System requirements

1) Hardware

The exact hardware requirements depend a lot on the amount of data and traffic managed with the MICHAEL platform. The first thing to know is that the platform doesn't require a specific type of hardware, it should work on any hardware where a Java virtual machine can be installed; it thus more depend on the operating system than on the hardware.

To install the platform and the underlying components, you will need around 200MB of available disk space. For the data itself, it may depend on a lot of parameters, but here is a formula to help you evaluate:

Total DS in Kilobytes = 8 * NR + Images

This formula tells that for the total disk space occupied by data, you can calculate 8KB per record in the database, and the space occupied by the images or other media files linked to the record.

For instance, if you manage 5 000 records, with about 2 000 associated with images with a mean size of 100KB, then the total disk space required for data would be 5 000 * 8KB + 2 000 * 100KB = 240MB .

The other critical aspect of hardware requirements is the RAM. The amount of RAM needed will depend on the number of users accessing the system and the size of data in the database. You should have at least 250MB of RAM dedicated to the platform. For a normal production environment available on the Internet, having between 1GB and 2GB will probably be a good idea.

As for the processor power, it depends on the number of users accessing the platform and once again the number of records. Servers such as an Intel bi-processor will be able to serve many users with large datasets without any problem. Of course, for a smaller installation or for only presentation purposes, simpler systems can be used.

2) Operating system

There is only one critical requirement concerning the operating system (OS) used to host the MICHAEL platform: there must be a Java virtual machine, version 1.4.x, for this OS. This includes Linux, various UNIXes, Mac OS X and Windows.

Choosing the right OS depends much more on the administrator preference and knowledge than on the MICHAEL platform itself. For information, please note that the platform is tested mostly on Windows and Linux, so these platforms may be more robust and stable. But it should run without any difference on other OS.