Install Solaris on Google BMS + OLVM

Install Solaris on Google BMS + OLVM

Peter Goldthorp, Dito October 2022

Oracle Solaris 11.4 can be used as an OLVM guest operating system in an inaBOX | Bare Metal environment. Oracle Solaris 11.4.33 (Oracle Solaris 11.4 SRU 33) is the minimum supported version. This can be downloaded from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud. Additional details are available in the Oracle Linux KVM User’s Guide.

Download Solaris

solaris download

Create a boot CD

Follow the ISO image upload instructions to upload the Interactive Text Install ISO (x86) image from the Common Build download.

Use the OLVM Admin Portal to create a VM

Follow the Create a VM from ISO image instructions to create a VM with the following properties:

Option tab	Property	Value
General	Instance image	Create 300 GiB boot disk
System	Total Virtual CPUs	2 (or 4 if hyperthreading had been enabled)
	Memory Size	8193 MB
	Chipset/Firmware Type	i440FX Chipset with BIOS
Boot Options	First Device	CD-ROM
	Attach CD	The interactive text install ISO uploaded previously

Leave the other settings at their default values and hit the OK button

Install Solaris

Wait for the VM and its Boot Disk to be created and then start the VM. Use the Console to access the installer.

Solaris Installer

Navigate through the install steps using the F2 key. Configure the installation with 8 GB of swap space (equal to the memory size). Leave the support.oracle.com credentials blank. The VM does not have internet access and will not be able to validate them. Wait for the installation to complete. Note it may spend a long time at 99% before showing a completion message like the one below.

Solaris Install Complete

Return to the OLVM Admin Portal and update the Boot Options. Set the First Device to Hard Disk and uncheck the Attach CD flag. Then press F8 in the Console window to reboot the VM.

Create a Local Image Packaging System (IPS) Repository

Follow these instructions to setup a local IPS repository on a single VM for testing. Consult the Oracle Solaris documentation instructions on how to configure a shared repository for use in a production environment.

Login to the Solaris VM as root, create a new directory /exports/ips and copy the multi part IPS Repository zip files from the Oracle Solaris Common Build into it.

Unzip the files to build a repository

 # unzip V1019847-01_1of7.zip
 # unzip V1019847-01_2of7.zip
 # unzip V1019847-01_3of7.zip
 # unzip V1019847-01_4of7.zip
 # unzip V1019847-01_5of7.zip
 # unzip V1019847-01_6of7.zip
 # unzip V1019847-01_7of7.zip

 # ls -l
 total 27857272
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root        3421 Dec  7  2021 COPYRIGHT
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root        1584 Dec  7  2021 NOTICES
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root        2851 Dec  7  2021 README-repo-iso.txt
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root     2327002983 Oct 28 15:47 V1019847-01_1of7.zip
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root     2092174989 Oct 28 15:47 V1019847-01_2of7.zip
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root     1890531379 Oct 28 15:48 V1019847-01_3of7.zip
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root     1894175190 Oct 28 15:48 V1019847-01_4of7.zip
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root     2020776966 Oct 28 15:48 V1019847-01_5of7.zip
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root     1608923395 Oct 28 15:49 V1019847-01_6of7.zip
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root     2447444866 Oct 28 15:49 V1019847-01_7of7.zip
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root         355 Dec  7  2021 pkg5.repository
 drwxr-xr-x   3 root     root           3 Oct 28 16:45 publisher
 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root         702 Dec  7  2021 readme.txt

Configure Solaris to use the local repository

 # pkg publisher
 PUBLISHER                   TYPE     STATUS P LOCATION
 solaris                     origin   online F https://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/support/

 # pkg unset-publisher solaris
 Updating package cache                           1/1

 # pkg publisher
 PUBLISHER                   TYPE     STATUS P LOCATION

 # pkg set-publisher -g file:///export/ips/publisher/solaris solaris

 # pkg publisher
 PUBLISHER                   TYPE     STATUS P LOCATION
 solaris                     origin   online F file:///export/ips/publisher/solaris/

Verify the result

 # pkg update
 No updates available for this image.

Install Oracle 19c

Follow the instructions in the Database Installation Guide for Oracle Solaris to setup a database on the VM.

