Virtualization Support

Virtualization of STEP has officially been released on the following platforms:

VMware ESXi 5+ for the following guest OS platforms:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 / 6 x86-64
Oracle Enterprise Linux 7 / 6 x86-64
Windows Server 2016 / 2012 R2 x86-64
Microsoft Hyper-V 2016 / 2012 R2 for the following guest OS platforms:
Windows Server 2016 / 2012 R2 x86-64 platform.

The only supported virtualization environments are VMware and Hyper-V on x86-64 based platforms.

Scope and Restrictions

Consider the following restrictions regarding virtualization:

Virtualization of the STEP application uses a supported OS platform, as listed above.
Virtualization of the STEP Oracle database is supported in non-production environments on all released OS platforms, as indicated above.
Virtualization of the production database must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, based on system load and sizing expectations. It is conditional upon a performance test conducted jointly by the parties and finally approved by Stibo Systems.
Virtualization of a DTP server is supported only on the Windows Server 2016 / 2012 R2 OS platform.

Licensing and Support Using VMware

Regarding licensing of the Oracle Database on the VMware virtualization platform, the VMware host environment must have no license violations. This is independent of the supported OS being used. Oracle does not license at the OS level.

VMware licensing and 'expanded support' when virtualizing the Oracle Database on their platform is described in the document Understanding Oracle Certification, Support and Licensing for VMware Environments on the web at http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/solutions/oracle/Understanding_Oracle_Certification_Support_Licensing_VMware_environments.pdf.

Requirements

The following requirements must be met by the system and infrastructure when considering virtualization using VMware or Hyper-V:

Hypervisor must be VMware ESXi 5+ or Microsoft Hyper-V 2016 / 2012 R2.
VMware or Hyper-V servers must be guaranteed to provide a constant capacity in terms of RAM, CPU power and I/O that is equivalent to that of a physical system.
STEP version must be 7.0 or newer.
Stibo Standalone application server is based on the Oracle Java SE component.
Oracle Java 8 (1.8.0_162+).
Host processor must match (or be similar to) what is recommended in this document. Processors like the Intel low-power CPUs are not supported for production environments.
Storage and network requirements must be met as described in this document.

If a performance problem occurs and Stibo Systems and the client come to the conclusion that it is caused by the virtualization of the Oracle Database, the client is responsible for resolving the problem. Stibo Systems will assist where possible.

Recommendations for Best VMware Performance

It is critical that VMware is configured correctly for maximum performance.

This is done by following the recommendations in the white paper Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere. Especially the sections on Host Power Management in ESXi and Running Network Latency Sensitive Applications.

This includes:

Configuring ESXi policy to use 'High Performance' power option
Reserving CPU and memory resources

The Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere are online, based on versions, as follows: