Many clients wish to know what the hardware and operating system requirements are for a Delft-FEWS live system. On this page you can find a list of specifications. If you have any question about the list, or you do not see the operating system of your choice: please contact us. This list is not exhaustive.
Components
Third party components
Deltares cannot support any release that is marked as end of life by the supplier. For a quick check whether a component is still supported:
Operating Systems
Central database
- Central database hardware and software requirements - 2024.01 and later
- Central database hardware and software requirements - 2023.02
- Central database hardware and software requirements - 2023.01
- Central database hardware and software requirements - 2022.01 - 2022.02
- Central database hardware and software requirements - 2021.01 - 2021.02
- Database connection count calculator
Master Controller Server
Server for workflow management, event processing, sending system alerts and cleaning up expired records. Synchronizes from other Master Controllers in multi-MC systems. Multi-MC systems are useful for redundancy and / or for cooperation between organizations.
Minimum requirements
- OS minimum +1 GB RAM (multi Master Controller systems +2 GB)
- OS minimum +1 CPU per Master Controller instance
- 10 GB free diskspace
Admin Interface
Operator Client
Forecasting Shell Server
Database Proxy
Deltares Open Archive
Minimum requirements
- Failsafe storage. Any RAID (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID) with ample capacity will be sufficient.
- OS minimum +3 GB RAM.
- OS minimum +3 CPUs.
- See Tomcat requirements.
- Load balancers must use sticky sessions.
- Permissions for the file system containing archive data:
- Must be accessible by the THREDDS server with read permissions.
- Must be accessible by the Archive Server with full permissions.
- Must be accessible by the Forecasting Shell Servers with write permissions.
FEWS Web Services
- Delft-FEWS Webservice requirements - 2023.01 and later
- Delft-FEWS Webservice requirements - 2022.02 and before
Requirements overview
Scalability, number of servers
The components mentioned above can all be located on one (powerful) server or each on an individual machine, with all possible configurations in between. It is however common practice to separate the Forecasting Shell server from the Master-controller server. When using multiple machines it is essential that all machines have matching clocks. This can be achieved by making use of one and the same ntp server.
A typical configuration is:
- Master Controller server running Master Controller(s), Apache Tomcat for Admin Interface
- Open Archive Server
- Database Server
- Forecasting Shell Server(s)
Typically in a dual master-controller setup every master-controller has its own machine so that maintenance can take place without offline time.
Virtualization
It is very well possible to deploy the master-controller components / forecasting shells in virtualized environments. The Deltares ICT team has most experience with Delft-FEWS on VMWare VSphere with in-depth knowledge but Delft-FEWS is also known to run on Microsoft Hyper-V. Virtualization of the Delft-FEWS back-end services can generally be done without problems. Take into account that (not Delft-FEWS related) modelling software may have other requirements or limitations with respect to virtualization of the Forecasting Shells.
Grid computing
FEWS can work with grid computing. Especially when working with heavy computations, e.g. ensemble forecasting or 3d hydraulic computing, this can be an interesting option to explore. It is recommended to contact the Delft-FEWS product management beforehand.
Security
Read more about the shared responsibility model. >>