Oracle VM (Virtualization)

2016: Oracle VM 3.4.2

On September 23, 2016 the Oracle company announced availability of the version of the server platform of virtualization of Oracle VM 3.4.2.

Deploy and Configure Oracle VM 3.4, (2016)

Among opportunities of Oracle VM 3.4.2^[1]:

• Support by means of Oracle VM Manager of the previous releases of Oracle VM Server:
  • Server control of Oracle VM Server for x86 – 3.4.x, 3.3.x or 3.2.10/11.
  • Server control of Oracle VM Server for SPARC – Agent 3.4.x or 3.3.x.

• Support of NVM Express (NVMe) devices:
  • Detection of NVMe devices and their adding in Oracle VM Manager.

• NVMe devices can be used for storage of disks of virtual machines or creation of repositories of storages.
• Advanced functionality of SCSI available to virtual machines:
  • Guest OS of Linux can obtain data of Vital product data (VPD) placed on page 0x84 from physical disks now if devices are available.

• The core of the managing domain (dom0) was updated on Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 2 (4.1.12-61.1.9)
• Improvements of a hypervisor of Xen:
  • the memory allocation mechanism Is improved.
  • performance, including for guest OS Is improved Windows, Solaris and Linux.
  • performance Is improved during the work with virtual machines (for the platform).
  • Improvements of a subsystem of input-output during the work of guest OS with a disk.

• Performance improvements of Oracle VM Manager for heavy loadings.
• Mechanisms of restriction of hot migration for unsupported target environments - Oracle VM Manager Rule for Live Migration.
• Possibility of change of memory without reset by the guest machines HVM (hardware virtualization) with the paravirtualized I/O-drivers (PVHVM).
• Updates of the different packets which are a part of a product.
• Security updates for the implemented Oracle VM Server and Oracle VM Manager components.

2014: Oracle VM 3.3

On February 26, 2014 the Oracle company announced a release of Oracle VM 3.3 in a type a beta, for testing.

New opportunities of release of Oracle VM 3.3:

• The new Web Services API providing the SOAP and REST interfaces that is convenient for cloud infrastructures.
• The rewritten model of statistics and registration of events.
• Possibility of installation of threshold values for the notification of administrators in the management console.
• Improvements of the VM API Messaging mechanism.
• Authentication between components on the basis of SSL certificates (Certificate Based Authentication).
• Improvements of security in the communication scheme between infrastructure components.
• Support only DBMS Oracle MySQL Enterprise.
• Integrity checking of a DB (Database consistency).
• The console of the virtual machine is displayed using JavaScript and HTML 5 technologies now.
• The improved representation of network interaction for the virtual switchboard and the network bridge.
• Improvements of support of VLAN.
• Support of a HTTP proxy (it is convenient for updates).
• It is in addition added on the SPARC platform:
• Support of iSCSI, FibreChannel, ZFS and local storages for appointment to their virtual machine.
• Management of packets and updates of SPARC Upgrades.
• Support of technology of high availability to virtual machines (HA).
• Improvements of network, such as Active-Backup bonding, integration with VLAN, the big personnel of Jumbo Frames and setup of the MTU parameters.

2011: Oracle VM 3.0

The Oracle company announced in August, 2011 the godanovy version of the product Oracle VM 3.0, the popular corporate platform for virtualization of servers and management of them. To IT specialists the politician and also the user-friendly and functional graphical interface is offered to estimate advanced mechanisms of setup of networks and storage systems, a possibility of effective management of resources of virtual servers on the basis. It should be noted that Oracle VM is still the only certified solution of virtualization compatible to any products of Oracle.

According to developers, the updated platform differs in exclusive flexibility and scalability. Oracle VM 3.0 supports up to 160 processors and 2 Tb of memory for physical servers and up to 128 virtual processors for virtual machines.

The Storage Connect Framework component which will give an opportunity of direct control of resources and functionality of storage systems from the Oracle VM Manager interface is a part of a packet. The plug-ins providing support of the equipment are offered attention of users Fujitsu Hitachi Data Systems and NetApp. And in development there are some more additions for use with the SUN ZFS Storage Appliances and Pillar Axiom 600 SAN systems.

Key features of the new version:

• Dynamic resource management of servers and power supply, according to schedules, will allow to guarantee high quality of service at low power consumption.
• The convenient Oracle VM Manager web interface for the centralized setup and administration of network.
• Detection of servers and data storage devices.
• Upgraded version of a hypervisor of Xen 4.0.
• The updated core of Dom0 Command and Control Kernel.
• Support of clustered file system of OCFS2 1.8.
• Support of an open format of Open Virtualization Format (OVF) virtual machines.
• Job control using Job Management Framework.
• Enhanced capabilities of registration of events.
• Detailed statistical data about operation of the processor, memory, disks and network adapters for physical servers and virtual machines.

