Peer Global File Service - Environmental Requirements

NOTE: All Peer Global File Service capabilities are deployed via the Peer Management Center and Peer Agents.

Revision	025
Last Updated	05 Jan 2023

Server Requirements

Minimum Peer Management Center Server Configuration

For Windows-based PMC deployments: Windows Server 2012 operating system or later.
For Linux-based PMC deployments: Ubuntu Server 20.04 operating system or later; Red Hat Enterprise Linux v8 or later.
Must be a dedicated server. Physical servers are preferred and may be necessary in some cases, but high performance VMs running on enterprise-class hypervisors can usually suffice.
For customers with Peer Global File Service Basic or Standard licenses:
- At least 4 processor cores.
- At least 4 GB of system RAM with 2 GB dedicated to the main Peer Management Center service and 1 GB dedicated to the Broker service.
For customers with Peer Global File Service Enterprise licenses:
- At least 6 processor cores.
- At least 8 GB of system RAM with 4 GB dedicated to the main Peer Management Center service and 2 GB dedicated to the Broker service.
For customers with Peer Global File Service Data Center licenses:
- At least 8 processor cores.
- At least 16 GB of system RAM with 8 GB dedicated to the main Peer Management Center service and 4 GB dedicated to the Broker service.
At least 100 GB of free disk space on a reliable, fast hard drive to accommodate installation and log files. Fast SSD storage is highly recommended to improve performance.

Minimum Peer Agent Server Configuration

Windows Server 2012 operating system or later.
For enterprise NAS environments, this must be a dedicated server without any other CEE, File Activity Monitoring, FPolicy, VSCAN, or similar application running on it. Physical servers are recommended but not required.
For customers with Peer Global File Service Basic or Standard licenses:
- At least 4 processor cores.
- At least 4 GB of system RAM with at least 2 GB dedicated to the Agent service.
For customers with Peer Global File Service Enterprise licenses:
- At least 6 processor cores.
- At least 8 GB of system RAM with at least 4 GB dedicated to the Agent service.
For customers with Peer Global File Service Data Center licenses:
- At least 8 processor cores.
- At least 16 GB of system RAM with at least 8 GB dedicated to the Agent service.
At least 50 GB of free disk space on a reliable, fast hard drive or RAID array of hard drives to accommodate installation and log files. Fast SSD storage is highly recommended to improve performance.

Minimum Standalone Peer Management Broker Server Configuration

For Windows-based Broker deployments: Windows Server 2012 operating system or later.
For Linux-based Broker deployments: Ubuntu Server 20.04 operating system or later; Red Hat Enterprise Linux v8 or later.
Must be a dedicated server. Physical servers are preferred and may be necessary in some cases, but high performance VMs running on enterprise-class hypervisors can usually suffice.
For customers with Peer Global File Service Basic or Standard licenses:
- At least 4 processor cores.
- At least 4 GB of system RAM with 1 GB dedicated to the Broker service.
For customers with Peer Global File Service Enterprise licenses:
- At least 6 processor cores.
- At least 8 GB of system RAM with 2 GB dedicated to the Broker service.
For customers with Peer Global File Service Data Center licenses:
- At least 8 processor cores.
- At least 16 GB of system RAM with 4 GB dedicated to the Broker service.
At least 50 GB of free disk space on a reliable, fast hard drive to accommodate installation and log files.

Storage Platform Prerequisites

Enterprise NAS platforms require that additional prerequisites be met. Please review the prerequisites for your platform(s):

Additional Requirements and Notes

Required and recommended CPU, memory, and disk space numbers above will vary depending on the size and scope of the environment. These numbers are to be used as a starting point.
If Hyper-V's Dynamic Memory feature is enabled on any VMs hosting the Peer Management Center, Peer Agent, or Peer Management Broker, the Minimum RAM value MUST be set to at least the minimums defined above.
A Peer Agent must be installed on all participating Windows file servers and CEE/FPolicy/Partner Servers.
All folders to be replicated must either be on the local Windows server (NTFS or ReFS only) where the Agent is installed or be hosted on a supported enterprise NAS platform. See the Storage Platform Prerequisites section above for the list of supported platforms.
Windows Failover Cluster environments are supported in running both the Peer Management Center as well as the Peer Agent running attached to a clustered file server role. Windows Failover Clustering is not currently supported for use with enterprise NAS platforms or with Dynamic Storage Utilization (DSU). For more details, contact your sales representative.
For customers leveraging Dynamic Storage Utilization (DSU), an edge participant MUST be a Windows file server and we strongly recommend always including two master participants in every DSU-based job.
The Peer Agent Service (PL-Agent.exe) MUST be excluded from all anti-malware applications on the Windows server where the Agent is installed. If Dynamic Storage Utilization (DSU) is being used, the Peer Master Data Service (PeerMasterDataService.exe) and the Peer Edge Service (PeerEdgeService.exe) MUST also be excluded from all anti-malware applications.
Short filename support using the 8.3 naming convention MUST be disabled on the storage devices managed by the Peer Agent.
File-level encryption technologies are NOT currently supported. If file server encryption is required, a volume-level encryption tool that operates transparently (like Microsoft BitLocker) is recommended.
Deduplication technology on Microsoft Windows 2012 and above is supported.
The Peer Agent service (as well as the Peer Master Data Service and Peer Edge Service) must be installed under a domain account with "Log on as a service" rights and with FULL ACCESS to the folders it will be monitoring. The Peer Management Center services can run under a local system account.
No other replication technologies (such as Microsoft DFS-R) should be touching the data that is managed by the Peer Agent.
All Peer Agent servers must have some form of network access to the server where the Peer Management Center is installed. The Agents must be configured with the host name or IP Address of the Peer Management Center server. No firewalls can block traffic on the configured port (which is 61617 by default when using SSL; 61616 by default when not using SSL). Additional firewall details can be found here: Firewall Requirements.
File Collaboration jobs propagate locks only when a file is opened with a read-write lock (for example, using MS Word or MS Excel). If a file is opened in read-only mode without an exclusive write lock or if the application closes all handles to the file (for example, Notepad, WordPad), the lock will not be detected and acted on.
File Collaboration jobs require that all end-user file access and modifications must be done through a network share or mapped drive. Any activity on a participating file server that is generated from the file server itself will not be detected and acted on.
The Peer Management Center and Peer Agent are intended to be installed and maintained by a qualified System Administrator and not a typical end-user.
When installing the Peer Management Center on an Ubuntu-based system, the following packages need to be installed:
```
sudo apt-get -y install hardinfo sysstat lshw libcanberra-gtk-module libfontconfig1 libxml2-utils netcat-openbsd
```
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