Setup Environment

Run the following commands as root

Install prerequisite packages

 # pkg install oracle-database-preinstall-19c
         Packages to install: 17
         Mediators to change:  1
             Services to change:  4
     Create boot environment: No
 Create backup boot environment: No

 DOWNLOAD                                PKGS         FILES    XFER (MB)   SPEED
 Completed                              17/17       326/326  171.4/171.4      --

 PHASE                                          ITEMS
 Installing new actions                       716/716
 Updating package state database                 Done
 Updating package cache                           0/0
 Updating image state                            Done
 Creating fast lookup database                   Done
 Updating package cache                           1/1

Create an Oracle user account

 # pkg install oracle-database-os-configuration
         Packages to install:  1
     Create boot environment: No
 Create backup boot environment: No

 Release Notes:

 pkg://solaris/group/prerequisite/oracle/oracle-database-os-configuration
 This package will create, by default, the oracle user (oracle) and two
 Unix groups, (dba and oinstall).  If these defaults are not required
 then uninstall the package:

     group/prerequisite/oracle/oracle-database-os-configuration

 Do not modify the created entries in /etc/passwd or /etc/group because
 this will cause 'pkg verify' and 'pkg fix' to report and undo the
 modifications.

 The auto_home(4) map can be updated to provide an entry for the
 real location of the oracle account home directory. The home-dir
 field in /etc/passwd should not be changed.

 If these actions are not wanted prior to the install then running

     pkg avoid oracle-database-os-configuration

 will ensure that the package is not installed when the database
 prerequisite package is installed.

 DOWNLOAD                                PKGS         FILES    XFER (MB)   SPEED
 Completed                                1/1           3/3      0.0/0.0      --

 PHASE                                          ITEMS
 Installing new actions                         11/11
 Updating package state database                 Done
 Updating package cache                           0/0
 Updating image state                            Done
 Creating fast lookup database                   Done
 Updating package cache                           1/1

Set a home directory and password for the user

 # mkdir /export/home/oracle
 # chown oracle:oinstall /export/home/oracle
 # usermod -d /export/home/oracle oracle

 # passwd oracle
 WARNING: changing account in reserved uid range: oracle.
 New Password:
 Re-enter new Password:
 passwd: password successfully changed for oracle

 # passwd -u oracle
 WARNING: changing account in reserved uid range: oracle.
 passwd: password information changed for oracle

Setup OFA directories

 mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/19c/dbhome_1
 mkdir /u01/app/oraInventory
 chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01/app

Check shared memory resource controls value and reset if necessary. Set the privileged value to 4 GB if it isn’t already set to this.

 # prctl -n project.max-shm-memory -i project default
 project: 3: default
 NAME    PRIVILEGE       VALUE    FLAG   ACTION                       RECIPIENT
 project.max-shm-memory
         usage               0B
         privileged      1.93GB      -   deny                                 -
         system          16.0EB    max   deny                                 -

 # prctl -n project.max-shm-memory -v 4gb -r -i project default

 # prctl -n project.max-shm-memory -i project default
 project: 3: default
 NAME    PRIVILEGE       VALUE    FLAG   ACTION                       RECIPIENT
 project.max-shm-memory
         usage               0B
         privileged      4.00GB      -   deny                                 -
         system          16.0EB    max   deny

The Oracle installer needs the FQDN to resolve to the VMs IP. By default the Solaris installer will set it to 127.0.0.1 in /etc/hosts. Edit the hosts file to specify an IP address. Alternatively configure Solaris to use a DNS server that can resolve the address.
Logout of the VM and Reboot it from the OLVM Admin Portal

Install Oracle

SSH into the VM from the Chrome Remote Desktop as user oracle using the -Y flag. Example:

ssh -Y oracle@10.2.0.120
Password:
Oracle Solaris 11.4.42.111.0                  Assembled December 2021

Download the database software from edelivery or Oracle database downloads.

Unzip to the /u01/app/oracle/product/19c/dbhome_1 directory created earlier

 # unzip SOLARIS.X64_195000_db_home.zip -d /u01/app/oracle/product/19c/dbhome_1

Create a .bash_profile and set environment variables

 # vi .bash_profile

 export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/19c/dbhome_1
 export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
 export ORACLE_SID=orcl
 export PDB_NAME=orclpdb
 echo ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/19c/dbhome_1
 export ORAENV_ASK=NO
 . /u01/app/oracle/product/19c/dbhome_1/bin/oraenv

 # source .bash_profile

Start the oracle installer and configure a database
```
 # cd $ORACLE_HOME
 # ./runInstaller &
```
Check the result: