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Chapter 1: Oracle VM Introduction

Last update 7-29-10

This chapter starts with a brief introduction to Oracle VM followed by a review of Oracle’s certification and support policies for virtualization. Next, we look at Oracle’s unique approach to virtualization. Then we review Oracle VM server, Oracle VM Manager and the Oracle VM Management Pack. The chapter concludes with an overview and feature comparison between the market leading virtualization solution and Oracle VM.

Table of Contents
 
Oracle VM is Oracle’s integrated virtualization solution used to run and deliver the Oracle stack. Oracle VM was designed from the ground up to be the best virtualization platform to run Oracle technologies. Oracle VM also introduced Oracle’s next generation technology delivery platform using Oracle VM templates. Oracle VM templates are pre-packaged and pre-configured virtual machines with key Oracle technologies that can be downloaded and quickly deployed. Backed by Oracle's support organization, customers now have a single point of contact for the entire Oracle stack using Oracle VM.
 
Oracle VM support is an add-on component of Oracle’s enterprise support package that offers an end-to-end single vendor support solution from the application to the disk. A single support call covers the entire Oracle stack which expedites problem resolution and eliminates finger pointing. Using Oracle support allows an Oracle support service request (SR) to transition between support teams with issues that require cross stack collaboration. For example, if you open a service request for an application issue and the root cause is at the virtualization layer then the service request will automatically transition between the application and virtualization teams.
 
Since the first release of Oracle VM, which was announced at Oracle Open World in November 2007, Oracle has provided certified support for Oracle technologies running on Oracle VM. Oracle VM is the only x86 virtualization solution that is tested, certified and supported by Oracle for Oracle technologies. Oracle does not test, certify or support Oracle technologies on any 3rd party x86 virtualization solutions. For example, Oracle does not certify or test Oracle technologies on VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, Red Hat or any Xen or KVM platforms. Oracle maintains an up-to-date list of Oracle certified software on Oracle VM via Metalink Doc ID: 464754.1.
 
Oracle’s support policy, regarding Oracle technologies and virtualization, can be referenced via MetaLink documents 794016.1 and 249212.1. In short MetaLink documents 794016.1 and 249212.1 explain that service requests involving uncertified virtualization solutions will receive best effort for known issues on physical systems. Oracle may request that the customer reproduce the problem on native hardware if the 3rd party virtualization software cannot be ruled out as the root cause of the problem.
 
Major ISVs for example, Microsoft and IBM, have similar virtualization support policies as Oracle. Microsoft and IBM, may request that customers reproduce problems on native hardware if the 3rd party virtualization software cannot be ruled out as the root cause of a problem.
 
"As part of the investigation, Microsoft may require the issue to be reproduced by the customer independently from the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software."
 
 “If you submit a standard usage or defect-related service request, and you are running on one of these virtualized machines, IBM WebSphere Application Server Support* will make commercially reasonable efforts to resolve the problem. We will assume that the problem is common to both native and Virtual operating environments and we will only require you to recreate the problem in a native environment if there is an indication that the problem may be unique to the Virtual Environment.”
 
Oracle VM is based on the Open Source Xen.org hypervisor. The Xen hypervisor is a thin layer of code that enables multiple guest operating systems to run concurrently on a single piece of hardware. Xen has emerged as the industry open standard for virtualization with broad adoption from ISVs, i.e. Oracle, Sun, IBM, HP, Dell, Novel, Red Hat, Debian, Citrix and the Linux community. Oracle VM is a purpose built Xen virtualization platform that is developed, tuned, maintained and re-distributed by Oracle to run the Oracle stack. Oracle VM should not be confused with the Xen.org hypervisor, which is the development community behind the Xen hypervisor.
 
Oracle VM follows the Open Source model of free-to-use and re-distribute with or without commercial support. Oracle offers commercial support for Oracle VM via the Oracle Unbreakable Linux support program. The Oracle Unbreakable Linux Support program is an add-on component of Oracle’s enterprise support. Oracle VM is freely distributed from the Oracle eDelivery portal.
 
Oracle has a unique position in the virtualization market as an Enterprise application, operating system and hardware vendor that owns all of the technologies across the stack. Owning the entire stack has various advantages; a) integration and centralized management across the stack and, b) the ability to pre-package and distribute Oracle technologies via Oracle VM templates.
 
