Share this
by Yury Velikanov on Sep 6, 2011 12:00:00 AM
NOTE: 2012.02.09. For the 3.0.3 version’s installation instructions please refer to the post here.
Oracle just released Oracle VM 3. I am sure that there are many Oracle Infrastructure related professionals who would like to install it in their test environments and start evaluating the product. The problem is beside of the Oracle VM Server you need an Oracle VM Manager. Oracle VM Manager provides management interface for managing one or several Oracle VM servers. It appears that Oracle VM Manager requires a separate host with at least 6GB of RAM just to get it installed. In this post I explain how you can install both Oracle VM Server 3 and Oracle VM Manager 3 allocating to both components just 1GB of RAM on the same logical server (Dom0).
In this post:
- Why
- How
- Details
- Other Hints
NOTE: If you are not interested in any “hacking” :) and just want to install the Oracle VM 3 in the supported and correct way then I would suggest you to have a read Tim Hall’s post “Oracle VM (3.0.1) Installation“. He covers the standard installation process in great details.
Why?
One of the first questions the reader would have is “Why on earth anyone should implement unsupported and highly unrecommended Oracle VM 3 configuration?”.
NOTE: For those of you who are not very familiar with Oracle VM terminology I would suggest you have a brief review of the “Introduction to Oracle VM” chapter from Oracle® VM User’s Guide Release 3.0 for x86.
Well for a production configuration you probably (definitely) shouldn’t do anything like this. However if you are like me – a researcher who doesn’t have the luxury of dedicating a server with 24 GB and more RAM for your sandbox then you may consider implementing Oracle VM Manager 3.0.1 (OVMM3) under Dom0 host for the following reasons:
- According to specification you need at least 5.5GB for just OVMM3 + OS memory. In the configuration I am describing in this blog post you need 1GB for Oracle VM 3 Server (OVM3) and OVMM3 all together. It is much “cheaper” to run it that way. You may use 5.5GB+ saved RAM for additional Virtual Machine to play with.
- Oracle suggests executing OVMM3 on a separate server or on Virtual Machine (VM) running on your laptop.
Option 1 means you need to have another sandbox for running OVMM3 and therefore will increase your research budget twice. Option 2 will not allow you to share the OVM management infrastructure with your team (anyone else) as you will carry it with you all the time. In addition that means that you will need to dedicate 5.5GB+ RAM to the OVMM3 VM. I don’t believe that many of us have a laptop with 12GB RAM. The option described below allows you to make the management infrastructure available for all your team + save your laptop resources. - Someone would say you can run OVMM3 on a Guest VM running under the same OVM. This is true. However a) it will be more hassle to implement it b) running OVMM3 on the Dom0 host will save you additional resources compared to dedicating a separate domU for running OVMM3.
Not sure if I convinced you that this option have rights for existence. In any case it works for me and the description bellow may give you hints on how you can adjust memory configuration in Oracle VM 3 case.
Prerequisites
- Oracle VM Server 3.0.1 installed on x86-64bit box with 2GB+ RAM. You can get the installation here (177MB). The installation is straight forward and there is nothing exiting about it. You just burn a CD from ISO image and boot your box from that CD
- Oracle VM Manager 3.0.1 ISO image file (2.4GB) on the server or burned DVD from that image (I transferred ISO image to the Dom0 host)
- bc-1.06-21.x86_64.rpm or any other version bc calculator you would manage to install under Dom0 host (I used Enterprise-R5-U6-Server-x86_64-dvd.iso to install)
- 30-45 minutes of your time :)
How?
In this section I provide a list of solution you need to implement in order to install the OVMM3 as quick as possible. In the next section bellow I provide all the detailed output from my installation for your reference.
