisor to accurately calculate the number of servers you will need for your environment.

Decision Point

Decision Justification

Certificati on

The server hardware must be jointly supported by the hardware vendor and Oracle.

Note: The following link is the Oracle'

hardware certification page.

http://linux.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=117:1:57 73793518142288::NO:RP::

Only jointly supported hardware product receive vendor support when problems occur and service tickets are created. The server hardware must be jointly supported by the hardware vendor and Oracle.

CPU Server hardware will be ordered with two socket Intel or AMD multiple-core CPUs for small and medium workloads and four socket multiple-core CPUs for large CPU-bound workloads.

The Maximum Number of CPU cores or threads an Oracle VM server can support is 160. Oracle VM server maps a virtual CPU to a hardware thread on a CPU core in a CPU socket. Oracle VM Server supports CPU oversubscription, which means that an Oracle VM Server with 160 CPU cores could overallocate the total number of CPU cores to

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virtual machines. For example, a server with an Intel Xeon processor 5600-series CPU with

hyperthreading can have up to six cores and twelve threads per socket. A two socket server with an Intel Xeon processor 5600-series CPU could allocate twenty four virtual CPUs without oversubscribing the physical CPUs.

CPU-bound workloads should not be on servers with oversubscribed CPUs.

RAM Server hardware will be ordered with the maximum amount of physical memory.

Note: Oracle VM Server supports up to 2TB

of RAM.

Oracle VM server does not support memory

oversubscription, which means that an Oracle VM server cannot accept a Live Migration or HA request unless the server has

available RAM for the virtual machines. Having available RAM on each server provides flexibility in terms of adding new virtual machines to the server pool, and to allow Live Migration and HA within a server pool.

By default, each Oracle VM server reserves 512MB of memory for dom0. The average memory overhead for each running guest on a dom0 is approximately 20MB plus 1% of the guest’s memory size. The remaining physical memory can be allocated to guests.

Storage Unless the Oracle VM server is booting from SAN, redundant SSD internal hard drives are recomended.

Oracle VM Server requires “only” 4 GB of local storage for the entire Oracle VM

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Virtual machine image and configuration files are hosted on shared SAN, iSCSI, or NFS repositories.

Server installation. The design goal for Oracle VM is to support multiple node Oracle VM Server pools with shared fibre channel SAN, iSCSI and/or NFS storage.

Note: Oracle VM 3 supports

single server local storage without HA or Live Migration. With local storage, the OCFS2 virtual machine file system must be on a dedicated hard dirve, i.e. a partition on same disk as Oracle VM server is not supported. An Oracle VM server with local storage is limited to a server pool with only one server, without high availability (HA) or Live Migration.

Network Interface Cards

802.1Q tag-based VLANs

a) 802.1Q tag-based VLANs can have a 10G two NIC mode 1 802.3AD bond for server management and virtual machines, or one two NIC mode 1 802.3AD bond for server

management and a second mode 4 or 6 802.3AD bond for virtual machines.

Port-based VLANs

b) Port-based VLANs can have up to four dedicated 802.3AD bonds and VLANs for server management and one or more 802.3AD bonds and VLANs for virtual machines. NAME Rate(bit/s) Rate(byte/s)

Gigabit Ethernet 1 Gbit/s 125 MB/s 10 Gigabit Ethernet 10 Gbit/s 1.25 GB/s Infiniband DDR 16 Gbit/s 2 GB/

For network-interface high availability 802.3AD bonds are used for each pair of network interfaces. Oracle VM supports two NICs ports per 802.3AD bond and a total of five 802.3AD bonds per Oracle VM Server.

Both 802.3AD NIC bonds, port-based VLANs and/or 802.1Q tag-based VLANs are supported and configured post Oracle VM Server installation with Oracle VM Manager. Network

redundancy, i.e. 802.3AD NIC bonding doubles the number of required NICs. Oracle VM uses a total of five discrete networks; Server Management, Cluster

Heartbeat, live Migration, Storage and Virtual

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Oracle VM for x86 Server Pool Design

Oracle VM uses the concept of a "server pool" to group together and centrally manage one or more server pools with up to 32 Oracle VM servers. If more than one location exists, Oracle VM server pools may be dispersed to different locations. Oracle VM Manager with Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c provide a single point of administration for one or more dispersed Oracle VM server pools.

Oracle VM server pools can accommodates organization-specific needs, i.e., Oracle

technology license management (hard and soft partitioning) , defense in depth, the principle of least privilege, compartmentalization of information, security domains and different applications and their performance, authentication, and security requirements.

Machines. All five networks can be supported using one mode 2 10G bond with 802.1Q tag-based VLANs (2 NICs) or using up to five 802.3AD bond (10 NICs). Each Oracle VM server pool should have a discrete network for the Server Management, Cluster Heartbeat, live Migration, Storage and Virtual Machines. Isolating the Server Management, Cluster Heartbeat, live Migration and Storage networks protect the server pool from unexpected server reboots by eliminating OCSF2 heartbeat

interruptions that could cause a pool member to loose network connectivity, fence from the pool and reboot. Host Bus

Adapter Cards

SAN Storage: 2 Host Bus Adapter Cards (HBAs).

NAME Line-Rate Throughput MBps 4GFC 4.25 800

8GFC 8.5 1600 10GFC 10.52 2550 16GFC 14.025 3200 20GFC 21.04 5100

2 HBAs are used to eliminate a single point of failure.

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Figure 2 shows a high-level overview of how server pools can be used to implement security domains, defense in depth, the principle of least privilege and

compartmentalization of information.

Decision Point Decision Justification

Pool Design Prior to implementing an Oracle Cloud, it’s important that an infrastructure assessment (IA) and gap analysis (GA) be performed. During the IA/GA, the architecture of the solution will be matched to the customer’s business needs.

