Chapter 3 What's New in Oracle VM?

Table of Contents

Review the new features and enhancements in each release of Oracle VM.

3.1 What's New in Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.3?

Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.3 includes features, enhancements, and security updates that were included in previous 3.4.x errata releases.

New features and enhancements included in Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.3 are as follows.

New Release Process

Oracle VM Changes to the Release Process

Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.3 continues to follow the release model introduced in Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.1, resulting in the following changes to the release process from earlier Oracle VM releases:

  • Oracle VM Manager and Oracle VM Agent for SPARC are released as new build versions, while Oracle VM Server stays at build version 3.4.6-2105 with new packages being made available on the appropriate Oracle VM ULN channels and yum repositories.

  • The latest versions of the Oracle VM Manager and Oracle VM Agent for SPARC can be downloaded from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud (OSDC), My Oracle Support (MOS) or Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

  • For Oracle VM Server, you must ensure that you have installed build version 3.4.6-2105 and have updated the packages using the appropriate Oracle VM ULN channels or yum repositories.

Usability

New in Release 3.4.6.3 is the Oracle VM Exporter Appliance utility which you can use to export hardware virtual machines and paravirtual hardware virtual machines from Oracle VM to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure in a few easy steps. For more information about Oracle VM Exporter Appliance, see:

Security

Security updates included

Security updates included in this errata update release are as follows:

  • MySQL patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the April 2020 Critical Patch Update for MySQL. (30766032)

  • Oracle WebLogic Server patch updates: This release of Oracle VM includes the April 2020 Critical Patch Update for Oracle WebLogic Server. (30766022)

  • Oracle Java 7 patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the April 2020 Critical Patch Update for Java. (30766027)

  • Oracle Java 8 patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the April 2020 Critical Patch Update for Java. (31202655)

  • Third party code: This release of Oracle VM Manager includes updates for a number of a third party packages.

3.2 What's New in Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.2?

Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.2 includes features, enhancements, and security updates that were included in previous 3.4.x errata releases.

New features and enhancements included in Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.2 are as follows:

New Release Process

Oracle VM Changes to the Release Process

Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.2 continues to follow the release model introduced in Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.1, resulting in the following changes to the release process from earlier Oracle VM releases:

  • Oracle VM Manager and Oracle VM Agent for SPARC are released as new build versions, while Oracle VM Server stays at build version 3.4.6-2105 with new packages being made available on the appropriate Oracle VM ULN channels and yum repositories.

  • The latest versions of the Oracle VM Manager and Oracle VM Agent for SPARC can be downloaded from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud (OSDC), My Oracle Support (MOS) or Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

  • For Oracle VM Server, you must ensure that you have installed build version 3.4.6-2105 and have updated the packages using the appropriate Oracle VM ULN channels or yum repositories.

Documentation

The following changes apply to the Oracle VM 3.4 documentation library:

  • Information has been added to the Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide about Oracle VM Manager Release 3.4.6 (and later releases) no longer being supported on Oracle Linux 5 installations. For more information, see Chapter 2, Installing and Upgrading Oracle VM and the notes in Operating Systems in the Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide. (29856593)

  • A note has been updated in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide to describe the revised error message that is displayed when the maximum memory size value does not equal the value specified for the memory size value for HVM and PVHVM guests. For more information, see Create Virtual Machine in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide. (28320709)

Infrastructure

Support for Oracle Linux 8.x, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x, and CentOS 8.x

As of this release, Oracle VM supports Oracle Linux 8.x, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x, and CentOS 8.x guest operating systems. (30096578) See Chapter 5, Supported Guest Operating Systems.

Support for Microsoft Windows Server 2019

As of this release, Oracle VM supports Microsoft Windows Server 2019 guest operating systems. (30361971) See Chapter 5, Supported Guest Operating Systems.

Security

Security updates included

Security updates included in this errata update release are as follows:

  • MySQL patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the October 2019 Critical Patch Update for MySQL. (30212413)

  • Oracle WebLogic Server patch updates: This release of Oracle VM includes the October 2019 Critical Patch Update for Oracle WebLogic Server. (30212407)

  • Oracle Java patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the October 2019 Critical Patch Update for Java. (30212408)

  • Third party code: This release of Oracle VM Manager includes updates for a number of a third party packages.

3.3 What's New in Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.1?

Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.1 includes features, enhancements, and security updates that were included in previous 3.4.x errata releases.

New features and enhancements included in Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.1 are as follows:

New Release Process

Oracle VM Changes to the Release Process

A new release model has been put in place for Oracle VM Release 3.4.6.1, resulting in the following changes to the release process:

  • Oracle VM Manager and Oracle VM Agent for SPARC are released as new build versions, while Oracle VM Server stays at build version 3.4.6-2105 with new packages being made available on the appropriate Oracle VM ULN channels and yum repositories.

  • The latest versions of the Oracle VM Manager and Oracle VM Agent for SPARC can be downloaded from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud (OSDC), My Oracle Support (MOS) or Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

  • For Oracle VM Server, you must ensure that you have installed build version 3.4.6-2105 and have updated the packages using the appropriate Oracle VM ULN channels or yum repositories.

Security

Security updates included

Security updates included in this errata update release are as follows:

  • MySQL patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the April 2019 Critical Patch Update for MySQL. (29515159)

  • Oracle WebLogic Server patch updates: This release of Oracle VM includes the April 2019 Critical Patch Update for Oracle WebLogic Server and the Overlay Patch to address CVE-2019-2725. (29515018 and 29713285)

  • Oracle Java patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the April 2019 Critical Patch Update for Java. (29515182)

  • Third party code: This release of Oracle VM Manager includes updates for a number of a third party packages.

3.4 What's New in Oracle VM Release 3.4.6?

Oracle VM Release 3.4.6 includes features, enhancements, and security updates that were included in previous 3.4.x errata releases.