–SOLUTION A — Temporarily increase RAM used by Dom0 from 500MB to 2GB (as soon as finished you can reduce it to 1GB, see “Reducing RAM usage” section bellow)
[root@vm03 ~]# cp -rp /boot/grub/grub.conf /boot/grub/grub.conf.orig.1 [root@vm03 ~]# vi /boot/grub/grub.conf [root@vm03 ~]# diff /boot/grub/grub.conf /boot/grub/grub.conf.orig.1 14c14 < kernel /xen.gz dom0_mem=2048M --- > kernel /xen.gz dom0_mem=582M [root@vm03 ~]# reboot
–SOLUTION C — Install bc (I used Enterprise-R5-U6-Server-x86_64-dvd.iso media to get the RPM)
[root@vm03 ~]# rpm -Uvf /u02/Server/bc-1.06-21.x86_64.rpm
–SOLUTION D — Temporarily increase swap to 2GB (you can remove the file after the installation)
[root@vm03 ~]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/v01/swapfile1 bs=1024 count=2097152 2097152+0 records in 2097152+0 records out 2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 39.6924 seconds, 54.1 MB/s [root@vm03 ~]# mkswap /v01/swapfile1 Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 2147479 kB no label, UUID=8f7286f4-4191-4e86-947c-73017a756592 [root@vm03 ~]# swapon /v01/swapfile1
–SOLUTION B — Edit prerequisites.py file in /tmp dir
NOTE: I moved SOLUTION B to very end on purpose here. In the “Details” section I am describing problems in the order I faced them. In this section it makes sense to me to provide all the steps you need to accomplish before starting the installer and then describe this step.
During OVMM3 installation process (please not note that this file is not accessible before you start the installation) you need to edit /tmp/ovmm-installer.selfextract_*/ovm/installer/prerequisites.py file and adjust verifyMemory and verifyLinuxVersion functions replacing “return False” by “return True”.
Details
In this section I am describing the installation process as I went through it, problems I faced and solutions I came with. If you want to implement all the fixes before the actual installation starts please perform all the solutions but SOLUTION B from the previous section.
Let’s start with the login to just installed Oracle VM 3.0.1 server, check some basic stuff and mount the Oracle VM Manager ISO image:
login as: root root@vm03's password: Last login: Thu Sep 1 01:27:32 2011 Warning: making manual modifications in the management domain might cause inconsistencies between Oracle VM Manager and the server. [root@vm03 ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release Oracle VM server release 3.0.1 [root@vm03 ~]# cat /proc/meminfo | egrep "MemTotal|SwapTotal" MemTotal: 594432 kB SwapTotal: 1052248 kB [root@vm03 ~]# mount -o loop /v01/OracleVM-Manager-3.0.1.iso /mnt/cdrom [root@vm03 ~]# df -h /mnt/cdrom Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /v01/OracleVM-Manager-3.0.1.iso 2.4G 2.4G 0 100% /mnt/cdrom [root@vm03 ~]#
Note: Do not mount the OVMM ISO file under /root*, /u01*,/tmp* file systems. The runInstaller.sh script checks it and gives you “Invalid mountpoint /u01…” error message in case you do. Even if you mounted it under prohibited mount point you just run the ovmm-installer.bsx manually (see the script text).
Let start the installer for the first time …
[root@vm03 ~]# /mnt/cdrom/runInstaller.sh Oracle VM Manager Release 3.0.1 Installer Oracle VM Manager Installer log file: /tmp/ovmm-installer.selfextract_sV6209/install-2011-09-01-013457.log Please select an installation type: 1: Simple 2: Standard 3: Uninstall 4: Help Select Number (1-4):
Please note the directory where the log file is located in “/tmp/ovmm-installer.selfextract_sV6209”. This is a temporary directory where installer extracts scripts and other files used during the installation. Each time you run the installer a new directory is created. Therefore it is essential to remove the directory after each failed installation attempt.