Server pool design is a strategic, architectural security decision. Server pools can be used to controle Oracle licensing costs (hard and soft partitioning) and as a way to implement security domains, defense in depth, the principle of least privilege and compartmentalization of information.

Oracle VM Manager

Oracle VM Manager will be installed in Production mode on a dedicated physical server using an external Oracle 11g Standard, Enterprise or RAC database on a dedicated physical or virtual server.

The Oracle VM Manager Database repository will not be shared with other production or test databases on the same server.

The Oracle Enterprise Manager Agent and the Virtualization

plug-The Oracle VM Manager Database repository, WebLogic and Oracle VM Manager can be installed in an “unsupported” all-in-one configuration for evaluations (Demo Mode) or in a multi-tier architecture for production (Production Mode). A Production Oracle VM Manager installation should not be placed on a single server, nor should the Oracle VM Manager Database repository be shared with production or test databases on the same server. For production, the Oracle VM Manager Database repository as well as the WebLogic hosts should be on

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in will be installed to enable Oracle Enterprise Manager integration.

dedicated virtual or physical servers. If your Oracle VM environment starts out small, make sure to have a plan to scale out your Oracle VM Manager infrastructure.

For the Oracle VM Manager Database repository, scaling out means moving from a single server Database to a multi node RAC cluster. An important consideration when scaling out an Oracle VM Manager environment is to determine if the underlying hardware where the Oracle VM Manager

Database repository runs is capable to transition to RAC. If the hardware is not capable to transition to RAC, it is possible to move and/or export the Oracle VM Manager Database repository to a different system with more resources.

Oracle VM Server Agent Roles

Each Oracle VM server pool will have one server pool master with a VIP for failover. The Virtual IP address is a unique IP address on the Server Management network. There are a total of three Oracle VM agent roles; 1) the Server Pool Master, 2) the Utility Server and 3) the Virtual Machine Server. By default each Oracle VM server in a pool has all three of the agent roles enabled.

The server pool "Virtual IP" feature is a mandatory server pool property and feature that detect the loss of the server pool master and automatically will failover the pool master server role to the first pool member that can lock the pool file systsm.

Storage Back-end storage

Each Oracle VM server pool uses one dedicated OCFS2 12G mount point for the server pool's OCFS2 cluster configurations (the pool file system) and one or more shared OCFS2 or NFS repositories to host virtual machine configuration files and images.

Front-end storage

The virtual machine layer is where the storage is presented to virtual machines as either a flat file (UUID.img), as RAW disks (LUN), or as a combination of flat

An Oracle VM storage solution consists of three distinct layers. Each layer has its own unique requirements, configurations, dependencies and features. The first layer is the storage array, which is referred to as back-end storage. Oracle VM supports Fibre Channel and iSCSI SANs and NFS back-end storage. The second layer is the server layer consisting of the Oracle VM server storage

configurations and the shared Oracle Cluster File System 2 (OCFS2) or NFS virtual machine

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files and RAW disks. file system. The third layer is the guest front-end storage consisting of multiple guest storage and driver options.

RAW disks have the best performance of the two

front-end storage storage options. In most cases, RAW disks are the best option for hight I/O workloads like Oracle Databases.

Networks Each Oracle VM server pool will have isolated Oracle VM

management and virtual machine networks.

Oracle VM uses a total of five discrete networks; Server

Management, Cluster Heartbeat, live Migration, Storage and Virtual Machines. All five networks can be supported using one mode 2 10G bond with 802.1Q tag-based VLANs (2 NICs) or using up to five 802.3AD bond (10 NICs). Each Oracle VM server pool should have a discrete network for the Server Management, Cluster Heartbeat, live Migration, Storage and Virtual Machines. Isolating the Server Management, Cluster Heartbeat, live Migration and Storage networks protect the server pool from unexpected server reboots by eliminating OCSF2 heartbeat interruptions that cause pool members to fence from the pool and reboot.

Note: The heartbeat traffic is TCP

on port 7777. Each Oracle VM server in a pool must be able to communicate to all of the pool members over TCP on port 7777. RAM The server pool must be designed

with excess memory capacity to accommodate the memory requirements of virtual machines that could migrate or start on any pool member.

Oracle VM server does not support memory oversubscription, which means that an Oracle VM server cannot accept a DRS, Live Migration or HA requests unless the server has available RAM for the virtual machines. Having

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Oracle VM for x86 Disaster Recovery

An Oracle VM disaster recovery architecture includes the design and process to maintain business continuity following a disastrous event affecting the availability of an

organization's primary site. Failover to a disaster recovery site is prompted by the results of a disaster assessment. The failover process is the restoration of the primary site's services at the disaster recovery site.

Note: Disaster recovery requirements are calculated using SLA, Recovery Time Objectives

(RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) objectives. SLA, RPO and RTO objectives and budget influence the disaster recovery architecture and design.

Oracle VM uses the concept of a server pool to group together and manage one or more clustered Oracle VM servers. Once an Oracle VM server pool is created, the physical and virtual resources are managed within the boundary of the server pool. Physical resources include server hardware, networks, storage, infrastructure services (DNS, NTP, LDAP, HTTP, etc..), operating system installation media and administrative accounts. The virtual resources include virtual disks, virtual network interfaces, and virtual machine

configuration files. For example, an Oracle VM environment with multiple server pools located in one or more sites could be managed from a single Oracle VM Manager instance with each server pool's resources isolated to their respected server pool. An Oracle VM server pool's resources from one site can be replicated and restored to another site for disaster recovery.

