Validated Configuration Details

The goal of this program is to validate hardware with Oracle Linux and Oracle VM, and to identify issues and configuration details that would impact customer deployments. Oracle developed the program to go far beyond the standard certification testing normally performed with operating systems. Hardware vendors participating in this program perform thorough testing of the hardware in real-world configurations with Oracle Linux and Oracle VM.

This is not a database certification. Oracle Database is a component of the environment because it is demanding on hardware resources (processor, memory, cache, storage, network) and the operating system, and well suited for this advanced level of testing. The validation program uses Oracle Database as a tool and hardware is not certified with Oracle Database as a result of the validation program.

For more information please see the program's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

Oracle VM Server 2.1.5 x86 and x86_64 on Cisco Unified Computing System with two Cisco B200-M1 Blade Servers and EMC CX4-960,CX4-480,CX4-120,CX4-240 and CX3 family SAN Storage array with Oracle Database 10g Release 2(10.2.0.4),Oracle Database 11g(11.1.0.6)

Publication Date

04-AUG-09

Version

1.0

Server Platform

Cisco Unified Computing System with two Cisco B200-M1 Blade Servers

Storage Model

EMC CX4-960,CX4-480,CX4-120,CX4-240 and CX3 family SAN Storage array

Guest VMs

Oracle Database Single Instance on OEL 4 Update 7 x86_64 , OEL 5 Update 3 x86_64

Linux Distribution

Oracle VM Server 2.1.5 x86 and x86_64

Server Model

Cisco Unified Computing System with two Cisco B200-M1 Blade Servers

Processors

2 X Quad Core Intel Xeon X5570 2.933GHz

Hardware Virtualization Support

Yes

Type

VT-x

Memory

12GB RAM

OnBoardStorage

73GB SEAGATE ST973402SS

Network/Interconnect

Cisco UCS M71KR Q

HBA

Cisco UCS M71KR Qlogic-Q

Storage Model

EMC CX4-960,CX4-480,CX4-120,CX4-240 and CX3 family SAN Storage array

Switch Model

Cisco MDS9124

Switch Type

FC Switch

Additional Info.

None

Switch Model

Cisco UCS 6120XP

Switch Type

UCS Interconnect

Additional Info.

UCS uses Converged Network Adapters. CNAs provide both data networking and storage networking traffic on a single I/O adapter - EEDC and FCoE.More details at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns944/#~product

Oracle VM Server 2.1.5 x86 and x86_64

Kernel

kernel-ovs-2.6.18-8.1.15.3.1.el5.i686.rpm or higher

Xen Version

xen-64-3.1.4-0.1.40.el5.noarch.rpm or higher

Additional Info

None

Driver Module

QLogic Fibre Channel HBA Driver

Version

8.03.00.04.03.00-k

Settings

None

Additional Info.

The driver is supplied with Oracle VM Server

Driver Module

Network driver module(ixgbe)

Version

1.3.31.5-lro-NAPI

Settings

None

Additional Info.

The driver is supplied with Oracle VM Server

Bug No

7528612

Summary

Unable to boot PVHVM virtual machine after adding second disk as SCSI

Affects

32 bit PVHVM virtual machines with IDE (hda) as primary disk

Symptom

Virtual Machine failure to boot or the newly added SCSI disk discovery failure

Solution/Workaround

For EL4 virtual machine adding "alias sym53c8xx off" in /etc/modprobe.conf files prevent crash when "sda" entry is added (scsi disk) in vm.cfg file and For EL5 virtual machine, remove sym53c8xx.ko from /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ directory.

Bug No

7528616

Summary

EL4U6/U7/U8 PVM virtual machine scsi driver do not recognize scsi disk added by vm manager.

Affects

EL4U6/U7/U8 PVM virtual machine with IDE (hda) as primary disk

Symptom

Virtual Machine failure to recognize the newly added SCSI disk

Solution/Workaround

Remove the SCSI driver from the virtual machine initrd image and reboot the virtual machine , E.g.: Command to remake initrd image without SCSI module (scsi_mod.ko) for 2.6.9-67.0.22.0.1.ELxenU kernel, mkinitrd --omit-scsi-modules --with=xenblk --with=xennet /boot/initrd-2.6.9-67.0.22.0.1.ELxenU.img.scsifix 2.6.9-67.0.22.0.1.ELxenU

Bug No

8499326

Summary

Startup of multipathd results in cannot open /sbin/dasd_id and /sbin/gnbd_import

Affects

None so far

Symptom

When starting multipathd, you see the following errors:multipathd: cannot open /sbin/dasd_id : No such file or directory,multipathd: cannot open /sbin/gnbd_import : No such file or directory

Solution/Workaround

Fixed in OVM 2.2. For OEL5U3 and OEL5U4, contact Oracle support

Bug No

Oracle Bugzilla 4818

Summary

System time on virtual machine may drift

Affects

Applications that require time synchronization across the servers or virtual machines. This affects both hardware virtualized and paravirtualized virtual machines.

Symptom

The symptoms include the network to restart on a system configured with dhcp; cron jobs may not be executed at the required time.

Solution/Workaround

To maximize clock accuracy, ntp service should be enabled in domain0.For PVM virtual machines perform the following steps: (1) Edit /etc/sysctl to set xen.independent_wallclock to 1; run sysctl -p to make the change effective; (2) Enable ntp service: chkconfig ntpd on; service ntpd start. For PVHVM virtual machines perform the following steps: (1) Verify that timer_mode parameter in vm.cfg is set to 0 for 32bit Linux, 1 for Windows, and 2 for 64 bit Linux. With OVM 2.1. release, these values should be set manually. In OVM 2.1.1 and higher versions, those values are set automatically if the virtual machine is created by Oracle VM manager or by virt-install command invoked with --os-type and --os-variant options (2) modify /etc/grub.conf in the virtual machine to add kernel parameters "clock=pit nohpet nopmtimer".

Bug No

8509820

Summary

iSCSI detected conn error seen just after bootup of machine

Affects

None so far

Symptom

During bootup of the OVM server, the following error is seen in /var/log/messages and dmesg iscsi: detected conn error (1011)

Solution/Workaround

Contact Oracle support