An area that offers non-software vendors, i.e.
companies doing their own customer specific database application
development, an opportunity to leverage these same techniques are
predefined database application project development environments. A
central data architecture and/or database tools group might create
several database version and application nature templates to support
projects their company may undertake. Examples might include:
For each of these, they might offer different
packing options based upon the development tools to be used. So, for
example, the 10g for OLTP might come with the database preconfigured
for precompiler support, whereas the data warehousing solution would
come with ETL tool support preconfigured. Having such templates
readily available would provide two key benefits. First, it would
provide a simple yet reliable mechanism for application development
to quick start their database application development efforts. But
more importantly, it would foster enterprise level adherence to
standards since all teams would start from the same virtual machine
templates.
Education & Learning
Here is another area where using a virtual
machine might not seem as readily apparent, but which supports all
the concepts above. Lets assume that you go to an Oracle training
class and in that class they provide you with your own
self-contained virtual machine for doing the programming assignments
and labs. They get the benefit of easy setup for each and every
class, no matter what the size. You get the benefit of bringing your
learning environment home with you. That way, you can continue to
expand upon those principles or refresh those concepts at a later
date when the material is more significant to tasks at hand. And
since many Oracle specialty or reference books attempt to achieve
the same end result as a class, they should also include a virtual
machine for the topics covered.
Books Virtual Machine
It would be silly to express the prior opinion
and then not include a virtual machine with this text. Therefore, I
have created what I hope can serve as a useful, self-contained
virtual machine for basic Oracle database learning and
experimentation. Plus, it can serve as an example of how one might
construct their own library of virtual machine templates as
discussed above.
The DVD in this book contains a virtual machine
which includes the following preinstalled and optimized for generic
database usage:
-
CentOS Linux 4.5, with
all current patches at the time
-
Oracle 10g Release 2
Express Edition (Oracle freeware)
-
Oracle SQL Developer
for Linux (Oracle freeware)
-
Four Free or Open
Source ERP products schema objects
The following information will be necessary for
using this VM:
You can read more about the Open Source ERP
products at:
Below in Figures 1 and 2 are screen snapshots
showing the database up and running and being inspected via SQL
Developer and Oracle Application Express (which has been set as the
web browsers default home and bookmarked as well):
Figure 1: Screen
of Database in SQL Developer
Figure 2: Screen
of Database in Oracle Application Express
Conclusion
In this chapter, we examined the many
possibilities of using Oracle database virtual machines. It is not
just an interesting and exciting technology; it also has numerous
practical usages with the traditional DBA prevue. We just need to
embrace and propagate such techniques. The book includes a DVD
consisting of a template virtual machine with Oracle Express Edition
(i.e. XE) and some free or open source ERP
objects.
This is an excerpt from
Oracle on VMWare:
Expert tips for database virtualization
by Rampant TechPress.
and include the URL for the page.
