Oracle^® MiniCluster S7-2 Installation Guide

Create an Application Virtual Machine Group

At this point in the initial installation process, you can create an application virtual machine group. If you do not want an application virtual machine group, you can now perform standard system tasks, such as adding users, creating additional virtual machine groups, and so on. Go to the Oracle MiniCluster S7-2 Administration Guide for more information.

1. Use the Create Application Virtual Machine Group page to create an application virtual machine group.
   
2. In the Application Virtual Machine Group Profile Description pane, type this information.

   • Virtual Machine Group Name — Name of the application virtual machine group that you are creating. The name can be up to twelve characters, and can contain letters, numbers, or symbols.

   • Number of Virtual Machines:

     • Pair — Creates two virtual machines (one on each node) in the group.

     • Single — Creates one virtual machine in the group.

   • Shared Storage — All application virtual machines are allocated with storage space. With the shared storage option enabled, 6 HDDs on each storage array are set aside for additional storage space. For systems in highly secure environments, do not enable shared storage. For additional security information, refer to the Oracle MiniCluster S7-2 Security Guide.

     Options for this field are:

     • Yes — All the virtual machines in the group have access to the shared storage.

     • No — The virtual machines will not have access to the shared storage space in the 6 HDDs.

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     Note -  After the creation of virtual machines, you can enable or disable access to the shared storage at any time. Refer to the Oracle MiniCluster S7-2 Administration Guide for more information.

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   • Description — Description of the application virtual machine group that you are creating.

   • VM Type — Select one of the types from the drop-down list to assign the virtual machines with an OS version:

     • Solaris 11 Native Zone — Configures Oracle Solaris 11 OS for the application virtual machine. This is a native OS installation because the version is the same as what is installed in the global zones. Choose this VM type if you plan to use the application VM clustering feature.

     • Solaris 10 Branded Zone — (Introduced in v1.1.25) Configures Oracle Solaris 10 OS for the application virtual machine. This is a branded OS installation because the version is different than what is installed in the global zones. Branded zones are usually used when applications require a specific OS version.

       Oracle provides quarterly Critical Patch Updates (CPUs) for Oracle Solaris 10, including Solaris 10 Containers (Branded Zones). Please review the knowledge articles titled How to find the Oracle Solaris Critical Patch Update (CPU) Patchsets, Recommended OS Patchsets for Oracle Solaris and Oracle Solaris Update Patch Bundles (Doc ID 1272947.1) and How Patches and Updates Entitlement Works (Doc ID 1369860.1). Both articles are available at My Oracle Support. Take any actions necessary to patch applicable Oracle Solaris 10 Branded Zone virtual machines.

   • Security Profile — Sets the security profile for the application virtual machine group and the virtual machines within the group. Options available vary, depending on the VM type that you selected in the previous field:

     • If you selected Solaris 11 Native Zone as the VM type:

       • PCI-DSS — Satisfies organizations that want to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) standard defined by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

       • CIS Equivalent — Satisfies organizations with stricter security requirements, comparable and equivalent to benchmarks set forth by the Center for Internet Security (CIS) and Security Technical Implementation Guidelines (STIG) assessments.

       • DISA-STIG — Satisfies organizations requiring compliance with Security Technical Implementation Guidelines (STIG) for Oracle Solaris 11 published by the United States Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

     • If you selected Solaris 10 Branded Zone as the VM type:

       • JASS — JASS hardens and minimizes the OS attack surface. The configuration is based on the Solaris Security Toolkit, which enforces security controls such as RBAC, white-listed ports, protocols and services, and ensures that unnecessary services are disabled.

       • None — Configures the Oracle Solaris 10 branded zones with no additional security controls. This is considered a high risk configuration.

     You do not have to make the same selection here as you did when you performed the preliminary configuration tasks. See Preliminary Tasks for more information.

3. In the Define Virtual Machines pane, type this information.

   The Define Virtual Machines area has virtual machine creation information for both compute nodes. Type the appropriate information in the fields for each virtual machine in each compute node. The number of virtual machines that are shown in this pane depends on your choice for Type (Pair or Single) in the previous step.

   1. If you selected Single in the Number of Virtual Machines field, select the compute node in the Select Node field.

      The information for that compute node becomes active.

   2. Locate the area for the first virtual machine in the first compute node.
   3. In the Public Hostname field, type the host name to be used for client network access for this virtual machine, or accept the default entry.

      The client network host name is automatically populated using these pieces of information, in this order:

      • Virtual machine group name that you provided in Step 2

      • Virtual machine number

      • MiniCluster hostname

      • Compute node number

      You can also create your own unique client network host name. The client network host name can be up to 32 characters, and can contain letters, numbers, or symbols.

   4. From the Cores field, select the number of cores that you want to have assigned to this virtual machine.

      For each VM, specify the number of cores (0 - 12). Before the creation of VMs, there are 24 cores available (12 on each node that are available for VMs). MCMU keeps track of how many cores are assigned to VMs and only enables you to select a number from what is available.

      Cores that are not assigned to VMs are pooled together and are available as shared cores. If you select 0 (zero) cores, the VM uses shared cores. After the DB VM group is deployed, you can change the number of cores on the VMs using the instructions provided in the Oracle MiniCluster S7-2 Administration Guide.

      You can assign a different number of cores to each virtual machine within a database virtual machine group.

   5. In the two Passwords fields, set a password for the oracle user and mcinstall user.

      For more information on user accounts, password policies and security profiles, refer to Managing MCMU User Accounts (BUI) in Oracle MiniCluster S7-2 Administration Guide.

   6. Repeat Step 3.c through Step 3.e for the second virtual machine in the second compute node, if necessary.
4. Click the Create button when you have finished entering the information for the application virtual machine group.

   The Create Application Virtual Machine Group Profile page appears.

   
   
5. When the process of creating the application virtual machine group profile has successfully completed, click the Continue button.

   The Deploy Application Virtual Machine Group page appears.

   
   
6. In the Deploy Application Virtual Machine Group page, verify that the application virtual machine group that you created is displayed.
7. Click the Deploy button.

   The Create Application Virtual Machine Group status page appears, displaying the individual steps that are performed as part of the deployment process and the status of each step. Click the Detail button to show more or less status detail. This deployment process for a new application virtual machine group could take around 15 minutes.

   
   
8. When the process of creating the application virtual machine group is complete, click the Finish button.

   The Summary page appears, showing the tasks that you completed as part of the initial installation of your MiniCluster.

   
   
9. Click the Home button.

   The login screen appears.

10. Log in to the MiniCluster.

    • Username — mcinstall

    • Password — new-unique-password

11. Click Login.

    The Home page in the MiniCluster Configuration Tool appears, providing system-level information for the MiniCluster.

    
    
12. Enter the host name and IP address information for the application virtual machine group that you created into DNS.

    Refer to the Oracle MiniCluster S7-2 Administration Guide for instructions on accessing the screen that provides the host name and IP address information for the new application virtual machine group that you created.

13. Perform other appropriate administration tasks, as necessary.

    • Change the Oracle Engineered System Hardware Manager password. See Configure the Oracle Engineered System Hardware Manager Password.

    • Ensure that MiniCluster is configured securely. Refer to the Oracle MiniCluster S7-2 Security Guide

    • Configure the mctuner notification email address so that, If the tuning assistant detects any issues, it sends email notifications to the email address. Refer to Configure the mctuner Notification Email Address (CLI) in Oracle MiniCluster S7-2 Administration Guide.

    • Perform common adminitrative tasks such as adding MCMU users and creating additional VMs. Refer to the Oracle MiniCluster S7-2 Administration Guide