Oracle’s system management solution is Oracle Enterprise Manager. Oracle Enterprise Manager provides a single console to monitor, manage, provision and patch the entire Oracle stack along with monitoring and management capabilities for a wide variety of 3rd party technologies. In addition to life cycle management for the Oracle stack and non-Oracle technologies, Oracle Enterprise Manager integrates with a variety of other event management systems and help desk applications.
 
Figure 1 shows the Oracle Enterprise Manager interface.

Oracle Enterprise Manager can be deployed on a wide variety of platforms or as a pre-packaged Oracle VM template. There are no licensing fees for Oracle Enterprise Manager. Oracle charges for the management packs and plug-ins. For example, the management pack for Oracle VM is called the Oracle VM Management Pack. There are numerous Oracle Enterprise Manager management packs and plug-ins for Oracle and non-Oracle applications, databases, middleware, virtual servers, operating systems, servers, network and storage systems.
 
The other advantage of owning the stack is the ability to distribute Oracle technologies using Oracle’s next generation technology delivery platform, Oracle VM templates. Oracle VM templates are self-contained and pre-configured virtual machines with key Oracle technologies. Each Oracle VM template is packaged using Oracle best practices, which eliminates installation and configuration costs, reduces risk and dramatically shortens deployment timelines. Oracle VM templates are available from the Oracle eDelivery portal. There is no other vendor in the virtualization market that can offer this level of integration, management and pre-packaging.
 
Oracle VM template licensing includes a free download and free trial use with the option to purchase a product license. Oracle VM templates do not have time limits or feature limitations, e.g. Oracle VM templates are full featured and do not have expiration dates. Oracle VM templates can be quickly transitioned from evaluation into production by purchasing Oracle technology licenses.
 
List 1 shows Oracle’s current Oracle VM templates collection:
  • Management
    • Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10g R5 (10.2.0.5)
    • Oracle VM Manager 2.1.5
    • Oracle VM Template Builder 2.1
  • Applications
    • JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0 Update 1 and JD Edwards EnterpriseOneTools 8.98 Update 2
    • PeopleSoft HCM 9.1 and PeopleTools 8.50.02
    • Siebel CRM SIA 8.1.1 and 8.0     
  • Middleware
    • Oracle WebLogic Server 10g Release 3     
    • Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 10.1.3.4
    • Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3 WebCenter
    • Oracle Identity Management 10g Release 2
    • Oracle Fusion Middleware Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) 10.1.3.4 and 10.1.3.3
  • Database
    • Oracle Database 11g and Oracle Database 10g Release 2
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux
    • Oracle Enterprise Linux 4 and 5
  • 3rd Party Applications
    • Zeus Traffic Manager
Oracle is frequently updating and adding new Oracle VM templates to the Oracle eDelivery portal. The best way to stay informed about Oracle VM templates is to visit ITNewsCast's Open Source section or the Oracle eDelivery portal.
 
Oracle VM consists of two components, the Oracle VM server (the hypervisor) and one of two management options: a) Oracle VM Manager or b) the Oracle VM Management Pack.
 
Oracle VM server is Oracle’s Open Source Xen distribution, which allows multiple guest operating systems to run concurrently on a single piece of x86 hardware. Oracle VM server is a type 1 hypervisor that installs directly on x86 or x86-64 hardware. A type 2 hypervisor is a software applications that run on top of an operating system. Oracle VM servers are managed as server pools from either Oracle VM Manager or the Oracle VM Management Pack, but not both. The Oracle VM server source code and ISO files can be freely downloaded from the Oracle eDelivery portal.
 
Oracle VM server is comprised of several components that allow both paravirtualized and hardware virtualized guests to share the CPU and memory resources of a single piece of x86 hardware. Oracle VM server supports both Red Hat Linux and Oracle Enterprise Linux in paravirtualization mode and Red Hat Linux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, Solaris 10 and Windows in hardware virtualization mode.
 
Hardware virtualization requires the Oracle VM server to have either an Intel CPU with VT (virtualization technology) extensions, or an AMD CPU with SVM extensions (also called AMD‐V). The system BIOS settings on the Oracle VM server will need to be modified to enable hardware virtualization. If the CPU does not support hardware virtualization, paravirtualization can be used for Red Hat Linux and Oracle Enterprise Linux guests.
 
