When you are selecting hardware for Oracle Virtual Machine (VM), you should consider various factors for selecting the effective hardware architecture. The factors can be RAM, CPU and other storage requirements. The types of the internal hard drives and the hardware vendor certification should also be considered. The right hardware structure can ensure a proper functioning of the Oracle VM environment. Now, let us go through all the factors.
CPU:
For the purpose of medium and small workloads, the server hardware can be customized with the two sockets AMD multiple core or two-socket Intel. In case of the large CPU-bound workloads, the four socket multiple core CPU can be used. The maximum limit of the CPU threads or cores with an Oracle support is 160. The server can locate a virtual CPU for the hardware thread within the CPU socket of the CPU core. The over subscription of CPU can be supported by the Oracle VM server. This means that the 160 CPU servers can easily be over allocated with the total number of the Virtual machines. For example, if a server with Intel processor CPU can possess six cores, then it can have a maximum limit of twelve threads per socket.
Vendor Certification:
The server of the hardware should be joined with the Oracle and the hardware vendor. The vendor support can only be received if the hardware is jointly supported. The service tickets can only be created if problems occur in the process.
Storage:
It is always advised to use the SSD internal hard drive unless the booting activities of the server are done from the SAN. The configuration files and the images of the Virtual Machine can be hosted with shared SAN, NFS repositories. The VM server of the Oracle requires only 4 GB local storage for the full installation purpose. The goal of the Oracle VM is to support all the server pools of the nodes with channel of SAN or NFS storage.
Network Interface Cards:
The network interface cards should be available with NIC ports and port based VLANs. The Oracle VM manager can also support and configure with the tag based VLANs. The Oracle Virtual Machine can use networks like the live Migration, Storage, Server Management, Cluster heartbeat and Virtual machine networks.
RAM:
The physical memory of maximum amount can be clubbed with the server hardware. The Oracle VM cannot accept the live migration as the server cannot support the memory over the subscription phase. If the RAM can be made available on every server, the virtual machines can also be added with the server pool. This will enhance the functions of the live migration within the server pool. Each of the servers can store 512 mb of memory. The memory for each guest should therefore be 20 mb and an additional of 1 % which is equal to the size of the guest’s memory. Now, the residual physical memory can be owed to the guests.
Host Bus Adapter Cards:
For the proper functioning of the Oracle VM, you will require 2 host bus adapters. If 2 HBAs can be used with minimum 4 GFC , the chance of failures become reduced. Depending on the line rate and the overall capacity , the HBA card can be chosen for the right network.
Therefore when you are using the right hardware architecture, you can successfully set up Oracle VM environment. The important hardware structure can include the proper functioning of the CPU, storage, vendor certification, host bus adapter cards, vendor certification, network interface cards etc. So you should be well aware of structuring your hardware for the Oracle Virtual Machine.
Author Bio: Charlie Brown is a well known Oracle expert who specializes in Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). In this article he shares his suggestion for all the factors to be considered while choosing the hardware for your Oracle VM environment.