New features and enhancements included in Oracle VM Release 3.4.6 are as follows:

Infrastructure

Oracle VM Agent for SPARC Support for Oracle Solaris 11.4

The Oracle VM Agent for SPARC has been updated to support Oracle Solaris 11.4. For more information, refer to the Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide.

Update to the dom0 Kernel

The dom0 kernel for Oracle VM Server is updated to the latest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 7 (UEK R4 U7) in this release. See the UEK R4 U7 Release Notes for information on new features and updates: Release Notes for Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 7.

Ksplice

Support for Ksplice patching for Xen and user space

Oracle VM Server now supports Ksplice patching for the Xen hypervisor and critical user space packages. This product enhancement extends the Ksplice kernel patching support already offered on the Oracle VM Server to cover the following Oracle VM components:

  • Xen hypervisor

  • glibc

  • OpenSSL

  • QEMU

Oracle Ksplice technology allows you to update systems with new security errata (CVE) patches without the need to reboot. This enables you to remain current with operating system vulnerability patches while minimizing downtime. For additional information, see Updating Oracle VM Server with Oracle Ksplice in the Oracle VM Administrator's Guide

Usability

New User-Defined Validity in Months Option for Self-Signed SSL Certificates

A new Validity in Months option is now available when generating a new SSL certificate, allowing you to set the validity period for a self-signed SSL certificate in months. The default is 120 months (10 years). For more information, see Generating a New SSL Key in the Oracle VM Administrator's Guide.

New Option to Change the Location of a Running Virtual Machine

A new Move this VM to a different Repository option is now available to move a vm.cfg file from one repository to another while the virtual machine is in running state by creating an empty clone customizer. For more information, see Migrate or Move Virtual Machines in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide.

Increased Virtual CPU Configuration Limit for HVM and PVHVM

The Virtual CPU limit has been increased to 64 for HVM Microsoft Windows guests and for PVHVM, if using Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows. For more information, see Table 7.3, “Virtual Machine Maximums”.

Deprecated Features

Oracle VM Release 3.4.6 Deprecated Features

For information about features that have been deprecated or removed in Oracle VM Release 3.4.6, see Chapter 8, Deprecated and Removed Oracle VM Features in the Oracle VM Release Notes.

Security

Security updates included

Security updates included in this errata update release are as follows:

  • Oracle MySQL patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the October 2018 Critical Patch Update for MySQL. (28328418)

  • Oracle WebLogic patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the October 2018 Critical Patch Update for WebLogic. (28328407)

  • Oracle Java patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the October 2018 Critical Patch Update for Java. (28328428)

  • Xen security advisories: The following Xen security advisories are included in this release:

    • XSA-263 (CVE-2018-3639)

    • XSA-267 (CVE-2018-3665)

    • XSA-273 (CVE-2018-3620, CVE-2018-3646)

    • XSA-282

3.5 What's New in Oracle VM Release 3.4.5?

Oracle VM Release 3.4.5 includes features, enhancements, and security updates that were included in previous 3.4.x errata releases.

New features and enhancements included in Oracle VM Release 3.4.5 are as follows:

Infrastructure

Update to the dom0 Kernel

The dom0 kernel for Oracle VM Server is updated to Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 7 (UEK R4 U7) in this release. See the UEK R4 U7 Release Notes for information on new features and updates: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E93554_01/E94694/html/index.html.

Update to Boot Protocol Support for Xen

The updated Xen hypervisor for Oracle VM Server is delivered as a single binary, named xen.mb.efi instead of xen.gz, which can be loaded by the EFI loader, Multiboot, and Multiboot2 protocols.

Package Additions and Updates

The full list of package additions and updates is beyond the scope of this document, but the following list includes the notable package updates that are included in this release:

  • cloud-init-0.7.5-8.0.1.el6_9.x86_64.rpm

  • oswatcher-7.3.3-3.el6.x86_64.rpm

  • boost-filesystem-1.41.0-28.el6.x86_64.rpm

  • boost-regex-1.41.0-28.el6.x86_64.rpm

  • boost-python-1.41.0-28.el6.x86_64.rpm

  • libyaml-0.1.3-4.el6_6.x86_64.rpm

  • PyYAML-3.10-3.1.el6.x86_64.rpm

  • oracle-ofed-release-1.0.0-41.el6.x86_64.rpm

Several other user space packages were also updated to align with the latest Oracle Linux 6 Update 9 versions, or to resolve dependencies.

Performance and Scalability

Increased Performance for Microsoft Windows guest operating systems

This release provides the ability to enable the exposure of Windows virtualization (also referred to as viridian) compatible entitlements to Microsoft Windows guest operating systems. Enabling viridian support is strongly recommended to ensure improved performance for all Microsoft Windows guest operating systems. For more information about how to enable this support, see Create Virtual Machine in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide.

Hybrid Columnar Compression Support

As of this release, Oracle VM provides support for Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC) on Oracle Database Release 18c with Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance and Oracle FS1 Series Flash Storage Systems. Hybrid Columnar Compression is an Oracle Database compression technology that enables the highest levels of data compression and provides cost savings and performance improvements due to reduced I/O.

Note

The following RPM packages are required for Oracle VM to provide support for Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC) on Oracle Database Release 18c:

  • The ovmport-1.0-8.el6.x86_64.rpm package must be installed on the Oracle VM Server instance. This package is included by default with the Oracle VM Server Release 3.4.5 ISO.

  • The libxenstore and libxenstore-devel packages must be installed on the Oracle Linux 6 or 7 guest. These packages are available from the addons channel for the Oracle Linux Yum Server.

For more information, see the Hybrid Columnar Compression section of the Oracle Database Concepts guide for Oracle Database Release 18c.

Usability

Additional VM Migration Check Added to Oracle VM Manager Stop and Restart Options

A check_migrate option is now available for use with the Oracle VM Manager stop and restart commands, allowing you to check for active VM migration jobs that are triggered by a server pool load balancing job. For more information, see Starting and Stopping Oracle VM Manager in the Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide.