The producer also announces expansion of the list of available templates or images of the virtual machines completely ready for operation compatible to different products of Oracle. Previously configured virtual machines can be used for fast deployment of the database server of Oracle, the Oracle WebLogic Server servers, etc. In total it is offered to attention of clients of more various 90 templates.

Oracle VM 3.1

Main new opportunities of Oracle VM Server 3.1:

• User Interface New Design - many transactions are executed now in the form of step-by-step masters.
• Drag and Drop - in the Oracle VM Manager web interface can drag objects because now Oracle Application is used
• Development Framework (ADF).
• Bulk Discovery of Oracle VM Servers - on names of hosts and the IP addresses can add now the Oracle VM servers.
• Hot Add vCPUs is a possibility of adding of the virtual processor in the working virtual machine.
• Move or Clone Virtual Machines and Templates is a possibility of movement of virtual machines between repositories with preserving of parameters and also a possibility of cloning of VM.
• Automatic Creation of Multiple Virtual Machines from a Template is a possibility of mass deployment of VM from a template.
• VM Console Take Over is a possibility of interception of the VM console by other user.
• Move VM Storage Repositories - repositories of storages can untie from one pool of servers now and to tie to another.
• Backup/Restore Access to VM Storage Repositories - repositories are exported now as NFS volumes that can be used by software for backup.
• LUN Resizing - size variation of LUN is automatically picked up by OCFS2 file system (Oracle Cluster File
• System).
• Multipath Boot from SAN is support of loading from network of storage.
• Support for Jumbo Frames is support of the big personnel.
• Oracle VM Templates - new ready templates of virtual machines with software from Oracle.
• Microsoft Server Virtualization Vendor Program Validation (SVVP) - a product participates now and is certified according to the program.
• Updated Xen Hypervisor - is used a hypervisor of Xen of version 4.1.2.

Oracle VM 3.2

"the C release of the new version of Oracle VM administrators get advantages in terms of the cost of ownership and simplicity of management at virtualization not only x86, but also SPARC systems — Wim Coekaerts, the senior vice president of Oracle for the Linux and Virtualization Engineering direction told CNews. — The new version will help users to unify and automate large-scale environments to achieve the highest efficiency of infrastructure".

The solution Oracle VM 3.2 in general simplifies use and accelerates deployment of systems. The module Oracle VM Manager, in addition to management of virtualization on servers h86, allows to detect also the SPARC servers now and to create and administer the domains Oracle VM Server for SPARC, providing the unified and centralized operation in heterogeneous data processing centers, thereby increasing their operational efficiency.

Oracle VM Manager also includes MySQL Enterprise Edition for use as a management system repository without additional payment. Now at deployment as a repository of Oracle VM Manager it is possible to select from the production environment Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, Oracle Database Standard Edition or MySQL Enterprise Edition.

The command line interface Oracle VM Manager (CLI) maintains the same functionality, as the interface of the Oracle VM Manager browser. Standard tasks can be written in the form of the scenario (script) that allows to automate completely process, to save time and to reduce risk of an error of the operator.

When using MySQL Enterprise Edition as the Oracle database of VM Manager backup copies of a repository of a management system are automatically created that allows to recover the environment of management in case of need quickly.

In turn, the possibility of creation and use of individual tags for filtering of representation of virtual machines and servers in a user interface (UI) allows to identify quickly specific sets of virtual machines or servers and to influence them. At the same time there is an opportunity to process at once several objects in a single step for the accelerated execution of operations in large-scale environments.

The Operability of a System tab (health status) contains expanded and summarized information on a system status, statistical data on virtual machines in the user interface Oracle VM Manager, for example, about use of a system memory and resources of the processor that allows to identify quickly problems before they accept serious character.

Besides, Oracle VM Release 3.2 provides direct import of virtual machines to the Oracle VM Manager environment. The solution, as well as earlier, can be loaded free of charge.

Oracle also issued the solution Oracle VM Server for SPARC 3.0 in which a number of new important features, such as the automated safe migration of the working system, power management and dynamic resource management is implemented. The solution allows to provide cloud infrastructure services on the Oracle SPARC T-Series servers.

"With Oracle VM Server for SPARC 3.0 users will be able simply and safely to carry out migration of the working logical domains Oracle Solaris 10 and Oracle Solaris 11 between the CCP of different types, using the CCPs cryptographic accelerators to avoid idle times at transfer of domains on Wednesdays of new generation" — noted in Oracle.

Notes