The VMware client operating system and GUI run
inside of a virtual container created on the host operating system.
As such, there are some tools, like highly specialized drivers,)
that the client operating system and GUI can use to more efficiently
communicate with the host container. But you need to install those
VMware tools yourselves - both manually and for each client
operating system. This is not an automatic step and is often
forgotten. Note in the lower left corner of the screen snapshot
shown in Figure 16 that VMware even informs you that this situation
exists since you get a warning sign prominently displayed whenever
the focus is the VMware host's main window.
Figure 16: VMWare Tools Warning Sign
However, it is very easy to address. Under the
?VM? menu option on the VMware server's main menu, there is a choice
for ?Install VMware Tools?. Once selected, this will result
in the ?VMware Tools? showing up on your Linux desktop. Now open the
?VMware Tools? CD by double clicking on it. There are two ways in
which to install these tools. First, you can right-hand-mouse on the
?.rpm? file and select ?Open with Install Packages?. However, there
are times when this approach will seemingly work, yet the warning
message will remain. So the second and often more reliable method is
to drag the zip file onto your desktop, unzip it, untar it, and then
run the Perl script installation like shown in the command window
above.
Now you are close to
having an optimal Linux operating system install as your VMware
client and are ready for installing Oracle. That brings up
the issue of how you will make that Oracle software installation
available to your Linux client. There are four methods generally
available:
-
Neither host nor client has the software, so
mount a DVD with the Oracle install image on the Linux client
(normal way)
-
Host has a copy of the Oracle install image, so
FTP over a copy to the Linux client (wasteful - doubles cost of
disk space)
-
Host has a copy of the Oracle install image, so
use Samba to make those files available from Windows host to Linux
client
-
Neither host nor client has the software, so
mount a DVD or flash drive with the Oracle install image on the
Windows host and use Samba to make that device available to Linux
client
Using Samba often makes good sense since it
makes file transfers so seamless and easy and you will often find
that you have a collection of SQL scripts on your Windows hosts that
you?d like to be able to run from the Linux client. So let's go with
option #3.
Note that we can also ?kill two birds
with one stone? during this step since the Samba mount point entry
goes in the /etc/fstab file - which is the exact same file we need
to modify for the ?noatime? file system optimization (from
Chapter 4). In Figure 17 on the next page are the recommended
changes to the /etc/fstab file. The first two lines add
?,noatime? to the /boot and / mount points. The last line adds a
Samba mount point for our host's C\: drive, thereby making it
accessible from our Linux client.
Figure 17: Recommended Changes to /etc/fstab
File
Finally, you need to configure the Linux
services that auto start when the client virtual machine is booted.
You do not want to turn off anything necessary, but you also don't
want to autorun anything that is unnecessary, i.e. purely overhead
for demo purposes, such as printing. There are three ways to modify
the services started:
Note: If you use the ??del? version of
the chkconfig command, you will be disabling that service across all
run levels. That may be preferable since you might want to switch
the Linux run level to non-GUI after Oracle has been installed and
configured. However, it has been my experience that the X-Windows
GUI does not place that high a load on the system, so it is
generally a personal preference these days. But if after installing
Oracle you want to make that final system tweak as well, do one of
the following:
Here are some services that are not really
needed for simple demo purposes:
-
anacron (unless scheduling cron jobs)
-
apmd
-
atd (unless using the ?at? command)
-
crond (unless scheduling cron jobs)
-
cups
-
cups-config rsh
-
haldaemon
-
isdn
-
kudzu
-
lvm2-monitor (unless using the logical volume
manager)
-
mdmonitor
-
netfs
-
nfslock
-
openibd
-
pcmcia
-
rawdevices (unless using Oracle with raw
devices)
-
sendmail
-
smartd
The goal here is not to reduce the
effectiveness of the Linux client, but merely to lighten its load
for things that you are sure you won't need to run Oracle or give
basic demos. If you have done everything right, you should end up
with minimal services auto-started as shown below (Figure 18):
Figure 18: Minimal Services in Auto-Start
Ultimately, you have an optimal Linux operating
system install as your VMware client ready for installing Oracle.
The only problem you might encounter is that the Linux install may
not have, by default, installed the ?libaio? packages
necessary for Oracle to do asynchronous I/O. This you can always
install manually anytime.
This is an excerpt from
Oracle on VMWare:
Expert tips for database virtualization
by Rampant TechPress.