New Start Policy Available for Virtual Machines

A new virtual machine start policy called Balance Server is now available for selection when creating or editing a server pool or virtual machine. Virtual machines can be started on the best available Oracle VM Server as determined by CPU and memory utilizations, with CPU utilization taking precedence over memory utilization. This ensures that virtual machines are evenly distributed amongst all Oracle VM Servers in the server pool, starting with the least utilized Oracle VM Server first. For more information, see Servers and VMs Tab in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide.

New LIP Scan Option for Fibre Channel Storage Arrays

A Loop Initialization Protocol (LIP) scan is now optional and can be enabled when modifying an Unmanaged FibreChannel Storage Array. A LIP issued to an Oracle VM Server connected to a fabric causes the Host Bus Adapter (HBA) driver to reset the SCSI bus and as a result, may also cause the target to reset. Disabling a LIP scan for an Unmanaged FibreChannel Storage Array may result in faster times for storage array refreshes when configuring a new SCSI target on a Fibre Channel interconnect. For more information, see the Storage Tab section in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide and the CLI Command Reference section in the Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface User's Guide .

Server Upgrade Warning Events Displayed with Blue Icon

After an Oracle VM Manager upgrade, there are warning events associated with each Oracle VM Server that has not yet been upgraded to the latest version. Oracle recommends that you upgrade to the latest version of Oracle VM Server at your earliest convenience, but it is not a strict requirement. Previously, both warnings and errors were displayed in the Events perspective of the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface with the same red icon, although in practice there is a clear difference in severity level and priority. As of this release, the warning events for Oracle VM Servers requiring upgrade are displayed with a blue icon, to make them visually distinguishable.

Documentation

New Section Listing Oracle VM Release 3.4 Deprecated Features

As of Oracle VM Release 3.4.5, a new section called Chapter 8, Deprecated and Removed Oracle VM Features has been added to the Oracle VM Release Notes. This can be used to track features that have been deprecated and removed for current and previous Oracle VM Release 3.4.x release.

Security

Support for TLS Version 1.2 Protocol

As of this release, Oracle VM Manager uses the TLSv1.2 protocol for all connections to ensure enhanced security protection. As a result, management of Oracle VM Server for x86 at Release 3.2.10 or 3.2.11, and Oracle VM Agent for SPARC at Release 3.3.1, is not possible by default. It is strongly recommended to upgrade your Oracle VM Server instances to the latest version, but if this is not possible, you can enable the TLSv1 protocol, which is less secure. For instructions, see Enabling the TLS Version 1 Protocol in the Oracle VM 3.4 Installation and Upgrade guide.

Xen 4.4.x Performance and Scalability Updates

  • Idle Driver Updates: The mwait idle driver has been improved to make use of deeper C-states on Broadwell and Skylake platforms. In addition, turbo boost works properly when C-states are in use.

  • Better ACPI Handling: ACPI handling has been improved to enable turbo boost functionality on Oracle Server X7 based platforms.

  • Improved Memory Scrubbing: The scrubbing mechanism allows better handling of memory assigned to a domain close to the host boundaries. This prevents out-of-memory issues when guest-driven reboots occur.

  • APICv Support: On platforms that support it, APICv is exposed, allowing guests to use native MSI-X handling for PCI devices, instead of pirqs. This results in a latency improvement of approximately 10 percent for certain workloads.

Security updates included

Security updates included in this errata update release are as follows:

  • Oracle MySQL patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the April 2018 Critical Patch Update for MySQL. (26836018)

  • Oracle WebLogic patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the April 2018 Critical Patch Update for WebLogic. (26835998)

  • Oracle Java patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the April 2018 Critical Patch Update for Java. (26836007)

  • Xen security advisories: The following Xen security advisories are included in this release:

    • XSA-231 (CVE-2017-14316)

    • XSA-233 (CVE-2017-14317)

    • XSA-234 (CVE-2017-14319)

    • XSA-236 (CVE-2017-15597)

    • XSA-237 (CVE-2017-15590)

    • XSA-239 (CVE-2017-15589)

    • XSA-240 (CVE-2017-15595)

    • XSA-241 (CVE-2017-15588)

    • XSA-242 (CVE-2017-15593)

    • XSA-243 (CVE-2017-15592)

    • XSA-244 (CVE-2017-15594)

    • XSA-246 (CVE-2017-17044)

    • XSA-247 (CVE-2017-17045)

    • XSA-248 (CVE-2017-17566)

    • XSA-249 (CVE-2017-17563)

    • XSA-250 (CVE-2017-17564)

    • XSA-251 (CVE-2017-17565)

    • XSA-252 (CVE-2018-7540)

    • XSA-254 (CVE-2017-5753, CVE-2017-5715, CVE-2017-5754)

    • XSA-255 (CVE-2018-7541)

    • XSA-260 (CVE-2018-8897)

    • XSA-261 (CVE-2018-10982)

    • XSA-262 (CVE-2018-10981)

3.6 What's New in Oracle VM Release 3.4.4?

Oracle VM Release 3.4.4 includes features, enhancements, and security updates that were included in previous 3.4.x errata releases.

New features and enhancements included in Oracle VM Release 3.4.4 are as follows:

Infrastructure

Support for Microsoft Windows Server 2016

As of this release, Oracle VM supports Microsoft Windows Server 2016 guest operating systems. See Chapter 5, Supported Guest Operating Systems.

Update to the dom0 Kernel

The dom0 kernel for Oracle VM Server is updated to Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Update 4 (UEK R4 U4) in this release. See the UEK R4 U4 Release Notes for information on new features and updates: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E52668_01/E86280/html/index.html.

Support for Skylake processors

Oracle VM provides improved support for servers that use Skylake processors, including the Intel® Xeon® E3 v5, Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8100, Intel® Xeon® Gold 6100, Intel® Xeon® Gold 5100, Intel® Xeon® Silver 4100 and Intel® Xeon® Bronze 3100 families of processors. This support is available as part of the dom0 kernel update to UEK R4 U4.

