C H A P T E R  1

Preparing to Install

This chapter describes the things you must know and do before you install Sun Secure Global Desktop (SGD).

Topics in this chapter include:


Hardware Requirements

Use the following hardware requirements as a guide and not as an exact sizing tool. For detailed help with hardware requirements, contact a Sun Secure Global Desktop Software sales office.

The requirements for a server hosting SGD can be calculated based on the total of the following:

The following are the requirements for installing and running SGD:

This is in addition to what is required for the operating system itself and assumes the server is used only for SGD.

The following are the requirements to support users who log in to SGD and run applications:



caution icon

Caution - The actual central processing unit (CPU) and memory requirements can vary significantly, depending on the applications used.




Supported Installation Platforms

The following table lists the supported installation platforms for SGD.


Operating System Supported Versions
Solaristrademark Operating System (Solaris OS) on SPARC platforms 8, 9, 10, 10 Trusted Extensions
Solaris OS on x86 platforms 10, 10 Trusted Extensions
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Intel x86 32-bit) 4, 5
Fedora Linux (Intel x86 32-bit) 8
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (Intel x86 32‐bit) 9, 10

Installing on Solaris 10 OS Trusted Extensions

When you install SGD on Solaris 10 OS Trusted Extensions platforms, you must install SGD in a labelled zone. Do not install SGD in the global zone.

B y default, SGD is installed in the /opt/tarantella directory. As the /opt directory is read only on Solaris 10 OS Trusted Extensions platforms, you must select another location to install SGD. On Solaris OS platforms, the installation program asks you for the installation directory when you install the software.

Operating System Modifications

You might have to make some operating system modifications. Without these modifications, SGD might not install properly or operate correctly.

Localized Messages During Installation on Linux Platforms

When you install SGD on Linux platforms, localized messages in the supported languages can only be displayed if the gettext package is installed. If the gettext package is not installed, English is used during the installation.

Fedora 8

SGD fails to install if the libXp.so.6 library is not available on the host. This library was deprecated in Fedora Core 3. However, the file is still available in the libXp package.

SGD fails to install if the libexpat.so.0 libraries are not available on the host. Fedora 8 contains version 1 of these libraries by default. Obtain and install the required version of these libraries before installing SGD. If you still get dependency error messages about this library, use the --nodeps option of the rpm command to install the SGD package.

5250 and 3270 Applications

The libXm.so.3 library is required to support 5250 and 3270 applications. This library is available in the OpenMotif 2.2 package.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 With Service Pack 2

SGD fails to install if the libgdbm.so.2 library is not available on the host. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 with Service Pack 2 contains version 3 of the library by default. Obtain and install version 2 of the library before installing SGD.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10

SGD fails to install if the libgdbm.so.2 and libexpat.so.0 libraries are not available on the host. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 contains version 3 and version 1 of these libraries by default. Obtain and install the required version of these libraries before installing SGD.

Solaris 8, 9, and 10 OS

You must install at least the End User Solaris OS distribution to get the libraries required by SGD. If you do not, SGD does not install.

SGD fails to install if the /usr/lib/libsendfile.so library is not available on the host. This library might be included with the Core Solaris Libraries (SUNWcsl) package, or you might have to apply patch number 111297 to obtain it.

Solaris 8 OS /dev/random Pseudo Device

Users might not be able log in to SGD on Solaris 8 OS platforms if the host does not have the /dev/random pseudo device. You might have to install patch number 112438 to obtain this device.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

The default /etc/hosts file for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 contains a single entry, which incorrectly maps the host name of the SGD host to the local loopback address, 127.0.0.1.

Edit the /etc/hosts file to remove this mapping, and add a new entry that maps the name of the SGD host to the network IP address of the SGD host. The SGD host name must not be mapped to the local loopback IP address.

OpenSolaris 2008

The SGD Client requires the libXm.so.4 library. This library is available in the Solaris Express Community Edition.


