Oracle VM 2.1.5 Server, Final Analysis
The Oracle VM concept is brilliant all together, and if Oracle should continue on improvements with their pursuit of the VM market, it quite possibly could close the gap on Oracle’s competitors. However… In this exercise, our goal was to virtualize some 20+ legacy Windows servers where the applications are completely dependant on Windows 2000 and Oracle8i. Apart from the vague and scarce troubleshooting information available (Metalink was of no help unfortunately), we were able to successfully (but painfully I might add) build a clustered Oracle VM environment with HP’s new SANs technology. The Oracle VM 2.1.2 and 2.1.5 product still lacks maturity, and given the ISO enforcement of Oracle’s VM design to build a custom environment (templates would not do because of the above mention dependency), it becomes very problematic, and unrealistic. The VM lab that we did in fact create was that of Windows 2003 EE and Oracle10g EE. It was indeed very slow, as Oracle has indicated to be a significant concern. However, the article that Oracle originally posted regarding Windows guest performance has been changed since our feedback to Oracle (now dated July 2009), and now reads "Oracle VM offers paravirtualized (PV) Windows drivers that substantially improve the performance of Windows on Oracle VM." We were unable to locate such drivers. All said, we are obviously concerned about overall support. With the vague information provided by Oracle, they seem to have made it clear that current VM support is somewhat ‘best effort’. In this exercise, we would potentially need support with Windows 2000 and Oracle8i, both of which are not listed on their certification list. Additionally, and if memory serves correctly, recall reading in the VM maintenance contract that Oracle reserves the right to de-support any module at any time. If that is true, Oracle VM then quite simply would not be for the risk averse. Perhaps with Oracle’s acquisition of Sun and VirtualIron, the product, and it’s support, will mature.