Open Source Virtualization: Oracle VM Manager Installation

December 11, 2007

Brief intro

In our previous article, we looked at the open source revolution that Oracle started when it announced its hypervisor. In this article, we will install the Oracle VM Manager on our Workstation skeleton. Both installations are carried out on the latest 64-bit Oracle’s EL 5 servers.

Getting and Installing Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 GA OS

This is the simple part as we have done the installation several times in the past. All we do in this step is to download the binaries as we did in the past article and install the OS. We do take the 64-bit EL 5 versions this time, as I warned you last time, that both the 32 And 64 bit binaries ask for 64-bit system. Anyway, the Oracle EL installation should be as simple as anything and we will quickly move on to installing the VMware tools inside it:

Installing VMware tools in the EL 5 GA

• Copy the *.tar or *.rpm files to /tmp

cd /tmp/

• Untar the files

tar xvfz VMwareTools-1.0.3-44356.tar.gz
cd /vmware-distrib

• Install the tools with the command:

./vmware-tools.pl

Accept the defaults. (I personally do accept the experimental feature but you decide for yourself.) Afterwards reboot the vm. After the vm has rebooted, you can start the VMware Tools via:

vmware-toolbox &

• Click on the “synchronize time with host” option.

Installing Oracle VM Manager

Installing tightvnc

Normally in the VMware Workstation 6, this is not a problem as you have your own VNC solution, but should you be installing this on your physical machine, then it might be handy to use tightvnc.

Get the tightvnc from Oracle’s site here.

[root@vmmgr tmp]# rpm -ivh
tightvnc-java-1.3.9-3.noarch.rpm

warning:
tightvnc-java-1.3.9-3.noarch.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID
1e5e0159

Preparing...               ########################################### [100%]
   1:tightvnc-java         ########################################### [100%]

Get VNCViewer.jar (It should be in the /opt/oc4j/j2ee/home/applications/OVS/webapp1/Class directory)

Sign the jar file like this:

/opt/oc4j/java/jdk1.5.0_11/bin/keytool 
	-genkey -alias vncviewer -validity 365
/opt/oc4j/java/jdk1.5.0_11/bin/jarsigner vncviewer.jar vncviewer

Check to see if you have the libaio:

[root@vmmgr tmp]# /bin/rpm -q libaio
libaio-0.3.106-3.2
libaio-0.3.106-3.2

Check to see if the following ports are free:

If the command returns nothing, then they are free!

[root@vmmgr tmp]# netstat -na | grep 8888
[root@vmmgr tmp]# netstat -na | grep 8899

Make sure you have OC4J:

[root@vmmgr tmp]# ps -ef|grep oc4j
root      3256  3089  0 16:29 pts/1    00:00:00 grep oc4j

Is OC4J running? (If yes, stop it).

[root@vmmgr tmp]# /sbin/service --help
Usage: service < option > | --status-all | [ service_name [ command | --full-restart ] ]

Note: You can check the status of all services with the following command:

[root@vmmgr tmp]# /sbin/service --status-all

You can also check the status for that specific process:

/sbin/service -status oc4j
acpid (pid 1756) is running...
anacron (pid 1876) is running...
atd (pid 1886) is running...
auditd (pid 1498) is running...
automount (pid 1737) is running...

Installing Oracle VM Manager

We load the ISO in the VMware workstation and then do the following:

 [root@vmmgr tmp]# cd
[root@vmmgr ~]# mkdir mnt-pt
[root@vmmgr ~]# mount /dev/cdrom mnt-pt
mount: block device /dev/cdrom is write-protected, mounting read-only

Mount the CD on mnt-pt:

[root@vmmgr ~]# cd mnt-pt

Run the installer:

[root@vmmgr mnt-pt]# sh runInstaller.sh

You are prompted with a welcome text:

Welcome to Oracle VM Manager

Please enter the choice: [1|2]
1. Install Oracle VM Manager
2. Uninstall Oracle VM Manager

Note: Select 1, in case you are doing a fresh installation. In case you want to reinstall the Oracle VM then select 2. Do ensure that you have cleaned up all the files from the server.

I ran into this problem:

Failed at "Could not get DeploymentManager".

This is typically the result of an invalid deployer URI format being supplied, the target server not being in a started state or incorrect authentication details being supplied.

