Installing Oracle VM Manager for vSphere and OVS Administration

Managing large clusters of enterprise Oracle VM Server (OVS) hypervisors requires a robust centralized administration platform. Oracle VM Manager (OVM) provides an enterprise-grade WebLogic application interface to coordinate VM provisioning, storage repositories, and live migrations across your hypervisor fleet.

In this guide, I will walk you through the complete sysadmin workflow for deploying Oracle VM Manager: resetting legacy ovs-agent databases on hypervisors, mounting installation ISOs, establishing required kernel user limits, adjusting iptables firewall rules, and initializing WebLogic MySQL schemas.

Prerequisites

You will need a dedicated Enterprise Linux server with root privileges, alongside active Oracle VM Server (OVS) hypervisors ready to be discovered.

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Step 1: Resetting Legacy ovs-agent Databases on Hypervisors

If your OVS hypervisors were previously managed by an older OVM instance, you must reset their local ovs-agent databases before importing them into your new management server.

Execute the following cleanup commands on all target OVS hypervisors:

# Stop ovs-agent service
service ovs-agent stop

# Delete local agent database records
rm -rf /etc/ovs-agent/db

# Empty cluster configuration manifest
> /etc/ocfs2/cluster.conf

# Restart ovs-agent service
service ovs-agent start

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Step 2: Mounting ISO Media and Preparing OS Environment

On your management server, mount the official Oracle VM Manager installation ISO and execute the prerequisite preparation script to create required service accounts.

# Mount OVM installation ISO
mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /cdrom
cd /cdrom/

# Execute prerequisite preparation script
./createOracle.sh

Understanding Prerequisite System Modifications

Executing ./createOracle.sh creates the oinstall and dba groups alongside the unprivileged oracle service user. It also automatically updates /etc/security/limits.conf to enforce required kernel limits:

# /etc/security/limits.conf
oracle  soft    nofile          8192
oracle  hard    nofile          8192
oracle  soft    nproc           4096
oracle  hard    nproc           4096
oracle  soft    core            unlimited
oracle  hard    core            unlimited

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Step 3: Firewall Configuration (iptables)

Oracle VM Manager requires open communication across several management, WebLogic, and console proxy ports. The prerequisite script automatically injects the following rules into /etc/sysconfig/iptables:

# WebLogic HTTPS Management Port
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 7002 -j ACCEPT

# OVM VM Console Proxy
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 15901 -j ACCEPT

# OVM Core Management and SSL Ports
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 54321 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 54322 -j ACCEPT

# OVM CLI Administration Tool
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 10000 -j ACCEPT

# Save and reload iptables
service iptables save
service iptables restart

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Step 4: Executing Master Installation and WebLogic Setup

With prerequisites satisfied, execute the master installer ./runInstaller.sh. The installer deploys a localized MySQL database schema (ovs), configures WebLogic Server administration credentials, and installs the ovm_shell.sh CLI utility.

# Execute master installation
./runInstaller.sh

Installation Configuration Summary

• Database Type: MySQL (localhost:49500)
• Database Name / User: ovs
• WebLogic Administrator Username: weblogic
• Oracle VM Manager Username: admin
• Core Management Port: 54321

# Verify OVM service status
service ovmm status

References

• Oracle VM Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide