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Oracle VM 3.2 Now Manages SPARC Domains
Latest upgrade also adds MySQL Enterprise as a database repository option, plus a slew of new features and improvements.
Oracle recently upgraded its server virtualization software, Oracle VM with a slew of enhancements. The company specifically highlights the management of the company's SPARC servers and its x86-based servers running the VM in version 3.2. Both systems can now be managed under the same instance of Oracle VM Manager.
Version 3.2 also includes and embeds MySQL Enterprise Edition, which can now be used as the VM Manager repository when deploying in production environments. Oracle Database Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition were already supported.
A highly anticipated addition to this release is the new Command Line Interface (CLI) option, which will come as a relief to Oracle customers who felt trapped by the browser interface, says Adam Hawley, senior director of product management in Oracle's Linux and virtualization development group.
"People who have been deploying on a larger scale were really waiting to see this," Hawley told ADTmag. "This is one of those features that make it easier for customers to deploy and manage in ever larger environments. We had bits and pieces of this in 3.1, but we've polished it up, and now have the full capability. Everything you could do from the normal browser interface, you can now do from a CLI."
The list of new features in version 3.2 also includes automated backup for a MySQL management repository, the ability to tag objects for customized filtered views of VMs and servers, and at-a-glace "health status" reporting. Hawley expects this last feature to be particularly welcome in larger environments.
"It provides a kind of health home page," he said. "In these larger environments, you might be looking at a thousand VMs or more. You really need a visual summary of what's going on all in one place."
Oracle released version 3.0 of its virtualization management solution in August 2011 along with more than 90 VM Templates, which are pre-built, pre-installed, and pre-configured virtual machine images for Oracle applications, middleware, and databases. The release of version 3.2 was accompanied by the first set of templates specifically built for Oracle Exalogic.
Exalogic is an integrated hardware and software system that Oracle describes as "the world's first and only engineered system for cloud computing." It merges compute, networking, and storage hardware with virtualization, operating system, and management software to create a foundation for a cloud app infrastructure. It supports CICS, COBOL, Java SE, Java EE, standard Linux and Solaris applications, and most of the Oracle Fusion Middleware portfolio.
The templates are based on Oracle's expertise and best practices, Hawley explained. They contain ready-to-run applications that require no installation. The company released new Oracle VM Templates for the Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.3, Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.1, Oracle's PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.52 and Oracle's Siebel CRM 8.1.1.8 and 8.2.2.
"It's about building Oracle's applications on top of this tailored environment to provide performance, but also making it easy for you to get there through rapidly provisioning of these Oracle applications," Hawley explained.
Oracle VM 3.2 is free to current users and available for immediate download here.
About the Author
John K. Waters is the editor in chief of a number of Converge360.com sites, with a focus on high-end development, AI and future tech. He's been writing about cutting-edge technologies and culture of Silicon Valley for more than two decades, and he's written more than a dozen books. He also co-scripted the documentary film Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance, which aired on PBS. He can be reached at [email protected].