Package Additions and Updates

The full list of package additions and updates is beyond the scope of this document, but the following list includes the notable package updates that are included in this release:

  • This release adds the network-scripts-vxlan package.

  • The device-mapper-multipath, kpartx, and udev packages are updated as follows:

    • device-mapper-multipath-libs-0.4.9-100.0.3.el6.x86_64

    • device-mapper-multipath-0.4.9-100.0.3.el6.x86_64

    • kpartx-0.4.9-100.0.3.el6.x86_64

    • libgudev1-147-2.73.0.1.el6_8.2.x86_64

    • libudev-147-2.73.0.1.el6_8.2.x86_64

    • udev-147-2.73.0.1.el6_8.2.x86_64

  • The irqbalance package is updated to irqbalance-1.0.9-2.0.1.el6.x86_64.

Performance and Scalability

Increased Performance for Oracle VM

This release provides several enhancements to increase the performance of Oracle VM. These enhancements enable Oracle VM to utilize fewer resources and improve performance measurements such as input/output operations per second (IOPs).

Xen 4.4.4 Performance and Scalability Updates

  • Update to netfront and netback drivers: Along with UEK R4 U4, this release of Oracle VM delivers updates to the netfront and netback drivers.

  • Improved grant locking: Xen-netback multi-queue improvements take advantage of grant locking enhancements that are now available in Oracle VM Server Release 3.4.4.

  • Improved guest performance by recycling grants: With both host and guest virtual machines using the latest dom0 kernel version UEK R4 U4, network and database performance is enhanced by recycling grants, resulting in improved guest virtual machine performance.

Usability

CentOS is now listed as a supported guest OS type in Oracle VM

Oracle VM now displays CentOS as a supported guest operating system in the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface, Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface, and Oracle VM Web Services API.

Documentation

New Location for the Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows Documentation

As of Oracle VM Release 3.4.4, the Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows documentation has moved to a new library location: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E88077_01/index.html.

Note

Oracle VM Release 3.4, Release 3.3, and Release 3.2 library pages are updated with a Related Documentation section that includes a link to the Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows library. For example, see http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/index.html.

Security

Security updates included in this errata update release are as follows:

  • Oracle MySQL patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the July 2017 Critical Patch Update for MySQL. (26120786)

  • Oracle WebLogic patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the July 2017 Critical Patch Update for WebLogic. (26120775)

  • Oracle Java patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the July 2017 Critical Patch Update for Java. (26120782)

  • Xen security advisories: The following Xen security advisories are included in this release:

    • XSA-216 (CVE-2017-10911)

    • XSA-217 (CVE-2017-10912)

    • XSA-218 (CVE-2017-10913, CVE-2017-10914)

    • XSA-219 (CVE-2017-10915)

    • XSA-220 (CVE-2017-10916)

    • XSA-221 (CVE-2017-10917)

    • XSA-222 (CVE-2017-10918)

    • XSA-223 (CVE-2017-10919)

    • XSA-224 (CVE-2017-10920, CVE-2017-10921, CVE-2017-10922)

    • XSA-226 (CVE-2017-12135)

    • XSA-227 (CVE-2017-12137)

    • XSA-228 (CVE-2017-12136)

    • XSA-230 (CVE-2017-12855)

3.7 What's New in Oracle VM Release 3.4.3?

The new features and enhancements in Oracle VM Release 3.4.3 include:

Installation and Upgrades

Simplified UEFI PXE Boot for Oracle VM Server

As of this release, you do not need to manually build the GRUB 2 boot loader to install Oracle VM Server on UEFI-based systems in a PXE boot environment. The Oracle VM Server ISO image file provides the /EFI/BOOT/grubx64.efi boot loader for UEFI-based systems. See Installing Oracle VM Server for x86 from PXE Boot in the Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide.

Note

If you plan to install Oracle VM Server on BIOS-based systems, you use the pxelinux.0 boot loader from the syslinux package on Oracle Linux.

Infrastructure

Support for Software RAID Devices with Oracle VM Server

You can now create kickstart configurations that assemble software RAID devices during the Oracle VM Server installation. See Software RAID Partitions in the Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide.

You can also create software RAID devices in dom0 after installation. Oracle VM Server then presents those software RAID devices to Oracle VM Manager so that you can use them as storage repositories or for virtual disks. See Configuring Software RAID for Storage in the Oracle VM Administrator's Guide.

Important

The following notes apply to using software RAID devices with Oracle VM Server in this release:

  • Oracle VM Server supports installation on software RAID devices on BIOS-based systems only.

  • You should not attempt to install Oracle VM Server on a software RAID if a disk that is 2 TB or larger is a member of the array. Due to a limitation with the Master Boot Record (MBR), Oracle VM Server cannot boot from disks that are 2 TB or larger in a software RAID configuration.

  • As a best practice, you should use software RAID devices as storage repositories in a test environment before using them in a production environment.

  • In environments where you use software RAID devices as storage repositories for server pools, unexpected behavior can occur with certain virtual machine migration operations. For example, if you clone a virtual machine and then attempt to live migrate it to an instance of Oracle VM Server in the same server pool, the migration fails with an error that indicates the virtual machine disk does not exist. In this case, you must stop the virtual machine and then move it to the appropriate instance of Oracle VM Server.

Support for Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering

Microsoft Windows Server guests can now use SCSI-3 persistent reservation to form a Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) with Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows Release 3.4.2 or later. See Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows for information about failover cluster capabilities on specific Microsoft Operating System versions.

Update to Oracle VM Agent for SPARC

As of this release, Oracle VM Agent for SPARC is updated to run Python 2.7.

Update to the dom0 Kernel

The dom0 kernel is updated to a newer Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 (UEK R4) version kernel-uek-4.1.12-61.40.1.el6uek.x86_64.rpm.

Note

This UEK R4 kernel update is a quarterly update 2 (QU2) errata version.

If you received a one-off version of UEK R4 QU2 before this release, you should upgrade Oracle VM Server to UEK R4 QU4 after you upgrade to Oracle VM Release 3.4.3. Upgrading the kernel ensures your Oracle VM Servers include any bug fixes that were included in the one-off version of UEK R4 QU2.