Restoration of the primary site's services at a disaster recovery site requires a replica of the primary site's physical and virtual resources at the disaster recovery site. A disaster

recovery site hosts a replica of the primary site's Oracle VM physical and virtual resources, i.e. server hardware, networks, storage, infrastructure services, virtual disks, and virtual machine configuration files. The failover process involves restoring the primary sites Oracle VM server pools at the disaster recovery site, then systematically starting the virtual machines and services.

Note: Oracle VM Servers are not backed up and restored at the DR site. The time required

to backup and restore an Oracle VM Server is significantly greater then a PXE boot kickstart installation.

A disaster recovery site can be a warm failover site waiting idle to respond to a disastrous occurrence, or part of a multi-site high availability design. A multi-site design uses excess capacity with application high availability to mirror services across sites to handle the lose

excess RAM on each Oracle VM server provides flexibility in terms of adding new virtual machines to the server pool, and to allow DRS, Live Migration and HA to operate within a server pool.

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of one or more sites.

Figure 3 shows a warm failover site waiting idle to respond to a disastrous occurrence.

Figure 4 shows a warm failover site responding to a disastrous occurrence and running the primary sites services.

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Figure 5 shows a multi-site design with application high availability solutions to mirror services across sites as well as excess capacity to handle the lose of one or more sites.

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Virtual machines that are restored at a disaster recovery site expect the same networks, storage, and infrastructure services as in the primary site. In the event that the disaster recovery site has different networks, storage, and infrastructure services, the properties of each virtual machines would need to be edited to use the new networks, storage and infrastructure services before services can be restored.

The virtual machine operating systems are typically installed in virtual disks that are actually flat files hosted on shared OCFS2 or NFS repositories. RAW disks such as ASM Disks, Log and Archive Files, etcetera are presented to the virtual machines from the Oracle VM Servers as local devices. Each virtual machine's virtual network interface card(s) (vNIC) are connected to one or more discrete networks using Xen bridges that are managed and presented to the virtual machines by the Oracle VM pool members. Virtual disks and virtual network interface card(s) allocations are managed using Oracle VM Manager and/or Oracle Enterprise Manager with the configurations saved in each virtual machines vm.cfg file.

The virtual machine vm.cfg files, virtual disk images and RAW disks (ASM disks) can be replicated between sites using storage array replication and/or mirroring solutions. Rsync is an option if an array does not have replication and/or mirroring functionality.

As soon as the replicated storage repositories are available, the failover process for a warm recovery site starts with the installation of Oracle VM Manager with the runInstall.sh --uuid option using the primary sites Oracle VM Manager UUID. An Oracle VM Manager --uuid installation allows Oracle VM Manager to use the primary site' replicated repositories and virtual machines.

Tip: The Oracle VM Manager UUID is listed in the “.config ” file on the Oracle VM Manager host in the /u01/app/oracle/ovm-manager-3/ directory as well as in each server pool' .ovsrepo file in the pool file system.

The next example shows the content of the .config file with the UUID in bold. # cat /u01/app/oracle/ovm-manager-3/.config DBHOST=localhost SID=orcl LSNR=1521 APEX=None OVSSCHEMA=ovs WLSADMIN=weblogic OVSADMIN=admin COREPORT=54321 UUID=0004fb00000100009edfaa0f93184f44 BUILDID=3.0.3.126

The next example shows the content of the .ovsrepo file with the UUID in bold. # cat .ovsrepo

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OVS_REPO_UUID=0004fb0000030000554308a6997a6b2f

OVS_REPO_MGR_UUID=0004fb00000100009edfaa0f93184f44

OVS_REPO_VERSION=3.0

Decision Point Decision Justification

Disaster Recovery Design

Prior to implementing an Oracle VM Disaster Recovery solution, it’s important that an infrastructure assessment (IA) and gap analysis (GA) be performed. During the IA/GA, the architecture of the solution will be matched to the customer’s SLA, Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs)

objectives.

Implementing a Disaster Recovery is a strategic decision. Disaster recovery requirements are calculated using SLA, Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) objectives. SLA, RPO and RTO objectives and budget influence the disaster recovery architecture and design.

Oracle VM Manager

Oracle VM Manager will be installed in Production mode using the runInstall.sh --uuid option with the primary site's Oracle VM Manager UUID.

Oracle VM Manager will be hosted on a dedicated physical server using an external or local Oracle 11g Standard, Enterprise or RAC database.

Once Oracle Enterprise Manager is restored, the Oracle Enterprise Manager Agent and Virtualization plug-in will be installed to enable Oracle Enterprise Manager integration.

As soon as the replicated storage repositories are available, the failover process for a warm recovery site starts with the

installation of Oracle VM Manager with the runInstall.sh --uuid option using the primary sites Oracle VM Manager UUID. An Oracle VM Manager --uuid installation allows Oracle VM Manager to use the primary site' replicated repositories and virtual machines.

The Oracle VM Manager UUID is listed in the “.config ” file on the Oracle VM Manager host in the /u01/app/oracle/ovm-manager-3/ directory as well as in each server pool' .ovsrepo file in the pool file system.

Oracle VM Server Builds

Oracle VM Servers will be

installed using an automated build process.

Oracle VM servers are installed using an automated PXE boot configuration to ensure that each server has a consistent installation configuration.

Oracle VM Server Backups

Oracle VM Servers will not backed up at the primary site and restored at the DR site.

The time required to backup and restore an Oracle VM Server is significently greater then an

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automated PXE boot kickstart installation.

Oracle VM servers are installed using an automated PXE boot configuration to ensure that each server has a consistent installation configuration.

Storage A replica of the primary site's Oracle VM pool file system and virtual machine file system repositories will be hosted at the disaster recovery site.

As soon as the replicated storage repositories are available, the failover process for a warm recovery site starts with the

installation of Oracle VM Manager with the runInstall.sh --uuid option using the primary sites Oracle VM Manager UUID. An Oracle VM Manager --uuid installation allows Oracle VM Manager to use the primary site' replicated repositories and virtual machines.

