HOWTO: Installing and running SAP / Sybase SQL Server 11.0.3.3 esd 6 on Ubuntu using KVM

You can run KVM on just about any modern Linux distribution provided that your host is capable of providing virtualization. The folks over at HowtoForge go through the steps for Ubuntu 12.10.

What you will need for the KVM virtual machine:

• Ubuntu Server 6.06.2 for Intel x86
• Sybase SQL Server 11.0.3.3 esd 6 for Linux 32bit (if anyone knows of a location to legally download these let me know)

I used virt-viewer to create the virtual machine but you can create the xml file yourself if you want to. Make sure you specify:

• Disk bus: IDE using native threads and no caching
• 1GB of RAM or more
• VNC or Spice display

my Sybase_11033.xml file:

Go through the install of Ubuntu Server 6.06.2.  After it is completed, you will need to modify a few files:

Replace /etc/apt/sources.list with:

Modify /boot/grub/menu.lst adding elevator=deadline:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the ## alternatives ## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5 defoptions=quiet splash elevator=deadline ## altoption boot targets option ## multiple altoptions lines are allowed ## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options ##      altoptions=(recovery mode) single # altoptions=(recovery mode) single ## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst ## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the ## alternative kernel options ## e.g. howmany=all ##      howmany=7 # howmany=all ## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option ## e.g. memtest86=true ##      memtest86=false # memtest86=true ## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system ## can be true or false # updatedefaultentry=false ## ## End Default Options ## title       Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-51-server root        (hd0,0) kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-51-server root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash elevator=deadline initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-51-server savedefault boot

Modify /etc/fstab to increase the size of tmpfs and to set noatime,nodiratime:

Modify /etc/sysctl.conf to set up the shared memory and virtual memory settings:

OPTIONAL: Install samba and winbind so you want to connect to your vm by name but don’t want to set up dns:

OPTIONAL (needed for samba/winbind) Modify /etc/nsswitch.conf:

OPTIONAL (needed for samba/winbind) Modify /etc/samba/smb.conf:

*RESTART* the VM

Convert the Sybase RPMs to debian packages (dpkg):

Install Sybase SQL Server:

This will install the software into /opt/sybase. 

Add a sybase os user and change the owner of /opt/sybase to the sybase user:

I created a /opt/sybase/.bash_profile script but you can also put this in /etc/profile if you wish:

Start the Sybase configuration by running as the sybase user:

I would recommend a 100MB or larger master device and sybsystemprocs device for 11.0.3.3.  It will install just fine but if you try to start Sybase with more the 32MB of memory, it will fail.  If you want to increase it you need to do two things:

1. Increase max shared memory (kernel.shmmax and kernel.shmall) in /etc/sysctl.conf – which we already did
2. Set the stack size to unlimited

Setting the stack size to unlimited is easy so in your RUN_server file:

Since this is SQL Server 11.0.3.3, we don’t have to mess with LD_POINTER_GUARD.

Why you would use such an old DBMS version?  You might have software that requires this version and the software vendor went out of business or discontinued the software with no upgrade path.  In any case, Sybase’s SQL Server 11.0.3.3 ESD 6 for Linux is still useful. 😀

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