If you are upgrading from an earlier release of Oracle VM, such as Release 3.4.2, and you have a mainstream version of UEK R4, you can optionally upgrade Oracle VM Server to UEK R4 QU4 after you upgrade to Oracle VM Release 3.4.3.

The UEK R4 QU4 version of the kernel is available on the Oracle Linux Yum Server for all Oracle VM Release 3.4.3 users.

Package Additions and Updates

The full list of package additions and updates is beyond the scope of this document, but the following list includes the notable package updates that are included in this release:

  • The tzdata package is updated to tzdata-2017b-1.el6.noarch.rpm.

  • The Netscape Portable Runtime (NSPR) package is updated to nspr-4.11.0-1.el6.x86_64.rpm.

  • The ovmport package is updated to ovmport-1.0-6.el6.x86_64.rpm.

Updates to Multipath Configuration for Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance

  • This release includes the Oracle Sun ZFS Storage.* product in the multipath.conf file, which includes the ZFS Storage 7350 and ZFS Storage 7330 products.

  • The default value for the multipath configuration parameter no_path_retry is updated to 180. This new default setting enhances the performance of the multipath daemon, multipathd, and improves response times when issuing the multipath -ll command.

Performance and Scalability

Oracle VM Manager Performance Enhancements

  • Improved Job completion performance: Reduction in the time taken to complete certain jobs, for example cloning a virtual machine or template.

  • Improved Storage refresh performance: Rescanning physical disks is enhanced to ensure that local storage on an Oracle VM Server is refreshed in a timely manner.

Improved Performance With Multiple Concurrent Connections to the Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface

This release improves Oracle VM performance when there are multiple concurrent connections to the Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface.

Usability

Password Modification for the MySQL root user

Oracle VM now lets you change the password for the MySQL root user that the Oracle VM Manager Administrator Tool uses to connect to the MySQL database instance. See Changing the Password for the MySQL Root User in the Oracle VM Administrator's Guide.

Documentation

The following changes apply to the Oracle VM Release 3.4.3 documentation library:

  • The Oracle VM Manager Online Help has been updated in the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface.

  • CentOS 7 is added to the list of supported guest operating systems in the Oracle VM Release Notes. See Chapter 5, Supported Guest Operating Systems.

  • The Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide has been corrected and no longer includes a statement that you cannot boot Oracle VM Server from SAN.

Security

  • Oracle MySQL patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the January 2017 Critical Patch Update for MySQL. (23087157)

  • Oracle WebLogic patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the January 2017 Critical Patch Update for WebLogic. (23087146)

  • Oracle Java patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the January 2017 Critical Patch Update for Java. (23087165).

  • Xen security advisories: The following Xen security advisories are included in this release:

    • XSA-184 (CVE-2016-5403)

    • XSA-190 (CVE-2016-7777)

    • XSA-191 (CVE-2016-9386)

    • XSA-192 (CVE-2016-9382)

    • XSA-193 (CVE-2016-9385)

    • XSA-195 (CVE-2016-9383)

    • XSA-197 (CVE-2016-9381)

    • XSA-198 (CVE-2016-9379, CVE-2016-9380)

    • XSA-199 (CVE-2016-9637)

    • XSA-200 (CVE-2016-9932)

    • XSA-202 (CVE-2016-10024)

    • XSA-204 (CVE-2016-10013)

    • XSA-206 (no CVE yet assigned)

    • XSA-207 (no CVE yet assigned)

    • XSA-208 (CVE-2017-2615)

    • XSA-209 (CVE-2017-2620)

    • XSA-211 (CVE-2016-9603)

    • XSA-212 (CVE-2017-7228)

    • XSA-213 (CVE-2017-8903)

    • XSA-214 (CVE-2017-8904)

    • XSA-215 (CVE-2017-8905)

3.8 What's New in Oracle VM Release 3.4.2?

The new features and enhancements in Oracle VM Release 3.4.2 include:

Installation and Upgrades

Oracle VM Manager support for previous Oracle VM Server releases

As of Oracle VM Release 3.4.2, Oracle VM Manager supports current and previous Oracle VM Server releases. For more information, see Chapter 6, Oracle VM Manager Support for Previous Oracle VM Server Releases.

Infrastructure

Support for NVM Express (NVMe) devices

Oracle VM Server now discovers NVMe devices and presents them to Oracle VM Manager, where the NVMe device is available as a local disk that you can use to store virtual machine disks or create storage repositories.

The following rules apply to NVMe devices:

Oracle VM Server for x86

  • To use the entire NVMe device as a storage repository or for a single virtual machine physical disk, you should not partition the NVMe device.

  • To provision the NVMe device into multiple physical disks, you should partition it on the Oracle VM Server where the device is installed. If an NVMe device is partitioned then Oracle VM Manager displays each partition as a physical disk, not the entire device.

    You must partition the NVMe device outside of the Oracle VM environment. Oracle VM Manager does not provide any facility for partitioning NVMe devices.

  • NVMe devices can be discovered if no partitions exist on the device.

  • If Oracle VM Server is installed on an NVMe device, then Oracle VM Server does not discover any other partitions on that NVMe device.

Oracle VM Server for SPARC

  • Oracle VM Manager does not display individual partitions on an NVMe device but only a single device.

    Oracle recommends that you create a storage repository on the NVMe device if you are using Oracle VM Server for SPARC. You can then create as many virtual disks as required in the storage repository. However, if you plan to create logical storage volumes for virtual machine disks, you must manually create ZFS volumes on the NVMe device. See Creating ZFS Volumes on NVMe Devices in the Oracle VM Administrator's Guide.

Using Oracle Ksplice to update the dom0 kernel

Oracle Ksplice capabilities are now available that allow you to update the dom0 kernel for Oracle VM Server without requiring a reboot. Your systems remain up to date with their OS vulnerability patches and downtime is minimized. A Ksplice update takes effect immediately when it is applied. It is not an on-disk change that only takes effect after a subsequent reboot.

