WSL2 is a game-changer for developers like me. I prefer Oracle Linux 8 for coding in Ansible, Terraform, and OCI-CLI. Setting up Oracle Linux 8.8 on WSL2 from the Microsoft Store was easy. With OCI CLI configured within the Linux environment, managing Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources became effortless. WSL2 eliminates the need for additional virtualization software, providing a seamless Linux environment on Windows. This integration has significantly improved my development workflow, making tasks like deploying infrastructure and managing cloud resources more accessible. In conclusion, WS ..read more

Introduction Podman utilizes a daemonless architecture to run Linux containers on Windows through the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2), providing full Linux kernel compatibility and high performance. Podman Desktop offers a graphical interface for managing containers and images, enhancing usability by integrating seamlessly with WSL2’s capabilities. This combination delivers a powerful container management solution for Windows users, leveraging the strength of Linux containers directly within a Windows environment. Together with the Oracle provided images on the container registry and the ..read more

Following the recent PCA upgrade from 3.0.2-M3.5 to 3.0.2-M3.7.1, we encountered an issue where Grafana was unable to send alerts as intended. Since Grafana plays a crucial role in monitoring aspects such as the health state of ZFSSA, restoring this functionality became important. Upon raising a service request (SR), it was identified as a bug that is planned for resolution in version 3.0.2-M3.9, according to support. Therefore, if version 3.0.2-M3.8 is released in the future, we’ll need to verifay the situation again. Previously, there was a MOS note detailing the configuration of SMTP for th ..read more

Situation The Oracle Private Cloud Appliance X9-2 was delivered at the end 2022 with high capacity storage. For the Oracle PCA X9-2, there are two distinct storage types available, differentiated by their disk characteristics such as type, size, and whether they are HDDs or SSDs. The standard block size for a Block Volume in this system is set at 8k. However, if your specific workload requires a different block size, you can customize the Block Volume at the time of its creation using the tag ‘PCA_blocksize’ (this aspect will be explored in a separate test). The disk shelves within the system ..read more

Following the application of the most recent patch set to our Oracle Private Cloud Appliance PCA X9-2, currently on version 3.0.2-b1010555, we encountered an issue with our OCI CLI script, which has been in use for some time to generate a block volume. It’s important to note that the script configures parameters such as profile, certificate, and compartment through the use of variables. The “NotAuthorizedOrNotFound” return code indicates that either a) the user’s IAM API key is incorrect, or b) one of the specified parameters is unavailable. Given that answer a) has been ruled out, as basic co ..read more

At 16th of October, Cisco made a vulnerability public which affects Cisco IOS XE components – Cisco IOS XE Software Web UI Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. According the notes: This vulnerability allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to create an account on an affected system with privilege level 15 access. The attacker can then use that account to gain control of the affected system. Vulnerable products are components where the web UI feature is enable. Components The Oracle Orivate Cloud Appliance X9-2 contains several Cisco components – see: VPAT – Oracle Private Cloud Appliance X9-2 ..read more

I’m currently in the process of updating an older Oracle Private Cloud Appliance X5-2 combined with a ZFS Storage Appliance ZS7-2 using the latest available patch for X5-2, version 2.4.3.2. As a precursor to the upgrade, a verification job needs to be run using Oracle’s provided tool, pca-upgrader. When initiated with the -V parameter, this tool checks the PCA’s health status and assesses all components for their readiness to be upgraded. It’s imperative that all these checks pass before initiating the actual upgrade. The first major step in this extensive procedure involves upgrading the Mana ..read more

ULN Mirror or ISO? As of July 10, 2023, Oracle has rolled out a fresh software update for their Private Cloud Appliance X9-2, named 302-b892153 (3.0.2-M3.5). This new patch set offers not only enhancements to the system’s upgrade process but also introduces updates to several key features. These include the refined Oracle Defined Volume Backup Policies and System Backup Service, ensuring a more streamlined and efficient user experience. Upgrading the Private Cloud Appliance as described in the Administrator Guide for Release 3.0.2 in section System Upgrade is described by using the supplied IS ..read more

Available Storage Types For the PCA X9-2, you can order two different storage types. High Capacity or High Performance. They are different in size and speed as described in this table. High Capacity – DE3-24C High Performance – DE3-24P – 20x 18 TB, SAS-3, 3.5-inch, 7200 RPM HDDs– 2x read SSD accelerator– 2x write SSD accelerator – 20x 7.68TB SAS-3 2.5-inch SSDs– 2x write SSD accelerator The question this week was, which type do we use in our PCA X9-2 ..read more

In a customer project, we have two Oracle Private Cloud Appliance X9-2 up and running. The management of a PCA X9-2 is almost like in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Even when the style of the user interface is not so cool. This week after a change on a virtual machine, the machine was not able to boot again. As in OCI, then Console Connection is the best way to troubleshoot the situation and gather more information. In this blog post I ..read more