Look Out VM-Ware - Big Red is Coming!!!

Look out VM-ware, Oracle is coming a gunning for you. Check out Oracles big OpenWorld Announcement: http://www.oracle.com/corporate/press/2007_nov/ovm-ga-111107.html

Interesting stuff.

Not sure why Oracle would choose to take an open-source VM product and license it under their name, when EMC has VMWare and Microsoft has Virtual PC - but it sounds interesting.

However, there doesn't seem to be an "introductory" version of their product :

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Pricing for enterprise-class support for Oracle VM is simple -- it is priced on a per-system basis, with 24x7 support for a system with up to two CPUs priced at $499 per year per system and a system with unlimited CPUs priced at $999 per year per system.


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Given the fact that VMWare Server is FREE for two processors, as is Virtual PC, I am a little surprised there is no entry-level virtual machine player from Oracle for free. Of course, the ESX version of VMWare is very expensive - but it has pretty much become the standard.

There are a couple of questions that come out of this :

1. Does this mean that Oracle Databases are now supported under a virtual machine ?

2. Does Oracle have any better methodology in their product (quoting "three times faster") with disk access times over their competition ? Is it possible to directly access disk in the same vein as EMC's VMWare ?

3. Will we see virtualized EnterpriseOne implementations appear ? Should we be planning on utilizing Virtualized EnterpriseOne machines ? Does this mean now that EnterpriseOne is supported on virtualized platforms (including VMWare or Virtual PC ?)

Fascinating stuff. Not sure why Oracle wanted to go into Virtual Machines - since this is really the realm of operating systems as opposed to application software - but Oracle has been showing a drive to become as diversified as possible, and it can only be a good move for those of us who are fans of virtualization !

I also thought the list of certified objects was quite odd -

____________________________________________________
Oracle applications, middleware and database software currently certified with Oracle VM includes:

Oracle Database 10.2.0.3 and 11.1
* Oracle Application Server 10gR2 and 10gR3
* Oracle Enterprise Manager 10.2.0.4
* Oracle TimesTen 7.0.3.1
* Oracle Berkeley DB 4.6
* Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.10 and 12
* Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.0
* PeopleTools 8.49.07 and above
* Oracle's Siebel CRM 8
* Oracle's Hyperion 9.3.1
___________________________________________________

Reading this, it seems to me that you can run Oracle DB and OAS (which is what Redwood Shores seems to prefer all JDE instances do, right?) in Oracle VM, but not OW/E1. Would anyone like to wager on whether the JDE certification on Oracle VM is just not completed yet but is forthcoming, or if JDE will never even be certified?

I'm curious to hear what everyone thinks.

Its bad form to reply to your own post - but I just checked the virtualization website, and I found that Oracle VM is actually free, its only the support that costs $$. It will be available from Wednesday (tomorrow) from the virtualization website.

The FAQ also states that while Peoplesoft Enterprise is supported under Oracle VM, it does not currently list J.D. Edwards EnterpriseOne, nor does it seem to currently support Oracle Applications. But it DOES support Oracle Database.

Lots of good stuff there. Its always good when software companies give out free stuff !!!!

I'll be looking forward to downloading Oracle VM tomorrow and will be setting it up with 8.97 to see how well it works in a TEST environment !

Jon,

Here are the apps that are currently "certified" with their version of VM:

Oracle applications, middleware and database software currently certified with Oracle VM includes:

Oracle Database 10.2.0.3 and 11.1
* Oracle Application Server 10gR2 and 10gR3
* Oracle Enterprise Manager 10.2.0.4
* Oracle TimesTen 7.0.3.1
* Oracle Berkeley DB 4.6
* Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.10 and 12
* Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.0
* PeopleTools 8.49.07 and above
* Oracle's Siebel CRM 8
* Oracle's Hyperion 9.3.1

Didn't notice our app in there. Must not be that important to them. Personally I'm not a big fan of VM. Give me a real machine to run my JDE servers on any day of the week. VM is OK for a test lab, but it doesn't cut it in the real world. Just my $.02

Gregg

Well, according to the bottom of the press release, their VM is based on Xen, which plays into an open source software push.

I've installed E1 on virtual machines, mostly VMWare, and I don't see what's wrong with doing it. They mention that Oracle VM will be the only virtual machine that has support, but obviously a lot of people must do it.

I think that they should eventually get around to certifying the other parts of their product line. Since they say they support both Linux and Windows as guest OS, then everything for E1 should be OK. The only real magic I've seen in installing virtual machine software is to make sure you install the special drivers so performance isn't in the toilet.

I've kind of been tracking the capabilities of the differnt virtual machine vendors, and I can see some reasons why Oracle would go with Xen first:

1) Xen is open source.
2) Given what was available while they were conducting certification, I think Xen was scaling better than ESX at the time (8 virtual CPUs and 32 GB per virtual machine as opposed to 4 virtual CPUs and 3.6 GB in VMWare).
3) Esoteric and technical arguements as to which is the "better" virtual machine architecture - Xen started life with a different approach to the problem and may have fewer performance scaling issues. This is a long topic in itself.

