Create Linux Virtual Machines for Oracle 11g RAC on ESXi

Objective: Create Virtual Machines for 64 bit Oracle Linux Server 6.3 for Oracle RAC 11.2.0.3 on VMware ESXi 5.5

Pre-Requisites:-
 
a. Already installed VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi  5.5, see steps.
 
b. Already installed VMware vSphere Client 5.5, see steps.
 

Create Network for Virtual Machines:

1) Connect to ESXi host using the vSphere client
 

2) Once you are connected, create a network for node to node interconnect. In the "configuration" tab, click "Networking" under hardware and click "Add Networking"

 3) Chose (default) Virtual Machine and click next

4) Create a vSphere standard switch (default)

 5) Provide a Network Label: I used a label called "Node_2_Node_Network"

6) Click Finish

7) You will see the network we just created

Create Virtual Machine:

8) File - New - Virtual Machine

9) Choose Custom

10) Provide name of VM

11) Accept default, click next

12) Version 8 (by default)

13) Choose Oracle Linux 64 Bit

14) Accept default

15) Accept default of 2GB memory

16) Choose 3 NICs and choose options as follows:-

17) Accept default

18) Accept default to a create a virtual disk

19) I set the disk size to 20GB (but highly recommend 30GB, see below my lesson learned) and select "Thick Provision Eager Zeroed".

[Lesson Learned: In my method, I store the installable Oracle software in one of the nodes (until its installed and then delete it), so while installing Oracle 11g RAC database, I ran into insufficient disk space issue. Hence I recommend you to set a disk size of at least 25 GB (or 30 GB would be nicer) if you can when you create the VM. I overcame this issue by adding a new hard disk in node 1 just to stage the installable Oracle software]

20) Accept default

21) Verify below summary and click Finish

22) Virtual Machine Creation on Progress

23) Completed

24) Now the its ready for OS (64 bit Oracle Linux 6) install.

How to Install VMware vSphere Client 5.5

Objective: Install vSphere Client 5.5 and connect to Hypervisor ESXi  5.5 that is on a different machine on the same network.

About VMware vSphere Client: It is a Windows program that is used to manage the ESXi host as well as the Virtual Machines hosted in the ESXi host.

Pre-Requisites:-

a.    I have already installed VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi  5.5 in my workstation, see steps.

b.    Both client (vSphere Client) and host (Hypervisor ESXi) machines are on the same network.

c.    Download  VMware vSphere Client 5.5 (VMware-viclient-all-5.5.0-1281650.exe) from www.vmware.com

d.    A light duty laptop or PC is enough to install VMware vSphere Client.  I have downloaded the above file in my 64 bit Windows 7 Home Premium laptop and will use the same to install VMware vSphere Client.

Installation:

1)    Start by double clicking the downloaded exe file:-

2)    Choose language and click OK

3)    Click Next on the install wizard:-

4)    Accept the terms and conditions:-

5)    Choose install location (I chose default) and click Next -

6)     Click Install

7)    Installation on progress

8)     Click Finish:-

9)    Start the VMware vSphere Client and provide the IP address and logon credentials of ESXi server:

10)    Ignore the security warning (you can check “Install this certificate and do not display…” to avoid this screen in the subsequent logins):-

11)    Click OK to acknowledge and continue with the evaluation license notice or you can also assign the license later as shown in step 13:-

12)    Now the client has connected to the ESXi host:-

13)    Assign license to the ESXi host from the vShere client:-

Procedure

a    From the vSphere Client, click the Configuration tab.

b    Under Software, click Licensed Features.

c    Click Edit.

d    Assign a license key.

- Select Assign an existing license key to this host and select a license key from the Product list.

- Select Assign a new license key to this host, click Enter Key, and enter a license key and an optional label for the license key.

e    Click OK.  Here is an example:-

How to Install VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.5

Objective: A step by step guide to install VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi on an Intel Xeon processor based system using a USB flash drive.

Pre-Requisites:- 

1. Create an installable media (I used a USB flash drive as explained in my other post) to install VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.5. 

 2. A heavy duty system to host VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi and should be connected to your network so you can access it from a remote system.

Note: I used a Dell T7400 Workstation that has 64 bit Dual Intel Xeon Quad Core processor with 8 GB of memory.

Pre-Installation Tasks:

1)      Make sure that USB Device is selected in the host system’s BIOS (I disabled the rest and only enabled USB device):-

2)      Enable Virtualization at hardware level if your system is capable of (shown below is Intel Xeon X5472 3Ghz Quad processor). Make below changes, save and exit to let the system boot using the USB flash drive.

Installation

3)      Boot from USB flash drive, hit enter or let it boot automatically

4)      Installation begins

5)      Hit Enter to continue installation:-

 

6)      Hit F11 to accept the license agreement and continue:-

7)      Select the storage device (hard disk) where you want to install ESXi:-

8)      Select the keyboard layout:-

9)      Assign and confirm root password:-

10)      Confirm the install

11)   Install on progress:-

12)   Installation is complete, remove the USB flash drive that was used for install and hit Enter to reboot:-

13)   Rebooting:-

14)   Now right at the beginning of reboot, hit F2 to enter into BIOS setup and change the boot sequence to include the hard drive where we just installed ESXi. Save and exit and let the system restart.

15)   ESXi is starting up:-

 16)   ESXi is up now:-

Configuration / Customization:

 17)   Hit F2 to customize system which will ask you to log into the system:-

-          Use Static IP (instead of DHCP by default)

-          Disable IPv6

-          Provide a custom hostname

18)   Scroll down to Configure Management Network and hit enter:-

19)   Scroll down to IP Configuration and hit enter:-

20)   Select the static IP address and key in the IP address you want:-

21)   Once complete, you will see the IP configuration has turned from “Automatic” to “Manual”:-

 22)   Now disable IPv6 (it is enabled by default):-

 23)   Scrolling down to “DNS Configuration” to change the Hostname:- 

 24)   Hostname is changed:-

25)   Reboot to make the changes come to effect:-

 26)   System is coming up:-

 27)   ESXi install and configuration is complete and ready to use:

 

Next step is to Install VMware vSphere Client 5.5 on a separate machine.