More information is available by enabling logging -- please see the Oracle Containers for J2EE Configuration and Administration Guide for details.

Failed
Please see /var/log/ovm-manager/ovm-manager.log for more information.
Deploying application failed.
Please check your environment, and re-run the script:/bin/sh scripts/deployApp.sh

Aborting installation. Please check the environment and rerun runInstaller.sh.

There was no real issue except that I was being a bit cheeky on the memory. Just make sure that you have about 1500Mb.

I had to reinstall the platform several times and got the above error.

1

Starting Oracle VM Manager installation ...

Checking the supported platforms ... Done

Checking the prerequisite packages are installed ... Done

Checking the available disk space ... Done

Installing the oracle-xe-univ package (rpm) ... Done


Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Configuration
-------------------------------------------------
This will configure on-boot properties of Oracle Database 10g Express
Edition.  The following questions will determine whether the database should
be starting upon system boot, the ports it will use, and the passwords that
will be used for database accounts.  Press <Enter> to accept the defaults.
Ctrl-C will abort.


Specify the HTTP port that will be used for Oracle Application Express [8080]:

We chose the default tomcat 8080 port, but you can always pick any other port in this case.

Specify a port that will be used for the database listener [1521]:

Specify a password to be used for database accounts.  Note that the same
password will be used for SYS and SYSTEM.  Oracle recommends the use of
different passwords for each database account.  This can be done after
initial configuration:
Confirm the password:

Here we pick an unbreakable password.

Do you want Oracle Database 10g Express Edition to be started on boot (y/n) [y]:

Select “y”.

Starting Oracle Net Listener...Done
Configuring Database...Done
Starting Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Instance...Done
Installation Completed Successfully.
To access the Database Home Page go to http://127.0.0.1:8080/apex


Installing the ovs-manager package (rpm) ... Done

Set default schema to 'OVS'.
Please enter the password for OVS:
Please re-enter the password for OVS:

Again, we pick a secret password for the VM Manager schema.

Creating the Oracle VM Manager database schema ...Done

Installing the oc4j package (rpm) ... Done
The default password for oc4jadmin is oracle.
You can change the default password after the installation completes.
To access the OC4J Home Page and change the password go to http://127.0.0.1:8888/em
Starting OC4J ... Done
OC4J logfiles can be found in /var/log/ovm-manager/oc4j.log.

Deploying Oracle VM Manager application to OC4J container.
Please enter the password for oc4jadmin:
Please enter the Oracle Net Listener Port , default is [1521] ?
Creating connection pool ...

Deploying Oracle VM Manager application to OC4J container.
Please enter the password for oc4jadmin: 
Please enter the Oracle Net Listener Port , default is [1521] ?1521
Creating connection pool ... Done
Creating data source ... Done
Deploying application ... Done
Deploying application help ... Done

NOTE: At this stage, you might get an error, as I noted earlier but it could be a simple issue of memory. If you are using a typical Oracle EL Linux or even a typical Centos build and have done the typical server installation, then the problem might just be a simple memory issue!

Configuring Oracle VM Manager DataCollector ... Done

Configuring SMTP server ... 
Please enter the outgoing mail server (SMTP) hostname: mail.mycom.com
Setting the SMTP hostname server to mail.mycom.com ... 
Done

Configuring e-mail address for Oracle VM Manager account 'admin'...
Please enter an e-mail address for the admin account : tarry.singh@avastu.com
Please re-enter an e-mail address for the admin account : admin@mycom.com
Updating e-mail address for admin account to admin@mycom.com ... 
Done

The console feature is not enabled by default.
For detailed setup, refer to Oracle VM Manager User's Guide

Installation of Oracle VM Manager completed successfully.

To access the Oracle VM Manager home page go to:
  http://127.0.0.1:8888/OVS
Default user is 'admin' with password 'oracle'.

To access the Oracle VM Manager help page go to:
  http://127.0.0.1:8888/help/help

Conclusion

We took a quick virtualization tour of the Oracle VM Manager installation. In upcoming articles we will look at the VM templates that Oracle has made available and will also attempt to import the VM’s from other Xen and VMware servers to Oracle’s hypervisor.

» See All Articles by Columnist Tarry Singh