Hardware and Software Requirements

This page offers information about the running environment for an Athento ECM server.

Requirements

The Athento ECM can run on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows operating systems.

The only requirement to run the Athento ECM is to have Java 7 or Java 8 (also called Java 1.7 and Java 1.8) installed. You need a Java Development Kit (JDK) to develop on the platform, but a JRE is enough to just run it.

We currently support Oracle's JDK and OpenJDK. Don't hesitate to contact us if you need us to support a JDK from another vendor.

Checking Your Java Version  

 To check that you have the right version of Java:

1. Open a terminal:
   
   • on Linux or Mac OS X: open a terminal.
   • on Windows: press "windows" key + r, type cmd (or command) in the Run window and press "OK" or open the "Prompt command" from "Start > Programs > Accessories" menu.

2. Type java -version and press Enter.
   If Java is correctly installed on your computer, the name and version of your Java virtual machine is displayed:

   java -version result on Mac OS

    

   java version "1.7.0_17" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_17-b02) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.7-b01, mixed mode)

    

   java -version result on Ubuntu

    

   java version "1.7.0_15" OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea7 2.3.7) (7u15-2.3.7-0ubuntu1~12.10.1) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.7-b01, mixed mode)

    

   If Java is not installed on you computer, it fails to display the Java version. Then, you need to install Java (see below).

   If Java is installed but not included in the PATH, it fails to find the Java command. Then, you need to add $JAVA_HOME/bin/ in your PATH (see How do I set or change the PATH system variable?).

Installing Java

For Windows Users

 If the required version of Java is not installed on your computer:

1. Download it from the Oracle website (Java 7 - Java 8) and choose the appropriate platform for your hardware and Windows version.
2. Run the downloaded .exe file and follow the instructions displayed.

For Linux Users

For Ubuntu, the openjdk-7-jdk package is available from version 12.04 LTS on. For Debian, it is available from "wheezy" (7.0.x).

You can still download Java from the Oracle website (Java 7 - Java 8).

For Mac OS X Users

Java packages and instructions for installation are available from the Oracle website:

• Java 7: Download - Instructions
• Java 8: Download - Instructions

Recommendations

Hardware Configuration

Athento ECM is designed to be scalable and can thus to be deployed on many servers. It can be installed on only one server for a start, and can also easily be installed on many servers. The constant is that there is the need to have one modern server with good performances. Then the other servers can be more lower-end.

The numbers below are given for the one needed high-end server.

• RAM: 2 GB is the minimum requirement for using Athento ECM,
• CPU: Intel Core 2 or equivalent and better.
  You might want to avoid machines from the Intel Pentium 4 Xeon series since some models have a too small amount of cache. This impairs performance greatly compared to other CPU architecture of the same generation. (Intel Pentium 4 servers are quite widespread because of an attractive price policy.)
• Storage (disk) space: the minimum Athento ECM installation, along with the needed server and libs, takes something between 200 MB and 280 MB on a filesystem. Then, the final size will of course depend on the amount of data that will be stored in Athento ECM. A safe bet (until we provide better numbers) is to consider data space ratio of 1.5 to 2.

Default Configuration

The default persistence configuration is lightweight and easy to use, but it is not made for performance.

The Athento ECM Platform uses:

• H2 for SQL Data (directories, relations ...),
• Filesystem persistence with VCS for the Document repository.

For Optimal Performances

• Linux 64 bits,
• PostgreSQL 9.3, Use PostgreSQL for document repository and all other services.
• Have plenty of RAM (>= 4 GB).

Known Working Configurations

Browser Support

Athento ECM applications can be used with the browsers below.

• IE 10 and greater
• Firefox 31 ESR and greater
• Google Chrome 37 and greater
• Safari 6.2 and greater

OS

• Linux
  • Debian 7.0 Wheezy
  • Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 12.04, Trusty Tahr 14.04 and the latest Ubuntu Fast Track
  • Red Hat Linux RHEL 7
  • CentOS 7
• Mac OS
  
  • Mac OS X Lion (10.7)
  • Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)
  • Mac OS Mavericks (10.9)
  • Mac OS Yosemite (10.10)
• Microsoft Windows
  
  • For development: Windows 7, Windows 8
  • For deployment: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012

JVM

Oracle JDK 7 and 8, 64 bits recommended especially on Windows environment.

Storage Backends

Different backends may be set as well for Athento ECM Core repository as for all other Athento ECM services that persist data. Please see the list of supported databases for each version of Athento ECM.

LDAP

• OpenLDAP
• OpenDS
• Microsoft Active Directory