Configure KVM Hypervisor with OLVM (Oracle Linux Virtual Manager) - Part 2/5

 

                                  

Intro

acronym:

OLVM - Oracle Linux Virtual Manager

KVM   - Kernel-based Virtual Machine

OVM   - Oracle Virtual Manager

ODA    - Oracle Data Appliance 

OLVM (Oracle Linux Virtual Manager) elevated the KVM (kernel-based virtual Machine)  management processes and reduced administration overhead.  As Oracle is moving out of OVM (Oracle Virtual Manager), customers who are using OVM as their virtualized platform need to plan the OLVM journey. Many small-medium scale businesses are still using virtualized ODA and hosted the VMS on top of ODA.  

I think now is the right time to move out of OVM to Oracle KVM.  KVM hypervisors are much more stable than OVM. Oracle's future plans are combined with open-source virtualization. Also, there are many more features than the OVM. The below-mentioned table demonstrates the enhancements OLVM has over the old OVM platform.

Virtualization technology still has a high demand for managing on-prem databases on top of Oracle KVM.   Also, I have listed down some of the key features of OLVM.

Key features of OLVM

• Live VM migration between hosts
• Oracle Enterprise Manager Integration (OEM)
• CPU Pinning Capabilities
• VM High Availability
• Virtual Appliances & Templates (ovf/ova support)
• Snapshotting of existing VMs. This is an additional feature from OVM
• Role-based User access
• Web-based User Interface (UI)
• Representation State Transfer (REST)
• Application Programming Interface (API)

Integrate KVM with OLVM

In this article, I will cover how to add pre-existing KVM hypervisor to the OLVM engine. I have shared the oracle note explaining how to prepare the KVM.

https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualization/oracle-linux-virtualization-manager/getstart/getstarted-manager-install.html#manager-prep-kvm

OL8 server needs to enable the ol8 repo to integrate KVM with OLVM.  Make sure you can have internet access on these hosts to access the repo. Once you configure the KVM then can remove the internet connection from KVM hypervisors.

OLVM (Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager) - Change hostname

 

Intro

OLVM (Oracle Linux Virtual Manager) is the single point of GUI (web console) that enables system engineers to manage multiple KVMs, Vms, Storage domains and etc ... .  Also note that Oracle Linux KVM is the same hypervisor used in the Oracle Cloud. To get more insight about OCI cloud infrastructure virtualization I shared the below mention pdf to get more understanding about the KVM used in Oracle Cloud: https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/olvm-datasheet-nov2019.pdf .  Oracle OVM era is over, an alternative to OVM is KVM, offered under Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager (OLVM).

I have shared the oracle documentation link which has all the details related to virtualization.

Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager - Books

Also, Oracle KVM and OLVM come up with many benefits. A few advantages are mentioned below.

• Complete server virtualization and management solution with zero license cost.

• Single software distribution for Oracle Linux OS or Oracle Linux KVM.

• Speeds application deployment with Oracle Virtual Appliances.

• Hard Partitioning support enables efficient Oracle application software licensing.

• Full Stack Management with Oracle Enterprise Manager.

• Path to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure with a common hypervisor

In this article, I will cover how to change the hostname of the OLVM server. This may be required if you need to move OLVM to a different data center with new hostname.