Reduce costs with HPE VM Essentials in your Oracle database on Oracle Linux

[Cloud_Experts]

By Matt Jacoby, Senior Solutions Engineering Manager, HPE Hybrid Cloud GTM Solutions

Enterprises are seeking efficient, cost-effective ways to deploy and manage their application workloads. Virtualization has long been a preferred method for optimizing resources, enhancing flexibility, and streamlining infrastructure management. For organizations considering Oracle Database on Oracle Linux, finding the right virtualization platform that balances performance, scalability, simplicity, and cost is essential. That’s where HPE VM Essentials is a compelling virtualization platform for Oracle workloads.

Unlock the power of virtualization with HPE VM Essentials

HPE VM Essentials is a seamless, high-performance virtualization platform suitable for smaller-scale Oracle deployments. It is ideal for non-mission-critical workloads like development, testing, and departmental or edge Oracle database environments, eventually moving into production environments.

Let’s start with the basics: What is HPE VM Essentials?

The HPE VM Essentials solution comprises redundant servers, storage, and interconnect components, providing an enterprise-class platform tailored for mixed virtualized workloads , specifically optimized for Oracle database environments. This robust platform serves as an ideal consolidation solution, enabling efficient management of numerous workloads and potentially reducing virtualization licensing expenses.

Designed to orchestrate and manage the complete virtualization stack—including compute resources, networking infrastructure, and storage—HPE VM Essentials ensures optimal functionality through its centralized management capabilities. The VM Essentials manager intelligently provisions and dynamically optimizes Oracle Linux VMs across the cluster, maintaining balanced resource distribution, high availability, and peak operational performance.

 
To support scaling workloads effectively, HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 delivers enterprise-grade storage with a 100% data availability guarantee, providing the reliability essential for mission-critical applications. Additionally, while automated processes streamline initial deployments, all configuration parameters remain fully accessible and adjustable manually for customized control.

HPE VM Essentials currently runs on HPE hardware, with certifications for additional hardware platforms in progress. Refer to the HPE VM Essentials Compatibility and Interop guide for more details on supported configurations.

HPE VM Essentials software delivers a feature-rich virtualization experience, making it an ideal choice for virtualizing Oracle Linux and Oracle Database. Some key benefits include:

• Simple and predictable licensing model: HPE VM Essentials uses a processor socket-based subscription model, making scaling more predictable and cost-efficient. VME software is subscription-licensed by CPU socket (not by CPU-Core) and can be purchased in one-, three-, or five-year increments, where all software features are included. There are no additional bundles to buy.
• High availability and reliability: Built-in features like live migration and high availability ensure that workloads remain operational even during hardware failures.
• Comprehensive virtualization features: Support for VM live migration, snapshots, storage integration, native and third-party data protection integration, and intelligent distributed workload placement enhances operational flexibility.
• Optimized storage support: Integrates with external storage solutions, including NFS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel, ensuring compatibility with existing infrastructure.
• Seamless integration: Manage KVM-based clusters and existing VMware environments through HPE VM Essentials Manager, enabling smooth workload transitions.

The HPE VM Essentials Software Quick Specs outline additional integrations and features.

Deploying Oracle Database 19c on Oracle Linux 8 u10 with HPE VM Essentials

HPE validated the deployment of Oracle Database 19c on Oracle Linux 8 U10 using HPE VM Essentials v.8.0.2. The deployment process is straightforward. It can be completed in five steps, providing a cloud-like experience with streamlined automation.

Fast, simple VM deployment in five steps

The setup wizard in HPE VM Essentials simplifies VM instance provisioning by guiding the users through:

1. VM type selection: Choose the appropriate virtual machine type for Oracle Linux.
2. Group assignment: Assign the VM to a predefined group for organization and access control.
3. Configuration settings: Define CPU, memory, networking, and storage volumes based on workload needs.
4. Automation and backup options: Enable automation scripts and configure backups.
5. Final review and deployment: Verify the settings and submit the configuration. Within minutes, the Oracle Linux VM is created and boots automatically, ready for the Oracle database installation.