Virtual machines that are restored at a disaster recovery site expect the same storage as in the primary site. In the event that the disaster recovery site has different storage each virtual machine would need to be recreated or edited to use the new storage before services can be restored.

Networks A replica of the primary site's Oracle VM networks will be maintained at the disaster recovery site.

Virtual machines that are restored at a disaster recovery site expect the same networks as in the primary site. In the event that the disaster recovery site has different networks each virtual machine would need to be edited to use the new networks before services can be restored.

Infrastructure Services

A replica of the primary site's infrastructure services will be maintained at the disaster recovery site.

Virtual machines that are restored at a disaster recovery site expect the same infrastructure services as in the primary site. In the event that the disaster recovery site has different infrastructure services,

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Oracle VM Administration: Oracle VM Server for x86 - new Training More Oracle VM templates for PeopleSoft and Oracle Enteprise Manager Oracle Ebusiness Suite 12.1.3 Oracle VM templates

each virtual machine operating system would need to be edited to use the new infrastructure services before services can be restored.

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Oracle VM Licensing, Support and

Packaging

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1.1 Chapter updates Roddy Rodstein 05/10/12

Oracle VM Licensing and Support Options The Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network Oracle VM Packaging

Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c and Oracle VM Oracle VM Licensing and Support Options

Oracle VM is “not” a licensed Oracle technology product. There are no license fees for Oracle VM. Oracle offers enterprise support for Oracle VM on third-party hardware as well as bundled support with Sun hardware. Support for Oracle VM for third-party hardware is purchased as an add-on component of Oracle’s enterprise support package. Support for Oracle VM on Sun x64 hardware is bundled with hardware support as an add-on to the Premier Support for Systems package.

Support for Oracle VM for third-party hardware is sold in two packages: Oracle VM Premier Limited support for x64 servers with up to two sockets for $599.00 per server, per year. Oracle VM Premier support for x64 servers with more than two sockets for $1,199.00 per server, per year. Both Oracle VM Premier support packages provide access to RPMs, patches and updates from the Unbreakable Linux Network along with access to My Oracle Support (MOS) to create and manage Oracle Support Service Requests (SRs). Support for Oracle VM for third-party hardware “only” includes support for Oracle VM, operating system support for Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Solaris 10 and 11 Express x86, and Windows virtual machines must be purchased separately.

Note: Oracle offers free updates for Oracle Linux and a Network support package for

Linux with access exclusively to the Unbreakable Linux Network without My Oracle Support. Oracle does not offer free updates or Network support for Oracle VM.

Premier Support for Systems costs 12% of the net Sun system purchase price and includes support for the system hardware and firmware, as well as operating system support on the Sun hardware for Solaris x86, Solaris 11 Express, Oracle Linux, and Oracle VM. The operating system support with Premier Support for Systems covers an unlimited number of virtual instances of Oracle Linux, Solaris 10 and 11 Express x86 hosted on Oracle VM on the Sun hardware. Premier Support for Systems provides access to RPMs, patches and updates from the Unbreakable Linux Network along with access to My Oracle Support (MOS) to create and manage Oracle Support Service Requests (SRs).

The Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network

The Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network is Oracle' cloud repository for Oracle VM, Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Exadata and Exalogic RPMs, software patches, updates and fixes. Access to the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network is available to all levels of

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Oracle VM, Oracle Linux and Sun Premier support customers. The Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network has a simple dashboard to configure yum servers, manage customer service identifiers (CSIs), and monitor the status of RPM repositories, software patches, updates and fixes. The Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network dashboard is accessed with a web browser and an associated Oracle Single Sign-on account. Existing “My Oracle Support (MOS) Oracle Single Sign-on accounts” must be associated with the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network, in order to access the Unbreakable Linux Network.

To associate an existing Oracle Single Sign-on account, access the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network portal and click the Register link. To create a new Oracle Single Sign-on account, access the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network portal, click the Sign On button, then from the Oracle Single Sign-on page, click the Sigh Up link.

Figure 1 shows the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network dashboard.

The Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network and My Oracle Support, are entirely separate systems, accessed by different URLs, and use different customer service identifiers (CSIs). My Oracle Support is used to interface with Oracle’s enterprise support organization, whereas the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network is used to configure yum servers, manage customer service identifiers (CSIs), monitor the status of RPM repositories, software patches, updates and fixes. A valid customer service identifier (CSI) for Oracle VM or Oracle Linux is required to access the RPM repositories, software patches, updates and fixes at the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network. The customer service identifiers for Oracle VM and Oracle Linux are only valid for the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network, not for My Oracle Support.

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Tip: The customer service identifiers for Oracle VM and Oracle Linux are not valid at the

My Oracle Support portal.

Oracle VM Packaging

Oracle VM consists of a x64 server component, named Oracle VM Server and a manager component, named Oracle VM Manager which is used to manage one or more clustered servers. The Oracle VM Server Media Pack for Oracle VM Server and Oracle VM Manager is available at the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal. Access to the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal requires an Oracle.com user account and password. The Oracle VM Media Packs are downloaded as a zip files that contain ISO images. The ISO images can be burned to CD or mounted locally to install Oracle VM Server and Oracle VM Manager. Oracle VM Server is distributed as Open Source software, therefore the source code is also available along with the ISO image at the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal.

