As a Novell Filr site administrator, ensure that your system meets Filr system requirements, so that your Filr site can be set up successfully. After your Filr site is set up, you must also ensure that users’ browsers and office applications meet Filr user requirements, so that they can access the Filr site successfully.
For any known issues related to System Requirements for Filr 2.0, see the Novell Filr 2.0 Release Notes.
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Hypervisor Type |
Supported Versions |
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VMware |
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Hyper-V |
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Xen |
IMPORTANT:All Xen and kernel patches must be applied before installing.
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Citrix Xen |
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Deployment Type |
Requirement |
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Small deployment (Filr appliance only) |
Minimum 12 GB of memory (16 GB is recommended) and 4 CPUs. At least 50% and preferably 66% of the memory should be dedicated to the Java heap. (Default is 8 GB and 4 CPUs.) A small deployment requires more resources than a large deployment for the Filr appliance, because in a small deployment the database and the search index are also running on the Filr appliance. For information about adjusting the Java heap settings, see |
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Large deployment |
For information about adjusting the Java heap settings, see |
Following are the database requirements when configuring Filr to use an existing database instead of the database appliance (as described in Section 4.3, Configuring an Existing Database Server):
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Database Type |
Supported Versions |
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MySQL |
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Microsoft SQL |
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MariaDB |
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You can configure Net Folders in Filr to access files on any combination of the file servers listed below.
NOTE:File servers are not required if you use Filr only for files in the My Files area.
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Platform |
Supported Versions |
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Windows |
Windows native DFS-N and DFS-R with replication are supported |
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OES |
DFS and DST for OES are supported. Domain Services for Windows (DSfW) is not supported. |
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NetWare |
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Share Point |
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In addition to storage that is directly attached to the file servers listed in File Server Requirements, Net Folders can include access to files that are being stored through any of the following storage methods:
Network Attached Storage (NAS) with NetApp, EMC, and other Microsoft Active Directory joined NAS devices that support the CIFS protocol.
Storage Area Network (SAN)
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Directory Service |
Platform Version |
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eDirectory |
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Active Directory |
For more information, see Windows Server 2008 Active Directory. |
A workstation (Windows, Mac, or Linux) capable of running one of the supported browsers for configuring and managing the appliance after the initial setup:
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Browser |
Requirement |
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Mozilla Firefox |
Latest version |
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Microsoft Internet Explorer |
11 |
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Microsoft Edge |
Latest version |
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Chrome |
Latest version |
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Safari |
Latest version |
In large clustered deployments, personal storage must reside on an external NFS drive or CIFS share, as listed below.
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Protocol |
Requirement |
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CIFS |
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NFS |
Exported mount point on one of the following:
NFS on Windows is not supported. |
IP address information for assigning to the Filr appliance, including:
Static IP address
Network mask
Gateway IP address
DNS host name associated with the IP address
IP address of a DNS server
IP address or DNS name of the same NTP server that your target OES servers use (optional)
If using VMware, Novell recommends setting up NTP in accordance with the VMware best practices guidelines.
The tables in the following sections outline the storage requirements for the various appliances, as well as the kinds of information that is stored. The storage requirements vary depending on the size of your Filr installation.
Clustered Deployment: All information in the following sections applies to a clustered deployment.
Large Deployment: All information in the following sections applies to a non-clustered large deployment except:
All storage recommendations and functions listed under Shared Storage (/vashare) apply instead to Hard Disk 2 (/vastorage), in Filr Appliance Storage.
Small Deployment: Only the information in Filr Appliance Storage applies to a small deployment. All information in Filr Appliance Storage applies to a small deployment except:
All storage recommendations and functions listed under Shared Storage (/vashare) apply instead to Hard Disk 2 (/vastorage).
