Friday, April 23, 2010

Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture

I am excited to be going for a 3 day workshop by Oracle on the following week. At present I only aware of Oracle Maximum Availabilty Architecture comprising of the 4 parts:-
  • Real Application Cluster(RAC)
    • This is to protect for any DB server failure
  • Automatic Storage Management(ASM)
    • This is to protect from DB Storage failure
  • Flashback
    • This is to perform a quick undo on user or admin errors.
  • Data Guard
    • This is for the automated failover of DB system to standby DB site.
I do wonder if the Change Assurance Feature part of this architecture. I hope to learn more and how the MAA is integrated, deployed and what is the best practices.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Private PAAS by Oracle

In recent week, I had the opportunity to attend all three vendors presentation on the topic of  cloud computing. Today, I shall blog about one of them, the Oracle cloud offerings, or they termed it as Oracle Private PaaS(Platform as a Service). I have been using oracle products for many years now, and was very interested in the presentation given by the Oracle reps.

Oracle Private 'PaaS' aimed to achieve these 5 parts.

1) Shared Infrastructure with dynamic scaling
To create an infrastructure which can dynamically scale,  Oracle re-utilized the Grid technology. On the application front, there is an Application grid, where the tools like Weblogic Server, JRockit, Coherence, Tuxedo resides.On the data management, Oracle has the Database Grid & Storage Grid. Concept of In-Memory Database Cache(IMDB), Real Application Cluster(RAC) and Automatic Storage Management are also in built in the private PaaS offerings. The OEM also allow to do the administering.

2) Support component sharing
To support component sharing, Oracle have the SOA & BPM together with the Oracle workflows and Identity Management(IM).

3) Support fast deployment
Pre-configured images, Oracle VM and new component like the Weblogic Server Virtual Edition(VE), can be assembled using the Oracle Assembly Builder by making them into Assembled catalog and then the can be deployed as a platform.

4) Self-serviced
Oracle EM can help PaaS to be self-serviced by scaling up and down.

5) Management and Automation
Lastly management and automation can be done via OEM. IM allow identity management of users.

Oracle believe, most organization providing application services really need a private PaaS solutions instead of IaaS. The focus should be in facilitating the build of apps, making it easier and flexible and can be deploy fast.
Oracle propose this by adopting their Private PaaS solutions.

Friday, April 16, 2010

The cloudburst of IBM

Was fortunate to attend another interesting cloud presentation by a consultant from UK (Mr Lewis Troke) on the cloud offerings by IBM. He was a captivating presenter, whom was very generous to share hs knowledge on cloud computing.At the end, the message that he wanted to put across was that Cloud computing is more business than IT. Technology and IT are still important, but to make cloud computing work, the business must champion it

For this post, I will like to narrow down on "cloudburst." the cloud enabler appliance from IBM.

Cloudburst is actually an IBM hardware appliance that integrates service management software with servers, storage and services for use in the private cloud. It is used to build, configure, deploy and manage the WebSphere private cloud environments. It is also used for building patterns and configuration, which are the Virtual images and script packages so that the deployment can be easier and automated, via the portal.

The virtual images are packaged in the WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition(WAS-HE) under the Catalog. It contains WebSphere components, like the IBM HTTP server, and a Linux operating system. The (WAS-HE) is packaged according to the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) standard.

The steps involved in setting up a private cloud are firstly by integrating IBM cloudburst in the datacenter and network. Then assigning the local storage. Users account and security profiles are also created. The pattern creator can then create some pattern templates. After patterns are created and agreed upon, it will be saved and access list to it will be established. Likely the cloud administrator will then in future deploy this pattern as or when required.

To define the cloud, the administrator normally begin with hypervisors. The details of the hypervisor include the installed URL, authentication information, virtual machine instances and IP groups (DNS servers, gateways, and  range of IP addresses available for the cloud)

The cloudburst can also tracks and reports cloud usage for charge-back based on one's consumption. Other settings include security, backup/restore actions, firmware upgrades, logging, trace auditing and power management.

At the time of this post the cloudburst is at version 1.2.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Oracle VM

I had the opportunity earlier to understand something about OracleVM(OVM) by the Oracle representative that came to visit my company earlier today. Besides the Oracle Cloud-G Architecture that they presented, I am more curious about what is OVM


OVM or oracle virtual machines is based on open-sourced Xen Hypervisor technology. Oracle VM previously only supported on  linux and window platform or they sometime called the, linux and window guests. However, they have recently release Oracle VM server for SPARC or previously in Sun called LDOM.

Each OVM has its own virtual CPUs, network interfaces, storage and operating system. With Oracle VM, users have an easy-to-use browser-based tool for creating, cloning, sharing, configuring, booting and migrating VMs. Using Oracle EM, we can also administered the OVMs.

Oracle has always encourage better use of hardware. So it is not surprise that OVM is built upon predecessor like the Oracle Grid, ASM and RAC. OVM also serve as a building block in Oracle Clouds's offerings.

Installing OVM should be relatively straightforward like installing linux. Give it  a try and it's free.

Links to OVM specs:
http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/virtualization/024974.htm

Below are some useful OVM commands

Logs path = /var/log/xen/xend 

List which virtual machines are running right now. 
# xm list

Start the vm.
 