Oracle VM Server is installed on bare metal x64 hardware using the Oracle VM Media Pack. Oracle VM Manager is a traditional Oracle application consisting of an Oracle Database, one or more Oracle WebLogic servers hosting a J2EE web application with an application development framework (ADF) browser based console. All of the Oracle VM Manager components are supported exclusively on Oracle Linux 5U5 x64 or later. In the context of Oracle VM Manager, the Oracle Database repository stores all of the

configuration data for an Oracle VM environment, including the data collected by the Oracle VM Server Agents. WebLogic is the J2EE platform which hosts the Oracle VM Manager application and the Core API. Oracle VM Manager provides a limited-use license for a Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition Oracle Database and a limited-use license for Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition WebLogic, as long as the Database and WebLogic are “only” used for Oracle VM Manager.

Tip: Oracle Support Requests (SRs) for the limited-use license versions of the Oracle

Database and WebLogic should be created with the Oracle VM Manager Support identifier.

Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c and Oracle VM

The Oracle VM product family; Oracle VM, Oracle VM Templates and Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder can be managed from Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control with a plug-in named the "Oracle Virtualization". The right to use the Oracle Virtualization plug-in is bundled with all levels of Oracle VM support.

Managing Oracle VM Servers and virtual resources from the Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Console requires an Oracle Linux host with Oracle VM Manager, an Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c agent and the Oracle Virtualization plug-in.

Oracle VM Administration: Oracle VM Server for x86 - new Training More Oracle VM templates for PeopleSoft and Oracle Enteprise Manager Oracle Ebusiness Suite 12.1.3 Oracle VM templates

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Oracle VM for x86 Server Sizing Advisor

The Oracle VM for x86 Server Sizing Advisor offers Oracle VM 3.0 Server sizing recommendations.

How to use Mokum Solutions, Inc.' Oracle VM Server Sizing Advisor.

This is the first page, where you enter the Oracle VM Server and virtual machine CPU, RAM and storage requirements. Next, is a summary review page. The last page shows your Oracle VM 3.0 server sizing results for an HA enabled pool with the ability to lose one Oracle VM Server and still run all the virtual machines.

Each Oracle VM Server has: * 2048 GB of

RAM

Each Oracle VM Server has: * 160 CPU cores

Enter the Total Number of Virtual Machines: *

0

Enter the Total Number of Virtual Machine Virtual CPUs: *

0

Enter the Total Amount of RAM in GB for all of the Virtual Machines: *

0

Enter the Total Amount of Storage in GB for all of the Virtual Machines: *

12

Legal Notice:

The Oracle VM for x86 Server Sizing Advisor tool is subject to change without notice and is provided as-is without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Mokum Solutions, Inc. does not make any representations regarding the use, validity, accuracy or reliability of the tool or the results of the use of the tool. The entire risk arising out of the use of this tool remains solely with the customer. In no event shall Mokum Solutions, Inc. be liable for any direct, consequential, incidental, special, punitive or other damages, even if Mokum Solutions, Inc. is negligent or has been advised of the possibility of such damages, arising from use of the tool or the information provided herein.

Next Page >

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Revision Change Description Updated By Date 1.0 First Release Roddy Rodstein 09/10/11 1.1 Oracle VM Agent

Password Requirements Roddy Rodstein 09/15/11 1.2

Oracle VM Server Installation Hangs While Loading Xen.gz

Roddy Rodstein 11/10/11 1.3 Installation and VLANS Roddy Rodstein 04/13/12 1.4 Post Installation

Checklist Roddy Rodstein 04/17/12 1.5 Post Installation Checklist - Disable C-states Roddy Rodstein 05/10/12 Table of Contents

Oracle VM Server Installation Introduction Oracle VM Installation Considerations ...Oracle VM Network Considerations ...Oracle VM Storage Considerations Oracle VM Server Sizing

How to Download the Oracle VM Media Pack Oracle VM CD-ROM Installation

Oracle VM Post Installation Checklist How to Uninstall / Remove Oracle VM

Oracle VM Server Installation Hangs While Loading Xen.gz Appendix

...Oracle VM Default Runlevel Settings for System Services ...Oracle VM install.log File

...Oracle VM install.log.syslog File ...Oracle VM anaconda-ks.cfg File

Oracle VM Server Installation Introduction

Oracle VM Server can be installed on x86_64 hardware using a bootable CD-ROM or over the network using a pre-boot execution environment (PXE). Both Oracle VM Server installation methods, CD-ROM and PXE boot, require the Oracle VM Server Media Pack. The Oracle VM Server Media Pack is available at the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal. Access to the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal requires an Oracle.com user account and password. The Oracle VM Server Media Pack is downloaded as a zip file that contains the Oracle VM Server ISO image. The Oracle VM Server ISO image can be burned to a bootable CD and used for a CD-ROM installation as well as staged on a boot server for a PXE boot installation. Oracle VM is distributed as Open Source software,

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therefore the source code is also available along with the ISO image at the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal.

Note: There is no Oracle VM 2.x to Oracle VM 3 upgrade path for Oracle VM Manager or

Oracle VM Server. Oracle VM 2.x virtual machines can be imported and used with Oracle VM 3. Oracle VM 3 is supported only on x86_64 hardware.

Oracle VM Server can be installed from a CD-ROM, or from a hard drive, NFS server, FTP server, or HTTP server. The difference between installing Oracle VM Server from a CD-ROM, or from a hard drive, NFS server, FTP server, or HTTP server is how the server boots and the location of the installation media. Contemporary servers can boot from a bootable CD in a local CD-ROM drive, from a remote CD-ROM drive using a Lights out Management (LOM) solution as well as over the network using a pre-boot execution environment (PXE). Once the server boots, the installation program can install Oracle VM Server from the CD-ROM, or from a hard drive, NFS server, FTP server, or HTTP server. To install Oracle VM Server from a hard disk, an NFS share, FTP server or an HTTP server, boot the server with the bootable CD and when presented with the Install Method screen, enter the path to the installation media.

