# [OmniOS-discuss] oracle vm server in kvm enabled zone

pieter van puymbroeck pietervanpuymbroeck at hotmail.com
Thu Aug 11 23:15:25 UTC 2016

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    Agreed, we run the db software in zones for several customers, no problem there, but most have Linux, and that's where kvm/Ovm pops in.
    As well for the fancy point and click provisioning.

    Verstuurd vanaf mijn iPhone

    > Op 11 aug. 2016 om 22:50 heeft Jim Klimov <jimklimov at cos.ru> het volgende geschreven:
    >
    > 11 августа 2016 г. 12:36:35 CEST, pieter van puymbroeck <pietervanpuymbroeck at hotmail.com> пишет:
    >> Hi Jim,
    >>
    >>
    >> Basically it's a personal experiment. I'm an oracle dba and I test
    >> everything in my home-lab before talking to customers.  I'm very used
    >> to ovm. But I can't use that because I want to stick with one physical
    >> box, so the kvm enabled zones are exactly what I need.
    >>
    >>
    >> You're 100% right that everything I want to do it possible directly in
    >> kvm as well except one thing. A self service portal on which I can
    >> prepare my environments and that they get cleaned up automatically
    >> after the tests, that's the main drive to use ovm.
    >>
    >>
    >> I do like the solaris (well omnios) zones that much that I use them for
    >> the rest of my home network (web server, dns, mysql,... the usual
    >> stuff) but at this point I did not search good enough I think, but I'm
    >> looking for something that I can click in a webpage "I want such a vm,
    >> that os, that storage, that oracle version and a test db yes or no".
    >>
    >> You're right I can start scripting it by building a pxe server,
    >> preparing the images and build a bunch of ansible / puppet / bash
    >> scripts which kick off when needed, but it's a lot of work and I was
    >> thinking, I can build it easily with cloud control communicating to
    >> ovm, so why shouldn't it work.
    >>
    >> And to a certain height,it does work. The ovm servers are running
    >> wonderfully stable, except the kvm's don't allow nesting and that's
    >> what I need [��]
    >>
    >>
    >> If you have alternatives for such kind of selfservice portal (personal
    >> use, so must be quick and easy to configure!!!) I love to hear it, then
    >> the problem is solved as well.
    >>
    >> Best regards,
    >> Pieter
    >> ________________________________
    >> From: Jim Klimov <jimklimov at cos.ru>
    >> Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2016 8:57 AM
    >> To: pieter van puymbroeck; Jim Klimov
    >> Cc: Michael Rasmussen; omnios-discuss at lists.omniti.com
    >> Subject: Re: [OmniOS-discuss] oracle vm server in kvm enabled zone
    >>
    >> 10 августа 2016 г. 19:51:38 CEST, pieter van puymbroeck
    >> <pietervanpuymbroeck at hotmail.com> пишет:
    >>> Clear.
    >>> So I don't have to expect it soon.
    >>> Pity, because I love this Solaris fork and besides hobying (for work),
    >>> a use case might be to make abstraction of the underlying architecture
    >>> (Intel/amd/...).
    >>> But ok, I didn't make a mistake it's just not possible using omnios,
    >>> right?
    >>>
    >>>
    >>>
    >>>
    >>>
    >>>>> Op 10 aug. 2016 om 19:12 heeft Jim Klimov <jimklimov at cos.ru> het
    >>>> volgende geschreven:
    >>>>
    >>>> 10 августа 2016 г. 16:52:56 CEST, pieter van puymbroeck
    >>> <pietervanpuymbroeck at hotmail.com> пишет:
    >>>>> Isn't it supported in omnios?
    >>>>>
    >>>>> It is supported in different linux flavours, but I don't like to go
    >>> on
    >>>>> that way.
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> I read on the omniti website that kvm is one of the key-features,
    >> so
    >>>>> nesting was something which I'd expected to be there. Don't get me
    >>>>> wrong, the not nested kvm is working perfectly (and fast!).
