Operating system (OS) choices
The Sakai CLE is OS neutral. It is typically run on any of the numerous Linux distributions such as CentOS, Debian GNU/Linux, Fedora, Gentoo Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SuSe Linux, Ubuntu but is also run on Mac OS X server, Microsoft Windows and Sun Solaris.
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| Cerritos College, Windows 2003.
Georgia Tech, RHEL.
Indiana University, RHEL.
Mount Holyoke College: Debian GNU/Linux. |
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| Oxford University: Debian GNU/Linux.
Rutgers University: Sun Solaris.
University of California, Berkeley: Sun Solaris.
University of Cape Town: SuSe Linux. |
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| University of Florida: RHEL.
Universidad de Murcia: CentOS.
University of Virginia: Fedora.
Virginia Tech: Ubuntu. |
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Java
Oracle's Sun Java SE 6, a.k.a Java 1.6, is the preferred version to use with the Sakai CLE. Certain files, such as *.jsp and *.jws, require compilation so downloading and attempting to use only the run time environment (JRE 6.0) will not suffice. Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) includes the full version of Java SE 6 so Mac users do not need to install Java. If you find Sun's version and naming conventions confusing, see Sun Java SE Naming and Versions for an outline of their practices.
Oracle's Sun Java J2SE 5.0 (a.k.a Java 1.5) has completed the EOL process and is no longer supported. If are still running Java 1.5 please note that security vulnerabilities exist in JDK/JRE 5.0 updates 1.5.0_17 and earlier.
Application server choices
The Sakai Community is overwhelmingly an Apache 2.2/Tomcat 5.5 user community and the Sakai CLE is at home in such an environment. Several schools run their Tomcats on Windows IIS without issue. Since Sakai CLE 2.7.0 a Websphere module was included in the release in order to facilitate deployment to a Websphere/Db2 production environment; however, support has waned and the Websphere option is currently considered deprecated. A few schools such as Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Universidad de Guadalajara report deploying Sakai on JBoss.
It should be noted that currently Sakai CLE 2x is not compatible with Tomcat 6 or 7, a servlet container that some schools run as a standalone web server instead of fronting it with the Apache HTTP web server. It is anticipated that the Sakai CLE 2.9 release (Q2/Q3 2012) will be compatible with Tomcat 7.
Database choices
Sakai CLE production installations typically run either Oracle 10g/11g or MySQL 5.0/5.1. Support for IBM Db2 was added for the Sakai CLE 2.7.0 release but for 2.8.0 DB2 conversion scripts were not updated or tested and are currently considered deprecated. A demo version of Sakai includes HSQLDB; it should never be deployed in production.
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| Australian National University, MySQL 5.1
Indiana University, Oracle 10g
Oxford University, MySQL 5.0 |
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| Stanford University, Oracle 10g
Texas State University, San Marcos, MySQL 5.1
University of Cape Town, MySQL 5.1 |
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| University of Florida, Oracle 11g
University of Virginia, MySQL 5.0
University of Michigan, Oracle 10g
Virginia Tech, Oracle 11g |
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Clustering, file storage and load balancing strategies
A typical Sakai CLE cluster is comprised of one or more application servers running one or more instances of Tomcat 5.5 operating either in standalone mode or behind the Apache HTTP 2.2 web server. Each Tomcat instance runs a full copy of the Sakai CLE. The cluster is backed by a single database providing a transactional store of information. Storing binary content outside the database is a configurable option in Sakai and highly recommended from a performance standpoint. Most Sakai schools with sizable user populations opt for network-attached storage (NAS) or storage area network (SAN) solutions. Load balancing is provided by Apache (using mod_jk, mod_proxy_balancer or mod_proxy_ajp) or dedicated hardware solutions such as F5 BIG-IP, NetScaler or Zeus.
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External Authentication choices
The Sakai CLE can integrate with a variety of external authentication services including CAS, Kerberos, LDAP, Shibboleth and WebAuth.
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| Australian National University: LDAP.
Indiana University: CAS.
Georgia Tech: CAS.
Oxford University: WebAuth.
Pepperdine University: CAS. |
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| Stanford University: Kerberos.
Stockholm University: Shibboleth.
University of California, Davis: CAS.
University of Delaware: LDAP. |
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| University of Hawaii: LDAP.
University of Michigan: Kerberos.
University of Florida: Shibboleth.
Yale University, CAS. |
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Sakai Community institutions have integrated their Sakai CLE installations with Banner, Datatel and Peoplesoft as well as a variety of home-grown student information systems (SIS).
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