Tip: Occasionally CD-ROM installations using Lights out Management (LOM) solutions

terminate with file copy errors. If you encounter file copy errors with a Lights out

Management (LOM) installation, the workaround is to stage the Oracle VM Server media files on the server’s hard disk, or on an NFS share, FTP server or an HTTP server on the same network as the target server. Once the Oracle VM Server media files have been staged on the server’s hard disk, an NFS share, FTP server or an HTTP server, boot the server with the bootable CD and when presented with the Install Method screen, enter the path to the installation media.

Oracle VM Installation Considerations

Oracle VM Server is supported exclusively on x86_64 hardware with a 64-bit Intel or AMD processor. Oracle VM 3.0 is not supported on x86 hardware with 32-bit processors. Oracle recommends a dual core CPU or multiple CPUs with at least 1GB or 2GB of RAM. Oracle’s minimum CPU and RAM recommendation for Oracle VM Server is a starting point for running only a couple guests for a test environment.

Tip: A minimum of 1GB of RAM is required to boot an Oracle VM Server.

Oracle VM supports two unique virtualization modes, paravirtualization mode (PV mode) and hardware virtualization mode (HVM mode). Oracle VM Servers can support both paravirtualization mode and hardware virtualization mode simultaneously on a single x86_64 server that has either Intel or AMD virtualization technologies. Intel and AMD virtualization is a requirement only for hardware virtualization mode, not for

paravirtualization mode. Intel and AMD virtualization technologies are enabled and managed using the system BIOS.

Paravirtualization mode requires the virtual machine operating system to run a Xen kernel and Xen network and I/O drivers. Xen paravirtualized kernels are available for the Oracle Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems. Paravirtualized virtual machines are hypervisor aware and run without the additional overhead of hardware emulation. Paravirtualization requires much less overhead for timers, interrupts, I/O traffic, and context switches, allowing superior scalability under heavy loads, when compared to hardware virtualization mode.

Unlike paravirtualization mode, which requires the virtual machine to run a Xen kernel, hardware virtualization mode supports unmodified operating systems. Virtual machines that

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run under hardware virtualization mode are called “hardware virtualized machines” (HVM). Hardware virtualized machines are unaware that they have been virtualized and think they are on physical hardware. To provide acceptable performance, hardware virtualized machines should use paravirtualized network and I/O drivers. From Oracle Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 onwards, the stock kernels have provided paravirtualized network and I/O drivers for hardware virtualized guests. From Solaris 10 10/09 onwards, the stock kernels have provided paravirtualized network and I/O drivers for hardware virtualized machines. Windows does not have native paravirtualization support, although Windows virtual machines can run as hardware virtualized machines using Oracle's paravirtualized network and I/O drivers. Oracle has released paravirtualized network and I/O drivers for the Windows operating system that can be freely downloaded from the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal.

Oracle VM Network Considerations

A minimum of one Ethernet network interface (NIC) card is required to install Oracle VM, although two or four NICs is strongly recommended. Both 802.3AD NIC bonding, port-based VLANs and/or 802.1Q tag-port-based VLANs are supported and configured post Oracle VM Server installation with Oracle VM Manager. Network redundancy, i.e. 802.3AD NIC bonding, will double the number of required NICs. Oracle VM 3.0 supports two NICs ports per network bond and a total of five network bonds per Oracle VM Server.

Table 1 shows the three supported 802.3AD NIC bonding modes.

Bond Name Bond

Mode Description Cisco Settings

Active Backup Mode 1 Active-backup policy

Default bond setting. Only

one slave in the bond is active. A different slave becomes active if, and only if, the active slave fails.

LACP, and Ethernet interface mode (not bond mode) are recommended Link Aggregation Mode 4 802.3ad

Creates aggregation groups that share the same speed and duplex settings. Utilizes all slaves in the active aggregator according to the 802.3ad specification.

LACP, and port aggregation mode are recommended Load balancing Mode 6 balance-alb

Includes balance-tlb plus receive load balancing (rlb) for IPV4 traffic. The receive load balancing is achieved by ARP negotiation.

LACP, and port aggregation mode are recommended

The exact number of network interfaces for an Oracle VM Server entirely depends on your organization’s business requirements and network and storage infrastructure capabilities. For example, an Oracle VM Server with two GigE interfaces, configured with one

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demanding network and storage requirements, with only two network interfaces. By

contrast, an Oracle VM Server using 802.3AD bonds with port-based VLANs, with NFS or iSCSI storage would require a 802.3AD bond with two interfaces per port-based VLAN, as well as a two interfaces bond for the storage.

Oracle VM Server networking routes all virtual machine traffic through a Xen bridge. A Xen bridge operates at layer 2 of the OSI model, effectively acting as a layer 2 (L2) switch passing packets to the egress port, relying on the TCP protocol for rate and packet loss control.

Table 2 shows the OSI model. Note that Xen bridges operate in layer 2. Layer Description 7 Application Layer 6 Presentation Layer 5 Session Layer 4 Transport Layer 3 Network Layer 2 Data Link Layer

 LLC sublayer

 MAC sublayer 1 Physical Layer

Packets that arrive at the physical NIC are handled by dom0’s Ethernet driver and appear on a Xen bridge. Xen bridges distribute packets like a layer-two switch for virtual machines running on an Oracle VM Server. Xen bridges route guest packets based on the guest's MAC address.

The Oracle VM 3.0 installation program allows the server' IP address to be assigned using DHCP or as a static IP address. It is recommended to use a static IP address for Oracle VM Servers to ensure that each server always receives the same IP address. Using DHCP assigned IP addresses can result in unexpected IP address changes due to DHCP lease expiry setting causing unexpected results.

