This chapter provides an overview of implementation planning activities and tasks, which are designed to ensure a VSM 6 system is properly configured, tested, and certified according to customer requirements.
The implementation planning process is designed to identify and schedule completion of configuration, performance tuning, and performance testing activities for a VSM 6 VTSS after it has been physically installed at a site.
A team comprised of key customer personnel (systems administrator, network administrator, data center manager, and system operator) and Oracle Professional Services personnel (technical support specialist, systems engineer, and customer service manager) works to complete these primary tasks:
Define a plan for integrating existing devices and systems with the VSM 6 system.
Define a plan to migrate data from other devices and systems to the VSM 6 system.
Define a plan to accommodate the physical layout and floor space requirements of the VSM 6 VTSS and other system devices.
Define a plan for configuring the VSM 6 system hardware (channel resources, physical disk, and so on), software (ExLM, HSC, MVS, NCS, VTCS), and virtual entities (VTDs, VTVs).
Define a plan for completing performance tuning, performance testing, and certification of VSM 6 system hardware and software in the data center environment.
Identify personnel training needs and scheduling appropriate knowledge-transfer training sessions.
Planning activities, tasks, and participants include:
Select implementation planning team members, and define roles and responsibilities.
Schedule and attend implementation planning meetings.
Determine task completion priorities and scheduling.
Define plan for integrating other devices and systems with the VSM 6 system.
Define plan for migrating data from other devices and systems to the VSM 6.
Determine default settings for the VSM 6 system.
Define plan for configuring and managing system hardware (channel resources, physical disk, and so on).
Define plan for configuring and managing VSM 6 system software (ExLM, HSC, MVS, NCS, VTCS).
Define policies for configuring and managing VSM 6 system virtual entities.
Define plan for performance tuning, testing, and certification of the VSM 6 system.
Assess personnel requirements for knowledge-transfer and hands-on training, and facilitate scheduling and completion of training activities.
If possible, do any configuration of IP addresses, network switch(es) for VLANs or other setup (running cables, and so forth) before the VSM 6 arrives to minimize the installation time. Ensure that the network is ready for connection to the VSM 6 as follows:
Gigabit Ethernet protocol is required on all network switches and routers that are directly attached to the VSM 6 servers. The servers will only do speed negotiation to the 1 Gb speed.
Check that you are using the proper (customer-supplied) 1GigE Ethernet cables:
CAT5 cables and below are not acceptable for GigE transmission.
CAT5E cable: 90 meters is acceptable if run through a patch panel, 100 meters if straight cable.
CAT6 cable: 100 meters is acceptable regardless of patch panel configuration.
Oracle recommends if a switch or router is used in the configuration, at least two switches or routers be part of the configuration at each location so that the loss of one unit will not bring down the whole configuration.
Only one TCP/IP connection is required between a VSM 6 VTSS and another VTSS or VLE. However, for redundancy, Oracle strongly recommends that you have a total of four connections, where the VTSS connections are targets on separate servers. Each connection from a specific VTSS to a specific VLE or VTSS should be to separate interfaces.
IP addresses must never be duplicated on any ports on the VSM 6 servers. For example, if you have a REP port or ASR connection of 192.168.1.1 going to Node 1, do not make another REP port or ASR connection on Node 2 using 192.168.1.1 as the IP address.
Ports on a VSM 6 node that are configured on the customer network must be on separate networks. See Chapter 6, "VSM 6 Ethernet (IP) Data Path Connectivity" for more information about this restriction.
VSM 6 reserves and uses the following TCP ports for the identified functions:
443 – ASR (labeled CAM/ASR)50000 - IFF/IP replication control port (labeled REP1, REP2, REP3, REP4 on each node)
51000-55000 - IFF/IP replication data port (labeled REP1, REP2, REP3, REP4 on each node)61000 - ECAM-over-IP (labeled NET0)
61300 - CLI server (labeled NET0 or NET2)
63000-63999 – Enhanced Replication data port (labeled REP1, REP2, REP3, REP4 on each node)7001 - Weblogic Console (labeled NET0 or NET2)
7003 - Weblogic Webserver (labeled NET0 or NET2)
8654 - Webserver (labeled CAM/ASR)
See the VSM 6 Release Notes for information about VTCS software updates that may be additionally required for VSM 6 support.
The VSM 6 product uses a standard Oracle service strategy common with other Oracle products. VSM 6 uses Automated Service Response (ASR) as the outgoing event notification interface to notify Oracle VSM Support that an event has occurred on the VSM 6 and the system may require service.
Additionally, in combination with ASR, an outgoing email containing details about an ASR event and a Support File Bundle containing VSM 6 log information necessary to investigate any ASR event will also be sent.
The advantages of ASR functionality are well documented in the ASR FAQ available on the My Oracle Support site in Knowledge Article Doc ID 1285574.1.
Oracle's expectation is that the VSM 6 will be configured to allow outgoing ASR and email communication with Oracle VSM Support. To support VSM 6 outgoing ASR notifications, the customer will need to supply the following information to the installing Oracle Field Engineer:
Site information, including company name, site name and location
Customer contact information, including name and email
Oracle online account information, including customer Oracle CSI login name and password
Oracle ASR setup information, including proxy host name, proxy port, proxy authentication user name and password
Some fields are not required if a proxy server is not being used or if it does not require an ID and password. If the customer will not provide the CSI email ID and password, then the customer can enter it directly during the install process.
ASR registration takes place during the CAM configuration portion of the VSM 6 installation. During this part of the install the VSM 6 will register itself on the Oracle servers as an ASR qualified product.
The customer is then required to log in to My Oracle Support (MOS) and approve the registration of the VSM 6. Until this approval is completed by the customer, the VSM 6 is not capable of auto-generating cases through MOS.
For email notification of event and log information, the customer must also supply the following information:
Email configuration: SMTP server name, SMTP server user name, and SMTP server user password
Email recipients
If the email server does not require a user name and password, these fields can remain blank.
In cases where outgoing communication steps are not completed at the time of installation or not allowed at all, Oracle's options for timely response to events that require support from the Oracle Service team are greatly reduced. In this scenario, the VSM 6 can send email containing event and log information directly to a designated customer internal email address. A recipient of this email can then initiate a service request directly with Oracle and forward any emails received from the VSM 6 to Oracle VSM Support. In this case, the customer must supply the email address where VSM 6 emails are sent.