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Boot Partition (Hard Disk 1) |
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Recommended Storage: 20 GB of disk space Function: Stores the operating system and all appliance-specific software (such as Apache Tomcat for the Filr appliance and Lucene for the search appliance). |
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VMware/Hyper-V/Xen/Citrix Xen Hard Disk (Hard Disk 2 - /vastorage) |
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In a small deployment, all storage recommendations and functions listed under Shared Storage (/vashare) are included in Hard Disk 2 (/vastorage). Recommended Storage: Must have three times as much disk space as the sum of all files that will be uploaded concurrently to personal storage on the Filr site, and two times as much disk space as the sum of all files that will be uploaded concurrently to any Net Folders. For example, if 10 users each upload a 3GB file to their My Files area (personal storage) at the same time, you must have at least 30GB x 3 (90GB) of disk space allocated to /vastorage. If /vastorage does not have sufficient disk space, an error occurs. Function: Stores the following types of files:
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VMware/Hyper-V/Xen/Citrix Xen Disk (Hard Disk 3 - /var) |
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Recommended Storage: Disk size should be equal to the amount of memory given to the appliance, plus whatever is required for storage. It is a good idea to have enough storage to accommodate two memory dumps. Function: Stores the following types of files:
Because log files are continually growing and can consume large amounts of disk space, the Filr administrator should regularly delete old log files. |
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Shared Storage (/vashare) |
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Shared storage is used only in large Filr deployments that have been configured with shared storage. (It is always recommended to create shared storage in large deployments, even if the large deployment has only one Filr appliance.) Large deployments with only one Filr appliance can be set up without shared storage. (This is not recommended because if shared storage is not configured during installation, it is not possible to add additional Filr appliances in the future if the need arises.) In a small deployment, all storage recommendations and functions listed under Shared Storage (/vashare) are included in Hard Disk 2 (/vastorage). Recommended Storage: Disk space must be equal to the size of all files that you anticipate users will add to their Personal Storage (My Files area), plus adequate space to account for the storing of HTML renderings and text extractions. /vashare must have three times as much disk space as the sum of all files that will be uploaded concurrently to personal storage on the Filr site, and two times as much disk space as the sum of all files that will be uploaded concurrently to any Net Folders. For example, if 10 users each upload a 3GB file to their My Files area (personal storage) at the same time, you must have at least 30GB x 3 (90GB) of disk space allocated to /vashare. If /vashare does not have sufficient disk space, an error occurs. IMPORTANT:HTML renderings and text extractions have a significant impact on the amount of storage required for a file. For more information about how these factors affect storage, see the IMPORTANT note following this table. Function: Stores the following types of files:
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IMPORTANT:HTML renderings and text extractions have a significant impact on the amount of storage required per file for the Filr appliance. In a small deployment, index files and database files also have an impact on the amount of storage required per file for the Filr appliance.
HTML Renderings: Each time a user renders a file as HTML (either by clicking View Details on the file from the web interface, by clicking View as HTML from the web interface, or by tapping on a file from the mobile app), that rendering occupies additional disk space.
HTML renderings for files in both Personal Storage and files in Net Folders are stored in the /vashare directory in a clustered environment and in the /vastorage directory in a non-clustered environment.
Only one HTML rendering can exist for a single document. If a user views a file as HTML and a rendering already exists, a second rendering is not created.
The amount of space the HTML rendering occupies differs depending on the type of file that is rendered:
Office file renderings (such as Microsoft Office and OpenOffice) require the same amount of disk space as the original file. (For example, a 1 MB file requires an additional 1 MB of disk space for the HTML rendering.)
PDF renderings require approximately 10 times the amount of disk space as the original file. (For example, a 1 MB file requires an additional 10 MB of disk space for the HTML rendering.)
PowerPoint renderings require approximately 3 times the amount of disk space as the original file. (For example, a 1 MB file requires an additional 3 MB of disk space for the HTML rendering.)
If HTML renderings are consuming more than 10 GB of disk space on your system, you can delete all HTML renderings by restarting the Filr appliance. (For information about how to restart the Filr appliance, change any configuration option, then click Reconfigure Filr Server, as described in Configuring and Maintaining the Filr Appliance
in the Filr 2.0: Administration Guide.)
Text Extractions: When a file is added to Filr (either to Personal Storage or to a Net Folder), text from the file is extracted and added to the search index to be used for searching. By default, each text-extracted file is truncated to 1.1 MB.
Index Files: (Applies only to a small deployment) In a large or clustered deployment, index files are stored in the search appliance.
Database Files: (Applies only to a small deployment) In a large deployment or clustered deployment, database files are stored in the MySQL database appliance.
On the /vashare or /vastorage hard disks, inodes can be consumed on an ext-3 file system so that space still exists on the disk, but no more files can be added. To learn more about inodes and proper allocation based on the potential number of files that are created on the file system, see The File System in Reality, in the The Linux Documentation Project.