The Oracle VM 3.0 installation program asks to select the Oracle VM Management

interface (NIC). The Oracle VM Management interface is used for, and should be dedicated to, the Oracle VM Management traffic. Oracle VM Manager dispatches commands to each Oracle VM Server pool master, which in turn dispatches commands to each Oracle VM Server pool member using the Oracle VM Management interface. Additionally, each

Oracle VM Server pool member uses a network heartbeat over the management interface. If any node in an Oracle VM Server pool fails to update/respond to its network heartbeat, the node is fenced from the pool and promptly reboots, then all HA-enabled guests are restarted on a live server in the Oracle VM Server pool. It is recommended to have a decided bonded interface on an isolated network or vlan for the Oracle VM Management traffic.

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Tip: The Oracle VM Management interface is selected during the Oracle VM server

installation and can be edited after the installation in the /etc/ovs-config file.

Oracle VM Storage Considerations

The default behavior of the Oracle VM installation program is to install Oracle VM Server on the server's local disk allocating only 3 GB of storage for the root “/” partition. The remaining available storage will be free space. The free space can not be used for local virtual machine storage. To support local virtual machine storage, a second disk must be used.

Tip: Since Oracle VM Server only requires 3 GB of storage, consider procuring disk-less

hardware with a small flash storage module to reduce operating costs or consider the boot from SAN installation option.

Oracle VM Server Sizing

The minimum CPU, RAM, network and storage requirement for your Oracle VM hardware depends entirely on your organizations business requirements, the Oracle VM Server pool configurations along with the CPU, RAM and storage requirements of the virtual machines. For example, Oracle recommends a dual core CPU or multiple CPUs with at least 1GB or 2GB of RAM. Oracle’s minimum CPU and RAM recommendation for Oracle VM Server is a starting point for running only a couple guests for a test environment. To size Oracle VM Server hardware and Oracle VM Server pools, it is necessary to know the resource requirements of all of the virtual machines and organization specific high-availability and disaster-recovery requirements.

Tip: Please use our Oracle VM for x86 Server Sizing Advisor to accurately calculate the number of servers you will need for your environment.

The resource requirements of all of your virtual machines provides the data necessary to calculate the CPU, RAM and storage requirements of the Oracle VM Servers hardware. For example, a single Oracle VM Server supports up to 160 CPU cores or threads, 2TB of memory and a maximum of 128 virtual disks or 128 virtual machines with “one” virtual disk.

An Oracle VM Server with 2TB of memory and 160 CPU cores could allocate the

“majority” of 2TB of memory and “more” than 160 CPU cores to running virtual machines. Oracle VM Server supports CPU oversubscription, which means that an Oracle VM Server with 160 CPU cores could overallocate the total number of CPU cores to virtual machines. Oracle VM Server does not support memory oversubscription, which means that an Oracle VM Server with 2TB of memory cannot overallocate memory to virtual machines. By default, each Oracle VM Server reserves 512MB of memory for the Oracle VM Server (dom0). The average memory overhead for each running guest on an Oracle VM Server is approximately 20MB plus 1% of each virtual machine' memory allocation. The remaining physical memory can be allocated to virtual machines.

Avoid oversubscribing CPU-bound workloads such as Oracle Database workloads. CPU oversubscription with CPU-bound workloads negatively affects performance and

availability. CPU oversubscription for non-CPU-bound workloads, such as Oracle Fusion Middleware technologies, is recommended. It is common to oversubscribe one CPU cores up to 3x with non-CPU-bound workloads. For example, each CPU core could be allocated to 3 virtual CPUs for non-CPU-bound workloads, without performance penalties.

Note: Virtual machines cannot aggregate CPU and memory resources from more than one

Oracle VM Server. That is, a virtual machine consumes resources “only” from the Oracle VM Server where the virtual machine is running.

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An organization’s high-availability and disaster-recovery requirements provide the data necessary to calculate the number of Oracle VM Servers, Oracle VM Server pools and virtual machines. High availability is a strategy that allows organizations to meet service level agreements (SLAs) by minimizing or eliminating planned and unplanned downtime. SLAs specify the levels of availability. For example, mission critical applications might have SLAs requiring operational continuity in the event of system failure. Conversely, a non-mission critical application might have an SLA that allows several hours or days of downtime.

Oracle offers a wide variety of high availability solutions for databases, middleware, applications, operating systems and hardware that offer different levels of availability. For example, Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) is Oracle’s database high availability solutions offering operational continuity for Oracle Databases in the event of node failure. Oracle DataGuard and Oracle ApplicationGuard are two other high availability solutions that offer operational continuity in the event of node failure.

Oracle VM has two built-in high availability features; virtual machine HA, which is referred to as “Oracle VM HA” and Live Migration. Oracle VM HA automatically restarts virtual machines when an Oracle VM Server fails or restarts. Oracle VM HA minimizes unplanned downtime by restarting virtual machines that have been taken off-line by an Oracle VM Server failure. Live Migration is used to eliminate planned downtime by migrating running virtual machines off one Oracle VM Server to another during a

maintenance event, i.e. for repairs or an upgrade. Both HA and Live migration require an Oracle VM pool configuration with shared storage and a minimum of two Oracle VM servers with sufficient memory to run all the virtual machines on “one” of the two Oracle VM Servers.

An organization’s high availability and disaster recovery requirements will directly impact the numbers of virtual machines, Oracle VM Servers and Oracle VM server pools required to meet availability SLAs. For example, an SLA that states that mission critical databases requires operational continuity would require a clustering solution like RAC, with a minimum of two clustered nodes. Each RAC database would require a minimum of two Oracle VM Servers. Each Oracle VM Server would host one of the two RAC nodes. The former example illustrates how an SLA impacts the number of Oracle VM Servers and virtual machines. If disaster recovery is a requirement, additional Oracle VM Servers, Oracle VM Server pools and virtual machines will be deployed at the disaster recovery site.

