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A Red Hat training course is available for Red Hat Virtualization

Chapter 2. System Requirements

Hardware certification for Red Hat Virtualization is covered by the hardware certification for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/725243.

2.1. Red Hat Virtualization Manager Requirements

2.1.1. Hardware Requirements

The minimum and recommended hardware requirements outlined here are based on a typical small to medium sized installation. The exact requirements vary between deployments based on sizing and load.
The Red Hat Virtualization Manager runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. To confirm whether or not specific hardware items are certified for use with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, see https://access.redhat.com/ecosystem/#certifiedHardware.

Table 2.1. Red Hat Virtualization Manager Hardware Requirements

Resource Minimum Recommended
CPU A dual core CPU. A quad core CPU or multiple dual core CPUs.
Memory 4 GB of available system RAM if Data Warehouse is not installed and if memory is not being consumed by existing processes. 16 GB of system RAM.
Hard Disk 25 GB of locally accessible, writable, disk space.
50 GB of locally accessible, writable, disk space.
You can use the RHEV Manager History Database Size Calculator to calculate the appropriate disk space to have for the Manager history database size.
Network Interface 1 Network Interface Card (NIC) with bandwidth of at least 1 Gbps. 1 Network Interface Card (NIC) with bandwidth of at least 1 Gbps.

2.1.2. Browser Requirements

The following browser versions and operating systems can be used to access the Administration Portal and the User Portal.
Browser support is divided into tiers:
  • Tier 1: Browser and operating system combinations that are fully tested and fully supported. Red Hat Engineering is committed to fixing issues with browsers on this tier.
  • Tier 2: Browser and operating system combinations that are partially tested, and are likely to work. Limited support is provided for this tier. Red Hat Engineering will attempt to fix issues with browsers on this tier.
  • Tier 3: Browser and operating system combinations that are not tested, but may work. Minimal support is provided for this tier. Red Hat Engineering will attempt to fix only minor issues with browsers on this tier.

Table 2.2. Browser Requirements

Support Tier Operating System Family Browser Portal Access
Tier 1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Mozilla Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) version Administration Portal and User Portal
Tier 2 Windows Internet Explorer 10 or later Administration Portal and User Portal
Any Most recent version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox Administration Portal and User Portal
Tier 3 Any Earlier versions of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox Administration Portal and User Portal
Any Other browsers Administration Portal and User Portal

2.1.3. Client Requirements

Virtual machine consoles can only be accessed using supported Remote Viewer (virt-viewer) clients on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows. To install virt-viewer, see Installing Supported Components in the Virtual Machine Management Guide. Installing virt-viewer requires Administrator privileges.
SPICE console access is only available on other operating systems, such as OS X, through the unsupported SPICE HTML5 browser client.
Supported QXL drivers are available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Windows XP, and Windows 7.
SPICE support is divided into tiers:
  • Tier 1: Operating systems on which remote-viewer has been fully tested and is supported.
  • Tier 2: Operating systems on which remote-viewer is partially tested and is likely to work. Limited support is provided for this tier. Red Hat Engineering will attempt to fix issues with remote-viewer on this tier.

Table 2.3. Client Operating System SPICE Support

Support Tier Operating System SPICE Support
Tier 1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Fully supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 and above
  Microsoft Windows 7 Fully supported on Microsoft Windows 7
Tier 2 Microsoft Windows 8 Supported when spice-vdagent is running on these guest operating systems
  Microsoft Windows 10 Supported when spice-vdagent is running on these guest operating systems

2.1.4. Operating System Requirements

The Red Hat Virtualization Manager must be installed on a base installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 that has been updated to the latest minor release. Do not install any additional packages after the base installation because they may cause dependency issues when attempting to install the packages required by the Manager.

2.1.5. DNS Requirements

The Red Hat Virtualization Manager and all network communication requires reverse DNS lookup and the existence of a PTR record to avoid significant performance degredation.

Note

An entry in the /etc/hosts file is not sufficient because it does not provide reverse DNS lookup.