With this release of Zettar ZCloud Virtual Appliance, the RAM has been set at 1GB, a single virtual CPU (aka VCPU), and storage space at 16GB. These settings were selected so that the virtual appliance can fit comfortably in a virtualized notebook.
Consequently, the "host" system requirements are modest
- Minimum memory: 2GB
- CPU: 1.5Ghz and above Intel/AMD 32bit/64bit, preferrably with Intel VT-x or AMD-V on chip virtualization support (remember to check your computer's BIOS to ensure that the hardware virtualization is enabled!)
- Disk space: 150GB SATA or preferrably, Solid State Disk (SSD) for superior IO performance
- Operating system:
- For VMWare Fusion, the most recent Apple OS X
- For Microsoft VirtualPC 2007 SP1, Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Professional (or later). Windows 7 Professional and above recommended. Do not try to use it on Windows XP Home. You have been warned!
- For Linux KVM: the most recent Ubuntu, CentOS, and Red Hat Enterprise
- For VMWare Server: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS or later. Note, despite the fact that these recommended Ubuntu versions are not officially supported by VMWare, based on our experience, we have found that VMWare Server 2.02 (properly patched) runs far better in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and 10.10 (both 32bit and 64bit) than in the supposely officially supported CentOS
- For Xen: the most recent CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise
- Virtualization platform: Linux KVM, Xen, VMWare Server, VMWare Fusion, and Microsoft VirtualPC 2007 SP1. Note: the last two are desktop class products and may have limitations that the former three are free of, especially in accurate time-keeping and synchronization aspects
- Internet connection: at the time of starting up the Zettar virtual appliance, the host on which you wish to run a ZCloud Virtual Appliance must have either direct or indirect (i.e. through a firewall, and/or proxy) access to the Internet - a DSL level speed minimum.
If you deploy a ZCloud virtual appliance on a computer that has more resources (more memory, more CPUs or cores or both, plenty storage space), you can adjust these parameters. In FAQ, we will address these aspects. For numerous development and QA tasks, ZCloud's default settings should work well.