Oracle on Demand Infrastructure: Virtualization with Oracle VM

Introduction
Reviewing the evolution of the Oracle On Demand Managed Services Grid gives context and rationale to Oracle’s virtualization efforts. Over the last four years, Oracle has leveraged commodity servers to enhance services by hardening security and adhering to new deployment standards. Oracle further enhanced services by improving the test infrastructure and isolating critical production workloads.

While these operational enhancements were being deployed, Oracle continued to rapidly adopt new infrastructure technologies that increased customer capacity. Most recently, Oracle has been replacing single-core servers using two units of space in a server rack (2U) with dual-core servers using one unit of space (1U) – in effect quadrupling the capacity of the Oracle On Demand Managed Services Grid.

Next Generation: Virtualized Environments
Oracle is introducing server virtualization within the Oracle On Demand Managed Services Grid. The introduction of virtualization in On Demand will afford Oracle the opportunity to optimize each customer’s configuration, more fully harness the capabilities of these servers, maintain the operational enhancements deployed over the last four years, and introduce new benefits. The purpose of this paper is to provide the rationale for the deployment of this technology as well as highlight how virtualization will directly benefit customers. This paper includes:

• An introduction to server virtualization
• Immediate and potential future benefits to customers
• The deployment model chosen by Oracle

Server Virtualization
Server virtualization enables a single physical server to house multiple operating environments. Virtualization emulates the physical presence of a server so that more than one server, for example a Windows print server and a Linux file server, can be hosted on a single computer. Each of the software server environments is referred to as a virtual machine. Virtual machines are independent operating environments comprised of the underlying operating system and all required server software and data.

Virtual machines appear to the guest operating system as independent systems but are actually simulated by the host system. Virtualization, in effect, decouples software from the hardware on which it runs. As a result, virtualization provides a method for managing systems and resources by function rather than by locations or how they are organized.

Consolidation Versus Virtualization
Sometimes the terms consolidation and virtualization are used interchangeably because both achieve the same end, but by different means. Virtualization provides a way to retain a function (for example, two middle-tier servers in a test environment) while optimizing the underlying hardware. Consolidation is a process that completely removes the function and the underlying hardware.

Virtualization in Mainframes
Although new to some, virtualization has been part of the IT fabric for many decades. When first introduced in mainframes, it enabled IT managers to:

• More effectively manage computing workloads
• Provide a flexible and reliable testing infrastructure without having to fully duplicate the production environment
• Create elegant ways to optimize uptime by reducing outages due to changes in the physical infrastructure
• Create a separation of workloads that does not compromise security or inject new capital expenditures

Potential
Recent advancements in open source virtualization have created an opportunity to optimize the Oracle On Demand Managed Services Grid and lay a foundation that could materially enhance Oracle’s Managed Services. Many such benefits mirror those afforded by the initial mainframe virtualization.

Virtualization Benefits for On Demand
With virtualization, On Demand customers benefit even further through:

• Simplified solutions;
• Reduced down-time;
• A highly available and serviceable architecture.

Simplified Solutions
The current On Demand policy contains deployment scenarios that require additional physical servers, for example the deployment of a DMZ function or an additional instance. With virtualization, the complexity associated with managing additional servers could be reduced in some cases and in others, may be eliminated altogether. For example:

• A non-production DMZ server could be deployed as a virtual machine and still provide the testing function it serves
• An additional instance could be deployed as a virtual machine in the existing non-production infrastructure

Reduced Downtime
Although it is preferable to avoid it, downtime is sometimes inevitable. These outages are either planned or unplanned and often require recycling physical servers. Each time a server is brought down, it must be brought back up and tested before returning the service to affected customers. After virtualization is in place, fewer physical servers will require restarting, therefore reducing the overall downtime when outages occur. As virtualization evolves, there may be opportunities to reduce, or in some cases eliminate, the downtime required to service a customer.

Maintain High Standards and Optimize the Infrastructure
Oracle has continually enhanced services by separating and isolating specific functions while providing customers with updated technology. Today, On Demand customers are provisioned on 64-bit Oracle Enterprise Linux systems running dual-core or quad-core servers. These powerful systems—backed by the enterprise-class support of Oracle Unbreakable Linux, enable Oracle to consolidate functions while retaining the integrity of the architecture. Examples include:

• Keeping the same topology between production (PROD) and test (TEST) environments. For example, if multiple middle-tier servers are in production, Oracle can provide multiple virtual machines in the test environment to support proper testing of the multiple middle-tier environments;
• Providing a virtual DMZ in the test environment to support proper testing of external functions;
• Segregating application and database tiers into two separate environments.