The Oracle database deployment process follows the same steps as those used for virtual machines or bare metal installations. However, it is essential to note that only single-instance Oracle database deployments are currently validated. Validation for Oracle RAC is planned as part of the HPE VM Essentials roadmap and is expected to be available later this year.  

 
For a detailed step-by-step guide on deploying Oracle database 19c on Oracle Linux 8 U10, including best practices and storage optimizations, refer to this technical whitepaper.

Managing Oracle Linux on both VM Essentials and VMware

HPE VM Essentials manager integrates seamlessly with VMware environments, enabling discovery, workload deployment and management of existing VMware VMs while allowing users to provision and manage new VMs directly on a VM Essentials hypervisor cluster.

Suppose you already have a virtualized VMware Oracle environment. In that case, VM Essentials manager enables you to manage existing vSphere clusters and data centers through a unified interface syncing every five minutes to keep the VM Essentials manager updated with the latest vSphere infrastructure data. As workloads evolve, organizations have the flexibility to deploy new virtual machines directly on VM Essentials, providing greater choice in how they virtualize and manage their applications.

Key takeaways from deploying Oracle Database on Oracle Linux with HPE VM Essentials

Through the deployment of Oracle Database 19c on Oracle Linux 8 U10 using HPE VM Essentials, several key insights emerged:

1. Optimized for Oracle database performance: VM Essentials has been validated with single-instance Oracle database deployments, leveraging HPE Storage MP B10000 for high availability and low latency performance.
2. Simplified and automated deployment: VM Essentials provides a streamlined, cloud-like experience with a five-step process that reduces manual effort and ensures consistent provisioning.
3. Cost-efficient virtualization alternative: Socket-based CPU licensing (not core count) and flexible infrastructure options.
4. Virtualize Oracle workloads efficiently: Organizations can leverage HPE VM Essentials as a virtualization platform to efficiently manage applications and seamlessly deploy new Oracle workloads.

Next steps to get started with HPE VM Essentials

Want to see how HPE VM Essentials can optimize your Oracle virtual environment? Start with HPE CloudPhysics, our assessment tool for analyzing your existing infrastructure. It delivers reports packed with insights, helping you identify risks, boost performance, and uncover optimization opportunities. Even if VM Essentials isn’t on your immediate roadmap, running this assessment on your VMware environment will give you a picture of your environment, enabling you to modernize and keep up with your business's demands.

Discover how HPE VM Essentials can help optimize Oracle virtualization costs, improve workload management, and protect your database investment.

Please continue to follow me as I post new content on how to ensure your mission-critical applications meet your ever-growing and changing business demands.

Ready to act?

• Explore HPE VM Essentials to learn how to manage existing workloads, re-platform, and streamline VM vending
• Start an assessment through HPE CloudPhysics to discover optimization opportunities
• View the first look demo to see HPE VM Essentials in action
• Download the whitepaper HPE VM Essentials virtualized Oracle database using Alletra Storage MP B10000 to explore Oracle deployment strategies
• Get started with a free trial to experience the benefits firsthand
• Contact your HPE account manager or HPE Sales to ask for an initial conversation about HPE VM Essentials software

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  Meet HPE Blogger Matt Jacoby,  Senior Solutions Engineering Manager, HPE Hybrid Cloud GTM Solutions

  Matt leads a team of application engineers dedicated to architecting, testing, and documenting innovative partner-driven application solutions within HPE’s Hybrid Cloud portfolio. His team delivers comprehensive, scalable applications that modernize your business, drive business growth, and enhance customer success. By developing and refining technical assets, they empower field teams, partners, and customers to maximize the value of hybrid cloud technologies. Combining deep technical expertise with strategic enablement, Matt ensures that his team’s work continues to push the innovation boundaries for enterprise applications.

  Follow Matt on LinkedIn.

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