Copyright © 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Legal Notices
This chapter covers the required prerequisites before you can proceed with the remaining steps in this guide.
This guide uses a single host for a complete Oracle VDI deployment. The host provides everything needed to run and access virtual desktops, including the virtualization platform and storage.
The host must meet the following minimum hardware requirements:
8 gigabytes (GB) of random-access memory (RAM)
8GB is sufficient to run approximately six virtual desktops.
Quad core x86-64 (64-bit) central processing unit (CPU), with virtualization support (Intel VT‑x or AMD‑V)
100 gigabytes (GB) of free disk space
In this guide, a local disk is used to store the virtual desktops. It is best to use a host with at least two disks, so that the storage can be separated from the operating system. Make sure the storage disk has enough capacity to store your virtual desktops.
1 gigabit (Gbit) network interface card (NIC)
These requirements assume that the host will be a dedicated host, used only for Oracle VDI.
You can use either Oracle Linux or Oracle Solaris as the operating system for the host. For detailed system requirements, see the Oracle VDI Administrator's Guide. Make sure you check the requirements for both Oracle VDI hosts and Oracle VM VirtualBox hosts.
The following is a summary of the main requirements for Oracle Linux platforms:
Oracle Linux release 5.6 or 5.7 is supported.
You must use Oracle's Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel. Currently a single-host deployment is not possible on any other kernel.
Ensure that yum is configured correctly and that it is working, so that any missing required packages can be installed automatically when you install Oracle VDI.
If you have not purchased Oracle Linux Support and your host has Internet access, you can resolve package dependencies by using the Oracle Public Yum Server. See http://public-yum.oracle.com for details of how to enable access to these repositories.
If the host does not have Internet access, you can configure yum to resolve package dependencies from the Oracle Linux installation DVD or ISO image. To do this:
Mount the DVD or ISO image in a location such as /mnt.
Use the following command to mount the DVD media inserted in /dev/cdrom:
# mount -r -o loop -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt
Use following command to mount an ISO image file:
# mount -o loop <path-to-iso-image-file> /mnt
Create a file called local.repo in the /etc/yum.repos.d directory.
The file name must have a .repo suffix.
Edit the local.repo file and insert the following text:
[local] name=local DVD baseurl=file:///mnt/Server enabled=1 gpgcheck=0
Clear the yum cache.
# yum clean all
The system must be running in runlevel 5 (full multi-user mode with an X-based login screen).
The SELinux setting must be set to permissive or disabled.
The following is a summary of the main requirements for Oracle Solaris platforms:
Oracle Solaris 10 release 09/10 (update 9) and later is supported. Oracle Solaris 11 is not supported.
You must install the Entire distribution to get the libraries required by Oracle VDI.
If you use Solaris zones, all the configuration steps in this guide must be performed in the global zone. Non-global zones are not supported.
The system must be running in runlevel 3 (multi-user level with NFS resources shared).
The zfs_arc_min parameter must be set in the
/etc/system file. If this parameter is not set, set it to 1 GB
to start with (you can adjust it later if the system performance
is affected). You should also set the
zfs_arc_max parameter to be the same value as
zfs_arc_min. You set the parameter values in
bytes as follows:
set zfs:zfs_arc_min = 1073741824 set zfs:zfs_arc_max = 1073741824
You must be able to log in as the root user on the host.
SSH must be enabled on the host, and SSH must be configured to permit logins by the root user. If SSH is configured to use a non-standard port, make sure you know the port number.
To get your Oracle VDI system working quickly, it is best to disable the firewall on the host. If you prefer to have the firewall enabled, see the Oracle VDI Administrator's Guide for details of the ports you might need to open.
The host must have Domain Name System (DNS) entries that can be resolved by clients. DNS lookups and reverse lookups for the host must succeed.
You should download the Oracle VDI software archive to a temporary location on the host. Links to the software downloads and instructions for downloading can be found at:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/virtualdesktop/downloads/index.html.
If you are using Oracle Solaris, you must download release 3.4.1 or later in order to use a local disk as storage. Release 3.4.1 is only available to contracted customers that have registered with the My Oracle Support (MOS) service portal. To download this release, go to https://support.oracle.com and search for patch number 14226229 on the Patches and Updates tab. Alternatively, you can use a local ZFS storage pool on the host.
Typically, Sun Ray Clients are used to display Oracle VDI desktops. Sun Ray Clients are low-powered hardware devices. For ease and speed of access, this guide uses Oracle Virtual Desktop Client to access desktops. Oracle Virtual Desktop Client is a software alternative to using a Sun Ray Client. Links to the Oracle Virtual Desktop Client downloads and instructions for downloading can be found at:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/sunrayproducts/downloads/index.html.
After you download Oracle Virtual Desktop Client, install it. You do not have to install Oracle Virtual Desktop Client on the server, you can install it on your desktop PC or laptop. The client platform must be able to connect to your Oracle VDI host. For details on the supported platforms and for installation instructions, see the Release Notes for the version of the client you download at:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/sunrayproducts/docs/index.html
The default virtualization platform for Oracle VDI is Oracle VM VirtualBox and this is the platform used in this guide.
If you are familiar with VirtualBox and have an existing virtual machine, this guide shows you how to prepare the virtual machine for use as a desktop template.
If you have an existing virtual machine that was prepared in a different virtualization platform and you can export from that platform in Open Virtualization Format (OVF or OVA), this guide shows you how to import a machine into VirtualBox. You should copy all the exported files to a temporary location on the host.
If you are unfamiliar with VirtualBox, this guide takes you through the steps for creating a virtual machine, which requires the installation media. This guide uses Windows 7. The installation media can be a physical CD/DVD or it can be an ISO image. If you are using an ISO image, copy the image to a temporary location on the host. In order to avoid issues with things like Windows Activation, it is best to have a Windows volume license key for your selected desktop operating system.
Typically, you configure Oracle VDI to use the information held in a corporate user directory. This guide assumes you are using Microsoft Active Directory but the steps in this guide for connecting to a user directory should work for any supported user directory. Details of the supported directories can be found in the Oracle VDI Administrator's Guide. Make a note of the URL used to access the directory, including whether SSL (LDAPS) is required for connections. You also need the distinguished name, for example cn=Jane Doe,cn=Users,dc=example,dc=com, and password of a user that has read access to the directory.
In this guide, you perform the steps needed to configure windows desktops for automatic logins and Oracle VDI Fast Preparation. These steps are optional, but they provide users with the best experience. With this configuration, when users log in to Oracle VDI, they are automatically logged in to their desktop and the desktop is joined to a Windows domain. For this to succeed, you need the following information:
The credentials of a domain administrator with permission to create a computer account and join the domain.
The distinguished name of the container that Active Directory uses for computers. The default container is ou=Computers.
For Windows Server 2008 and later, whether the domain controllers are configured as read-only.
Once you have completed the preparation, you are ready to install the software. Chapter 3, Installing the Software shows you how to do this.
Copyright © 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Legal Notices