We will soon be launching a vmware server site more details soon
We will also update this site with more info on the latest Oracle VM server
Changing the ownership of an oracle vm virtual machine
Question: Is it possible to change ownership of a virtual machine to another user after it has has been created?
Answer: Update the user_id in the ovs.ovs_vm_img table to match the user_id of
the virtual machines with the proper owner.
Are there any other suggestions to change the ownership of the virtual machine out there – let me know please!
Oracle VM Server use case: multiple networks, multipathed SAN storage
I would like to thank Henk Bokhoven from http://bok.xs4all.nl/weblog/ who has kindly sent me through a link from the oracke wiki about an enterprise virtualization environment with oracle vm server. I ahve just posted the summary below as it is quite a long article.
Article Summary
I have been involed in a project to migrate a set of old/legacy systems to VMs running on many less physical systems. This is the classical justification for virtualization.
While deploying the VM-based infrastructure, I found that there was very little documentation across all current VM vendors that discussed the integration of VM host systems in “enterprise” environments. This page is an attempt to rectify this. Note that just like “International Community”, there is no real agreement as to what “enterprise” means.
For the purposes of this wiki entry, I define my Enterprise virtualization environment as being one where preferably:
- there is no single point of failure, making services resilient against individual component downtime due to failures, upgrades, servicing and the like
- systems reside on many seperate networks/subnets, normally divided by functional requirements and the security profiles related to these requirements.
- storage is centralized onto a SAN, with a high availability (read 2+ paths) interconnect that provides block storage. I will discuss FCP, but iSCSI is also possible.
So we naturally would prefer to have all of the above, but factors such as time/budget/capability will probably mean that a business’ computing infrastructure relies on some non-ideal configurations. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as the risks of doing so are known and acceptable to the business.
Get the full article here – I may post the full article on my site later.
Posted in Oracle VM Server, Technical
1 Comment
Server Virtualization – Hot technology for 2008
I am digressing here from Oracle VM to discuss the server virtualization market in general. I found this article from Network World interesting in that it clearly positions the virtualization market, analyst thoughts and to me really proves that virtualization is going to grow and therefore oracle vm as it is now one of the key suppliers.
As an example. IDC is predicting that worldwide spending on virtualization software and services is expected to jump from $6.5 billion in 2006 to more than $15 billion in 2011 and Network world are predicting virtualization to be the number 1 technology for 2008 -
Anyway, here is the article:
Virtualization: Hot technology for 2008
High on hypervisors
Feature By Neal Weinberg, Network World, 01/14/08
How hot is the virtualization market? …
VMware, which created x86 server virtualization and is the dominant player in the market, is absolutely on fire. When EMC bought the company in 2003, VMware revenues were around $100 million a year. VMware’s final numbers for 2007 aren’t out yet, but the company is on pace to hit $1.5 billion. In August, EMC engineered an IPO for 10% of VMware. It turned out to be the most successful high-tech IPO since Google, with EMC raising nearly $1 billion when 33 million shares were snapped up at an opening price of $29. The stock continued to soar, exceeding $50 a share on opening day, and soon thereafter cresting at more than $125 a share. Today, VMware is selling at close to about $80 a share, which gives the company a market capitalization of around $30 billion. That’s hot.
And the virtualization market is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, IDC is predicting that worldwide spending on virtualization software and services is expected to jump from $6.5 billion in 2006 to more than $15 billion in 2011. (Compare server management products.)
No wonder Citrix shelled out $500 million in October for open source server virtualization vendor XenSource. (Add your opinion to one of our 50 greatest networking arguments: VMware vs. Xen.)
So, if you’ve got a room full of x86 servers running at 10% utilization, what are you waiting for? Virtualization can help you consolidate servers, run your data center more efficiently, and make it easier to allocate server resources to match business requirements.
According to a recent survey by Chadwick Martin Bailey, IT decision makers decided to implement server virtualization for the following reasons (in order of importance): improve server virtualization, lower data center operating costs, improve disaster recovery/backup capabilities, create a more effective software development and testing environment and lower IT admin costs.
