Overview
VCA
provides flexible networking to maximize application performance while minimize
external resource consumption. The following picture depict a typical modern
multi-tier web application. VCA enable application to utilize the 40GbE
infinite-band networking for communication between and within tier while only
consume 2 externally accessible IPv4 address on the public network. This
increase security by hiding the internal communication from other application.
It also enable you to scale your application better, for example, you can
increase the number of application server on demand (horizontal scaling or
scaling out) or increase the resource (CPUs and/or memory) for the database
tier (vertical scaling or scaling up). Furthermore, you can increase your
scale-ability, security by adding a load balancer and firewall on top of the
web tier. You can also add a VPN to enable enterprise to extend their
application from private cloud hosting by VCA to public cloud or to another
site running VCA for DR (Disaster Recovery), as illustrated by the picture
below:
One of the unique features of VCA is reference cloning or copy-on-write storage
technology. This allows cloning VM with no overhead of storage and almost
instantaneously. When a VM is clone, VCA simply reference the new VM to the old
VM without copying. This allow customer to clone the same VM without
duplication so 100 clones of the same VM will consume very little extra storage
as they share the same storage space as the original one.
The reference cloning and build in 40GbE infinite-band internal
networking (vm_private), allows you to clone the full topology in an instance
and at little cost. For example, you can clone the above topology from
development say running on VLAN 101 in (vm_private) to VLAN 102 while keeping
the same hostname and IP addresses, see the “Clone the entire application stack
using reference cloning” for details on how.
This is
applicable whether you are providing service to multiple customer or to
multiple department within a company, say development and test departments.
Here is how you can deploy an PeopleSoft FSCM for HR say for development, then
clone the entire stack (database, app, and web tier) for testing. The first
thing you do is to configure the networks using the private infinibank
(vm_private) VLANs. They using the template to deploy the first instance of
PeopleSoft, then clone it for testing as follow:
Configuring Network Resources for
Virtual Machines
PeopleSoft FSCM
Clone the entire application stack
using reference cloning
Configuring Network
Resources for Virtual Machines
Overview
The Oracle Virtual Compute Appliance relies on a combination of Ethernet
connectivity and an InfiniBand network fabric. The appliance rack contains
redundant network hardware components, which are pre-cabled and configured at
the factory to help ensure continuity of service in case a failure should
occur.
The Networking
tab is used to manage networks within the Oracle VM environment running on the
Oracle Virtual Compute Appliance. By default, the following networks are
already defined and must not be altered:
· 192.168.140.0
: the management network
This is a private network used exclusively for
Oracle VM management traffic. Both management nodes and all compute nodes are
connected to this network through their bond0 interface.
· 192.168.40.0
: the storage network
This is a private IPoIB network used exclusively
for traffic to and from the Sun ZFS Storage Appliance 7320. Both management
nodes and both storage controllers are connected to this network through their bond1 interface.
Additionally, three networks are listed with the VM Network role:
· vm_public_vlan
This default network is the standard choice for
virtual machines requiring external network connectivity. It uses VLAN 1 from
the VLAN Group named vm_public_vlan_vgrp.
To use the VLANs of your choice configure them as follows:
1. Add the tags or IDs to the VLAN Group vm_public_vlan_vgrp.
The process for editing VLAN Groups is described
in the Oracle VM User's Guide in the section entitled Editing a VLAN Group.
2. Create a new VLAN-only network with the VM role for each VLAN tag you added to the
VLAN Group. Each new network should be configured like the vm_public_vlan network,
but with a different VLAN segment.
The process for creating VLAN-only networks is
described in the Oracle VM User's Guide in the section entitled Creating a Network.
3. Configure your data center network accordingly.
For details, see Section 5.3,
“Configuring Data Center Switches for VLAN Traffic”.
· vm_private
This default network is intended for virtual
machines requiring network connectivity to other virtual machines hosted on the
appliance, but not
external to the appliance. It uses VLAN 1 from the VLAN Group named vm_private_vgrp. To use
the VLANs of your choice configure them as follows:
1. Add the tags or IDs to the VLAN Group vm_private_vgrp.
The process for editing VLAN Groups is described
in the Oracle VM User's Guide in the section entitled Editing a VLAN Group.
2. Create a new VLAN-only network with the VM role for each VLAN tag you added to the
VLAN Group. Each new network should be configured like the vm_private network, but
with a different VLAN segment.
The process for creating VLAN-only networks is
described in the Oracle VM User's Guide in the section entitled Creating a Network.
