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:

Central database

Operator Client

Forecasting Shell Server

Master Controller Server

Deltares Open Archive

Webserver

The webserver is an optional server that hosts and distributes the webpages generated by Delft-FEWS. Hardware requirements depend on the intended use.

FEWS Web Services

This is an optional service which allows SOAP/PI-REST clients to interact with and retrieve data from the Delft-FEWS system. Hardware requirements depend on the intended use, but a minimum of 1GB heap size is needed to start the FEWS Web Services. In general it is not recommended to have the PiService on the same machine as the master-controller.

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.

Windows VC redistributables

Security

Read more about the shared responsibility model. >>