As to what a VM is good for in the technical architecture of E1, here are a few thoughts:

- In a shop with little ongoing development (I've seen a few dozen of those and I bet you have too), how much use does your Deployment Server get? This makes it an excellent candidate to be installed on a VM, and use the processing power for other tasks. It's also the first arguement that comes up when deciding to introduce virtual machines into your network at all.
- An extra logic server on a VM, to take up some batch processing load, or business function processing.
- Maybe an extra JAS server, to quickly take up extra users when joined to WebSphere ND, or as Oracle OAS cluster.
- A node in a disaster recovery cluster: This can be done as a standard Windows cluster, Oracle RAC, or perhaps with XenMotion, where the machine quickly relocates to available hardware if the current server goes down.

If you can't tell already, I'm a fan of the direction this is going. Let's just hope Oracle doesn't lock us into their one-and-only supported solution. There is a whole world of possibilities that come up when you take your servers virtual ...

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Virtualization - have been since VMWare was introduced in 2000. I'm a little put out that they (oracle) have seemed to certify all the OTHER ERP solutions - but not certified JDE yet.

The big benefit of VMWare is the ability to restore the machine easily or make additional copies of existing VM machines.

Well - I'm off to download Oracle VM !!!

Well, after spending all day trying to get the damn stuff to work - I am ripping my hair out.

Yeah, I'm sure its nice and fast and its great that its free - but c'mon Oracle, theres no way the "average" IT department is going to persevere with any product that isn't as simple as just sticking the CD into the drive and running "setup.exe" these days.

Oracle really needs to address its installation routines a LOT better. ESX is no way near the complexity to install as Oracle VM is.

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Well, after spending all day trying to get the damn stuff to work - I am ripping my hair out.

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Uh Oh!!! You don't have that much hair to spare! If Jon "I Love Virtualization" Steele rips on it, it doesn't sound like this "free" product is worth the money. I'll stick with my real servers, thank you.

Gregg "I hate VM" Larkin

Interesting point of view, but in reality this product is based on the same Xen OSS platform which Citrix recently began touting for their upcoming desktop virtualization product. Sun also released information about its own Xen based xVM virtualization product the same week Oracle announced Oracle VM. Not to forget to mention Red Hat bundling Xen as the obvious VM server of choice with their Linux distribution.

There are at least three major technology companies all embracing the same technology in order to combat VMWare and Microsoft. A total of seven products all based on Xen are now on the market. Choice is good. VMWare may have about 5 good years before their VM product is no longer dominant, and quite possibly may hold less than 10-20% of the virtualization market by that time.

Has anybody gotten this to work yet?

I've been reading the documentation and the Oracle forums today to try and get a handle on its capabilities, and I'm not terribly impressed. The capabilities look like they are at the level of Xen 3.2, which is a release behind the current Citrix-acquired Xen.

Frankly, it looks built to run Oracle's Unbreakable Linux, with spotty Windows support. Sure you can put Windows 2000, 2003, XP Pro, and Vista on it, but there are no special VM drivers available for Windows right now, which would make the performance abysmal.

This reason, probably more than any other, is why E1 isn't certified to run on it. You can run the Oracle database fine in a Linux VM, but with Windows support lacking, you wouldn't dare to try any database on Windows (either Oracle or SQL Server) on an E1 installation on an Oracle VM. I would think a full package build on this platform would take us back to the bad old days pre-B7.3.3.2 where the client and the server builds would take you close to half a day (meaning 12 hours).

Of the free VM software available, I think I'd take any of the others over this thing, just because they look easier to implement. Oracle VM doesn't look ready for prime time yet.

Ken,

I would classify this one in the "you get what you paid for" category. Yea sure, the Oracle version of Xen is free, so you have no reason to complain about the support. I'm a firm believer in Robert Heinlein's adadge, TANSTAFL. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. I'm no fan of VM (which most people know if they've seen my previous posts), but at this point, if you had to go VM for your production system, I would stick with VM-ware until Xen has matured for a few years.

On a personal note, Ken I know you are looking at setting up a VM system at your shop. Stick with VM-ware on heavy duty hardware. Leave the cheap hardware and the freeware for the sandbox.

Gregg

I missed this - but it seems that Citrix is into Virtualization now as well :

"LAS VEGAS » 10/22/2007 » Today at Citrix iForum™, the world’s largest application delivery conference and expo, Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS) unveiled its end-to-end virtualization technology strategy, including the introduction of two new product lines. This announcement comes on the heels of its recently completed acquisition of XenSource, Inc., a privately held leader in enterprise-grade virtual infrastructure solutions (see today’s separate press release on the company’s close of the XenSource acquisition). The acquisition positions Citrix – a longtime leader in application virtualization – as the only company to offer a comprehensive application delivery infrastructure that leverages server, application and desktop virtualization to make the entire IT infrastructure far more flexible and dynamic.

“Citrix is now positioned to be a key provider of server, desktop and application virtualization technologies, a market which IDC expects to be worth in excess of $3.4 billion by 2011,” said John Humphreys, program vice president, IDC. “Citrix’s new end-to-end virtualization offerings augments the company’s application delivery strategy and represents the foundational components of the future application delivery environment.”