· mgmt_public_eth
This network is automatically created during the
initial configuration of the appliance. It uses the public network that you
configured in the Oracle Virtual Compute Appliance Dashboard. The primary
function of this network is to provide access to the management nodes from the
data center network, and enable the management nodes to run a number of system
services. Since all compute nodes are also connected to this network, it may
also be used to provide external network access to virtual machines when no VLANs
are required. The subnet associated with this network is the same as your data
center network.
For more information about Oracle Virtual Compute Appliance network
configuration, see Section 1.2.4, “Network
Infrastructure”.
Caution
Do not create a new network in Oracle VM using the eth0 network ports of
the servers in the server pool. Those ports are assigned an IP address by the
DHCP server on the internal appliance management network (192.168.4.0). If
virtual machines are connected to this network, they are likely to cause IP
conflicts and security issues.
Do not edit or delete any of the networks listed here. Doing so may cause
your appliance to malfunction. In an Oracle Virtual Compute Appliance context,
use the Networking tab to configure and manage Virtual NICs and VLANs for use
by your virtual machines.
The creation and management of Virtual NICs is important for the
facilitation of networking within your virtual machines. Use the Virtual NICs subtab to
create batches of Virtual NICs that virtual machines are able to use. The
process for creating Virtual NICs is described in the Oracle VM User's Guide in
the section entitled Managing VNICs.
In this practice, you manage a network with VLAN support.
First, you create a VLAN Group, and then use one of the VLAN segments in this
VLAN Group to create the network.
With the VLAN support in Oracle VM, you can direct traffic
from several VLAN segments onto a single port or bond on your Oracle VM servers.
· Creating a VLAN Group: A VLAN Group contains a single port or
bond from each Oracle VM server participating in the VLAN Group. You then
specify which VLAN traffic can use this VLAN Group, by adding VLAN IDs to the
VLAN Group. VLAN IDs range from 2 through 4094, with VLAN ID 1 representing an
untagged VLAN segment.
· Creating a network supporting VLAN traffic: After creating your
VLAN Group, you can use it to create a network with VLAN support. Simply
specify a VLAN segment from a VLAN Group when creating the network.
Tasks
1. Create VLAN network for private communication between VMs.
a. Start the Oracle VM Manager UI.
b. Access the Networking tab.
c. Click the VLAN Groups link.
The VLAN Groups pane appears. There are two VLAN groups comes
with VCA, namely vm_private_vgrp for communication between VMs and vm_public_vlan_vgrp
for communication to the public/data center.
d. Select vm_private_vgrp, Click the Edit VLAN Group icon.
e. On the first screen of the wizard, Select Next
f. On the Select Servers screen, make sure all servers are on the right
pane Selected Servers(s):
Click Next to continue.
g. On the Select Ports screen, the right port has been configured properly,
so just take the default:
Click Next to continue.
h. On the Create Segments screen, select the VLAN segments for this VLAN
Group.
- Select the “VLAN ID Range (2-4094)” option button: This action
permits you to enter one VLAN ID, or a range of VLAN IDs for the new VLAN
Group.
- Click the arrow at the top of the first field, which is the
increment button in the VLAN ID field, to select VLAN ID 4:
- Click Add (the single right-arrow button) to add your selection
to the list of VLAN Segments.
- Repeat for VLAN ID 137,
by entering 137 in the VLAN ID
field. Tab to the next field, and 137 appear in that second field.
- Click the Add button to add this second selection to the list of
VLAN Segments.
When you select VLAN ID 4 and 137, your window looks like the
following screenshot:
- Click Next to continue.
i. On the Configure IP Addresses screen, assign IP addresses as needed.
The Ports tab shows information about the port selected for each
Oracle VM server participating in the VLAN Group.
Note: Generally, the ports selected for the VLAN Groups
do not need to be addressable.
- Click the “VLAN Interfaces” tab to display the VLAN Interfaces
information.
On this screen, configure IP information if you want the VLAN
Interfaces to acquire an IP address when they are created.
If your future network is used for virtual machine traffic, you
do not need to assign an IP address for the VLAN interfaces for that network.
Note: A VLAN Group is an Oracle VM Manager construct,
which appears in the UI and can be listed with the CLI, and the VLAN Group
information is stored in the Oracle VM Manager database. There is no VLAN Group
in the Oracle VM servers. However, the creation of a VLAN Group triggers the
creation of VLAN interfaces, which are network devices visible on the Oracle VM
servers.