# xm create vm.cfg

Kill the power to vm: vm01 - hard shutdown
 
# xm destroy vm01

Monitors a host and its domains in real time
 
# xm top 
 
Send the vm: vm01 the shutdown command, like doing a shutdown inside the vm
 # xm shutdown vm01
 
Current status of the guest operating system is written to disk and removed from system memory
 # xm suspend vm01
 
restore vm01 (any time including after a host system reboot) 
# xm resume vm01

Split / Join files

Sometime the files are too big to put on FAT32 thumbdrives. Use the split and cat commands here:

Split the file system.img into 3Gig chunks
 
# split --bytes=3000m system.img

Join up the files system.img.part1, system.img.part2, etc... into the file system.img
 
# cat system.img.part* > system.img


Here we created a new device, /dev/xvdb. Now we start up the vm and run fdisk

# fdisk /dev/xvdb

Create a physical volume from this device
 
# pvcreate /dev/xvdb1

Create the logical volume group from the physical device
 
# vgcreate lvm-oracledb /dev/xvdb1

Create the logical volume using 100% of the free space in the logical group lvm-oracledb
 
# lvcreate -l 100%FREE lvm-oracledb -n lvm0

Format the file system
 
# mkfs -t ext3 /dev/lvm-oracledb/lvm0

Create a mount point
 
# mkdir /oracledb

Add the following to "/etc/fstab" to automatically mount the volume when the computer starts up
/dev/lvm-oracledb/lvm0 /oracledb ext3 defaults 1 2
Mount the volume
 
# mount -a


ADDITIONAL LINK : 
http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Managing_Xen_using_the_xm_Command-line_Tool

Remove a Disk (LVM)

Remove /etc/fstab entry[root@vl-ucm1 ~]# vi /etc/fstab

Unmount the device, get device name with:
lvdisplay
# umount /dev/lvm-stellent/lvm0

OR

[root@vl-ucm1 /]# ls /u01
downloads lost+found oracle
[root@vl-ucm1 /]# umount /u01
[root@vl-ucm1 /]# ls /u01


If you get:
[root@vl-ucm1 /]# umount /dev/lvm-stellent/lvm0
umount: /u01: device is busy


Find out what is using the device with:
[root@vl-ucm1 /]# fuser -m /dev/lvm-stellent/lvm0
/dev/lvm-stellent/lvm0: 3557m 3620m 3621m 3622m 3623m 3624m 3625m 3626m 3627m
[root@vl-ucm1 /]# ps auxw| grep 3557
root 3557 0.0 0.5 10856 3104 ? Ss 10:55 0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd

[root@vl-ucm1 /]# service httpd stop
Stopping httpd: [ OK ]
[root@vl-ucm1 /]# umount /dev/lvm-stellent/lvm0
[root@vl-ucm1 /]# df -h

And you should no longer see the disk with 'df'

Remove any entries from /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf that refer to this disk.

use lvremove to remove the logical volume
[root@vl-ucm1 /]# lvremove /dev/lvm-stellent/lvm0
Do you really want to remove active logical volume "lvm0"? [y/n]: y
Logical volume "lvm0" successfully removed


use lgdisplay and lgremove to remove logical group
[root@vl-ucm1 /]# vgremove lvm-stellent
Volume group "lvm-stellent" successfully removed


use pvdisplay and pvremove to remove physical volume
[root@vl-ucm1 /]# pvremove /dev/hdb1
Labels on physical volume "/dev/hdb1" successfully wiped


remove partition with fdisk /dev/hdb, 'd', enter, 'w' = write partition and exit
# fdisk /dev/hdb

Remove the disk entry from the vm.cfg file, and restart the vm.

To shrink a LVM

Just create a new disk, copy over contents and delete old volume.
.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Looking at web world crystal ball

Where are we heading, so many technologies, so many resources.. certainly we have so many choices. Or are we getting lost in the world of web. Let make some assumption on the way forward for web world.

[1] The world of web will continue to evolve

[2] Dominated by technology-based companies or Information commodity markets.

[3] Machines will keep getting cheaper, but demand and expectation keep getting higher

[4] Everything getting connected

[5] Users will continue to be human

We will see our web and world getting more connected and maybe as important as electricity.

Friday, April 2, 2010

10 Habits of Successful Web 2.0 Sites


[This writeup was part of my technical sharing presentation that I was preparing for fellow infrastructure sysadmins]

#1 Contribute First
- Aim to provide a site that can contribute to user, free of charge.
- Share the data as much possible.

 #2 User-centered Design
-  Simple and ease of use is still important feature of anything, including Websites.
- Allowing customizations and personalisations.
- Collect users feedback(social understanding) and make the enhancements.
  
#3 The Web as Platform
- The web is the BIG platform. Use it!
- Accessibilty from any methods possible.
- Creating something that could be a potential platform or foundation for others, will definitely be a hit! (e.g Facebook)

#4 Crowd-sourcing
- Allowing user to participate and contribute. Even a small contribution, with millions of such contribution will eventually lead to a relevant website
- Focus on attracting people to contribute and share. The more people use it the better it gets.

#5 Rich User Experience
- Faster,lighter,less clustered, service oriented.
- Using AJAX, CSS2.0, XHTML, AIR

#6 Dynamic Content
- Plan and aim for the Web 2.0 services to be proactively growing and maturing. 
- With crowd-sourcing, web 2.0 can access and facilitate the dynamic content much easier than before.

#7 Mashup & Collaboration
- The power of networking and joining forces can be good. Combining two great web 2.0 applications will create a better Mashup applications.

#8 Power Decentralisation
- Web 2.0 is about people. The power is with the people. Allowing people to contribute, control and trust will be the way forward to grow the Web Ecosystem.

#9 Cloud computing - Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Elasticity and scalable.
- Platform independent

#10 It is all about the users.

- Users are the key component of any web 2.0 sites. Without them, the site fail.
- Make users part of the architectural framework.