Please select an installation type: 1: Simple 2: Standard 3: Uninstall 4: Help Select Number (1-4): 1 Starting simple installation ... Verifying installation prerequisites ... Oracle VM Manager can only be installed on a 64 bit Oracle Linux version 5.5 and higher. Current version is 'redhat' version '3.0.1' Not enough memory. At least 1500 MB RAM is required but only 580 MB RAM available Configuration verification failed ... [root@vm03 ~]#
This is the first stop. The simplest solution to this problem is just temporarily increase amount of RAM allocated to Dom0 host. Later on we will reduce it to 1GB (see “Reducing RAM usage” section below).
-BEGIN-SOLUTION A —
[root@vm03 ~]# cp -rp /boot/grub/grub.conf /boot/grub/grub.conf.orig.1 [root@vm03 ~]# vi /boot/grub/grub.conf [root@vm03 ~]# diff /boot/grub/grub.conf /boot/grub/grub.conf.orig.1 14c14 < kernel /xen.gz dom0_mem=2048M --- > kernel /xen.gz dom0_mem=582M -- Reboot [root@vm03 ~]# cat /proc/meminfo | egrep "MemTotal|SwapTotal" MemTotal: 2095616 kB SwapTotal: 1052248 kB [root@vm03 ~]#
-END-SOLUTION A —
As stated before after each unsuccessful installation attempt you should manually remove an installation directory under /tmp.
[root@vm03 ~]# rm -rf /tmp/ovmm-installer.selfextract_*
Let’s move on …
[root@vm03 ~]# /mnt/cdrom/runInstaller.sh Oracle VM Manager Release 3.0.1 Installer Oracle VM Manager Installer log file: /tmp/ovmm-installer.selfextract_gd5603/install-2011-09-01-014346.log Please select an installation type: 1: Simple 2: Standard 3: Uninstall 4: Help Select Number (1-4): 1 Starting simple installation ... Verifying installation prerequisites ... Oracle VM Manager can only be installed on a 64 bit Oracle Linux version 5.5 and higher. Current version is 'redhat' version '3.0.1' *** WARNING: Recommended memory for the Oracle VM Manager server installation is 3950 MB RAM Configuration verification failed ...
This is a bit more serious problem. We all know that we are trying to do something unsupported here. To workaround the problem we need to edit some checks in a script file which is available during the time of installation only. Therefore we first start installer than edit the file in under /tmp directory.
-BEGIN-SOLUTION B —
[root@vm03 ~]# /mnt/cdrom/runInstaller.sh Oracle VM Manager Release 3.0.1 Installer Oracle VM Manager Installer log file: /tmp/ovmm-installer.selfextract_EF5956/install-2011-09-01-014609.log Please select an installation type: 1: Simple 2: Standard 3: Uninstall 4: Help Select Number (1-4):
-B- Open other ssh window and edit the following file
vi /tmp/ovmm-installer.selfextract_*/ovm/installer/prerequisites.py
Find verifyMemory and verifyLinuxVersion functions and replace all occurrences of “return False” with “return True”.
Save the file and switch back to the original ssh window.