A job is triggered when you click the Finish button.
j. When the job completes, examine the information in the VLAN Groups pane on
the Networking tab:
k. Repeat step a to j to create multiple continuous VLANs in one pass by
giving the range on the “add additional VLAN segment screen”, say 100 to 105.
Here is the screens:
2. Display the new port information for the Oracle VM servers.
a. Click the Servers and VMs tab and expand the Server Pools, the
Rack1_ServerPool folder in the navigation pane.
b. In the navigation pane, select ovcacn11r1
and in the management pane, select Bond Ports from the Perspective
drop-down list.
c. Select bond3 in the management
pane. Then, use the scrollbar to view the VLAN Group information, as shown in
the following screenshot:
The information displayed under the VLAN Group and VLAN ID(s)
headings is for port bond3 of ovcacn11r1.
In a following step you create a new network using VLAN Segment 4.
3. Create a network with VLAN segment 4, specified earlier in the vm_private_vgrp VLAN Group.
a. From the Oracle VM Manager’s UI, navigate to the Networking tab.
b. Click the Networks link, located in the top-left corner of the
Networking pane.
c. Click the Create New Network icon to launch the wizard.
d. In the Create Network window, select “Create a network with VLANs only.”
Click Next to continue.
e. In the Create Network window, provide a name and a Network Channel for
this new network.
Use the values listed in the following table:
Field
Value
Network Name
PrivNet
Network Channel
Select the Virtual Machine check box.
The window looks like the following screenshot:
Click Next to continue.
f. In the Select VLAN Segment window, you select a VLAN segment from an
existing VLAN Group.
- First, select the VLAN Group, vm_private_vgrp,
from the VLAN Group drop-down list.
- Next, select network.VLANSegment(4)in
vm_private_vgrp from the VLAN Segment
drop-down list, as shown in the following screenshot:
- Click Next to continue.
g. In the Configure IP Addresses window, accept the default, as you entered
when creating the vm_private_vgrp
VLAN Group.
Click Finish to trigger the creation of the PrivNet network.
Repeat the above step to create ASMNet network using VLAN
Segment 137.
Your new networks appear now in the list of networks on the
Networking tab, you may need to scroll down to the bottom:
Repeat the step 5 times to create PrivNet1 to PrivNet5 with VLAN
segment 101 to 105. Here is the screens:
PeopleSoft FSCM
Overview
PeopleSoft FSCM comes with two tiers. The application and
web tiers are combined inton one VM. Here is what you do:
a. PeopleSoft FSCM Database Instance
b. PeopleSoft Application Instance including WebLogic server
c. Browser Client
d. Clone the entire environment for testing with the same host name and IP
addresses using a different VLAN/network (PrivtNet1).
You clone the VMs and start them one layer at a time.
Steps:
1. Create the PeopleSoft VMs, Servers and VMs tab -> Create VM button
2. Select FSCMDB912.tgz template, enter fscmdb as the VM name, select
Finish
3. Repeat step 1 and 2, select FSCMTOOLS85203.tgz and fscmtool as VM Name.
4. Ensure the DNS server is running on node ovcacn40r1, if not, start it.
5. Start the Application from bottom up, i.e. start the DB first.
6. Enter n for DHCP, IP: 192.168.0.200, Default gateway IP: 192.168.0.1,
DNS Server IP: 192.168.0.2, Hostname: fscmdb.OVCA.com
7. Press Enter to accept default n to relink binaries, HTTP port, db
listener port, enter welcome1 for DB admin passwords, y to start oracle DB on
boot. Note: it will takes about 20 minutes to start CSS after you hit enter so
be patient.
8. Press enter to continue when prompted and Enter TESTDB for SID. Note:
you must enter TESTDB even it show that it is the default.
9. Login as oracle/oracle and check to make sure the DB listener is running
before continuing to the next step, it may take some time.
10. Start fscmtool VM, enter IP address: 192.168.0.201, accept default
netmask of 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.0.1, DNS server: 192.168.0.2.
11. Before continue the setup of fscmtool, you need to make sure that
fscmtool can communicate with fscmdb on FQDN, select fscmdb console, then try
to ping fscmtool.VCA.com and nslookup fscmtool.VCA.com. If nslookup fail, it
means that your DNS server ns1 may not be running or working. If your ping
fail, fscmdb, fscmtool, and/or ns1 may not be on the same network, etc.