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Is there an estimated timeline in which it should be supported or a
    >>>>> place to launch enhancement requests?
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> ________________________________
    >>>>> From: Michael Rasmussen <mir at miras.org>
    >>>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2016 2:48 PM
    >>>>> To: pieter van puymbroeck; omnios-discuss at lists.omniti.com
    >>>>> Subject: Re: [OmniOS-discuss] oracle vm server in kvm enabled zone
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Seem to remember nested kvm is not supported.
    >>>>>
    >>>>> On August 10, 2016 3:53:11 PM GMT+02:00, pieter van puymbroeck
    >>>>> <pietervanpuymbroeck at hotmail.com> wrote:
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Hello,
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Currently I'm building a new homelab based on omnios
    >>> (omnios-r151018)
    >>>>>
    >>>>> There a kvm enabled zone is created and inside the zone I have 3
    >>>>> kvm-guests running. These guests are running oracle vm (xen based).
    >>> All
    >>>>> is running fine except if I want to start a linux-testvm inside
    >>> oracle
    >>>>> vm, the system complains about:
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Error: HVM guest support is unavailable: is VT/AMD-V supported by
    >>> your
    >>>>> CPU and enabled in your BIOS?
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Inside the kvm enabled zone, kvm is enabled:
    >>>>>
    >>>>> root at ovm1:/root# ls -l /dev/kvm
    >>>>>
    >>>>> crw------- 1 root sys 125, 0 Aug 10 12:48 /dev/kvm
    >>>>>
    >>>>> root at ovm1:/root# modinfo |grep -i kvm
    >>>>>
    >>>>> 207 fffffffff840a000  3a030 125   1  kvm (kvm driver v0.1)
    >>>>>
    >>>>> root at ovm1:/root#
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> For sure I checked the processor itself from the global zone if it
    >>> is
    >>>>> supported:
    >>>>>
    >>>>> # isainfo -v
    >>>>>
    >>>>> 64-bit amd64 applications
    >>>>>
    >>>>> vmx pclmulqdq aes sse4.2 sse4.1 ssse3 popcnt tscp cx16 sse3 sse2
    >>>>>
    >>>>> sse fxsr mmx cmov amd_sysc cx8 tsc fpu
    >>>>>
    >>>>> 32-bit i386 applications
    >>>>>
    >>>>> vmx pclmulqdq aes sse4.2 sse4.1 ssse3 popcnt tscp ahf cx16 sse3
    >>>>>
    >>>>> sse2 sse fxsr mmx cmov sep cx8 tic fpu
    >>>>>
    >>>>> #
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> and to me it looks I have the required flags available.
    >>>>>
    >>>>> inside the lvm-guest the flags are indeed not given to the guest:
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> [root at ovm2 ~]# uname -s -r -i -p
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Linux 2.6.39-400.279.1.el5uek x86_64 x86_64
    >>>>>
    >>>>> [root at ovm2 ~]# cat /etc/oracle-release
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Oracle VM Server release 5.7
    >>>>>
    >>>>> [root at ovm2 ~]# grep flags /proc/cpuinfo
    >>>>>
    >>>>> flags : fpu de tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mca cmov pat clflush
    >> mmx
    >>>>> fxsr sse sse2 ss syscall nx lm constant_tsc up nopl pni ssse3 cx16
    >>>>> sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes hypervisor lahf_lm
    >>>>>
    >>>>> [root at ovm2 ~]#
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> it does not matter if I start the kvm guest using
    >>>>>
    >>>>> -cpu host \
    >>>>>
    >>>>> or using
    >>>>>
    >>>>> -cpu qemu64,+vmx,+aes,+sse4.2,+sse4.1,+ssse3 \  # --> this one is
    >>>>> faster
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> despite I have an intel cpu I use the -enable-nested flag as well,
    >>> but
    >>>>> it doesn't seem to make a difference.
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> How can I fix this?
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Thanks and best regards,
