Oracle 12c on Oracle Linux 6.5 on Hyper-V (Server 2012R2 Updated) on Storage Spaces with De-duplication
What more do you need.... :)The following are for those who encountered some issues with installing Oracle Linux 6.5 on Hyper-V in the hopes of installing the Oracle 12c database on top of Oracle Linux 6.5.
Though Oracle 12c on Oracle Linux 6.5 is not supported on Hyper-V by Oracle, it may be necessary for the purpose of demonstrations and proof of concept.
Configuration environment:
- Server 2012R2 OS With GUI Updated
- Storage spaces enabled on,
- 4 drives in mirror mode
- De-Duplication enabled with 0 days schedule time (always applying de-duplication algorithms on all files)
- OS with 4GB RAM
- 4 core CPU and set with maximum compatibility for live migration
- Boot disk, IDE, 320 GB
- Additional SCSI disk, 320 GB for u01 partition
Major symptoms encountered:
- Installation of Oracle Linux 6.5 went well (partition layout of /boot, 16GB SWAP, rest as / partition as default of ext4) but on reboot freezes on loading some modules.
- Some cases, loading completes and user able to login with root (now the real problem happens)
- Oracle Linux 6.5 OS keeps on using a lot of memory, giving up to 12GB RAM will still result in its using the swap partition.
- Attempting to format SCSI 320 GB disk (/dev/sdb) as MBR and ext4.
- Mounting works but cannot browse using Gnome explorer, nor ls via terminal.
- Un-mounting operation freezes, cannot umount drive.
- Shutting down OS will wait at un-mounting file systems.
- Force power down is necessary.
Could it be a configuration issue?
Mitigation Step 1 Attempted:
- Using kickstart script from oracle dev days VM's
- Formatting and mounting works but cannot browse using Gnome explorer, nor ls via terminal.
- Un-mounting operation freezes, cannot umount drive.
- Shutting down OS will wait at un-mounting file systems.
- Force power down is necessary.
- mkdir /u01/* failed
- umount /u01 failed
- repeated attempts of re-installation failed
- Shutting down OS will wait at un-mounting file systems
- Force power down is necessary
Could it be a storage spaces (and de-duplication) problem?
Mitigation Step 2 Attempted:
- Create VM on a host without de-duplication or storage spaces
- Oracle Linux used about 400MB RAM, no excessive usage of swap partition
- VM was configured with 2100 MB RAM
- Initial attempt worked with formatting and mounting of /dev/sb1 as /u01
- Gnome explorer worked, ls /u01 worke
- mkdir /u01/* failed
- umount /u01 failed
- repeated attempts of re-installation failed
- Shutting down OS will wait at un-mounting file systems
- Force power down is necessary
Could it be a disk IDE/SCSI problem?
Mitigation Step 3 Attempted:
- Create VM with both drives as IDE0 and IDE1
- mkdir /u01/* failed
- umount /u01 failed
- repeated attempts of re-installation failed
- Shutting down OS will wait at un-mounting file systems
- Force power down is necessary
Beyond an IDE/SCSI disk problem?
Mitigation Step 4 Attempted:
- Create VM with disk0 as IDE and disk1 as SCSI
- Installed as normal but used ext3 partitions
Final Result (What everyone is waiting for!!!):
- Installation of Oracle Linux 6.5 worked
- Formatting, mounting of /dev/sdb1 as /u01 worked
- mkdir /u01/temp worked
- unmounting worked
- reboot worked.
At this point installation of Oracle 12c was successful....
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Conclusion (IMHO)
The implemetation of ext4 on top of Hyper-V may be an issue causing disk processes to be in a busy wait.
Using ext3 worked as it has less resilient features implemented as compared to ext4.
Further tests:
xfs, btrfs etc...
Googling for a solution at this time (2014/08/10) did not produce any valid results but if anyone has encountered something similar with a working solution please share your experiences by posting in the comments or pm me.
