Oracle VM: Oracle VM and External Storage Systems (Doc ID 558041.1)

Last updated on FEBRUARY 09, 2024

Applies to:

Oracle VM - Version 2.1 to 2.2 [Release OVM21 to OVM22]
Linux x86

Details

This document presents an collection of external storage system related information to be used with Oracle VM configurations. For information on Oracle VM please see http://www.oracle.com/virtualization.

Note that the list provided might be incomplete or not up to date. Please refer to provided links for detailed information.

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HP storage array systems

For certified and supported HP storage array systems with Oracle VM, please refer to certification and support matrix.

Emulex

Emulex LightPulse Fibre Channel HBAs are fully supported with Oracle's new virtualization software, Oracle VM. See related press release.

NetApp

Unlike other virtualization solutions, Oracle VM uses native Linux device drivers so you never have to wait
for the latest hardware to be supported by your virtualization solution. See related technical brief.

QLogic

QLogic's industry leading SANblade Fibre Channel HBA solutions, powered by hardware-assisted virtualization technologies, ship with Oracle VM and provide optimized performance and scalability as expected by enterprise customers,

A series of QLogic drivers are part of the mainstream Linux kernel and thus fully supported for Oracle VM. See also the related open source project page.

For Qlogic 2460 see <Document 757012.1>

NFS

NFS is supported as described in "Oracle� VM Server User's Guide". See Oracle VM documentation via Virtualization Technology Center

OCFS2

OCFS2 is supported as described in "Oracle� VM Server User's Guide". See Oracle VM documentation via Virtualization Technology Center

Pillar Data Systems

The Pillar AxiomTM is a storage solution for such a low-cost virtualized Oracle environment. Pillar mirrors the benefits of server virtualization by offering SAN/NAS, iSCSI/Fibre channel access, and SATA drives/Fibre channel drives within the same enclosure. See also http://www.pillardata.com/

Device Mapper Multipathing

Linux device-mapper multipathing is available and fully supported for Oracle VM servers. See Oracle VM wiki page for details.

iSCSI

iSCSI is fully supported via Oracle VM bundled packages as described in "Oracle� VM Server User's Guide". See Oracle VM documentation via Virtualization Technology Center

IBM SDD

To check for the latest information:

Go to http://www.ibm.com/systems/support/storage/software/sdd/
Click "Support Matrix for Subsystem Device Driver"
Check sections:

Support Matrix for Linux SDD
Support Matrix for Linux DM-Multipath

@OracleVM uses the same multipathing codes as RHEL, so SDD is fine with OracleVM

DM-MPIO

OracleVM includes the DM-MPIO (device mapper multipath I/O) technology which has been developed closely with outstanding storage vendors. DM-MPIO provides some features as below:

User and kernel space tools for management and support
More flexibility when upgrading kernels as it has been accepted upstream in the Linux kernel development team (OracleVM has a Linux kernel)
Multipathing support available during installation of OracleVM
Hardware vendors are starting to recommend/support dm-mpio in certain storage configurations

Oracle Validated Configurations

There are various configurations which had been validated by Oracle / partners and customers are listed dynamically at Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN). For specific external storage (HP, EMC, NEC, Sun, Compellent, Dell, NetApp, Inspur, Pillar and more) configurations with Oracle VM please:

Browse to http://linux.oracle.com/validated-configurations
Enter "Oracle VM" in the search box
Click "Go"
See also the Oracle Technology Network Validated Configurations page

Recommendations / Tips

Prefer DM-MPIO (device-mapper-multipath) features available in Oracle VM (v.s. other frameworks) because it is basically hardware agnostic to a broad extent.
Verify LUNs via 'cat /proc/partitions' and 'dmesg'
Use drivers integrated with Linux Xen kernel where possible. i.e. Not third-party drivers
Present all LUNs directly from SAN (FC, iSCSI etc.) to dom0 (host) then export/publish to guests (Virtual Machines) via vm.cfg files.
OCFS2 bundled with Oracle VM 2.1 (i.e. OCFS2 1.2) does not currently support online filesystem resize so rather than extending current LUN at SAN storage array, present new LUN to dom0 and configure as new repository via /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-makerepo (Note: Oracle VM 2.2 uses OCFS2 1.4 therefore online filesystem resize is supported)
If ext3 or ocfs2 v1.4 (e.g. with Oracle VM 2.2) is used for /OVS then filesystem can be resized online so current LUN can be extended at SAN storage array, then subsequently extended in LVM and ext3/ocfs2
Use OCFS2, GFS, etc for shared filesystem across Oracle VM Server nodes rather than NFS