Can we use virtual box for creating OVM with hard partitioning

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Syed
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Can we use virtual box for creating OVM with hard partitioning

Post by Syed »

Hi,

We want to create 2 Oracle Virtual machines for installing Oracle EBS(2 node DB & Apps) with hard partitioning (CPU pinning). Can we achieve this using VirtualBox or any suggestions..

Thanks,
Syed.
socratis
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Re: Can we use virtual box for creating OVM with hard partitioning

Post by socratis »

What's "hard partitioning"? What's "CPU pinning"? Can you elaborate on the terminology? It's not something commonly used in VirtualBox-speak...
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mpack
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Re: Can we use virtual box for creating OVM with hard partitioning

Post by mpack »

Guest OS configurations aren't relevant to VirtualBox. VirtualBox provides the hardware. Disk, RAM, and CPU management is the domain of the OS.
Syed
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Re: Can we use virtual box for creating OVM with hard partitioning

Post by Syed »

Can we use Virtual box to create Oracle Virtual Machine.
Last edited by socratis on 22. Aug 2019, 12:13, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Removed unnecessary verbatim quote of the whole previous message.
socratis
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Re: Can we use virtual box for creating OVM with hard partitioning

Post by socratis »

I'm sorry, but that question (statement?) doesn't quite make sense. VirtualBox creates VMs, or as you say Oracle Virtual Machines. The question I asked to, to clarify "hard partitioning" and "CPU pinning" still remains unanswered...
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scottgus1
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Re: Can we use virtual box for creating OVM with hard partitioning

Post by scottgus1 »

A google on "cpu pinning" shows it may refer to 'process affinity': forcing a process to one or more cores rather than letting the host OS figure it out.

Googling "hard partitioning" leads to an Oracle PDF (first link, no less, must be an Oracle phraseology):
Hard partitioning means binding vCPUs to physical CPU threads or cores, and preventing these vCPUs from being scheduled on physical CPUs - threads or cores other than the ones specified.
The PDF says it's a licensing requirement - in other words the bean counters figured out another way to squeeze. It is apparently also a part of "Oracle VM Server". which is a different program from Virtualbox.

Syed, read that PDF for more info on hard partitioning and cpu-pinning. FWIW there is no mention of Virtualbox in that PDF, and my search through the Virtualbox manual PDF showed no way to force a particular Virtualbox guest to run on particular host cores.

A google on "processor affinity site:forums.virtualbox.org" shows Virtualbox has no way to set processor affinity. The Windows Task Manager can do this apparently, but also has to be reset every time the guest is started. There is a command-line affinity setter for Windows hosts: the "START" command. 3rd-part affinity setters may be able to do this automatically.
mpack
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Re: Can we use virtual box for creating OVM with hard partitioning

Post by mpack »

scottgus1 wrote: A google on "processor affinity site:forums.virtualbox.org" shows Virtualbox has no way to set processor affinity.
I'd point out that you can certainly limit the number of cores given to a VM, which is the same as what I'm doing when I call SetProcessorAffinityMask() on a Windows PC.

And again, the Windows process can limit itself to one core if it chooses. It isn't for the hardware, i.e. the CPU, to eliminate a number of its cores.

And yes: Oracle VM is not VirtualBox, it's a product aimed at the server market that Oracle already had before they bought Sun Microsystems. VirtualBox was renamed Oracle VM VirtualBox in order to kinda align the names, VirtualBox is intended to operate in the desktop/workstation VM (a.k.a. type 2 hypervisor) market.
Syed
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Re: Can we use virtual box for creating OVM with hard partitioning

Post by Syed »

Thank you all for your valuable replies and for helping me to get more clarity.
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