Believe it or not, people are still asking whether or not Oracle is going to support their database software in a virtualization environment. Why don't we first take a quick step back?

For years now, software support in a virtual machine has been a touchy subject. Vendors usually slipped into the support conversation, "just reproduce it on a physical machine, and we'll look into the problem." Come on! This isn't Y2K any longer - virtualization platforms aren't in beta, they aren't being implemented in the enterprise for the first time - this isn't virtualization's first time at the rodeo.

In fact, I would argue to software vendors that virtualization and virtual machines make it EASIER for you to support your customers. Think about it. You now have a known hardware platform that your support team can work with. Asking someone to reproduce the problem from a virtual machine to a fully configured server with more hardware components than you know what to do with is just plain asking for trouble. Again, does your support team have that EXACT piece of physical hardware in house? Is it configured the same? Does it have all the same hardware components installed? Wouldn't it be easier to have the customer send you the affected virtual machine and then have your support person actually debug and troubleshoot a replica of the customer's problematic machine? Does it get any easier than this? Unless your customer happens to be in the next cubical over from you, I doubt it.

So why does it seem as though Oracle is being so strict on its virtualization support policy?

When the company announced its own virtualization platform, Oracle VM, at Oracle OpenWorld, they added support for their database software in a virtual environment but stopped short by announcing that it would only support its software products within its own Oracle VM virtualization platform.

Within the text of the Oracle VM FAQ, the company states:

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Read the rest of my article on Virtual Strategy magazine, here.