Configuring the guest operating systems

Configure the guest operating systems as follows:

1. Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 with base packages in the VMs.

2. In both VMs, register RHN or set up the local yum repository by using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux ISO CD.
3. Set up the database software prerequisites (required operating system RPMs, users, groups, kernel parameters, and so on).
4. Set up the database public network.

Note: The virtual network interface enumeration starts with ens in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 guest operating system.

5. In the two VMs, prepare and configure the XtremIO X2 VDs for the database software installation:
   1. Partition the disks.
   2. Set up udev rules.

Guest operating system best practices in the XtremIO environment

The following additional best practices are recommended and implemented in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux based guest operating systems running inside the two database VMs.

Note: In our test environment, we applied best practices in accordance with the information in the Dell EMC XtremIO Storage Array Host Configuration Guide. Refer to that guide for details about how to apply the best practices when using XtremIO storage in a Linux environment.

PVSCSI driver

For optimal XtremIO X2 storage performance in a VMware environment, we recommend using VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) controllers and the PVSCSI driver in the guest VMs. We ensured that the in-box Red Hat Enterprise Linux vmw_pvscsi driver module was loaded and used in the guest operating systems.

Note: The PVSCSI driver is used only when the SCSI controller type is set to VMware Paravirtual in the VM settings.

PVSCSI LUN Queue Depth and ring-pages settings

The following table shows the default and recommended vmw_pvscsi parameter settings:

Table 34.        PVSCSI parameter settings in guest operating systems

The parameters and their respective recommended values in this table were appended to the kernel boot arguments in the /etc/default/grub file for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 based guest operating system.

Setting up the virtual databases

Follow these steps inside the VM to set up two virtual databases:[5]

1. Before installing the database, ensure that you have configured the operating system, network, and storage prerequisites as described in Configuring the guest operating systems and databases.

2. Configure and synchronize the system clock settings.
3. Locate the DBMS media kit and run the appropriate installer inside the respective virtual database VM.
   1. Install the database software only with the single instance database installation options.
   2. Select the appropriate privileged operating system groups that were automatically created by the Dell EMC preinstallation deployment RPMs.
4. If using application disk management, create disk groups for the database volumes by using the appropriate utility:
   1. For each of the disk groups, choose the appropriate XtremIO VDs that were configured in Configuring the guest operating systems.
   2. Select a disk group redundancy level.
5. Select the striping type for disk groups (we chose striping: fine-grained).
6. Create the seed database by using the appropriate utility:
   1. Select a single-instance database type and specify it as General Purpose or Transaction Processing.
   2. For the seed database and recovery storage options, select the file storage type and the file location of the corresponding disk groups that were created in step 5.
   3. Configure database engine parameters, as needed.
7. Set up the log groups based on the following recommended design:

Table 35.    Recommended design of redo log groups