-END-SOLUTION B —
Select Number (1-4): 1 Starting simple installation ... Verifying installation prerequisites ... Oracle VM Manager can only be installed on a 64 bit Oracle Linux version 5.5 and higher. Current version is 'redhat' version '3.0.1' *** WARNING: Recommended memory for the Oracle VM Manager server installation is 3950 MB RAM One password is used for all users created and used during the installation. Enter a password for all logins used during the installation: Enter a password for all logins used during the installation (confirm): Verifying configuration ... Start installing the configured components: 1: Continue 2: Abort Select Number (1-2): 1 Step 1 of 9 : Database ... Installing Database ... Retrieving Oracle Database 11g XE ... Installing Oracle Database 11g XE ... Failed to install Oracle Database 11g XE This system does not meet the minimum requirements for swap space. Based on the amount of physical memory available on the system, Oracle Database 11g Express Edition requires 2048 MB of swap space. This system has 1027 MB of swap space. Configure more swap space on the system and retry the installation. /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.94638: line 186: bc: command not found error: %pre(oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64) scriptlet failed, exit status 1 error: install: %pre scriptlet failed (2), skipping oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0
-BEGIN-SOLUTION C — Just install missing bc RPM
[root@vm03 ~]# mount -o loop /v01/Enterprise-R5-U6-Server-x86_64-dvd.iso /u02 [root@vm03 ~]# rpm -Uvf /u02/Server/bc-1.06-21.x86_64.rpm warning: /u02/Server/bc-1.06-21.x86_64.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 1e5e0159 Preparing packages for installation... bc-1.06-21 [root@vm03 ~]#
-END-SOLUTION C —
Step 1 of 9 : Database ... Installing Database ... Retrieving Oracle Database 11g XE ... Installing Oracle Database 11g XE ... Failed to install Oracle Database 11g XE This system does not meet the minimum requirements for swap space. Based on the amount of physical memory available on the system, Oracle Database 11g Express Edition requires 2048 MB of swap space. This system has 1027 MB of swap space. Configure more swap space on the system and retry the installation. error: %pre(oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64) scriptlet failed, exit status 1 error: install: %pre scriptlet failed (2), skipping oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0 [root@vm03 ~]#
-BEGIN-SOLUTION D — Temporarily increase swap to 2GB
You need to add a volume with at least 2G of space for the Dom0 host.
In my case I mounted a bit of space under /v01 directory.
[root@vm03 ~]# df -h /v01 Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda4 290G 12G 264G 5% /v01 [root@vm03 ~]# time dd if=/dev/zero of=/v01/swapfile1 bs=1024 count=2097152 2097152+0 records in 2097152+0 records out 2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 39.6924 seconds, 54.1 MB/s real 0m39.695s user 0m1.140s sys 0m10.821s [root@vm03 ~]# mkswap /v01/swapfile1 Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 2147479 kB no label, UUID=8f7286f4-4191-4e86-947c-73017a756592 [root@vm03 ~]# swapon /v01/swapfile1 [root@vm03 ~]# swapon -s Filename Type Size Used Priority /dev/sda3 partition 1052248 0 -1 /v01/swapfile1 file 2097144 0 -2 [root@vm03 ~]# cat /proc/meminfo | egrep "MemTotal|SwapTotal" MemTotal: 2095616 kB SwapTotal: 3149392 kB [root@vm03 ~]#
If you want you can make the change to be persistent by adding a line in /etc/fstab file. If not you just remove the swap file after you finished the installation and reboot the server.
-END-SOLUTION D —
Clean Run
At this stage we resolved all problems and the following is the final installer run. As result of it you will get fully functional Oracle VM Manager 3.0.1 running under Dom0 host.
[root@vm03 ~]# /mnt/cdrom/runInstaller.sh Oracle VM Manager Release 3.0.1 Installer Oracle VM Manager Installer log file: /tmp/ovmm-installer.selfextract_vz9590/install-2011-09-01-021424.log Please select an installation type: 1: Simple 2: Standard 3: Uninstall 4: Help Select Number (1-4): 1 Starting simple installation ... Verifying installation prerequisites ... Oracle VM Manager can only be installed on a 64 bit Oracle Linux version 5.5 and higher. Current version is 'redhat' version '3.0.1' *** WARNING: Recommended memory for the Oracle VM Manager server installation is 3950 MB RAM One password is used for all users created and used during the installation. Enter a password for all logins used during the installation: Enter a password for all logins used during the installation (confirm): Verifying configuration ... Start installing the configured components: 1: Continue 2: Abort Select Number (1-2): 1 Step 1 of 9 : Database ... Installing Database ... Retrieving Oracle Database 11g XE ... Installing Oracle Database 11g XE ... Configuring Oracle Database 11g XE ... Step 2 of 9 : Java ... Installing Java ... Step 3 of 9 : Database Schema ... Creating database schema 'ovs' ... Step 4 of 9 : WebLogic ... Retrieving Oracle WebLogic Server 11g ... Installing Oracle WebLogic Server 11g ... Step 5 of 9 : ADF ... Retrieving Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) ... Unzipping Oracle ADF ... Installing Oracle ADF ... Step 6 of 9 : Oracle VM ... Retrieving Oracle VM Manager Application ... Extracting Oracle VM Manager Application ... Installing Oracle VM Manager Core ... Step 7 of 9 : Domain creation ... Creating Oracle WebLogic Server domain ... Starting Oracle WebLogic Server 11g ... Configuring data source 'OVMDS' ... Creating Oracle VM Manager user 'admin' ... Step 8 of 9 : Deploy ... Deploying Oracle VM Manager Core container ... Deploying Oracle VM Manager UI Console ... Deploying Oracle VM Manager Help ... Enabling HTTPS ... Granting ovm-admin role to user 'admin' ... Step 9 of 9 : Oracle VM Manager Shell ... Retrieving Oracle VM Manager Shell & API ... Extracting Oracle VM Manager Shell & API ... Installing Oracle VM Manager Shell & API ... Retrieving Oracle VM Manager Upgrade tool ... Extracting Oracle VM Manager Upgrade tool ... Installing Oracle VM Manager Upgrade tool ... Copying Oracle VM Manager shell to '/usr/bin/ovm_shell.sh' ... Installing ovm_admin.sh in '/u01/app/oracle/ovm-manager-3/bin' ... Installing ovm_upgrade.sh in '/u01/app/oracle/ovm-manager-3/bin' ... Enabling Oracle VM Manager service ... Oracle VM Manager installed. Installation Summary -------------------- Database configuration: Database host name : localhost Database instance name (SID): XE Database listener port : 1521 Application Express port : 8080 Oracle VM Manager schema : ovs Weblogic Server configuration: Administration username : weblogic Oracle VM Manager configuration: Username : admin Core management port : 54321 UUID : 0004fb0000010000127081045b8b1124 Passwords: There are no default passwords for any users. The passwords to use for Oracle VM Manager, Oracle Database 11g XE, and Oracle WebLogic Server have been set by you during this installation. In the case of a default install, all passwords are the same. Oracle VM Manager UI: https://vm03.fun.com:7001/ovm/console https://vm03.fun.com:7002/ovm/console Log in with the user 'admin', and the password you set during the installation. Please note that you need to install tight-vnc on this computer to access a virtual machine's console. For more information about Oracle Virtualization, please visit: https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/ Oracle VM Manager installation complete. [root@vm03 ~]# date Thu Sep 1 02:33:30 EST 2011 [root@vm03 ~]#
ALL GOOD :)
You can test the console now
https://vm03.fun.com:7002/ovm/console
Username: admin
Password:
Reducing RAM usage
Lets stop OVMM3 console
[root@vm03 ~]# /etc/init.d/ovmm stop Stopping Oracle VM Manager [ OK ]
Reducing Oracle DB memory usage
If you ever adjusted an Oracle Instance memory the following steps makes sense to you with no additional comments
su - oracle [oracle@vm03 ~]$ export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe [oracle@vm03 ~]$ export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH [oracle@vm03 ~]$ export ORACLE_SID=XE [oracle@vm03 ~]$ sqlplus "/ as sysdba" SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Thu Sep 1 02:44:33 2011 Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved. Connected to: Oracle Database 11g Express Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production SQL> alter system set sga_target=200M scope=spfile; System altered. SQL> alter system reset memory_target sid='*' scope=spfile; System altered. SQL> show sga Total System Global Area 855982080 bytes Fixed Size 2231296 bytes Variable Size 503317504 bytes Database Buffers 348127232 bytes Redo Buffers 2306048 bytes SQL> shutdown immediate; Database closed. Database dismounted. ORACLE instance shut down. SQL> startup ORACLE instance started. Total System Global Area 208769024 bytes Fixed Size 2225072 bytes Variable Size 96472144 bytes Database Buffers 104857600 bytes Redo Buffers 5214208 bytes Database mounted. Database opened. SQL> exit Disconnected from Oracle Database 11g Express Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production [oracle@vm03 ~]$
Reducing Apps memory usage
The following start up script adjustment will reduce Application server memory usage from 2GB to 512MB.
