IBM DISA e-collaboration Workstation Preparation & New User Getting Started Guide , 4. Client Software requirements

Workstation Preparation & New User Getting Started Guide

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4. Client Software requirements

This section describes the software requirements for the workstation that is accessing the e-

collabcenter.com web site. The workstation is sometimes referred to as a client machine. Ensuring that

your workstation meets these software requirements will enable it to work optimally the E-

CollabCenter environment.

Previously Sametime and IWS could both use JRE 1.4.2_14. However in order for Sametime to support

FIPS 140-2 encryption, E-CollabCenter (which is based on Sametime technology) requires Java JRE 1.5

Update 12 or greater.

IWS 3.0 does not support JRE 1.5. IWS 3.0 is the version used by most of DoD. IWS Version 3.0.6 will

be released soon and it is JRE independent so it would not conflict with Sametime at all (theoretically)1.

This means that a workstation running IWS would have to install JRE 1.5 (update 12 is preferred) and

most likely have to uninstall JRE 1.4.2 in order to use E-CollabCenter.

Library required for application sharing on Linux systems

In order to load Application Sharing native code on Linux platforms, the following library is required on the

client machine: libz.so.1, which resides in /usr/lib.

The supported Linux operating systems are: RedHat Enterprise Linux 4.0, Ubuntu 8.04, CentOS 5.1 and

Novell Linux Desktop 10.0 using Firefox 1.5. Limited testing has been done by the IBM E-CollabCenter

project team with these Linux desktops.

The recommended operating system for E-CollabCenter is Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 2. Prior

versions of Windows such Windows XP SP 1 and Windows 2000 may work but have not been tested by

the E-CollabCenter team. Limited testing has been done using Windows 2003 Server SP1 and SP2 as

an E-CollabCenter client; they both appear to work fine.

For the Sametime Broadcast client, Sametime Connect (a.k.a. thick client) client, Sametime Meeting

Room client the Microsoft Virtual Machine (VM) is not supported and must be disabled. The

supported JRE for all Sametime java applet clients in the Sametime 7.5.1 release is Sun Microsystems

Java JRE release 1.5.0 (update 12 is preferred).

The Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) is an OMB-mandated security configuration. The

FDCC currently exists for Microsoft Windows Vista and XP operating system software. While not

addressed specifically as the “Federal Desktop Core Configuration,” the FDCC was originally called for in

a March 22, 2007 memorandum from OMB to all Federal agencies and department heads and a

corresponding memorandum from OMB to all Federal agency and depart Chief Information Officers

(CIO).

The Windows Vista FDCC is based on DoD customization of the Microsoft Security Guides for both

Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7.0. Microsoft’s Vista Security Guide was produced through a

collaborative effort with DISA, NSA, and NIST for the Windows Vista platform. The Window’s XP FDCC

1 Thanks to Tom Condon of EUCOM (condont@eucom.mil) for helping with this IWS information.