Oracle VDI release 3.3 contained the following new features:
Support for Oracle Linux platforms
Oracle Linux 5.6 is a supported installation platform for Oracle VDI and the Oracle VDI Hypervisor. Support is only for 64-bit platforms, 32-bit platforms are not supported. For Oracle VDI servers, all hosts in an Oracle VDI Center must use the same operating system.
For details of other requirements for Linux platforms, see Oracle VDI hosts and Oracle VDI Hypervisor.
High availability configuration with just two servers
The bundled MySQL Cluster database used in previous releases is replaced with an embedded MySQL Server database. The change means that high availability configuration is possible with just two hosts in an Oracle VDI Center. High availability is automatically enabled as soon as a secondary host is added to the Oracle VDI Center. Asynchronous replication is used between the master database on the primary Oracle VDI host and the slave database on the secondary host. Additional secondary hosts in an Oracle VDI Center have no database role.
For more details, see Section 3.1.2, “High Availability Configuration Using Embedded MySQL Server”.
If you are updating from a previous release, Section 3.6.1, “Before You Update” has details of the configuration changes that take place when you update.
Support for installation in virtualized hosts
Oracle VDI can be installed in virtualized hosts.
For important considerations when using virtualized hosts, see Section 3.2.7, “Oracle VDI Centers in Virtualized Environments”.
Simplified installation and update
The installation and update process has been simplified and there is no longer a requirement to reboot after installing the software.
For more details, see Section 3.3, “How to Install Oracle VDI” and Section 3.6, “Updating Oracle VDI to Release 3.3.2”.
Role-based administration
This release introduces role-based administration. There is a pre-defined set of roles that enable you to control access to companies and desktop providers. Users can have read or write access to an area. In Oracle VDI Manager, the top-level categories are only shown if your role has access to that area. On the command line, the vda command and subcommands can be run by non-root users. Non-root users are prompted for a password every time they run a command. It is not possible to add your own roles.
For more details, see Section 9.2, “Oracle VDI Administrators”.
New Sun Ray Kiosk Session desktop provider
There is a new desktop provider that enables you to use an existing Sun Ray Kiosk Mode session type instead of a regular Oracle VDI desktop. Sun Ray Kiosk Session providers enable you to provide access to types of sessions that are not available with Oracle VDI itself, for example to connect to a remote desktop using a different broker such as the Sun Ray VMware View connector, or to provide access to a web-based application in a locked-down web browser.
For more details, see Section 5.5, “About Sun Ray Kiosk Session Providers”
Support for VMware linked cloning
This release includes support for VMware linked cloning. Linked cloning enables multiple virtual machines to share virtual disks with a parent virtual machine and use the same software installation. Linked clones also conserve disk space and can be created more quickly than full clones.
For more details to how to enable support for linked clones, see Section 6.7.3, “How to Enable VMware Linked Cloning”.
Simplified configuration for Remote Desktop Services farms
For Remote Desktop Services hosts that are part of a farm or NLB cluster, Oracle VDI no longer requires additional configuration of the Remote Desktop Server host (using ws-man).
For more details, see Section 5.2.2.4, “Microsoft Remote Desktop Provider RDS Farm Management”.
User desktop reset
Users can restart their own desktops without any administrator or call center involvement. The desktop selector dialog has a reset button the enables users to select a desktop and reset it.
For more details, see Section 10.7.2, “A User Can Log in But Their Desktop is Not Responding”.
Web service API
Oracle VDI includes a web service interface for easier integration with third-party tools. It enables you to query, start, and reset the desktops assigned to a user.
Support bundles
Oracle VDI can generate support bundles containing log files and important system configuration. This information can be used by Oracle Support to analyze and diagnose system issues.
For more details, see Section 9.9.2, “Support Bundles”