[root@vm03 ~]# cp -rp /etc/init.d/ovmm ~/ovmm [root@vm03 ~]# vi /etc/init.d/ovmm [root@vm03 ~]# diff /etc/init.d/ovmm ~/ovmm 32c32 < nohup su - oracle -c "USER_MEM_ARGS=\"-Xms64m -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=384m\" DOMAIN_PRODUCTION_MODE=true JAVA_OPTIONS=-Djava.awt.headless=true /u01/app/oracle/ovm-manager-3/machine1/base_adf_domain/startWebLogic.sh &" > /dev/null --- > nohup su - oracle -c "USER_MEM_ARGS=\"-Xms512m -Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=384m\" DOMAIN_PRODUCTION_MODE=true JAVA_OPTIONS=-Djava.awt.headless=true /u01/app/oracle/ovm-manager-3/machine1/base_adf_domain/startWebLogic.sh &" > /dev/null [root@vm03 ~]# [root@vm03 ~]# /etc/init.d/ovmm start Starting Oracle VM Manager [ OK ] [root@vm03 ~]# -- Wait for ~60 secs [root@vm03 ~]# netstat -ntlp | grep 7001 tcp 0 0 192.168.1.210:7001 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 17732/java tcp 0 0 192.168.1.211:7001 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 17732/java tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:7001 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 17732/java [root@vm03 ~]#
Just wait a bit and you can test the console again.
Reducing Dom0 memory usage
After you reduced DB and Apps server memory usage we can shrink back memory allocated to Dom0 host
[root@vm03 ~]# cp -rp /boot/grub/grub.conf /boot/grub/grub.conf.orig.2 [root@vm03 ~]# vi /boot/grub/grub.conf [root@vm03 ~]# diff /boot/grub/grub.conf /boot/grub/grub.conf.orig.2 [root@vm03 ~]# diff /boot/grub/grub.conf /boot/grub/grub.conf.orig.2 14c14 < kernel /xen.gz dom0_mem=1024M --- > kernel /xen.gz dom0_mem=2048M [root@vm03 ~]# reboot Broadcast message from root (pts/0) (Thu Sep 1 02:58:06 2011): The system is going down for reboot NOW! [root@vm03 ~]#
Clean Swap file
... [root@vm03 ~]# cat /proc/meminfo | egrep "MemTotal|SwapTotal" MemTotal: 794872 kB SwapTotal: 1052248 kB [root@vm03 ~]# rm -f /v01/swapfile1
Give the OVMM3 console few minutes to start and you can start using the new installed Oracle VM Manager 3.0.1 under Dom0 host.
Other Hints
Stopping OVMM3
The following 2 calls stops Oracle VM Manager related processes:
[root@vm03 ~]# /etc/init.d/ovmm stop Stopping Oracle VM Manager [ OK ] [root@vm03 ~]# /etc/init.d/oracle-xe stop Shutting down Oracle Database 11g Express Edition instance. Stopping Oracle Net Listener. [root@vm03 ~]#
Wipe out Oracle VM Manager installation
If you for any reason would like to clean the installation and start it all over again just stop OVMM3 processes and run the following commands.
NOTE: Oracel VM Server isn’t impacted by those actions.
[root@vm03 ~]# rpm -e oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0 [root@vm03 ~]# rm -rf /u01/app/oracle [root@vm03 ~]# rm -rf /tmp/ovmm-installer.selfextract_*
No Comments Yet
Let us know what you think