Sometimes you just want to build a local environment on your own equipment simply because it’s quick and easy. But you soon realise that other people need access and resources get a bit tight (memory, CPU, etc). That’s when it makes sense to move it from your place into the cloud.
Just recently I realised how useful Oracle Virtual Box’s new export feature is for migrating local VMs into Oracle Public Cloud Infrastructure – Compute Classic. Oracle Virtual Box’s new export formats give me the ability to easily migrate Images to the Oracle Public Cloud where I can scale my environments as required.
Earlier this week I was building a new Oracle Identity and Access Management development environment on my laptop. This worked well from an initial build and configure perspective but there comes a time when I need to make this environment available to my Developers, Testers and other stakeholders. Running this image continuously on my laptop quickly becomes impractical even for development teams.
This is where Oracle Public Cloud – Compute Classic becomes compelling. Using Oracle Virtual Box, I can quickly install and configure a Development Environment. When I was done and happy with the environment I exported my image from Oracle Virtual Box into Oracle Public Cloud Format. This allowed me to quickly migrate the image to the Cloud where I can scale the resources such as processors and RAM as required.
If you want to walk through a similar exercise yourself, you will need the following:
- Oracle Virtual Box – latest available release
- Oracle Public Cloud instance of Compute Classic
- A guest VM that contains an Operating System supported by Oracle Cloud Compute Classic.
To get started, I need to export my VM from Oracle Virtual Box in a format supported by Oracle Public Cloud. From the Virtual Box menu, I click on File -> Export Appliance. Here’s a screenshot of the image that I want to export. You can see from the drop-down list that I can choose Oracle Public Cloud 1.0 format. My image is about 30Gb so it will take a while.
Now that I have exported my image, I can upload it to the Oracle Public Cloud and create a Compute Classic instance as shown in the screenshot below.
Creating an Instance takes me through a wizard which will let me configure my environment to meet my needs. The first step is to Select an available image – in my case I will select the image that I just uploaded.
Then I can select the Shape that best fits my needs. In my case I have selected a Shape that gives me 4 OCPUs and 60Gb of RAM. You’ll notice that the Shapes available in the Oracle Public Cloud give me much more flexibility and scalability than what I have available in my own environment. In my case, I was able to double the amount of RAM and quadruple the amount of CPU available to my VM.
I now have to provide some details about the instance including the SSH Keys that I want to use.
The Network page is important because this is where I select my Security Lists. By default, Oracle Public Cloud Compute Classic will block all traffic except SSH. I need to define Security Lists and Security Rules that permit other traffic. In my case, I want to allow HTTPS traffic so that users can access the Oracle IDM Web Console for User Self Service and Delegated Administration.
Finally, I define my storage requirements. In my case, this is very straightforward because the image already defines my default storage requirements. I may also want to add new volumes for additional capacity but for the moment I’m ok.
At this point, the Wizard gives me the chance to review my configuration before I Create my instance. When I click on the Create button I receive a confirmation that the Instance Creation process has kicked off.
Oracle Compute Classic will allocate Private and Public IP Addresses when the instance has been created. I can log into my server and start Oracle IDM and my custom applications. Once this is done, my users can begin testing the environment.
In conclusion, the new export capabilities in Oracle Virtual Box gives you a much easier runtime choice between on premise at your place or at our place in the Oracle Public Cloud.
I hope this article has been helpful for anyone who wants to migrate VMs from Oracle Virtual Box to Oracle Public Cloud – Compute Classic.
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