Oracle VM Server Installation

Show a printer friendly version of the Oracle Cloud Cookbook

Author: Roddy Rodstein

 

This document applies to all Oracle VM 3 releases. 

 

...Oracle VM Name Resolution

...Oracle VM /etc/hosts File Requirements

...Disable Extra C-states

...VMPinfo3 Installation for Diagnostic Capture & Troubleshooting

...Oracle OS Watcher Installation

...Patch the Oracle VM Server(s)

...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

This chapter of the Oracle Cloud Cookbook describes how to plan for and install Oracle VM Server. This chapter applies to all Oracle VM 3 releases. 

 

Oracle VM Server can be installed on Intel or AMD 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 which 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, therefore the source code is also available along with the ISO image at the Oracle Linux and Oracle VM Cloud Portal.

 

Oracle VM Server can be installed from a CD-ROM, or over the network (PXE) with the installation media hosted via NFS, FTP, or HTTP. The difference between installing Oracle VM Server from a CD-ROM, or over the network 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 over the network via NFS, FTP or HTTP.

 

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 a NFS share, FTP server or a 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, a NFS share, FTP server or a 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 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 a proof of concept (POC) running only a couple virtual machines.

 

A minimum of one Ethernet network interface (NIC) card is required to install Oracle VM, although four or more 10G NICs is strongly recommended. NIC bonding with port-based VLANs and/or 802.1Q tag-based VLANs are supported and configured post Oracle VM Server installation with Oracle VM Manager or Enterprise Manager. Oracle VM 3.0.1 through 3.1.1 supports two NIC ports per network bond, and a total of five network bonds per Oracle VM Server. Oracle VM 3.2.x and above supports four NIC ports per network bond, and a total of ten network bonds per Oracle VM Server. 

 

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 four 10G NICs, configured with two 802.1Q bonds could support the most demanding network and storage requirements, with only four NICs. By contrast, an Oracle VM Server using access ports/port-based VLANs or 802.1Q tag-based VLANS on a 1G copper network, could easily use the maximum number of supported NIC ports (<= 3.1.1 = 10 ports, >= 3.2 = 40 ports) to meet the minimum network requirements.

 

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.

 

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3	Step 4
Oracle VM Server Pre-Deployment Checklist	Download the Oracle VM Media Pack	Oracle VM Server Installation	Oracle VM Post Installation Checklist

 

 

Download the Oracle VM Media Pack

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3	Step 4
Oracle VM Server Pre-Deployment Checklist	Download the Oracle VM Media Pack	Oracle VM Server Installation	Oracle VM Post Installation Checklist

 

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.

 

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.

 

Figure 8 shows the CD Found 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.

 

On the OVS EULA 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 OVS EULA screen.

• 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 minimal partition layout for installation to a USB drive
• Create a custom partition layout

Figure 11 shows the Partitioning Type screen.

 

 

 

Figure 13 shows the Review Partition Layout screen.

 

 

Figure 14 shows the Partition screen.

 

 

 

 

Figure 16 shows the Partitioning screen

 

 

Figure 17 shows the Boot Loader Configuration 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 network channel. For 802.1Q (VLANs), select the Add to VLAN tab to enter the VLAN ID of the server management network channel. Once the network interface is selected, use the Tab key to select the OK button and press Enter to continue.

 

Note: The installer program selects eth0 as the default server management interface. The server management interface settings are controlled in the /etc/ovs-config file. The server management interface can be changed post installation using Oracle VM Manager.

 

Figure 19 shows the Oracle VM Server Management Interface screen.

 

From the Oracle VM Management VLAN screen enter the VLAN ID of the server management network channel. 

 

Tip: VLAN ID 1 can not be used with Oracle VM Manager.

 

Figure 20 shows the Oracle VM Management VLAN screen.

 

• Dynamic IP configuration (DHCP)
• Manual address configuration
• IP Address and Prefix (netmask)

 

 

 

• automatically via DHCP
• manually

 

Figure 23 shows the Hostname Configuration screen.

 

 

 

 

Figure 25 shows the Oracle VM Agent password screen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 28 shows the Complete screen.

 

 

After installing Oracle VM, review and complete all of the necessary tasks on the post-installation checklist before the server is added to a pool. Once the post-installation checklist is completed, the Oracle VM Server can be added to a server pool and patched using Oracle VM Manager or Oracle Enterprise Manager.

 

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3	Step 4
Oracle VM Server Pre-Deployment Checklist	Download the Oracle VM Media Pack	Oracle VM Server Installation	Oracle VM Post Installation Checklist

After installing Oracle VM, review and complete all of the necessary tasks on the post-installation checklist before the Oracle VM Server is added to a pool. These tasks involve validating the Oracle VM Server's networking prerequisites and disabling CPU operating states (C-states) in the BIOS. 