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Boot Partition (Hard Disk 1) |
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Recommended Storage: 20 GB of disk space Function: Linux operating system, Java, and Lucene search code Because log files are continually growing and can consume large amounts of disk space, the Filr administrator should regularly delete old log files. |
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VMware/Hyper-V/Xen/Citrix Xen (Hard Disk 2 - /vastorage) |
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Recommended Storage: 20 GB minimum for small systems 50 GB minimum for 2-3 node clustered systems Or 10 GB of disk space, plus:
For more information about file indexing, see In order to optimize the index (as described in Function: Stores the following types of files:
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VMware/Hyper-V/Xen/Citrix Xen Hard Disk (Hard Disk 3 - /var) |
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Recommended Storage: 40 GB of disk space Function: Stores the following types of files:
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Boot Partition (Hard Disk 1) |
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Recommended Storage: 20 GB of disk space Function: Stores log files Log files are automatically deleted after they consume 1GB of disk space. You can delete log files before they reach the 1 GB threshold, as described in Section 6.2, Maintaining the MySQL Database Appliance. |
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VMware/Hyper-V/Xen/Citrix Xen (Hard Disk 2 - /vastorage) |
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Recommended Storage: 25 GB of disk space, plus:
For more information about file indexing, see Allocate 10 KB per user. Function: Stores the following types of files:
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VMware/Hyper-V/Xen/Citrix Xen Disk (Hard Disk 3 - /var) |
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Recommended Storage: 40 GB of disk space Function: Stores the following types of files:
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Platform |
Requirement |
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Linux |
Mozilla Firefox; Google Chrome (latest versions) |
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Windows |
Microsoft Edge Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 Mozilla Firefox; Google Chrome (latest versions) |
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Mac |
Safari (latest version) Mozilla Firefox (latest version) |
Java v1.7.0_72 must be installed on the workstation in order for the following functionality to be available:
Editing files with Edit-in-Place, as described in Editing Files with Edit-in-Place
in the Filr 2.0: Web Application User Guide.
Uploading folders to Filr, as described in Adding Folders
in the Filr 2.0: Web Application User Guide.
If the browser does not support HTML 5, uploading both files and folders requires this version of Java to be installed.
Accessing Filr through a web browser on a mobile device is not supported. Instead, download the Filr mobile app that is compatible with your mobile device. For more information, see Section 1.2.5, Mobile App Requirements.
One of the following office applications is required for editing documents on your workstation, as described in Editing Files with Edit-in-Place
in the Filr 2.0: Web Application User Guide:
NOTE:OpenOffice and LibreOffice are used synonymously throughout the Novell Filr documentation. Functionality and issues that apply to OpenOffice also apply to LibreOffice.
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Platform |
Requirement |
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Linux |
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Windows |
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Mac |
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The Filr desktop application requires Filr 2.0 on the back-end and is supported on the following client operating systems:
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Platform |
Requirement |
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Windows |
IMPORTANT:Always make sure that the latest patches and support packs are installed.
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Mac |
IMPORTANT:Always make sure that the latest patches and support packs are installed.
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For more information about the Filr desktop application, see the Novell Filr Desktop Application for Windows Quick Start or the Novell Filr Desktop Application for Mac Quick Start.
The Novell Filr mobile app is supported on the following mobile devices:
iOS phones and tablets for iOS 8.x or later
The native app is available as a free download in the Apple App Store.
Android phones and tablets for Android 2.3 or later
The native app is available as a free download in the Google Play App Store, the Amazon Appstore for Android, and the Samsung Knox Apps store.
Windows phones version 8.0 and 8.1
Windows tablets are not currently supported.
Supported only with a Filr 1.1 server or later.
The BlackBerry PlayBook and Z10
The native application is available in the BlackBerry World app store.
In this document, the BlackBerry steps are the same as for Android devices.
For more information about the Filr mobile app, see the Novell Filr Mobile App Quick Start.
In Novell Filr, file viewing capabilities are provided by Oracle Outside In viewer technology. See Oracle Outside In Technology 8.3 Supported Formats
for a list of the supported file formats. See Oracle Outside In Technology
for background information about the Oracle viewer technology included in Filr.
The file viewers also support data indexing by the search index.
Filr supports the following file systems on Linux: ext3, btrfs, and xfs.