This section describes the new features and enhancements introduced in release 2.0.6 of the Exalogic Elastic Cloud Software (EECS).
Besides enhanced reliability, robustness, performance, and usability, EECS 2.0.6 includes the following features and enhancements:
When you upgrade to (or install) EECS 2.0.6, OVAB Deployer 11.1.1.6.2 is installed in the Exalogic Control VM. You can use OVAB Deployer to deploy instances of OVAB-generated assemblies in the Exalogic vDC.
For more information, see the "Deploying Assemblies in the Exalogic vDC Using OVAB Deployer" chapter in the Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud Administrator's Guide.
An Exalogic machine in a physical configuration—that is, all the compute nodes running Linux—can be converted to a hybrid configuration, where one half of the compute nodes run Oracle VM Server and serve as a virtualized data center, while the other nodes remain on Linux. While installing and configuring the Exalogic Elastic Cloud Software, you can choose the rack half (top or bottom) that should be virtual.
In addition, a hybrid machine can be converted to a full-virtual configuration.
The following hybrid configurations are supported:
Eighth: Top 2 or bottom 2 compute nodes
Quarter: Top 4 or bottom 4 nodes
Half: Top 8 or bottom 8 nodes
Full: Top 14 or bottom 16 nodes
Note:
"Bottom" in this context refers to the compute nodes starting from node 1. For example, in the case of a quarter rack, nodes 1 through 4 make up the bottom half, and nodes 5 through 8 the top half.
Conversion from a physical configuration to a hybrid configuration and from hybrid to full virtual configuration, requires reimaging compute nodes from Oracle Linux to Oracle VM Server. Oracle recommends strongly that any such conversion be performed by fully trained, qualified Oracle personnel or by formally accredited Oracle partners. For more information, contact Oracle Advanced Customer Support (http://www.oracle.com/acs).
The number of VMs that make up the Exalogic Control stack has been reduced from five in EECS 2.0.4 to three in 2.0.6.
The Exalogic Control stack in EECS 2.0.6 consists of the following VMs:
Two Proxy Controller VMs
Exalogic Control VM: This VM hosts the Enterprise Controller, Oracle VM Manager, and Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder components. The same VM also hosts the Oracle database used by EM Ops Center and Oracle VM Manager. In earlier releases, each of these components was hosted on a dedicated VM.
Note that, in EECS 2.0.6, the Exalogic Control VMs are distributed over fewer compute nodes: two nodes in the case of a fresh EECS 2.0.6 installation, and three nodes if you upgrade from EECS 2.0.4 to 2.0.6.
The local disks on guest vServers that you create by using the EECS 2.0.6 Guest Base Template use Logical Volume Manager (LVM)-based partitioning, which gives the administrator more flexibility in allocating disk space to applications and users.
The appendix titled "Managing LVM Partitions on Guest vServers" in the Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud Administrator's Guide provides a few examples for LVM-based partition management.
For more information about using LVM, go to http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_lvm.
EECS 2.0.6 includes version 1.1 of Oracle Exabus/IMB, which provides improved performance and stability for Java message passing in Oracle Fusion Middleware running on Exalogic. In addition, version 1.1 addresses bugs in the earlier version. EECS 2.0.6 also includes version 1.1.6 of Oracle Java loader for Exalogic.
While creating an EoIB network, you can specify DNS settings that should be used to access guest vServers (associated with that network) from outside the Exalogic machine by using host names.
For more information, see the "Creating External EoIB Networks" section in the Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud Administrator's Guide.
A collection of shell scripts (called OSWatcher) is included in the Exalogic Guest Base Template and the Exalogic Base Image. OSWatcher collects and archives operating system and network metrics at fixed intervals, by running UNIX utilities such as vmstat and netstat. This data can be useful in diagnosing performance issues.
By default, OSWatcher is installed, configured, and running on all the Oracle VM Server nodes on an Exalogic machine and on all guest vServers created using the EECS 2.0.6 Guest Base Template. The utilities that OSWatcher invokes run as background processes and impose minimal incremental overhead on the system. By default, OSWatcher invokes the data-collection utilities once every 30 seconds. It archives the data for the last 48 hours on the local disk in the /opt/oswbb directory. You can configure the data-collection interval, the archive-retention period, and the archive location. You can also disable OSWatcher.
For more information about configuring, disabling, and enabling OSWatcher, see the OS Watcher Black Box User's Guide in the My Oracle Support document 1531223.1.
imagehistory and imageinfo Commands Included in the Base TemplateThe Exalogic Guest Base Template in EECS 2.0.6 includes the following commands:
imageinfo: You can use this command to identify the image and build version of a guest vServer, as shown in the following example:
# imageinfo
Exalogic 2.0.6.0.0 (build:r227074)
Image version : 2.0.6.0.0
Image build version : 227074
Kernel version : 2.6.32-400.26.3.el5uek
imagehistory: You can use this command to view the lifecycle history of a guest vServer, as shown in the following example:
# imagehistory
Image version : 2.0.6.0.0
Image build version : 227074
Image mode : fresh
Note that in the case of a vServer for which the template was patched or upgraded, Image mode will show update and the kernel version will be displayed for all the image versions. In addition, for every upgrade and patch applied, the date and time when the image was activated and the status will be displayed, as shown in the following example:
# imagehistory
Image version : 2.0.4.0.0
Image build version : 221802
Kernel version : 2.6.32-200.21.2.el5uek
Image version : 2.0.6.0.0
Image build version : 227074
Kernel version : 2.6.32-400.26.3.el5uek
Image activated : 2013-08-28 22:52:45 +0300
Image mode : update
Image status : SUCCESS
The Exalogic Guest Base Template in EECS 2.0.6 contains a Linux server installation, as opposed to a Linux desktop installation in earlier releases. With this change, you can run Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Database, and Oracle applications on guest vServers without installing additional modules that are necessary for Linux servers.
Cloud Admin users can get a consolidated view of the resources—vCPUs, storage, and memory—allocated to each account through the Accounts table in the Exalogic Control browser user interface.
For more information, see the "Examining the vDC" section in the Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud Administrator's Guide.