12 | SRA 6.0 Administrator’s GuideSRA Virtual ApplianceThe SRA Virtual Appliance is a virtual machine that runs the SRA series software on a VMwareplatform. All software components, features, and functionality described in this guide aresupported by the SRA Virtual Appliance, except High Availability and SSL Offloading.Deploying the SRA as a virtual appliance allows leveraging of shared computing resources tooptimize utilization, easy migration and reduced capital costs. The SRA Virtual Applianceprovides the following benefits:• Cost savings:– Multiple virtual machines can run on a single server, reducing hardware costs, powerconsumption, and maintenance costs.– Microsoft Windows Server is not required, eliminating the cost of the Windows license.• Operational ease:– In a virtual environment, it is easy to commission new servers or decommission oldones, or to bring servers up or down.– Installation is accomplished by importing a file into the virtual environment, with noneed to run an installer.• Security:– The SRA Virtual Appliance provides the same hardened operating system that comeswith the SRA hardware appliances.The elements of basic VMware structure must be implemented prior to deploying the SRAVirtual Appliance. For detailed information about deploying the SRA Virtual Appliance, see theDell SonicWALL SRA Virtual Appliance Getting Started Guide, available at:http://www.sonicwall.com/us/support/3893.htmlSRA Software ComponentsSRA appliances provide clientless identity-based secure remote access to the protectedinternal network. Using the Virtual Office environment, SRA appliances can provide users withsecure remote access to your entire private network, or to individual components such as FileShares, Web servers, FTP servers, remote desktops, or even individual applications hosted onCitrix or Microsoft Terminal Servers.Although SRA protocols are described as clientless, the typical SRA portal combines Web,Java, and ActiveX components that are downloaded from the SRA portal transparently, allowingusers to connect to a remote network without needing to manually install and configure a VPNclient application. In addition, SRA enables users to connect from a variety of devices, includingWindows, Macintosh, and Linux PCs. ActiveX components are only supported on Windowsplatforms.For administrators, the SRA Web-based management interface provides an end-to-end SSLVPN solution. This interface can configure SRA users, access policies, authentication methods,user bookmarks for network resources, and system settings.For clients, Web-based SRA customizable user portals enable users to access, update, upload,and download files and use remote applications installed on desktop machines or hosted on anapplication server. The platform also supports secure Web-based FTP access, networkneighborhood-like interface for file sharing, Secure Shell versions 1 and 2 (SSHv1) and(SSHv2), Telnet emulation, VNC (Virtual Network Computing) and RDP (Remote DesktopProtocol) support, Citrix Web access, bookmarks for offloaded portals (external Web sites), andWeb and HTTPS proxy forwarding.
