Install and configure Oracle’s Pre-Built Enterprise Java Development VM, with Oracle Linux 5, to create quick, full-featured development test environments. 

Virtual Machines for Software Developers

As software engineers, we spend a great deal of time configuring our development machines to simulate test and production environments in which our code will eventually run. With the Microsoft/.NET technology stack, that most often means installing and configuring .NET, IIS, and SQL Server. With the Oracle/Java technology stack – Java, WebLogic or GlassFish Application Server, and Oracle 11g.

Within the last few years, the growth of virtual machines (VMs) within IT/IS organizations has exploded. According to Wikipedia, a virtual machine (VM), is ‘a software implementation of a machine (i.e. a computer) that executes programs like a physical machine.’ Rapid and inexpensive virtualization of business infrastructure using VMs has led to the exponential growth of private and public cloud platforms.

Instead of attempting to configure development machines to simulate the test and production environments, which are simultaneously running development applications and often personal programs, software engineers can leverage VMs in the same way as IT/IS organizations. Free, open-source virtualization software products from Oracle and VMware offer developers the ability to easily ‘spin-up’ fresh environments to compile, deploy, and test code. Code is tested in a pristine environment, closely configured to match production, without the overhead and baggage of  day-to-day development. When testing is complete, the VM is simply deleted and a new copy re-deployed for the next project.

Oracle Pre-Built Virtual Appliances

I’ve worked with a number of virtualization products, based on various Windows and Linux operating systems. Not matter the product or OS, the VM still needs to be set up just like any other new computer system, with software and configuration. However, recently I began using Oracle’s pre-built developer VMs. Oracle offers a number of pre-built VMs for various purposes, including database development, enterprise Java development, business intelligence, application hosting, SOA development, and even PHP development. The VMs, called virtual appliances,  are Open Virtualization Format Archive files, built to work with Oracle VM VirtualBox. Simply import the appliance into VirtualBox and start it up.

Oracle has provided ready-made VMs that would take even the most experienced team of IT professionals days to download, install, configure, and integrate. All the configuration details, user accounts information, instructions for use, and even pre-loaded tutorials, are provided. Oracle notes on their site that these VMs are not intended for use in production. However, the VMs are more than robust enough to use as a development test environment.

Because of its similarity to my production environment, I the installed the Enterprise Java Development VM on a Windows 7 Enterprise-based development computer. The Oracle Linux 5 OS-based VM has almost everything that comprises basic enterprise test and production environment based on the Oracle/Java technology stack. The VM includes an application server, source control server, build automation server, Java SDK, two popular IDE’s, and related components. The VM includes Java JDK 1.6+, WebLogic Server, Coherence, TopLink, Subversion, Hudson, Maven, NetBeans, Enterprise Pack for Eclipse, and so forth.

Aside from a database server, the environment has everything most developers might need to develop, build, store, and host their code. If you need a database, as most of us do, you can install it into the VM, or better yet, implement the Database App Development VM, in parallel. The Database VM contains Oracle’s 11g Release 2 enterprise-level relational database, along with several related database development and management tools. Using a persistence layer (data access layer), built with the included EclipseLink, you can connect the Enterprise appliance to the database appliance.

View of Oracle WebLogic 12c Running within VM

Set-Up Process

I followed the following steps to setup my VM:

1. Update (or download and install) Oracle VM VirtualBox to the latest release.
2. Download (6) Open Virtualization Format Archive (OVF/.ova) files.
3. Download script to combine the .ova files.
4. Execute script to assemble (6) .ova files into single. ova file.
5. Import the appliance (combined .ova file) into VirtualBox.
6. Optional: Clone and resize the appliance’s (2) virtual machines disks (see note below).
7. Optional: Add the Yum Server configuration to the VM to enable normal software updates (see instructions below).
8. Change any necessary settings within VM: date/time, timezone, etc.
9. Install and/or update system software and development applications within VM: Java 1.7, etc.

View of Combined OVF File Ready for Import into VirtualBox

View of Appliance within Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager for Windows

View of Pre-Built VM Running on Oracle VM VirtualBox Prior to Software Updates

Issue with Small Footprint of VM

The small size of the of pre-built VM is major issue I ran into almost immediately. Note in the screen grab above of VirtualBox, the Oracle VM only has (2) 8 GB virtual machine disks (.vmdk). Although Oracle designed the VMs to have a small footprint, it was so small that I quickly filled  up its primary partition. At that point, the VM was too full to apply the even the normal system updates. I switched the cache location for yum to a different partition, but then ran out of space again when yum tried to apply the updates it had downloaded to the primary partition.

Lack of disk space was a complete show-stopper for me until I researched a fix. Unfortunately, VirtualBox’s ‘VBoxManage modifyhd –resize’ command is not yet compatible with the virtual machine disk (.vmdk) format. After much trial and error, and a few late nights reading posts by others who had run into this problem, I found a fairly easy series of steps to enlarge the size of the VM. It doesn’t require you to be a complete ‘Linux Geek’, and only takes about 30 minutes of copying and restarting the VM a few times. I will included the instructions in this separate, upcoming post.

Expanded VM Disks in New Copy of Appliance

Issue with Package Updater

While solving the VM’s disk space issue, I also discoverer the VM’s Enterprise Linux System was setup with something called the Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) Update Agent. From what I understood, without a service agreement with Oracle, I could not update the VM’s software using the standard Package Updater. However, a few quick commands I found on the Yum Server site, overcame that limitation and allowed me to update the VM’s software. Just follow the simple instructions here, for Oracle Linux 5. There are several hundred updates that will be applied, including an upgrade of Oracle Linux from 5.5 to 5.9.

Software Updates Now Working Using Yum Server Repo

Issue with Java Updates

Along with the software updates, I ran into an issue installing the latest version of Java. I attempted to install the standard Oracle package that contained the latest Java JDK, JRE, and NetBeans for Linux. Upon starting the install script, I immediately received a ‘SELinux AVC denial’ message. This security measure halted my installation with the following error: ‘The java application attempted to load /labs/java/jre1.7.0_21/lib/i386/client/libjvm.so which requires text relocation. This is a potential security problem.‘

To get around the SELinux AVC denial issue, I installed the JRE, JDK, and NetBeans separately. Although this took longer and required a number of steps, it allowed me to get around the security and install the latest version of Java.

Note I later discovered that I could have simply changed the SELinux Security Level to ‘Permissive’ in the SELinux Security and Firewall, part of the Administrative Preferences. This would have allowed the original Oracle package containing the JDK, JRE, and NetBeans, to run.

Changing the SELinux Security Level to Allow Installation of Java and NetBeans

Links

• Oracle VM VirtualBox
• Oracle Pre-Built Developer VMs (for Oracle VM VirtualBox)
• Oracle Technology Network Developer Day – Enterprise Java Development Hands on Lab
• Oracle Linux
• Oracle WebLogic Server
• VMware vSphere Hypervisor