How to Download the Oracle VM Media Pack

The Oracle VM Media Pack is available at the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal. Access to the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal requires an Oracle.com user account and password to authenticate in to the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal. If you do not already have an Oracle.com user account, visit the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal, click the Sign In / Register link or button to create an Oracle.com account.

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From the Sign In page, enter your Oracle.com user name and password, then click the

Sign In button.

Figure 2 shows the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal Sign In page.

Once authenticated, accept the registration/export regulations to access to the Oracle VM and Oracle Linux Media.

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After completing the registration/export regulation form, you will be redirected to the

Media Pack Search page. From the Media Pack Search page, select Oracle VM from the Select a Product Pack dropdown menu. Next, select x86 64-bit from the Platform

dropdown menu, then click the Go button to be taken to the Oracle VM Media Pack download page.

Tip: If you do not see Oracle VM from the Select a Product Pack dropdown menu, you

are not in the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM section of the Cloud Portal. Click the Cloud Portal link in the page header, then click the Oracle Linux/VM drop down menu to be redirected to the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM section of the Cloud Portal.

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From the Oracle VM Media Pack page, click the Oracle VM 3.1.1 Media Pack for x86

64 (64 bit) radio button, then the Continue button, or click the Oracle VM 3.1.1 Media Pack for x86 64 (64 bit) hyperlink to go to the download page.

Figure 5 shows the Oracle VM Media Pack page highlighting the Oracle VM 3.0.1

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From the Oracle VM 3.1.1 Media Pack for x86 64 (64 bit) Media Pack download page, click the Oracle VM Server 3.1.1 for x86 64 (64 bit) Download button to download the Oracle VM Server 3.0.1 media pack.

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The Oracle VM Server media is delivered as a zip file. The zip file name corresponds to the

Part Number listed on the download page. Once the zip file is downloaded, use your

favorite zip utility to unzip the Oracle VM ISO file. Next, burn the ISO file to a bootable CD or DVD to be able to install Oracle VM Server using a CD-ROM drive.

Oracle VM Server Installation Using a CD-ROM

1. Insert the Oracle VM Server media into the CD-ROM drive.

2. Boot the server with the Oracle VM Server media in the CD-ROM drive. 3. The Oracle VM Server Welcome screen is displayed, as shown in Figure 7. Figure 7 shows the Oracle VM Server Welcome screen.

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Oracle VM Server Welcome screen

From Oracle VM Server Welcome screen press the Enter key to start the install program. If the Enter key is not pressed for one minute, the install program will automatically start.

The CD Found screen

On the CD Found screen, you can test the media for errors. To test the media, use the Tab key to select the OK button and press Enter. Once the media test is completed, any errors will be reported. To skip the media test and continue with the install, use the Tab key to select the Skip button and press Enter to continue.

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The Keyboard Selection screen

On the Keyboard Selection screen, use the Tab key to select the list of keyboard models. Then use the UP and DOWN keys (↑ or ↓) to select the desired keyboard model. The keyboard that is selected becomes the default keyboard for dom0. Next, use the Tab key to select OK, and press Enter to continue.

Figure 9 shows the Keyboard Selection screen.

End User License Agreement screen

On the User License Agreement screen, use the UP and DOWN keys (↑ or ↓) to read the License Agreement. Next, use the Tab key to select the ACCEPT button to continue. Figure 10 shows the End User License Agreement screen.

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Warning screen

If you see the Warning screen, use the Tab key to select the Yes button, then press Enter to continue.

Figure 11 shows the Warning screen.

Partitioning Type screen

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Remove all partitions and create a new default partition layout

Remove all Linux partitions and create a new default partition layout

Use the free space on selected drives to create a new default partition layout

Create a custom partition layout

Tip: The default behavior of the Oracle VM installation program is to install Oracle VM

server on the server's local disk allocating only 3 GB of storage for the root “/” partition. The remaining available storage will be free space. Since Oracle VM Server only requires 3 GB of storage, consider re-allocating the free space to the root “/” partition.

Use the Tab key to select the Remove all partitions and create a new default partition

layout option. Ensure that the appropriate drive is selected in the Which drive(s) do you want to use for this installation section. Use the Tab key to select the OK button to

continue.

Figure 12 shows the Partitioning Type screen.

Warning screen

Since we selected the Remove all partitions and create a new default partition layout option, a Warning screen is displayed to confirm that we want to remove the partition(s), including all of the data contained on any of the selected partitions. Use the Tab key to select the YES button to continue.

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Review Partition Layout screen

On the Review Partition Layout screen, use the Tab key to select the YES button to continue to the Partitioning screen.

Figure 14 shows the Review Partition Layout screen.

Partitioning screen

On the Partitioning screen, use the Tab key to select the root “/” partition, then use the

Tab key to select the Edit button. Press Enter to continue.

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Add Partition screen

On the Add Partition screen, use the Tab key to select the Fill all available space option. Next, press the Space bar to select the Fill all available space option. Use the Tab key to select the OK button to proceed.

Figure 16 shows the Add Partition screen

Partitioning screen

On the Partitioning screen, use the Tab key to select the OK button. Press Enter to continue.

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The Boot Loader Configuration screen

On the Boot Loader Configuration screen, use the Tab key to select the Master Boot

Record (MBR) or the First sector of boot partition as the location to install the boot

loader. For this example, we have selected the Master Boot Record (MBR) option. Next, use the Tab key to select the OK button and press Enter to continue.

Figure 18 shows the Boot Loader Configuration screen.

Oracle VM Server Management Interface screen

On the Oracle VM Server Management Interface screen, use the Tab key to select the network interface that will be dedicated for the server management. If your using 802.1Q (VLANs), select the Add to VLAN tab to enter the VLAN ID of the server management