Virtualization on Oracle Database Appliance (ODA)

Virtualization on Oracle Database Appliance (ODA)

 As you know, Early this year Oracle started supporting virtualization on Oracle Database Appliance which enhances the functionality of ODA. One of the main usage of this virtualization is to utilize ODA for Weblogic as well as database.

I had a chance to test various Weblogic offerings on ODA and I thought to share my findings with readers, hopefully it helps readers with planning and architecting the environment using ODA and virtualization. Basically, the two main versions which can be run on ODA V1 and ODA X3-2 and support virtualization are ODA Version 2.5 and ODA version 2.6. The following shows my findings on Weblogic install for each version:

ODA 2.5

• Oracle Weblogic template on ODA is available on e-delivery for Weblogic 10.3.6 and 12c
• Oracle Weblogic template includes Weblogic configurator which is a new tool (specific to ODA) to automate installation of Weblogic on ODA similar to what OAM does for database.
• Weblogic configurator only installs Weblogic in cluster mode, having non-cluster weblogic is not supported with the configurator.
• Weblogic configurator installs OTD (Oracle Traffic Director) and as of now, there is no way to skip it during installation. However after installation, it can be shutdown if it is not needed.
• Minimum installation with Weblogic configurator includes two Weblogic cluster nodes which installs 6VMs in total (1 VM for Weblogic admin,2 VMs (one per compute node) for Weblogic managed server, 1 VM for OTD admin, 2 VMs (one per compute node) for OTD)
• Weblogic configurator also creates a database for internal work on ODA_BASE.
• Weblogic configurator installs all components as root due to a bug.
• Since 6VMs are the possible minimum configuration and each VM should have at least 2VCPU, there will be total of 12VCPU (6Cores) for minimum installation 

ODA 2.6

• No Weblogic template on ODA is released for 2.6
• No Weblogic configurator for automation of Weblogic is released
• As of now, creation readhat Linux and installing Weblogic manually would be the only approach in this release

Bottom line: 

Although it is recommended to utilize automation on ODA to ensure ODA stays with Oracle standard template and to have less impact on future changes such as patching and upgrade, however Oracle Weblogic configurator looks not to be mature enough to be utilized. First of all, to use it, you end up to stay with 2.5 (not with the latest ODA release ) plus the configurator in 2.5 is buggy (installation of weblogic as root) and it has several shortcomings which are listed above as well as not much flexible. I recommend to wait (if you can) as Weblogic configurator should be out soon or use manual process for Weblogic with the risk that in long run, you may not be able to utilize patch bundle (if Oracle includes weblogic in ODA bundle) or any further automation which may be planned for Weblogic. Also consider that installation of OTD does add complexity to weblogic licensing on ODA.

At the end, I found FAQ pdf file on otn website helpful.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/weblogic-oda/overview/faq-weblogicserver-on-oda-1927929.pdf

 If you have any questions or you want to see more on this topic, please drop me a line.