Introducing Oracle VM to Oracle On Demand
Oracle is introducing server virtualization within the Oracle On Demand Managed Services Grid with Oracle VM, a new server virtualization product which fully supports both Oracle and non-Oracle applications and offers scalable, low-cost server virtualization that is three times more efficient than competitive products.

Backed by Oracle’s world-class support organization, On Demand customers now have a single point of enterprise-class support for their entire virtualization environments, including the Linux operating system, Oracle Database, Fusion Middleware and Application software—all of which are supported with Oracle VM.

Industry-leading partners, including AMD, Dell, Emulex, HP, Intel, Liquid Computing, NetApp, Pillar Data Systems, and QLogic have endorsed Oracle VM. And with this announcement, Oracle is the only software vendor that combines the benefits of server clustering and server virtualization technologies to deliver integrated clustering, virtualization, storage, and management for Grid Computing.

For more information about Oracle VM, visit http://www.oracle.com/virtualization.

Virtualization’s Impact on the ITIL Framework
ITIL is a framework of best practices approaches intended to facilitate the delivery of high quality IT services. Virtualization is a technology that can be exploited to enhance services provided under the ITIL framework. These key benefits provide further rationale for Oracle’s decision to deploy server virtualization in infrastructure.

Release Management
Traditionally, the server initialization process starts with the “rack-up and power-up” of a physical server and extends to network configuration, software installation, and set-up. Server virtualization enables organizations to manage a pool of pre-configured virtual machines. These virtual machines enable applications to be provisioned by simply pointing to one of these environments, thereby significantly reducing provisioning time.

These virtual machines can be used to provision additional environments while performing multi-phased implementations. A reduced provisioning cycle will result in faster implementations because these additional environments can be provisioned from the same pool of pre-configured virtual machines.

Problem Management
Virtualization provides the ability to copy or make a snapshot of a live instance within minutes. In the event of a software problem, a snapshot of the virtual machine can be taken before the virtual machine is restarted. This snapshot can be used to analyze the problem and test a resolution. This function could reduce the amount of “REFRESH” and the associated latency that it introduces in the problem management flow.

Change Management
Accelerating the change management process is another area where server virtualization can provide new capabilities. By using virtualization, businesses can create “virtual” test grids where environments can rapidly be provisioned, tests can occur, and results can be cloned back into an existing system.

Capacity Management
Businesses can improve capacity management by creating a “capacity grid“ that consists of virtual machines. These virtual machines can be rapidly added to environments during different workload needs. The same capacity grid can be leveraged to alleviate discrete performance issues while the issue is being diagnosed.

Deployment of Virtualization in On Demand
When applied to commodity servers, each type of virtualization has its own set of trade offs and benefits. Oracle is deploying what the industry defines as “hardware virtualization”. Oracle chose hardware virtualization because Oracle believes it is the most appropriate technology for the targeted infrastructure.

In the initial phase of the virtualization rollout, Oracle has opted to implement the virtualization layer solely in servers used for non-production workloads. Oracle has performed extensive tests to determine the impact of virtualization on specific service flows. Although it is possible to deploy many virtual machines on a single physical server, Oracle On Demand has defined configuration standards that specify that only a fixed number of virtual machines will be deployed on a single physical server.

Each virtual machine is configured with its own dedicated processor and memory footprint. This deployment model allows proper separation across virtual machines.

From a security standpoint, Oracle On Demand has implemented explicit network virtualization to provide a security level equivalent to physically separated environments. Oracle Corporate Security has certified the deployment model chosen by Oracle On Demand.

Summary
Oracle is providing this document to explain the key drivers around Oracle’s decision to deploy Oracle VM in the Oracle On Demand Managed Services Grid. It is Oracle’s goal to optimize Oracle infrastructure while delivering customer benefits. Oracle has taken many steps towards this goal, from testing to security validation.

Virtualization goes beyond optimizing infrastructure. Oracle views virtualization as a means to enhance Oracle On Demand services. And with the introduction of Oracle VM, Oracle is now the only software vendor to combine the benefits of server clustering and server virtualization technologies, delivering integrated clustering, virtualization, storage, and management for Grid Computing.

Oracle VM extends Oracle’s support for grid computing by providing the ability to virtualize within as well as across servers. Oracle’s grid computing-based solutions together with Oracle VM are capable of virtualizing all infrastructure resources, as a well as data and applications, providing a complete virtualization solution for the data center and creating a cost effective, efficient and agile IT environment.

Oracle VM: One complete software stack. One source for server virtualization and Linux. One call for support.

Next Steps
To find out more about how Oracle is implementing server virtualization, see the Server Virtualization FAQ or contact your On Demand Service Delivery Manager. To learn more about Oracle VM, visit http://www.oracle.com/virtualization.

Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE INCORPORATED INTO A CONTRACT OR AGREEMENT. The contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior written permission. Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.