Network Requirements

You must configure your network for use with SGD. The following are the main requirements:

The Sun Secure Global Desktop 4.41 Administration Guide has detailed information about all the ports used by SGD and how to use SGD with firewalls. The following information lists the common ports used.

Client devices must be able to make Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connections to SGD on the following TCP ports:



Note - The initial connection between an SGD Client and an SGD server is always secure. After the user logs in to SGD, the connection is downgraded to a standard connection. When you first install SGD, TCP ports 3144 and 5307 must be open to connect to SGD. You can configure SGD to always use secure connections.



To run applications, SGD must be able to make TCP/IP connections to application servers. The types of applications determine the TCP ports that must be open, for example:


Clock Synchronization

In SGD, an array is a collection of SGD servers that share configuration information. As the SGD servers in an array share information about user sessions and application sessions, it is important to synchronize the clocks on the SGD hosts. Use Network Time Protocol (NTP) software or the rdate command to ensure the clocks on all SGD hosts are synchronized.


SGD Web Server

When you install SGD, you install the SGD Web Server. The SGD Web Server is an Apache web server that is preconfigured for use with SGD.

When you install SGD, the SGD installation program asks you for the TCP port that the SGD Web Server listens on for HTTP connections. This is usually TCP port 80. If another process is listening on that port, the installation program asks you to choose another port.


Required Users and Privileges

To install SGD, you must have superuser (root) privileges.

The system must have ttaserv and ttasys users and a ttaserv group before you can install SGD.

The ttasys user owns all the files and processes used by the SGD server. The ttaserv user owns all the files and processes used by the SGD Web Server.

The SGD server does not require superuser (root) privileges to run. The SGD server starts as the root user and then downgrades to the ttasys user.

If you try to install the software without these users and group in place, the installation program stops without making any changes to the system and displays a message telling you what you need to do. The message includes details of an install script that you can run to create the required users and group.

If you need to create the required users and group manually, the following are the requirements:

One way to create these users is with the useradd and groupadd commands, for example:


# groupadd ttaserv
# useradd -g ttaserv -s /bin/sh -d /home/ttasys -m ttasys
# useradd -g ttaserv -s /bin/sh -d /home/ttaserv -m ttaserv
# passwd -l ttasys
# passwd -l ttaserv

To check whether the ttasys and ttaserv user accounts are correctly set up on your system, use the following commands.


# su ttasys -c "/usr/bin/id -a"
# su ttaserv -c "/usr/bin/id -a"

If your system is set up correctly, the command output should be similar to the following examples.


uid=1002(ttaserv) gid=1000(ttaserv) groups=1000(ttaserv)
uid=1003(ttasys) gid=1000(ttaserv) groups=1000(ttaserv)


Supported Installation Platforms for the SGD Enhancement Module

The SGD Enhancement Module is a software component that can be installed on an application server to provide the following additional functionality when using applications displayed through SGD:

The following are the supported installation platforms for the SGD Enhancement Module:


Operating System Supported Versions
Microsoft Windows Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2003

Windows 2000 Server

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate

Microsoft Windows Vista Business

Solaris OS on SPARC platforms 8, 9, 10, 10 Trusted Extensions
Solaris OS on x86 platforms 10, 10 Trusted Extensions
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Intel x86 32-bit) 4, 5
Fedora Linux (Intel x86 32-bit) 8
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (Intel x86 32-bit) 9, 10

Note the following limitations:

Application servers that are not supported platforms for the SGD Enhancement Module can be used with SGD to access a supported application type using any of the supported protocols.


Application Connection Methods

To run applications, SGD must be able to connect to the application server that hosts the application. Typically this is done using either Telnet or Secure Shell (SSH). Enable one of these services before installing SGD. SSH is the best for security.

If you are using SSH, you must enable X11 forwarding. You can do this either in your SSH configuration or by configuring the application in SGD. The Sun Secure Global Desktop 4.41 Administration Guide has details on using SSH with SGD.


Release Notes

Before installing SGD, read the Sun Secure Global Desktop 4.41 Release Notes. The release notes contain important information about this version of SGD, including the known issues and bugs with installation.