12. Make sure all base infrastructure, networking, and all info is correct,
enter y to confirm
13. Enter y for Demo Purposes, n for Decoupled Application Home, y to start
PeopleSoft Application Server, TESTDB for name of the database, fscmdb.ovca.com
for hostname for database server, enter to accept port 1521, VP1 for both user
name and password for DB server, y to accept to confirm everything enter is
good.
14. Enter y again to perform additional setup.
15. Enter y to accept license agreement
16. Accept the default of fscmtool.ovca.com:9000 connection string and y to
confirm.
17. Enter y again to perform additional setup, it may be safe to enter n to
save time.
18. Login as root to check the application is listening to port 8000, it may
take some time so do about of netstat –na|grep 8000.
19. Start the browser client, select demoGUI VM, start, edit the
/etc/resolv.conf to override the DHCP setting with domain ovca.com, search ovca.com,
nameserver 192.168.0.2.
20. Start firefox browser and enter URL http://fscmtool.ovca.com:8000/ps/signon.html.
21. It will take a while to start up Java the first time, enter VP1/VP1 for
user ID/password.
22. You will see the following screen and feel free to explore PeopleSoft.
Clone the entire application stack using reference cloning
This exercise show you how to use the reference cloning
feature along with the vm_private (40GB IB) that comes with VCA to allow you to
clone say from a development peopleSoft instance to a test peopleSoft instance
with minimum overhead and work.
NOTE: we do the live clone for exercise to save time and
highlight the power of the reference cloning. We recommend the customer to
properly power down the VM before cloning to ensure that the VM is in a
well-known state to avoid data corruption or lost.
1. Clone
fscmdb by select fscmdb -> clone or Mvoe Virtual Machine …
2. Enter
fscmdbTest
3. Repeat
the above steps to clone fscmtoolTest, ns1Test, and demoGUITest, as you can see
they can be clone relatively fast/effortlessly
4. Change
new clone’s network to use say PrivNet1 instead of the original one which is
using vm_public by selecting the VM the edit (pencil icon) as illustrated with
blue highlight in the following picture.
5. Select
privNet1 on network dropdown.
6. Repeat
the above step 4 and 5 for all the new clones, i.e. ns1Test, demoGUItest,
fscmdbTest, and fscmtoolTest
7. Start
ns1Test, then fscmdbTest
8. As
you can see the VM need to recover from file system and data base because we
did not shutdown the database and OS properly before cloning. Also, it will
take a while to do this on the simulator, please note the time on the screen
right bottom. Again on a real VCA it will run much faster.
9. Once
the OS is up and running, login as oracle/oracle, then the following commands:
cd scripts/, . ./env.sh, and ./startSID.sh TESTDB
10. Start the listener
with command lsnrctl start
11. Start fscmtoolTest VM,
login as root, you may want to customize the login page to signify that this is
a test environment.
· vi `find ~ -name signin.html`
· search for traceLink, /traceLink
· Insert text in from of the traceLink class, e.g. <P class="psloginerror">THIS
IS A TEST ENVIRONMENT</P><p class="pslogintext">
<%=traceLink%> </p>
· See http://peoplesofttutorial.com/how-to-add-custom-message-in-peoplesoft-login-page/
and https://community.oracle.com/thread/2564149
for more details on PeopleSoft customization
12. Become psadm2, su –
psadm2, psadmin, enter 1 for “Application Server”, then 1 for “Administer a
domain”
13. Enter 1 to select
APPDOM from the Domian list
14. Enter 1 to Boot the
domain, this process will take a while, please note the time on the screen at
the right bottom
15. Enter q, then q to
return to the main menu:
16. Enter 4 to start web
PIA, 1 to Administer a domain, 1 to select peoplesoft, then 1 to boot the
domain.
17. While clone peopleSoft
is being started, you may want to make some change to the original environment
so that you can tell them apart. For example, add a Favorites to you home
screen, start or go to the original demoGUI VM console, click on Main Menu
-> Employee Self-Service -> Travel and Expenses -> Travel Services
-> My Reservation
18. Click Favorites (near
top left), then Add to Favorites
19. Select OK button with
default Description of “My Reservations”
20. Select OK again
21. Start the new
demoGUItest VM and connect to the console, then start firefox
22. Enter URL
http://fscmtool.ovca.com:8000/ps/signon.html , and login as VP1/VP1. Note the
login screen shows the waring “THIS IS A TEST
ENVIRONMENT” below the “Sign In” button in red.
23. If you got Internal
error, you may need to start the App Server again by repeating steps 11 to 13,
repeat the above step to login
24. Once login, select
Favorites, you can see the new demoGUItest does not have the “My Reservations”
as Favorites.