Oracle VM Manager is a stand-alone management console for Oracle VM. Oracle VM Manager provides management capabilities at the Oracle VM server, server pool and guest layer. Oracle VM Manager is also the development platform for the Oracle VM Management Pack. Oracle VM Manager is typically two releases ahead of its more mature Oracle VM Management Pack code base. The Oracle VM Manager source code and ISO files can be downloaded from the Oracle eDelivery portal.
 
Note: Oracle VM Manager is not supported and should not be installed in Oracle VM server's dom0.
 
Oracle VM Manager has a command line interface named the The Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface. The Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface is available to Oracle Unbreakable Linux support customers via the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network. The Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface allows Oracle VM Manager administrative tasks to be executed from the command-line. Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface commands can be scripted allowing automation of administrative tasks such as checking status, performing lifecycle management and executing bulk actions.
 
Figure 2 shows the Oracle VM Manager 2.2 interface.

Oracle VM Manager is distributed in three formats; 1) as a pre-configured Oracle VM template, 2) as an application that installs on Enterprise Linux and 3) as an Oracle VM Management Pack port.
 
The Oracle VM Management Pack is an Enterprise Manager plug-in that adds Oracle VM Manager functionality to Enterprise Manager. The Oracle VM Management Pack provides management at the Oracle VM server, server pool and gust layers along with guest operating system monitoring, administration, provisioning and patch management. Oracle VM servers can be managed from only one of the two management options, either Oracle VM Manager or from the Oracle VM Management Pack.
 
Note: The Oracle VM Management Pack is licensed software; Oracle VM Server and Oracle VM Manager are not licensed software.
 
Oracle VM Manager and the Oracle VM Management Pack offer different management features. Table 1 contrasts the high-level feature set from Oracle VM Manager and the Oracle VM Management Pack.
 
Table 1
Capabilities
Oracle VM Manager
Oracle VM Management Pack
Oracle VM server, pool and virtual machine Life Cycle Management
Centralized Data Center (physical and virtual) Life Cycle Management
 
Operating System Life Cycle Management (Oracle VM hosts, Oracle VM guests and physical systems and services)
 
Database and Application Life Cycle Management (Oracle and non Oracle)
 
Oracle VM Server and Enterprise Linux Bare Metal Provisioning
 
Software provisioning
 
Self Managing test/dev Environments
 
Configuration Management (Collection and storage of hardware and software configuration data for Oracle VM Servers, Oracle VM guests, plus physical hosts.)  
Oracle VM host and Oracle VM guest patch management  
List 2 highlights the virtual infrastructure management feature set of both Oracle VM Manager and the Oracle VM Management Pack.  
  • Centralized virtual machine life cycle management:
    • Creating virtual machines from ISO files, Oracle VM templates and PXE boot environments
    • Live Migrate virtual machines
    • Configure Oracle VM high availability rules
    • VMware to Oracle VM virtual machine conversions (V2V)
    • Physical to virtual (P2V) virtual machine conversions
    • Power On, Power Off, Clone, Save as Template, Import, Migrate, Pause, Unpause, Suspend, Resume and Delete virtual machines
    • Manage virtual machine resources, including ISO files, virtual machine templates, virtual machine images and shared virtual disks
    • Manage virtual machine resource allocations, e.g. processor, memory, disk and NIC allocations
    • Virtual machine console access
    • Configure CPU, virtual disk and virtual network interface priority levels
  • Centralized Oracle VM Server management:
    • Create and configure Oracle VM Server pools
    • Manage the Oracle VM Agent
    • Monitor Oracle VM Servers
    • Power On and Reboot Oracle VM Servers
  • Centralized Oracle VM user management:
    • Manage Oracle VM Manager users and groups
    • Manage Oracle VM user roles
In this section we will introduce a feature matrix that compares Oracle VM, VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V. The section will conclude with a brief overview of the virtualization offerings from VMware, Microsoft, Citrix and Red Hat compared to Oracle.
 
