10.1 System Requirements

To create an OES 11 SP3 VM guest, you need a SLES 11 SP4 or OES 11 SP3 server that is set up as a VM host server.

10.1.1 OES 11 SP3 VM Host Considerations

When you set up a virtual machine host for OES 11 SP3 VM guests, ensure that the host server has the following:

    • Time synchronization: Set the server’s time configuration to the same reliable, external time source as the eDirectory tree that the virtual machines on that host will be joining.

      To set the time source, use Yast > Network Services > NTP Time Configuration.

      The time source can be running NTP or Timesync with the NTP option selected.

    • RAM: Enough memory to support each virtual machine that you want to run concurrently on the host server.

      For example, if you are installing one OES 11 SP3 virtual machine, you need a minimum of 2 GB of memory (1 GB for the host plus 1GB MB for the OES 11 Linux VM).

      If you are installing two virtual machines, and the first VM guest’s services need 1 GB and the second guest’s need 1.5 GB, you need 2.5 GB for the VM guests and 1 GB for the host—a total of 3.5 GB.

    • Disk Space: Enough disk space on the host for creating and running your VM guests.

      The default disk space required for an OES 11 SP3 VM guest is 7 GB and the default allocation for each VM guest in Xen is 10 GB, leaving only approximately 6 GB for data files, etc. The space you need is dependent on what you plan to use the virtual server for and what other virtual storage devices, such as NSS volumes, that you plan to attach to it.

    • SLES Platform: OES 11 SP3 cannot run as a paravirtualized guest on SLES 10 SP4 or earlier hosts.

10.1.2 Novell Storage Services Considerations

If you want to set up Novell Storage Services (NSS) on the virtual machine, note the following:

NSS can recognize physical, logical, or virtual devices up to 2E64 sectors (8388608 petabytes (PB) based on the 512-byte sector size.

For information, see Device Size in the OES 11 SP3: NSS File System Administration Guide for Linux.

10.1.3 Setup Instructions

As mentioned in Section 10.1, System Requirements, you can use either a SLES 11 SP4 server or an OES 11 SP3 server as your VM host server.

For setup procedures, see the following information: