451 CAOS Theory 
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Oracle’s virtual challenge to Windows and Red Hat
Matthew Aslett, November 12, 2007 @ 10:08 pm ETVMware’s share price may have taken a hit following the launch of Oracle VM but the product has wider implications in the software market. To some extent it is a software appliance play: like Raw Iron without the iron. This question and answer from the Q&A says it all:
“Does Oracle VM require a host operating system?
No. Oracle VM installs directly on server hardware and does not require a host operating system.”
Oracle VM comes with pre-configured virtual machine images of Oracle Database and Oracle Enterprise Linux and is designed to install directly on the server hardware. It’s no surprise to find that the product is a development of the Unbreakable Linux group within Oracle. This makes sense given that it is based on Xen and a lot of Oracle’s Xen expertise is within the Unbreakable group, but also because it further disrupts the relationship between customers and their operating system suppliers.
The target of Raw Iron was eradicating the layer of Microsoft Windows that stood between Oracle and its customers’ hardware. Oracle VM targets both Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Sure, you can run both as guest operating systems on Oracle VM, but the customer’s first port of call becomes Oracle. Whether the offering will make much of an impact outside Oracle-heavy environments remains to be seen, however.
Comments (8) Categories: Linux,Software
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[...] REDES AVANZADO wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIt’s no surprise to find that the product is a development of the Unbreakable Linux group within Oracle….Oracle VM comes with pre-configured virtual machine images of Oracle Database and Oracle Enterprise Linux and is designed to install directly on the server hardware….Oracle VM targets both Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux…. [...]
Indeed, their FAQ doesn’t say much what technology it’s based on… I’ll too bet it’s Xen.
Yes.. it is based on XEN… ill be curious to try it out.. to see what kind of user interface they gave you… according to their page.. it does not require a processor with virtual extension.. however.. XEN requires it.. so im not sure how this is going to work…
I don’t have to bet. I know for a fact that it is Xen based. And if you read the pages carefully, it says it requires hard virtualization support to run unmodified OS’s. To run on hardware without virtualization extensions (newer processors from Intel and AMD), then the guest OS must be modified to run. Just like Xen (because that is what it is).
This is not speculation, but direct knowledge from an Oracle employee.
There is no question that it is based on Xen. Oracle has been very open about that.
[...] Getting back to that Oracle VM news — Matthew Aslett of 451 CAOS Theory deems the move Oracle’s virtual challenge to Windows and Red Hat. “To some extent it is a software appliance play: like Raw Iron without the iron. … The target of Raw Iron was eradicating the layer of Microsoft Windows that stood between Oracle and its customers’ hardware. … Oracle VM targets both Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. … It’s no surprise to find that the product is a development of the Unbreakable Linux group within Oracle…because it further disrupts the relationship between customers and their operating system suppliers.” [...]
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