Table 2 provides a feature matrix for Oracle VM, VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V.
Capability
Oracle VM
VMware vSphere
Microsoft Hyper-V
Industry Certification
Oracle Product Certification 
 
 
 
 

Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program
Data Center Life Cycle Management
Top to bottom Integrated Data Center Life Cycle Management
 
 
 
 
Virtual Infrastructure Management
Live virtual machine migration
Dynamic Load Balancing
High Availability
Thin provisioning of virtual disks

 
Memory Dedupe
 

 
Distributed File System

Memory Oversubscribe

 
Logical Resource Partitioning
Centralized Backup
 
Automated Patch Management, hosts and guests
Disaster Recovery


Self managing test/dev environment


Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Open Source no licensing costs

 
 
Host Capabilities
Native x86-64-bit hypervisor

 
Native VT and AMD-V integration

 
Standard device drivers

 
Native storage hardware support

 
Up to 32 sockets or 64 cores per host

 
 
Up to 1 TB of RAM per host

 
NIC teams, storage multipathing
Logical resource partitioning
Dynamic load balancing
Hypervisor support for Paravirtualization

 
 
Guest Capabilities
Paravirtualization
 
 
Up to 32 virtual CPUs per guest

 
 
Up to 510GB memory per guest
 
 
 
 
Network I/O traffic management

 
Storage I/O prioritization

 
CPU prioritization
VMware
VMware is market leading x86 virtualization vendor that enjoys enormous success with Windows server consolidation. VMware offers comprehensive best of breed management capabilities at the “virtualization layer” without management capabilities or integration across operating systems or application stacks.
 
VMware’s vSphere server architecture relies on emulation of the underlying hardware, which has a very high overhead when compared to Oracle VM. Oracle VM uses Paravirtualization architecture which does not have the high overhead of VMware because Oracle VM is not an emulation solution. Paravirtualization means that there is much less overhead to get in the way of timers and I/O traffic and has far less overhead in context switches allowing much better database and middleware scalability under heavy loads. Oracle VM does support emulation if you are using hardware virtualized guests, for example, with Windows. Oracle VM emulation leverages the hardware virtualization features from Intel and AMD.
 
Furthermore, VMware’s emulation model has a well known issue with timekeeping that makes hosting time-sensitive applications such as RAC and Enterprise Manager very problematic. Keep in mind that it is necessary to emulate a clock for each virtual machine, the more virtual machines the more clocks. If a virtual machine has a 1000Hz kernel and for example there are 8 virtual machines, that equates to 8000 interrupts per second from the server to the virtual machines just to keep the clock up-to-date. All of the interrupts cause clock skew that RAC may interpret as a node failure resulting in unnecessary node ejections. Clock skew causes Enterprise Manager to generate excessive time related warnings because clock skew makes time look like it is running backwards. Oracle VM’s paravirtualization architecture mitigates the timekeeping problems that are inherent with VMware’s architecture.
 
Note: In 2005, VMware proposed a paravirtualization interface standard for Linux called the Virtual Machine Interface (VMI). VMI was an attempt by VMware to insert and standardize a virtualization abstraction layer into Linux. While VMI provided a clean separation for processor features that could not safely be executed directly by a guest OS, the abstraction layer eliminated many performance optimization opportunities.  Since the primary purpose for paravirtualization is to improve performance over full-virtualization, Xen never used VMI, instead opting to push for deeper changes in Linux, changes that have been added to Linux and, for Xen, offer better performance than VMI. VMI was not a success and today VMware is proposing to remove VMI from the Linux kernel.
 
The key takeaway is that VMware is a best of breed virtualization solution used for Windows server consolidation. Windows server consolidation is not the market that Oracle is trying to capture with Oracle VM. Oracle VM was designed from the ground up to be the best virtualization solution for the Oracle stack.
 
Microsoft
Hyper-V is Microsoft’s hypervisor which is a no-cost Windows Server 2008 virtualization feature. Hyper-V can be selected as a role during the installation of Windows Server 2008 effectively turning a bare metal server in to a virtualization server. Hyper-V servers can be managed by either the Server Manager tool, the Hyper-V console, System Center Virtualization Machine Manager or Citrix Essentials. Hyper-V offer extensive support for contemporary Microsoft desktop and server operating systems along with limited support for Novel SUSE and Red Hat Linux.
 
Hyper-V has a similar architecture as the Xen Hypervisor. Some of the differences between Hyper-V and Xen are; a) Hyper-V is proprietary closed source code and b)  dom0 is Windows and c) Hyper-V uses emulation not paravirtualization for Microsoft and Linux guests.
 
System Center Virtualization Machine Manager is part of the Microsoft System Center product suite. The Microsoft System Center product suite offers comprehensive management for the Windows OS, both physical and virtual as well as for Microsoft applications such as Exchange, MOSS and SQL Server. The Microsoft System Center product suite also offers limited Unix and Linux support that is primarily used to help customers migrate from Unix and Linux to Windows.
 