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Pieter
    >>>>>
    >>>>> ________________________________
    >>>>>
    >>>>> OmniOS-discuss mailing list
    >>>>> OmniOS-discuss at lists.omniti.com
    >>>>> http://lists.omniti.com/mailman/listinfo/omnios-discuss
    >> OmniOS-discuss Info Page - lists.omniti.com Mailing
    >> Lists<http://lists.omniti.com/mailman/listinfo/omnios-discuss>
    >> lists.omniti.com
    >> OmniOS is a minimalist, self-hosting, Illumos-based distribution aimed
    >> at server deployments. Release and update announcements are also made
    >> to this list.
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >>>>> OmniOS-discuss
    >>>>> Info Page - lists.omniti.com Mailing
    >>>>> Lists<http://lists.omniti.com/mailman/listinfo/omnios-discuss>
    >>>>> lists.omniti.com
    >>>>> OmniOS
    >>>>> is a minimalist, self-hosting, Illumos-based distribution aimed at
    >>>>> server deployments. Release and update announcements are also made
    >>> to
    >>>>> this list.
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> --
    >>>>> Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
    >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    >>>>>
    >>>>> _______________________________________________
    >>>>> OmniOS-discuss mailing list
    >>>>> OmniOS-discuss at lists.omniti.com
    >>>>> http://lists.omniti.com/mailman/listinfo/omnios-discuss
    >>>>
    >>>> AFAIK this is a common limitation with x86 HW hypervisors that only
    >>> the barebone system may grab and lock the CPU extensions that are the
    >>> HW hypervisor implementation. Guest OSes may only do unaccelerated
    >>> software emulation for their sub-guests.
    >>>>
    >>>> For example, to use VirtualBox on Windows (Servers) you must ensure
    >>> that HyperV is disabled and its drivers are not loaded at all.
    >>>>
    >>>> Jim
    >>>> --
    >>>> Typos courtesy of K-9 Mail on my Samsung Android
    >>
    >> Hi Pieter,
    >>
    >> Is there a particular reason for you to stack hypervisors? Why run
    >> guests under OVM under KVM, and not guests in KVM directly? (Or if
    >> compatibility of this KVM port is insufficient for your usecase,
    >> perhaps try VirtualBox instead)?
    >>
    >> As for "others" - this is the first time I hear of having accelerated
    >> second-layer hypervisors, so the rest is my educated guesswork and pure
    >> speculation. Granted, I do not have much experience with KVM nor Linux
    >> hypervisors lately... so my guess would be that certain code
    >> intentionally plays well together (e.g. top-level KVM providing or
    >> wrapping access to CPU VT-* extensions to guest KVMs), but this is not
    >> likely a universal solution that lets everyone play with anyone (KVM,
    >> HyperV, VirtualBox, VMWare, ...), that Linux or everyone else has and
    >> only Solaris/illumos lacks. Or maybe a lot happened in upstream since
    >> the port was done ;)
    >>
    >> Jim
    >> --
    >> Typos courtesy of K-9 Mail on my Samsung Android
    >
    > You can run Oracle DB for Solaris in zones ;) For the installer you can set up X11 (+vnc on server, or direct for workstation) and use `xhosts` to propagate the session into local zones.
    >
    > For tests and shows you can pre-install a zone with maybe an empty database, shut it down, and then clone and tear down for practical short-lived purposes. Being zfs clones, this would involve minimal overhead on storage side.
    >
    > Likewise, you can clone golden datasets with virtualbox vm's and rewrite virtual disk id's (documented) and machine manifests to attach a new/cloned vm to such cloned disk. Likely similar approach is doable with KVM. But this is a bit of scriptable or manual work...
    >
    > But sorry, no point-and-click magic that I'd know of...
    >
    > Jim
    > --
    > Typos courtesy of K-9 Mail on my Samsung Android

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