More of this server virtualization article in the link here http://www.networkworld.com/research/2008/011408-8-techs-virtualization.html
Key oracle products certified for use under oracle vm
Oracle Database 10gR2 (10.2.0.3)
Linux x86 and Linux x86-64 – NOT RAC
Oracle Database 11gR1
Linux x86 and Linux x86-64
Application Server 10gR2 (10.1.2.0.2, 10.1.2.2.0 patchset)
Linux x86 and Linux x86-64
Application Server 10gR3
Linux x86 and Linux x86-64
Applications:
Oracle Applications 11.5.10 CU2 or later with 11i.ATG_PF.H.RUP5 (patch 5473858) or later
Linux x86
Oracle Applications R12 with Oracle E-Business Suite 12.0.2
Release Update Pack RUP2 (patch 5473858)
Linux x86
Siebel 8.0 and above
Linux x86
Hyperion Essbase Server version 9.3.1
Hyperion Reporting and Analysis version 9.3.1
PeopleTools 8.49.07 and above allows PeopleSoft applications 8.4x and 9 to utilize Oracle Virtualization in a certified guest Linux environment
Making Virtual Servers a Reality
Here is an interesting sales focused article on server virtualization from Rich Schwerin (rich.schwerin@oracle.com) who is the Linux, virtualization, and open source product marketing manager with Oracle technology marketing.
It appeared in Oracle News and by the looks of it was posted on 8th January.
Making Virtual Servers a Reality
By Rich Schwerin
Oracle VM delivers faster, lower-cost, scalable server virtualization.
As the volume of information in data centers continues to grow exponentially, IT professionals are faced with myriad challenges: increased hardware, energy, and cooling costs; real estate, facility, and space expansion costs; resource underutilization; and scalability, reliability, and availability issues. Oracle is addressing these challenges with Oracle VM, a new scalable, low-cost server virtualization product that supports both Oracle and non-Oracle applications.
“Oracle VM extends Oracle’s support for grid computing, by providing the ability to virtualize within as well as across servers,” says Edward Screven, Oracle chief corporate architect. “Oracle is the only software vendor that combines the benefits of server clustering and server virtualization technologies to deliver integrated clustering, virtualization, storage, and management for grid computing.”
Oracle VM enables customers to increase server utilization through virtual machine consolidation with very little overhead—saving power, floor space, and hardware costs. And with Oracle VM, customers can grow or shrink the physical server resources dedicated to an application, without downtime, through Oracle VM live migration.
With Oracle VM, users can create and manage virtual machines that exist on the same physical server but behave like independent physical servers. Each virtual machine created with Oracle VM has its own virtual CPUs, network interfaces, storage, and operating system.
Support for Multiple Systems
Oracle VM consists of Xen’s open source server software and an easy-to-use integrated, Web-browser-based management console for creating, cloning, sharing, configuring, booting, and migrating virtual machines running on x86- and x86-64-based systems across an enterprise, with support for Linux and Windows guest operating systems.
Because Oracle VM is backed by Oracle’s world-class support organization, Oracle customers have a single point of support for their entire virtualization environments, including the Linux operating system, Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware, and Oracle Applications—all of which are certified with Oracle VM.
“With Oracle VM, customers can respond more rapidly to business changes, increase return on investment, and reduce lifetime total cost of ownership,” says Screven. “Oracle VM brings enterprise-class support and backing to server virtualization, giving customers the confidence to deploy virtualized solutions.” He adds that among its many features and benefits, Oracle VM offers simplified installation, with single install, patching, and upgrading for both Oracle VM and Oracle Enterprise Linux; faster deployment through preconfigured virtual machine images of Oracle Database and Oracle Enterprise Linux; and up to three times the efficiency of other server virtualization products.