The key takeaway is that Microsoft was a late entrant in to virtualization which allowed VMware to capture the Windows server virtualization market. Armed with Hyper-V as a no-cost Windows Server 2008 feature and the Microsoft System Center product suite Microsoft is focused on clawing back their virtualized Windows server install base from VMware.
 
Windows server consolidation is not the market that Oracle is trying to capture with Oracle VM. Oracle VM was designed from the ground up to be the best virtualization solution for the Oracle stack.
 
Citrix
In 2007, Citrix acquired XenSource for 500 million dollars. XenSource was a small Silicon Valley start-up that developed a commercial Xen based virtualization solution that targeted Windows server virtualization. The addition of XenServer to Citrix’s product portfolio gave Citrix a solution to help compete against VMware for the Windows virtualization market.
 
By 2007 Citrix found itself in a similar situation as Microsoft, Citrix’s flagship product Presentation Server was being deployed on VMware. The XenSource acquisition gave Citrix a chance to a) compete against VMware b) take back their install base from VMware and c) craft a new partnership with Microsoft for server and desktop virtualization management. 
 
After the XenSource acquisition Citrix and Microsoft started working together to claw back their install base from VMware with Citrix XenServer and Citrix Essentials. Citrix XenServer is Citrix’s free hypervisor and Citrix Essentials is a licensed XenServer and Hyper-V management solution. Citrix Essentials provide two key features; a) the addition of advanced virtualization capabilities for Citrix's free XenServer hypervisor and b) centralized management of XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V servers.
 
The key takeaway is that Citrix’s business is 100% focused on adding value to the Microsoft platform. XenServer and Citrix Essentials help Citrix and Microsoft complete against VMware for the Windows server and desktop virtualization market.
 
Microsoft server and desktop virtualization is not the market that Oracle is trying to capture with Oracle VM. Oracle VM was designed from the ground up to be the best virtualization solution for the Oracle stack.
 
Red Hat
Red Hat had a similar approach to virtualization as Microsoft by offering virtualization as an operating system feature. Red Hat initially used Xen as the default hypervisor for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora with VirtManager as the default virtualization management console. The combination of Xen with VirtManager offers an entry level virtualization solution for Red Hat customers.
 
In 2008, Red Hat announced that they would drop support for the Xen hypervisor with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 and Fedora 12 in favor of Kernel Based Virtual Machine (KVM). KVM is a Linux kernel module which turns the Linux OS in to a virtualization server without Xen. At the same time Red Hat acquired Qumranet for 130 million dollars, which was a small Silicon Valley start-up that; a) maintained KVM and b) developed a KVM based VDI solution. Soon after the Qumranet acquisition Red Hat re-defined their virtualization strategy and announced that they would introduce the first commercial KVM x86 virtualization solution in the 2009/2010 timeframe.
 
Red Hat’s motivation to move from Xen to KVM was similar to the motivation of Microsoft and Citrix to enter the virtualization space. Red Hat’s install base was running on Xen which Red Hat did not own or control. Red Hat’s move to KVM removed Xen and gave Red Hat complete control over the virtualization layer in their operating system.
 
On November 3 2009 Red Hat announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Management for Servers and Desktops. The first release of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Management for Servers and Desktops is a Windows solution that does not run on RHEL or Fedora.  
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Windows Support ?

Submitted by ian.woodstock on Sun, 11/08/2009 - 16:57.

You say that Oracle has "Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program" certification.

That's not the case. OVM isn't certified by Microsoft

http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/results.aspx?&bCatID=1521&cpID=0&avc=0&ava=0&avq=0&OR=1&PGS=25

And Oracle's drivers aren't WHQL certified by Microsoft. So customers running Windows on OVM aren't going to get support.

Oracle is listed, please check the following URL...

Submitted by roddyr on Fri, 11/13/2009 - 10:04.

Ian,

Thank you for your post! Please note that Oracle is listed on http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx. Please scroll down that page to see the list of participants...

Cisco Systems, Inc. 
Citrix Systems, Inc. 
Hitachi, Ltd. 
Novell, Inc. 
Oracle, USA Inc. 
Red Hat, Inc. 
Riverbed Technology, Inc. 
Sun Microsystems 
Unisys Corp. 
Virtual Iron Software 
VMware, Inc. 

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