Supported Configurations

The following information outlines the supported and unsupported configurations for a Sun VDI 3 deployment in a production environment. For more information about supported software versions, please refer to the Release Notes.

Supported Configurations for Sun Virtualbox Virtualization Platforms

Supported Configurations for VMware Infrastructure Virtualization Platforms

Sun VDI Support Information Some VDI configurations are Explicitly Unsupported Configurations. In order to download the VDI 3 Patches, you must have (at minimum) a Sun Basic Service support plan. For more information about Sun Service support plans, see the Sun Services site. VMware software is not included as part of the Sun VDI Software 3 package, therefore a Sun Support contract will not cover VMware-related issues. For VMware coverage, you will need an additional support plan. For more information about Sun Service plans for VMware, see the Sun Services for VMware site.

Single Host Configuration

In the Single Host Configuration, everything (VDI connection broker, VirtualBox virtualization platform, and storage) run on one physical host. Please note that the requirement for this deployment option is to run Solaris 10 Update 7 on this host (with the latest patch installed). Concerning the database, you would have a locally installed MySQL Server (with an InnoDB engine) and connect to it selecting the remote database option during VDI 3 configuration. This kind of deployment offers zero redundancy, meaning it is one big Single Point of Failure.

The VDI support contracts only cover a VDI configuration with an embedded MySQL database. The Single Host Configuration uses a locally installed MySQL database with a InnoDB engine, which must be configured as a remote database. Therefore, if you want support service for the database component of the Single Host Configuration, you must purchase an additional MySQL service contract. For more information, see the MySQL Support page.

VirtualBox on Primary Host Configuration

In the VirtualBox on Primary Host Configuration, the Sun VDI 3 Primary node and one of your VirtualBox hosts share one physical machine. Make sure the shared host has enough capacity to deal with these two roles at the same time. For more information about sizing VirtualBox configurations, see the Deployment Guide.

Primary Host Virtualized Configuration

In the Primary Host Virtualized Configuration, the Sun VDI 3 Primary node runs in a virtual machine hosted by a VMware Infrastructure virtualization platform. Running the MySQL Cluster completely in a virtualized environment is not supported. Given the fact that the MySQL Cluster management node (or Primary node) requires only little resources, the MySQL team has agreed that it is an acceptable and supported scenario to run it in a virtual machine. The two VDI 3 Secondary hosts running the MySQL Cluster data nodes nevertheless need to run on bare metal.

Explicitly Unsupported Configurations

• Virtualized VDI Core
  In a Virtualized VDI Core configuration, the Sun VDI 3 Primary and two Secondary nodes could be hosted in virtual machines--this may work for some deployments, but it is explicitly unsupported! Sun VDI 3 core with embedded database provides High-Availability out of the box, which requires network and I/O response times that cannot be guaranteed in virtualized environments. Customers who rely on a fully virtualized environment will need to use a configuration utilizing an external database. However, there is one exception for the Primary VDI Core node. This node can be virtualized with the embedded database, as long as it is not used for delivering sessions to users. For more information about virtualizing the MySQL database, see the MySQL FAQs.
  
  Although not supported, you may still be interested in virtualizing the VDI Core for whatever reason(demos, POC, testing, development). For more information on how to do this successfully, refer to Tino Rachui's blog.

• Mixed Endian Cluster Nodes
  In a Mixed Endian Cluster Nodes configuration, the Sun VDI 3 Primary and two Secondary nodes could be hosted on machines with dissimilar CPU types (a mix or x86 and SPARC). For a Sun VDI 3 Core with embedded database, the management node (Primary VDI node) and first two data nodes (Secondary VDI nodes) used in the cluster must have the same architecture (all x86 or all SPARC). That is, all machines hosting nodes must be either big-endian or little-endian, and you cannot use a mixture of both. Any additional nodes added (since they are just MySQL client nodes and not part of the data cluster) can be either architecture. For more information about mixed Endian MySQL nodes, see the MySQL Limitations.

• VDI Demo
  The VDI Demo configuration cannot be supported as a production environment VDI deployment, because the embedded database configuration does not comply with MySQL standards. We do, however, encourage customers to try VDI Demo configuration to evaluate the new features before committing to a larger deployment. See the Getting Started - VDI Demo page for step-by-step information about installing and configuring a Demo setup. If you run into any problems, you can always consult the VDI Forum or check the Troubleshooting and FAQs.