Low-Cost Support
“With Oracle VM, customers can deploy server virtualization for a fraction of the cost of using other vendor products,” explains Screven. Oracle VM software is free to download, and pricing for enterprise-class support for Oracle VM is on a per-system basis, with 24/7 support for a system with one or two CPUs priced at US$499 per year per system and a system with unlimited CPUs priced at US$999 per year per system.
Oracle On Demand, which provides a portfolio of applications on a subscription or managed basis, is offering Oracle VM server virtualization within the Oracle On Demand Managed Services Grid. This will enable Oracle to better optimize each Oracle On Demand customer’s configuration, more fully harness server capabilities, maintain operational enhancements deployed over the last several years, and introduce new benefits—not to mention gaining significant savings in terms of space, power, and cooling.
Updated oracle vm faq
Oracle have released an updated oracle vm FAQ. I’m not sure what they have updated but here is the new file.
Download it now – ovm-faq.pdf
Posted in Oracle VM Documentation
1 Comment
Wim Coekaerts – Responsible for Oracle VM
I thought you might be interested to know a bit about Wim Coekaerts – Vice President of Linux Engineering who is mentioned a fair bit on the oracle site and through other sites due to Wim being responsible for oracle vm.
He has a blog but it has not been updated for a while at http://blogs.oracle.com/wim and certainly his profile needs some references to oracle vm I think!
“Wim Coekaerts is vice president of Linux Engineering for Oracle, reporting to Chief Corporate Architect, Edward Screven. He is responsible for managing Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux strategy with a dedicated focus on ensuring large enterprises can adopt Linux quickly. Mr. Coekaerts has spent more than 7 years building a large-scale development and support organization and has fostered comprehensive customer and partner relationships, which helps drive the company’s evolution of Linux. Additionally, his group develops and makes on-going contributions to the Linux community, including the first Cluster File System to be accepted into the Linux mainline kernel in 2006″
Benefits in using Oracle VM
I thought this was interesting for anyone not sure about why you should use Oracle VM.
What are some of the benefits of Oracle VM?
Oracle VM offers:
- Greater efficiencies—Three times more efficient than the other, leading server virtualization product
- Server consolidation and better utilization of resources;
- Three times greater efficiency than current x86 based server virtualization products;
- Improved Return On Investment (ROI) and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) through lower price, consolidated support and savings in terms of space, cooling, power and more;
- High performance server virtualization capable of handling production environments;
- Full and integrated support provided by the world’s largest software support organization;
- Combined benefits of Grid Computing and server virtualization;
- Certification of Oracle Database, Middleware and Applications;
- Risk mitigation with full indemnification from Oracle;
- Simplified installation—Server install is a single CD; installs and configures in a minute;
- Faster deployment through pre-configured VM templates of Oracle Database and Oracle Enterprise Linux.
What are some of the technical benefits of Oracle VM?
Oracle VM can provision a working environment or application within a short time, enabling faster time to market. Oracle VM can easily manage the complete lifecycle of VMs including creation, customization, sharing, management, and deployment, in a hosted infrastructure. Oracle VM also offers:
- Three times greater efficiency than current x86 based server virtualization products;
- Increased utilization of a physical server;
- The capability of moving live virtual machines from one physical host to another without re-configuration;
- Centrally managed resources;
- Easy-to-use interface to configure parameters;
- A server-centric focus—Oracle VM is designed to be run in a data center;
- Load balancing to fully utilize resources;
- Easy template creation—Anyone can create VMs easily from templates or from scratch;
- No special software required, just a web browser.
Oracle VM and integration with Enterprise Manager
This is an interesting comment I found at http://tardate.blogspot.com/ about the perception of where oracle vm will go. I think it is very true.
“Virtualization – The announcement of Oracle VM may prove to be a blockbuster if it is widely adopted in practice, I think once it is fully integrated with Enterprise Manager. It promises to completely change the game for how we build and maintain applications and technology infrastructure – from the bare-metal up, from one vendor.”
Watch this space Enterprise Manager working with oracle vm virtual machines! My guess is that sometime in 2008 this will be ready.