Note

This does not impact the underlying Xen hypervisor.

Depending on your level of support, contact your Oracle support representative for assistance before using Oracle Ksplice to update the dom0 kernel for Oracle VM Server. For more information, see Oracle VM: Using Ksplice Uptrack Document ID 2115501.1, on My Oracle Support at: https://support.oracle.com/oip/faces/secure/km/DocumentDisplay.jspx?id=2115501.1.

Extended SCSI functionality available for virtual machines

Oracle VM now provides additional support for SCSI functionality to virtual machines:

  • Linux guests can now retrieve vital product data (VPD) page 0x84 information from physical disks if the device itself makes it available.

  • Microsoft Windows Server guests can use SCSI-3 persistent reservation to form a Microsoft Failover Cluster in an upcoming Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows release. See the Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows documentation for information about the availability of failover cluster capabilities on specific Microsoft Operating System versions.

Dom0 kernel upgraded

The dom0 kernel for Oracle VM Server is updated to Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 Quarterly Update 2 in this release.

Package additions and updates

  • The ovmport-1.0-1.el6.4.src.rpm package is added to the Oracle VM Server ISO to support Microsoft Clustering and enable communication between Dom0 and DomU processes using the libxenstore API.

  • The Perl package is updated to perl-5.10.1-141.el6_7.1.src.rpm.

  • The Netscape Portable Runtime (NSPR) package is updated to nspr-4.11.0-1.el6.x86_64.rpm.

  • The openSCAP package is updated to openscap-1.2.8-2.0.1.el6.rpm.

  • The Linux-firmware package is updated to linux-firmware-20160616-44.git43e96a1e.0.12.el6.src.rpm.

Performance and Scalability

Oracle VM Manager performance enhancements

This release enhances the performance of Oracle VM Manager by reducing the number of non-critical events that Oracle VM Server sends to Oracle VM Manager when a system goes down.

Note

If you are running a large Oracle VM environment, it is recommended to increase the amount of memory allocated to the Oracle WebLogic Server. This ensures that adequate memory is available when required. See Increasing the Memory Allocated to Oracle WebLogic Server in the Oracle VM Administrator's Guide for more information.

Oracle VM Server for x86 performance optimization

For information on performance optimization goals and techniques for Oracle VM Server for x86, see Optimizing Oracle VM Server for x86 Performance, on Oracle Technology Network at: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/vm/ovm-performance-2995164.pdf.

Xen 4.4.4 performance and scalability updates

  • Improved memory allocation: Host system performance is improved by releasing memory more efficiently when tearing down domains, for example, migrating a virtual machine from one Oracle VM Server to another or deleting a virtual machine. This ensures that the host system can manage other guest systems more effectively without experiencing issues with performance.

  • Improved aggregate performance: Oracle VM Server now uses ticket locks for spinlocks, which improves aggregate performance on large scale machines with more than four sockets.

  • Improved performance for Windows and Solaris guests: Microsoft Windows and Oracle Solaris guests with the HVM or PVHVM domain type can now specify local APIC vectors to use as upcall notifications for specific vCPUs. As a result, the guests can more efficiently bind event channels to vCPUs.

  • Improved workload performance: Changes to the Linux scheduler ensure that workload performance is optimized in this release.

  • Improved grant locking: Xen-netback multi-queue improvements take advantage of the grant locking enhancements that are now available in Oracle VM Server Release 3.4.2.

  • Guest disk I/O performance improvements: Block scalability is improved through the implementation of the Xen block multi-queue layer.

Usability

Oracle VM Manager Rule for Live Migration

To prevent failure of live migration, and subsequent issues with the virtual machine environment, a rule has been added to Oracle VM Manager, as follows:

Oracle VM Manager does not allow you to perform a live migration of a virtual machine to or from any instance of Oracle VM Server with a Xen release earlier than xen-4.3.0-55.el6.22.18. This rule applies to any guest OS.

Table 3.1 Live Migration Paths between Oracle VM Server Releases using Oracle VM Manager Release 3.4.2
Using Oracle VM Manager Release 3.4.2 Live Migrate To:
Release 3.2.10 Release 3.2.11 Release 3.3.1 Release 3.3.2 Release 3.3.3 Release 3.3.4 Release 3.4.1 Release 3.4.2
Live Migrate From: Release 3.2.10 Yes Yes Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Yes Yes Yes Yes
Release 3.2.11 Yes Yes Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Yes Yes Yes Yes
Release 3.3.1 No No Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release
Release 3.3.2 No No Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release
Release 3.3.3 No No Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Yes Yes Yes Yes
Release 3.3.4 No No Depends on Xen release Depends on Xen release Yes Yes Yes Yes
Release 3.4.1 No No No No No No Yes Yes
Release 3.4.2 No No No No No No Yes Yes


Xen Release (from)

Xen Release (to)

Live Migration Available?

xen-4.3.0-55.el6.x86_64

xen-4.3.0-55.el6.0.17.x86_64

No

xen-4.3.0-55.el6.22.18.x86_64

and newer xen-4.3.0-55

Yes

For example, as a result of this live migration rule, all virtual machines in an Oracle VM server pool running Oracle VM Server Release 3.3.2 with Xen version xen-4.3.0-55.el6.22.9.x86_64 must be stopped before migrating to Oracle VM Server Release 3.4.2.

Tip

Run the following command on Oracle VM Server to find the Xen version: 

# rpm -qa | grep "xen"

PVHVM hot memory modification

As of this release, it is possible to modify the memory allocated to running PVHVM guests without a reboot. Additionally, Oracle VM Manager now allows you to set the allocated memory to a value that is different to the maximum memory available.

Note

  • Hot memory modification is supported on x86-based PVHVM guests running on Linux OS and guests running on Oracle VM Server for SPARC. For x86-based PVHVM guests running on Oracle Solaris OS, you cannot change the memory if the virtual machine is running.

