Running Oracle Applications on Microsoft Hyper-V

Hyper-V is Microsift's answer to virtualization, - competing for the ever promising market of platform, servers, and storage.  Microsoft (2012) compared Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V over VMware vSphere 5.1 to demonstrate Hyper-V advantages in scalability, performance & density, secure multitenancy, flexible infrastructure, and high availability & resiliency (White Paper 1).

Cases of Siebel on Hyper-V

Microsoft (2011) presented a case study of Brocade (a network company):  There were 20 outdated servers at the Minnesota data center that were running Siebel software on the Windows 2000 Server operating system.  With the release of Windows Server 2008 R2, Brocade turned its attention to the Minnesota data center and virtualized its entire Siebel environment, consolidating 20 outdated servers down to four Hyper-V hosts.  Because of the virtualization, the Siebel application performance went from 85 percent availability rate to 99.9 percent (Case 1).

Another case study by Microsoft (2012) is about Lufthansa Systems AG (a server hosting company): Lufthansa hosts Microsoft server applications and third-party commercial applications such as Siebel.  Lufthansa faced two challenges: (1) large growth of servers, and (2) higher levels of availability and reliability demanded by customers.  To address these challenges Lufthansa implemented Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center 2012 (Case 2).

Certified by Oracle

As head-to-head competitors, Microsoft and Oracle hate each other.  but surprisingly, Oracle loves Hyper-V and have given it some special treatment.  Although Oracle claims no direct certification for virtualization, Oracle (2013) has certified its products to run on Hyper-V:  “All Oracle products certified to run on Windows Server are also certified to run on Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V” (Doc ID 1563794.1).  A similar statement is made by Oracle (2014) saying “any Oracle product certified to run on Windows Server is also certified to run on Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, whether used in a private cloud or public cloud (including Windows Azure) environment” (Doc ID 417770.1).

Hyper-V for Linux

Microsoft (2012) stated that Hyper-V can be used “to efficiently run multiple operating systems -including operating systems other than Windows, such as Linux - together on a single server, and take advantage of the power of 64-bit computing” (White Paper 1).

Oracle (2014) confirmed the operating system support for Oracle Linux 6.4 (and higher) with the Red Hat Compatible Kernel under the Oracle Linux Support Program on Microsoft Hyper-V and Hyper-V in Azure (Doc ID 417770.1).

Cost of Hyper-V

Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition Price is $4,809.00 for unlimited number of virtual instances.
Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition Price is $882.00 for 2 virtual instances.

Licensing Model:

• Processor +:  Each License covers up to two physical processors on a single server.
• CAL: Client Access Licenses (CALs) are required for every user or device accessing a server.

Running Oracle Applications on Hyper-V

Oracle repetitively confirmed to certify its application products on Hyper-V virtualization, which reflects Oracle’s commitment to supporting Microsoft server and Hyper-V technologies.  Although Microsoft demonstrated many advantages of Hyper-V including high performance and easy implementation, further research should be conducted by users to investigate these features and to analyze the feasibility to specific user environments.

References

Microsoft (2011). Case Studies: Brocade Networking Company Virtualizes Servers, Avoids $1.96 million in Hardware Costs (Case 1).

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000010174

Microsoft (2012). Case Studies: Lufthansa Systems AG Hosting Provider Boosts Virtual Machine Density, Availability with Server Upgrade (Case 2).

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Windows-Server-2012/Lufthansa-Systems-AG/Hosting-Provider-Boosts-Virtual-Machine-Density-Availability-with-Server-Upgrade/710000001388

Microsoft (2012). Competitive Advantages of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V over VMware vSphere 5.1 (White Paper 1).

Oracle (2013). Certified Software on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V (Doc ID 1563794.1)

Oracle (2014). Oracle Linux Support Policies for Virtualization and Emulation (Doc ID 417770.1).