 

 

First, open the “/etc/resolv.conf” file by typing “vi /etc/resolv.conf” and confirm that the domain name or names, and two DNS servers are listed. The next example shows one domain name and two DNS servers listed in a resolv.conf file.

# vi /etc/resolv.conf
search <DOMAIN NAME>
nameserver <MY DNS SERVER1 IP ADDRESS>
nameserver <MY DNS SERVER2 IP ADDRESS>

From each Oracle VM server ping each DNS server listed in the resolv.conf file to ensure network connectivity.
 
Next, validate the forward lookups for each Oracle VM Server and the Oracle VM Manager host using the “getent hosts” command. For example, to validate server2's forward lookup from server1 type “getent hosts server2” as shown in the next example.

# getent hosts server2
server2 has address 192.168.4.6

Note: Using hosts files without DNS is not advised and may produce unpredictable results.

 

 

The next example shows the proper syntax for an Oracle VM Server’s hosts file entry.
127.0.0.1    localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.4.8    servername.com servername

The next example shows the improper syntax from an Oracle VM Server's hosts file entry.
127.0.0.1    servername.com servername localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.4.8     servername.com servername

 

 

The Intel Nehalem CPU introduced a CPU power-saving feature called deep CPU operating states (C-states). C-states allows an idle processor to turn off unused components to save power. Some of the components that C-states turns off include the processor clock and interrupts. Under certain conditions, when C-states turns off unused CPU components, the Oracle VM OCFS2 heartbeat mechanism triggers an unexpected server reboot.

 

 

VMPinfo3 is a modified version of sosreport for Oracle VM. VMPinfo3 is a set of tools with a command line interface that use the Oracle VM 3.x API to collect log files and troubleshooting information from Oracle VM Server pools. VMPinfo3 runs from the Oracle VM Manager host and collects and consolidates log files from each Oracle VM Server managed by Oracle VM Manager.   

Tip: VMPinfo3 is Oracle support's primary tool for working Oracle VM Service Requests (SRs). To expedite your Oracle VM SRs, always include a VMPinfo3 diagnostic capture.

VMPinfo3 consists of two RPM packages. The vmpinfo-manager-1.0.0-1.noarch.rpm RPM is installed on the Oracle VM Manager host. The vmpinfo-sosreport-1.0.3-1.noarch.rpm RPM is installed on each Oracle VM Server. The VMPinfo3 RPMs are downloadable from My Oracle Support via ID 1364933.1.

Once you have downloaded the VMPinfo3 RPMs, copy the vmpinfo-manager-1.0.0-1.noarch.rpm RPM to the Oracle VM Manager host, and vmpinfo-sosreport-1.0.3-1.noarch.rpm RPM to each Oracle VM Server.

On the Oracle VM manager host, as root type “rpm -ivh  vmpinfo-manager-1.0.0-1.noarch.rpm”
to install the vmpinfo-manager RPM.

On each Oracle VM Server, before installing the vmpinfo-sosreport-1.0.3-1.noarch.rpm RPM, remove the conflicting “vmpinfo3-sosreport-1.0.0-4.el5.noarch” RPM package by typing  “rpm -e  “vmpinfo3-sosreport-1.0.0-4.el5.noarch”. Next, type “rpm -ivh  vmpinfo-sosreport-1.0.3-1.noarch.rpm” to install vmpinfo3-sosreport.

The next example shows how to remove the conflicting vmpinfo3-sosreport-1.0.0-4.el5.noarch RPM and, how to install the vmpinfo-sosreport-1.0.3-1.noarch.rpm RPM.

# rpm -e  vmpinfo3-sosreport-1.0.0-4.el5.noarch
# rpm -ivh vmpinfo-sosreport-1.0.3-1.noarch.rpm
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:vmpinfo-sosreport      ########################################### [100%]

To run VMPinfo3 and create a diagnostic capture, access the Oracle VM Manager host as the oracle user, and change to the “/home/oracle/vmpinfo3/” directory. From the vmpinfo3 directory, run the vmpinfo3.sh script as show in the next example.
$ cd vmpinfo3/
$ ./vmpinfo3.sh --username=admin –password=<ADMIN PASSWORD>

The password used for the vmpinfo3.sh script is for the Oracle VM Manager “admin” user account.  The diagnostic capture will be created in the /tmp directory with the following name, date and format “vmpinfo3-<date-time>.tar.bz2”.

 

Oracle OS Watcher (OSW) is a utility that uses native Linux commands and shell scripts to collect and archive dom0 metrics for diagnostics and performance troubleshooting. OSW operates as a set of dom0 background processes that collect and archive data on a regular basis, using meminfo, netstat, ps slabinfo, top, vmstat, xentop. The version of OSW for Oracle VM is only available by opening a SR and requesting the RPM file. OSW is installed on Oracle VM Server.

Tip: OSW is one of Oracle support's primary tool for working Oracle VM Service Requests (SRs). To expedite your Oracle VM SRs, always include the OSW archive files from each Oracle VM Server.

Once you have downloaded the OSW RPM from Oracle support, copy it to each Oracle VM Server. Next, as root, type “rpm -ivh oswatcher-3.1-2.el5.noarch.rpm” to install OSW. The next example shows the installation of OSW.

# rpm -ivh oswatcher-3.1-2.el5.noarch.rpm
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:oswatcher              ########################################### [100%]

The OSW installer automatically configures the oswatcher service to start at runlevel 3, 5 and 5. The next example shows the default runlevels for the oswatcher service.

# chkconfig --list |grep oswatcher
oswatcher       0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

The OSW configuration file is located at /etc/sysconfig/oswatcher. The next example shows the default OSW settings.

# vi /etc/sysconfig/oswatcher
# The directory where oswatcher logs should be kept
DATADIR=/var/log/oswatcher
# The interval (in seconds) between runs runs of statistics collections
INTERVAL=30
# The maximum age (in hours) of the various log files
MAXAGE=48
# An optional program used to compress the log files
ZIP=

The DATADIR directive controls the {OSWHOME} directory. {OSWHOME} is where the oswatcher logs are kept. For example, the default DATADIR=/var/log/oswatcher creates the /var/log/oswatcher directory for the log files. The INTERVAL directive controls the interval in seconds between statistics collections. The default NTERVAL=30 should not have to be modified, unless requested by Oracle support. The MAXAGE directive controls the retention policy in hours of the log files in the {OSWHOME}/archive directory.  
 
The OSW log files are saved in the following directories:

/var/log/oswatcher/archive/
oswiostat (empty)
oswmeminfo
oswmpstat (empty)
oswnetstat
oswprvtnet (empty)
oswps
oswslabinfo
oswtop
oswvmstat
oswxentop

Note: The Oracle VM does not ship with iostat, mpstat and prvtnet.

 

Even after a fresh installation of the lastest Oracle VM Server release, a best practice is to patch the Oracle VM Server before setting up the server pool, and doing any testing to avoid previously fixed bugs. 

 

 

Oracle's public yum server allows us to keep Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Oracle VM systems up to date to the "latest" update version, using the "_latest" RPM repository. A "latest" patch job executed on a Oracle VM 3.1.1 host would update the host from 3.1.1 to 3.2.2 with the latest software patches, updates and fixes. To keep an Oracle VM host at its respected update level, a local yum server and a valid CSI and the Unbreakable Linux Network is required. With the Unbreakable Linux Network, it is possible to register and subscribe a yum server to the desired base and patch RPM channels. When Oracle VM hosts are patched using the ovm*_base and ovm*_patch RPM channels, the Oracle VM hosts are patched with the latest software patches, updates and fixes from their respected update channel. For example, an Oracle VM 3.1.1 host patched using the ovm3_3.1.1_x86_64_base and ovm3_3.1.1_x86_64_patch RPM channels are patched with the latest software patches, updates and fixes from the 3.1.1 RPM channels. If an Oracle VM 3.1.1 host is patched using the ULN or public yum server ovm3_x86_64_latest RPM channel, the host will be upgraded from 3.1.1 to 3.2.2 with the latest software patches, updates and fixes.

 

 

 

Next, type "yum clean all", then "yum update -y" to update the server with the latest software patches, updates and fixes from the Oracle VM latest RPM channel.

 

There is not an option to “uninstall” Oracle VM, although there are many ways to remove Oracle VM from a system. The method you select to remove Oracle VM from a system depends on your organizations security requirements. For example, if corporate policy states that the data on the hard drive needs to be securely deleted, formatting or re-partitioning the hard drive will not completely remove the data from the disks. To completely wipe Oracle VM from disk, boot the system using data destruction application, like Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN), and wipe the disk(s). If the data on the hard drive does not need to be securely deleted, you could a) delete all the files on the disks b) format or re-partition the hard drives c) uninstall the bootloader and d) install another operating system on top of the existing one.

 

List 1 shows several of the options to remove Oracle Linux from a system.

 

Appendix

Oracle VM install.log File

Oracle VM install.log.syslog File