  • See the Oracle VM Paravirtual Drivers for Microsoft Windows documentation for information about the availability of hot memory modification on PVHVM guests that are running a Microsoft Windows OS. You must use a Windows PV Driver that supports hot memory modification or you must stop the guest before you modify the memory.

  • Oracle VM supports hot memory modification through Oracle VM Manager only. If you have manually created unsupported configurations, such as device passthrough, hot memory modification is not supported.

Security

  • Oracle MySQL patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the July 2016 Critical Patch Update for MySQL. (23087189)

  • Oracle WebLogic patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the July 2016 Critical Patch Update for WebLogic. (23087185)

  • Oracle Java patch update: This release of Oracle VM includes the July 2016 Critical Patch Update for Java. (23087198).

  • Xen security advisories: The following Xen security advisories are included in this release:

    • XSA-154 (CVE-2016-2270)

    • XSA-170 (CVE-2016-2271)

    • XSA-172 (CVE-2016-3158 and CVE-2016-3159)

    • XSA-173 (CVE-2016-3960)

    • XSA-175 (CVE-2016-4962)

    • XSA-176 (CVE-2016-4480)

    • XSA-178 (CVE-2016-4963)

    • XSA-179 (CVE-2016-3710 and CVE-2016-3712)

    • XSA-180 (CVE-2014-3672)

    • XSA-182 (CVE-2016-6258)

    • XSA-185 (CVE-2016-7092)

    • XSA-187 (CVE-2016-7094)

    • XSA-188 (CVE-2016-7154)

3.9 What's New in Oracle VM Release 3.4.1?

The new features and enhancements in Oracle VM Release 3.4.1 include:

Installation and Upgrades

Upgrading to Release 3.4

Oracle VM provides scripts that automate the upgrade process and minimize downtime for your virtualization infrastructure.

Upgrading Oracle VM Manager to Release 3.4

Use the runInstaller.sh script that is included with the Release 3.4 installation media. See Upgrading Oracle VM Manager in the Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide for more information.

Upgrading Oracle VM Server from Release 3.3.x

Upgrade server pools and multiple Oracle VM Servers directly through the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface. The Oracle VM Manager Web Interface provides an intuitive interface to perform upgrades either individually or across multiple servers at once in batch mode.

Upgrading Oracle VM Server from Release 3.2.10

Use the UpgradeServers.py script for Oracle VM Server for x86 or the ./upgrade script for Oracle VM Server for SPARC

Local disk partitioning

Interactive installations of Oracle VM Server allow you to configure disk partitioning. See Installing Oracle VM Server From a DVD-ROM in the Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide for more information.

Enabling Kdump during Oracle VM Server installation

During installation of Oracle VM Server, you can now choose to enable the Kdump service that captures a memory dump from dom0 and stores it on the filesystem to help you debug and diagnose issues in the event of a system crash.

Infrastructure

Support for Oracle VM Virtual Appliances

Oracle VM Manager now provides the ability to import and export Oracle VM Virtual Appliances as a single .ova (Open Virtualization Format Archive) file or a set of .ovf (Open Virtualization Format) and .img (disk image) files. See How are Virtual Appliances Managed? in the Oracle VM Concepts Guide for more information on virtual appliances.

Note

In previous releases of Oracle VM, Oracle VM Virtual Appliances were referred to as assemblies.

Automated installation of VNC and Serial Console software

The Oracle VM Manager installer also manages the installation and upgrading of the VNC and Serial Console software package on the Oracle VM Manager host. Reducing administrative overhead during a deployment of the environment.

Storage live migration

You can now perform live migrations of running virtual machines that have virtual disks on local storage. Oracle VM uses features built into the OCFS2 file system on x86 platforms to provide this live migration capability that helps you achieve nearly uninterrupted uptime for virtual machines.

Some restrictions apply to storage live migration. In particular, there are various requirements surrounding disk space on the source and target repositories. See How Can a Virtual Machine be Moved or Migrated? in the Oracle VM Concepts Guide for more information.

Additionally, performing storage live migration can disrupt the cluster heartbeat function if the server pool file system is not separate to the cluster heartbeat file system. Additionally, you should ensure that you configure separate channels for live migration network traffic and other network functions such as cluster heartbeat. For more information about storage configuration guidelines, see Are there Guidelines for Configuring Storage? in the Oracle VM Concepts Guide. For more information about network channels, see How are Network Functions Separated in Oracle VM? in the Oracle VM Concepts Guide.

User interface enhancements for virtual disk allocation

As of this release, when editing virtual disks, Oracle VM Manager now displays the allocation type that was specified when the virtual disk was created. Additionally, tooltips are available in the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface to provide more information about how virtual disks are created and how subsequent virtual disk space is allocated. See Create Virtual Machine in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide for more information on creating virtual machines and virtual disk allocation.

Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) support

Oracle VM provides support for installing Oracle VM Server into FCoE Storage Area Networks (SAN) over some Host Bus Adapters (HBA) or Converged Network Adapters (CNA). See Installing Oracle VM Server to Multipath Storage in the Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide for more information.

Booting from UEFI

Oracle VM Server can now boot from systems that use Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). See Installing Oracle VM Server From a DVD-ROM in the Oracle VM Installation and Upgrade Guide for more information about installing Oracle VM Server in UEFI mode.

You can install Oracle VM Server in legacy BIOS mode or UEFI mode. However, you cannot change modes after installation. For example, if you install Oracle VM Server in legacy BIOS mode, you cannot then switch to UEFI mode. If you want to change from legacy BIOS mode to UEFI mode, or from UEFI mode to legacy BIOS mode, you must re-install Oracle VM Server.

The following restrictions currently apply to UEFI mode:

  • You cannot create custom partition layouts if you are installing Oracle VM Server in UEFI mode.

  • You cannot boot Oracle VM Server from FCoE or iSCSI if you use UEFI mode.

SOAP API deprecated

The Oracle VM SOAP API is deprecated as of Release 3.4.1.

