Video : Kata Containers : Running Containers Inside Lightweight Virtual Machines on Oracle Linux 7 (OL7)

Today’s video demonstrates how to configure Kata Containers on Oracle Linux 7 (OL7), allowing you to run containers inside lightweight virtual machines (VMs).

This video is is based on an article of the same name, but relates to a bunch of other articles and videos on the subject of containers.

The star of today’s video is Jake Kuramoto, originally of The AppsLab fame, and now at WorkDay.

Cheers

Tim…

Vagrant Build of AWX on Oracle Linux 7 Using Docker-Compose Method

I may need to do a bunch of scripting related to our load balancers, and I have the choice of using the API from the servers directly, Ansible Core or the web services exposed by AWX. I wanted to play around with AWX anyway, so that seemed like a good excuse…

First step was to install AWX. It’s pretty easy, but I must admit to spending a few minutes in a state of confusion until I rebooted my brain and started again. Turning things off and on always works. I’m an Oracle Linux person and “I do Docker”, so the obvious choice was to install it using the Docker-Compose method on Oracle Linux 7 (OL7).

The post includes the basic Docker setup, but if you need something a little more, check out the installation article and video.

If you don’t care about the build and just need AWX up quickly, you can use this Vagrant build that does everything for you, including Docker and AWX on Oracle Linux. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Video : Install Docker on Oracle Linux 7 (OL7)

Today’s video is a run through installing the Docker engine on Oracle Linux 7 (OL7).

You can get the commands mentioned in this video from the following article.

You can see my other Docker posts and builds here.

The star of today’s video is Robyn Sands, formerly of the Oracle Real World Performance Group, and now something to do with some fruit company… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Let’s Encrypt : Free Certificates on Oracle Linux (CertBot)

My website has been using HTTPS for over 18 months now. A couple of months ago I came across Let’s Encrypt and thought, “Free Certificates? That’s interesting!”, so I gave it a shot for some other stuff I look after, just to see how I got on with it.

The certificates only last 3 months, but you can automate their renewal using CertBot. You set it up to check every day, and the certificates get renewed if they are within 30 days of expiring. Since I set it up a little over 2 months ago, the first round of renewals happened a couple of days ago. No dramas.

Having seen the first automated refresh happen successfully, I decided to switch the main website to use the Let’s Encrypt certificate today. That means no more buying certificates for me! 🙂

I put together this article when I did the initial setup, just to document it for myself.

I didn’t mention it at the time as I wasn’t really sure about how it would work out, but now I’m using it I thought it might be interesting to any other cheapskates out there. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle Linux : UEK4 Released

linux-tuxI wrote a post a couple of months ago called
Which version of Oracle Linux should I pick for Oracle server product installations? One of the points I raised was the use of UEK allows you to have all the latest kernel goodies, regardless of being on an older release, like OL6.

I saw a post today about the release of UEK4, so now you have access to all the improvements in the 4.1 mainline Linux kernel, whether you are on are running OL6 or OL7. That just goes to prove the point really.

If you are running RHEL, you might be feeling pressure to move from RHEL6 to RHEL7 to get a bunch of the kernel enhancements that came with it. If you are running OL6, just switch to UEK4 and your kernel is ahead of the RHEL7 kernel. No stress and no having to deal with systemd and firewalld. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle 12c RAC on Oracle Linux 6 and 7 using NFS

linux-tuxFollowing on from the last post, I’ve brought my NFS RAC stuff up to date also.

I noticed I had not done a RAC install using NFS on Oracle Linux 6, so I threw that in for good measure too. 🙂

Just as a little history to this… I was doing the desktop Oracle RAC thing (using VMware then VirtualBox) for a while, when I started reading some blog posts by Kevin Closson about NFS. At the time, NFS filers were considered the poor relation to SANs, which was obvious or they wouldn’t be so cheap in comparison right? In those articles Kevin pointed out that most people’s systems at the time probably weren’t capable of maxing out a decent filer if it were set up correctly. Since NFS is a cluster file system, that got me thinking I should try RAC on it to see how easy it was. That was in the Oracle 10g days. How time flies when you are having fun… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle 11gR2 and 12cR1 on Oracle Linux 7

I did a quick update of my Oracle installation articles on Oracle Linux 7. The last time I ran through them was with the beta version OL7 and before the release of 12.1.0.2.

The installation process of 11.2.0.4 on the production release of Oracle Linux 7 hasn’t changed since the beta. The installation of 12.1.0.2 on Oracle Linux 7 is a lot neater than the 12.1.0.1 installation. It’s totally problem free for a basic installation.

You can see the articles here.

There is a bold warning on the top of both articles reminding you that the database is not supported on Oracle Linux 7 yet! Please don’t do anything “real” with it until the support is official.

Note. I left the fix-it notes for the 12.1.0.1 installation at the bottom of the 12c article, but now 12.1.0.2 is available from OTN there is really no need for someone to be installing 12.1.0.1 other than for reference I guess.

Cheers

Tim…

 

 

Oracle 11gR2 and 12cR1 on Oracle Linux 7 beta

I’ve been having a play with Oracle Linux 7 beta over the weekend. Not surprisingly my first thoughts were to install the Oracle database on it.

As expected, the installations were almost identical or Fedora 19.

I’ve put a warning on the front of the OL7 articles, but I’m sure it won’t stop some Muppets using it in production then trying to blame me. 🙂

I don’t know how long it will be until OL7 goes to production and I’m sure it will be a long time before anything is certified against it, but it’s always nice to see what’s coming… 🙂 I’ll update the articles when anything significant happens…

Cheers

Tim…

RHEL7 and Oracle Linux 7 beta

Nearly two weeks ago, Oracle announced the Oracle Linux 7 Beta 1. Being the Linux fanboy I am, I downloaded it straight away from here.

Oracle Linux is a clone of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distribution. The RHEL7 beta, and therefore OL7 beta, distro is based on a cut of Fedora 19, although depending on who you ask, it’s possibly more a mix of Fedora 18, 19 and 20… Suffice to say, there are a lot of changes compared to the RHEL6/OL6 distribution.

As I’ve mentioned several times before, my desktop at home is running Fedora 20, so I’m pretty used to most of the changes, but I’ve not written much about them, apart from the odd blog post. It’s not a high priority for me, since I’m not a sysadmin, but I’ll be updating/rewriting a few of the Linux articles on the site to include the new stuff.

When Surachart Opun mentioned having to look at systemd and firewalld, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to update my firewall and services articles. You can see the new versions here.

RHEL7/OL7 is only in beta, and even after the production release I’m sure it will be a long time before Oracle actually certify any products against it, but if you are not a Fedora user, it’s probably worth you having a play around with this stuff.

Cheers

Tim…