The World According to Mitch

Everyone runs Windows… okay, that is not entirely true, but by 2012 it is the rare datacentre that does not have any Windows running.  I have been crisscrossing the country and indeed traversing the globe telling people how wonderful Hyper-V and Microsoft’s virtualization story is as good as or better than it’s competition, whether that be VMware or KVM or whoever else.  That often brings up the question from my audiences: ‘Okay, so Hyper-V and System Center are great for managing the Microsoft environment, but what about the mixed-mode environment for DCs that run some Windows, some Linux, and some Oracle?  What tools should we be using in conjunction with System Center, and should I consider for this environment implementing a permanent heterogeneous virtualization environment with Hyper-V running my Windows machines, and either VMware or KVM for my non-Windows systems?’

The truth is that Microsoft wants your business.  I will not deny that, Microsoft feels that if your virtualization hosts are running Hyper-V and you are managing it using System Center 2012, then it should be as easy a management experience as they can provide.  They also understand that some of you are running other operating systems in some of your machines.  Rather than making you use separate tools, they have made it easier for you to manage that heterogeneous mixed-mode environment using the same tools as you would use to manage your Microsoft environment – the ‘Single Pane of Glass’ that I have been speaking about for the past few years.

Last year I wrote an article about Linux Integration Services (LIS) 3.4 (http://blogs.technet.com/b/canitpro/archive/2012/09/11/linux-integration-services-for-hyper-v-3-4.aspx).  Recently Gilson Banin, a PFE with Microsoft in Brazil, wrote a great step-by-step article on installing Oracle Linux with the LIS 3.4 under a Hyper-V environment.  Of course Oracle Linux is not officially supported in Hyper-V (Oracle is very clear that the only virtualization environment they support is their own), but that does not mean that you cannot do it, and that it will not work.  Try it out and let us know what you think!

You can follow Gilson’s blog on TechNet.com at http://blogs.technet.com/b/gbanin/.

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Hello Virtualization Nation. Probably you are thinking, how an Premier Field Engineer that loves Windows Server may help a Linux Community? Well, before starting at Microsoft’s World I was a Linux enthusiast, I started my career managing SCO Unix, yes I was born in 1978 but leaving these years on the past, today I love to help customer to get better experience, it does not matter if virtual machines are Windows or Linux. Recently I had the opportunity to help a important customer here in Brazil to win this challenge. Frequently some Oracle DBA told me that Linux didn’t work very well on Hyper-V, they were working more than a month trying to install Linux and nothing, nothing, nothing. I love to hear these customers that are not satisfied with our product because I always have a chance to change the game and improve their satisfaction.

So I decided to do step by step all procedures to install Oracle Linux on Hyper-V, of course first step was to make a download of ISO of Oracle Linux from Oracle Web Site (www.oracle.com), I’ve used the version Release 6 Update 3 64 bits. I didn’t to try to use oldest versions but feel free to validate it.

Download of LIS 3.4 HERE http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34603

The next step is to create a Virtual Machine without Network Interfaces (Yes! No NICs synthetic OR legacy). So create a VM into Hyper-V normally after remove Network Adapter, attach ISO and start it. Take a look VM settings below :

After that install the operating system using default values.  During the installation you will observe that Network Settings will be not available to set IP address; don’t worry and continue and finish installation. Select “Install or upgrade an existing system”

Everybody knows that Oracle Linux is a copy of Red Hat Linux.  In the past the companies had contractual agreements broken because all customers that decided to use Oracle on Linux, Red Hat always was recommended.  Both companies won and had revenues.

Leaving disagree between these companies, let’s go back to this article, Configure Network button will not be available, don’t worry and go, click Next.

Wait for the process to complete, then log on as root and configure your password.  If you use VI editor it is easier and simple. If you do not know how to do this visit http://www.linux.org/article/view/using-the-vi-editor

Edit /etc/grup.conf

# vi /etc/grub.conf set default = 1

# vi /etc/sysconfig/kernel,

(delete –uek from last of DEFUALT KERNEL..line)

Reboot (it is mandatory).

Insert ISO LIS 3.4 into virtual DVD.

login as root.

# mount /dev/cdrom /media

# cd /media/RHEL63

To Install Hyper-V Integration Services, execute ./install.sh

# ./install.sh

Shutdown virtual machine (#halt)

Add a Network Adapter (not legacy)

Start the VM.  The Integration Services should be fine.  Before editing configure network settings below:

# cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts

# cp ifcfg-lo ifcfg-eth0

Edit ifcfg-eth0 and define your configurations (ip, mask, device name…)

#vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

DEVICE=eth0

BOOTPROTO=static

IPADDR=YOUR IP

NETMASK=YOUR MASK

ONBOOT=yes

NAME=eth0

Now create or edit /etc/sysconfig/network and include below information, gateway is yours

# vi /etc/sysconfig/network (if it does not exist create it )

NETWORKING=yes

HOSTNAME=<your hostname>

GATEWAY= <your IP Gateway>

Edit /etc/resolv.conf and put at least one DNS IP server

# vi /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver 8.8.8.8

(or use the system-config-network utility)

Select Device Configuration

Finally, execute # ifup eth0 to start network interface 0 and after # ifconfig, observe that network interface eth0 is now shown:

Linux Integration Services provides support for the modinfo command. To get module information for each installed kernel module, run the following command :

#/sbin/modinfo hv_vmbus

This command can be repeated for all kernel modules (hv_vmbus, hv_netvsc, hv_storvsc, hv_blkvsc, and hv_utils).

To verify that all subcomponents are running as the root user, issue the following command at a shell prompt :

Don’t forget that if your VM is highly available and you want to do Live Migration, MAC Address needs to be Static rather than Dynamic.

Change it on Advanced Features on Network Adapter Properties VM.

Well done! Welcome to Linux on Hyper-V!! Interoperability is here!

Note: Officially Oracle Linux is not supported by Microsoft, but it works perfectly. To learn more about which operating systems are officially supported, please visit : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794868(v=ws.10).aspx

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