Configure Oracle Linux 6.3 as an Oracle VM template

I have been asked a few times how one can make use of the Oracle VM API to configure an Oracle Linux VM running on top of Oracle VM 3. In the next few blog entries we will go through the various steps. This one will start at the beginning and get you to a completely prepared VM.

Create a VM with a default installation of Oracle Linux 6 update 3

You can freely download Oracle Linux installation images from http://edelivery.oracle.com/linux. Choose any type of installation you want, basic, desktop, server, minimal...

Oracle Linux 6.3 comes with kernel 2.6.39-200.24.1 (UEK2)

# uname -a
Linux ol6u3 2.6.39-200.24.1.el6uek.x86_64 #1 SMP Sat Jun 23 02:39:07 EDT 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Update the VM to the latest version of UEK and in general as a best practice update to the latest patches and reboot the VM

Oracle Linux updates are freely available on our public-yum site and the default install of Oracle Linux 6.3 already points to this location for updates.

# yum update 
# reboot
# uname -a
Linux ol6u3 2.6.39-300.17.3.el6uek.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Dec 19 06:28:03 PST 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

There is an extra kernel module required for the Oracle VM API to work, the ovmapi kernel module provides the ability to communicate messages back and forth between the host and the VM and as such between Oracle VM Manager, through the VM API to the VM and back. We included this kernel module in the 2.6.39-300 kernel to make it easy. There is no need to install extra kernel modules or keep kernel modules up to date when or if we have a new update. The source code for this kernel module is of course part of the UEK2 source tree.

Enable the Oracle Linux add-on channel

After reboot, download the latest public-yum repo file from public-yum which contains more repositories and enable the add-on channel which contains the Oracle VM API packages:

inside the VM :

# cd /etc/yum.repos.d
# rm public-yum-ol6.repo    <- (replace the original version with this newer version)
# wget http://public-yum.oracle.com/public-yum-ol6.repo

Edit the public-yum-ol6.repo file to enable the ol6_addons channel.

Find the ol6_addons section and change enabled=0 to enabled=1.

[ol6_addons]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever Add ons ($basearch)
baseurl=http://public-yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL6/addons/$basearch/
gpgkey=http://public-yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-ol6
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

Save the file.

Install the Oracle VM API packages

# yum install ovmd xenstoreprovider python-simplejson ovm-template-config

This installs the basic necessary packages on Oracle Linux 6 to support the Oracle VM API. xenstore provider is the library which communicates with the ovmapi kernel infrastructure. ovmd is a daemon that handles configuration and re-configuration events and provides a mechanism to send/receive messages between the VM and the Oracle VM Manager.

Add additional configuration packages you want

In order to be able to create a VM template that includes basic OS configuration system scripts, you can decide to install any or all of the following :

ovm-template-config-authentication : Oracle VM template authentication configuration script.
ovm-template-config-datetime       : Oracle VM template datetime configuration script.
ovm-template-config-firewall       : Oracle VM template firewall configuration script.
ovm-template-config-network        : Oracle VM template network configuration script.
ovm-template-config-selinux        : Oracle VM template selinux configuration script.
ovm-template-config-ssh            : Oracle VM template ssh configuration script.
ovm-template-config-system         : Oracle VM template system configuration script.
ovm-template-config-user           : Oracle VM template user configuration script.

Simply type # yum install ovm-template-config-... to install whichever you want.

Enable ovmd

To enable ovmd (recommended) do :

# chkconfig ovmd on 
# /etc/init.d/ovmd start

Prepare your VM for first boot configuration

If you want to shutdown this VM and enable the first boot configuration as a template, execute :

# ovmd -s cleanup
# service ovmd enable-initial-config
# shutdown -h now

After cloning this VM or starting it, it will act as a first time boot VM and it will require configuration input through the VM API or on the virtual VM console.

My next blog will go into detail on how to send messages through the Oracle VM API for remote configuration and also how to extend the scripts.