Oracle VM Utilities use Oracle VM Web Services API

The Oracle VM Utilities version 2.1 now communicate directly with Oracle VM Manager using a Oracle VM API. This change improves performance and usability of the Oracle VM Utilities. Additionally, in this release, a number of the Oracle VM Utilities scripts have been deprecated by the Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface. For more information, see Using the Oracle VM Utilities in the Oracle VM Administrator's Guide.

P2V utility on Oracle VM Server ISO file

This release includes the P2V utility on the Oracle VM Server ISO file. You can use the P2V utility to convert physical hosts to virtual machines. For more information, see Converting Physical Hosts to Virtual Machines in the Oracle VM Administrator's Guide.

OSWatcher Utility Available on Oracle VM Server

As of this release, the OSWatcher utility is installed on Oracle VM Server by default and is enabled to run at boot. OSWatcher (oswbb) is a collection of shell scripts that collect and archive operating system and network metrics to diagnose performance issues with Oracle VM Server. For more information, see Working with the OSWatcher Utility on Oracle VM Server in the Oracle VM Administrator's Guide.

Repository apparent size

Oracle VM Manager now displays the apparent size, in GiB, of repositories. The apparent size is the total size of the entire repository. For more information, see Repositories Perspective in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide.

dom0 kernel upgraded

The dom0 kernel for Oracle VM Server is updated to Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 4 in this release.

Performance and Scalability

Increased supported limits

Oracle VM supports increased configuration limits, including a maximum of 256 virtual CPUs (vCPU) for virtual machines of PVM domain type. See Chapter 7, Configuration Limits for Release 3.4 for a complete list of configuration limits for Oracle VM.

Improved performance

This release of Oracle VM includes several enhancements to overall performance and scalability, including the time it takes to discover a large number of servers.

The following table highlights performance improvements for the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface from Release 3.3.x to Release 3.4.1:

Action in the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface

First time

Subsequent times

Logging in

85%

80%

Switching from Status Overview to Statistics on the Health tab

23% faster response time

1 second

Expanding the Server Pools folder on the Servers and VMs tab

66% faster response time

0 seconds

Switching from the Servers and VMs tab to the Health tab

62% faster response time

73% faster response time

Security

Improved character handling for filters

Improvements to Oracle VM Manager allow for better handling of characters used in filter fields to improve matching capabilities and to provide improved protection against attempted SQL injection attacks.

Improved handling of user passwords

This release of Oracle VM includes changes to how user passwords are stored on the system so that they are not exposed on the command line.

FIPS 140-2 Validation

This release supports enabling FIPS mode for OpenSSL to be compliant with Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 140-2. For more information about FIPS and Oracle VM security, see the Oracle VM Security Guide.

Information on enabling FIPS mode for OpenSSL is provided in the Oracle Linux 6 Security Guide, available at: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37670_01/

Usability and Serviceability

Device mappings

Virtual machine configuration details under the Servers and VMs tab in the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface display device mappings that allow you to easily identify which physical resources, such as disks in the repository, correspond to virtual resources, such as virtual disks assigned to virtual machines. See Virtual Machines Perspective in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide for more information.

Object topology view

You can view graphical representations, and generate reports, of virtual machine object nodes and attributes to quickly locate resources and view information about those resources. See Display VM Hierarchy Viewer in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide for more information.

Context sensitive help

Online help for Oracle VM now launches directly from elements in the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface to the relevant help topics. This online help system eliminates the need to navigate through help topics to find information. See Help Icon in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide for more information.

User preferences

Oracle VM Manager stores certain user preferences across sessions. See User Preference Persistence in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide for more information about user preferences.

Simple names for repository objects

Oracle VM Manager persists simple names for repository objects as metadata. As a result, the simple names are retained when the repository is transferred to a different instance of Oracle VM Manager. Likewise, the metadata allows you to easily recover the simple names in cases where Oracle VM Manager is manually restored without a database backup. For more information, see How is Object Metadata Stored in a Repository? in the Oracle VM Concepts Guide.

Generating XML reports

Oracle VM Manager lets you generate XML reports on objects, the object attributes, and direct subobjects. You can generate reports for virtual machines, Oracle VM Servers, server pools, and storage. For more information, see Reports in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide.

Configuring database backups

The Preferences tab in the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface lets you set the interval for backing up the MySQL database and number of backups to keep. For more information, see Preferences in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide.

Listing the locations of virtual machine disks

Oracle VM Manager provides detailed information on the location of virtual machine disks to facilitate backup tasks.

  • See Virtual Machines Perspective in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide for more information about locating virtual machine disks in the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface.

  • See the Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface User's Guide for more information about various commands that return attributes for the location of virtual machine disks.

Monitoring Oracle VM Server through SNMP

This release provides an SNMP shared object module that lets you retrieve details about Oracle VM Server, monitor Oracle VM Server health, and return a list of running virtual machines. See Monitoring Oracle VM Server with SNMP in the Oracle VM Administrator's Guide for more information on the Oracle VM Server shared object module.

Note

The Oracle VM Server object module applies to x86 systems only. This object module does not apply to Oracle VM Server for SPARC.

Viewing virtual machine configuration files

Oracle VM lets you easily retrieve the configuration files for virtual machines (vm.cfg).

  • See View Virtual Machine Configuration File in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide for more information on viewing a virtual machine configuration file in the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface.

  • See getVmCfgFileContent in the Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface User's Guide for more information on viewing a virtual machine configuration file in the Oracle VM Manager Command Line Interface.

Avoiding multiple physical disk allocation

Oracle VM provides detailed information about how physical disks are in use to avoid multiple physical disk allocation.

  • See Physical Disks Perspective in the Oracle VM Manager User's Guide for more information on working with physical disks.

  • See Local Storage in the Oracle VM Concepts Guide for more information about local storage and physical disks.

Virtual IP addresses for server pools

The field to specify a virtual IP address (VIP) while creating a server pool is deprecated in this release but available for backwards compatibility.

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