CAST Storage Service - Deployment requirements

Created by James Hurrell, last modified on Oct 11, 2021
Summary: information to help you plan your CAST Storage Service / PostgreSQL installation.

Hardware

On-premise

Server type Architecture

CPU

RAM

DISK

OS

 Notes
Physical/virtual 64-bit

Minimum 2 processors:

  • Intel Core i5, 2.6 GHz
  • Intel Xeon, 2.2 GHz

Recommended 4 processors:

  • Intel Core i7, 2.8 GHz
  • Intel Xeon, 2.6 GHz

32GB min

512GB (SSD recommended)

Windows or Linux

 CAST highly recommends the use of PostgreSQL on a Linux instance as this consistently gives the best performance.

Cloud services

The following requirements are based on CAST's own testing for the analysis of a single "large Application", using Amazon EC2 R5 Instances:

Minimum instance type Volume Size Volume Type Minimum IOPS
  • r5.xlarge
  • r5d.xlarge
 512GB General purpose SSD (gp2) or Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) 400

Supported Operating Systems

Note that CAST highly recommends the use of a Linux Operating System to host a PostgreSQL RDBMS, instead of using the CAST Storage Service on a Windows operating system. PostgreSQL installed on Linux has consistently proven to provide better performance than CAST Storage Service installed on Windows.
Operating System Supported Supported by ref. Deprecated support Notes
Linux (all recent distributions) (tick)

See the following PostgreSQL documentation for more information:
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (tick)

Installations of Windows Server using only Server Core (i.e. without a GUI) are not supported.
Microsoft Windows 10 (tick)


Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (tick)

Installations of Windows Server using only Server Core (i.e. without a GUI) are not supported.
Microsoft Windows 8.1 (tick)


Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 (tick)


Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (Standard edition)
(tick)
Installations of Windows Server using only Server Core (i.e. without a GUI) are not supported.
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (Standard edition)
(tick)
Microsoft Windows 8
(tick)

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (Standard edition)
(tick)

Supported CAST Storage Service releases


CSS release Bundled PostgreSQL release Architecture Default port no. Supported Supported by ref. Deprecated support AIP Core compatibility Bundled with AIP Notes
4.13.x 13.0 64bit 2284 (tick)

AIP Core ≥ 8.3.29 -
3.0.1, 3.0.2, 3.0.3 9.6.11 64bit 2282 (tick)

AIP Core ≥ 8.2.6 -
3.0.0 9.6 64bit 2282 (tick)

AIP Core ≥ 8.2.6 -
2.0.7, 2.0.8 9.2.6 64bit 2280

(tick) AIP Core ≥ 7.1.x - From release 2.0.7, CSS has been unbundled from CAST AIP and is provided as a standalone component.
2.0.0 - 2.0.6 9.2.6 64bit 2280

(tick) AIP Core ≥ 7.1.x AIP Core 7.1.x - 8.2.5
1.0.x 8.4.5 32bit 2278 (error)

AIP Core 7.0.x AIP Core 7.0.x

Supported PostgreSQL releases

CAST does not provide a custom installer for Linux Operating Systems, however, you can install the following official PostgreSQL RDBMS on to a 64bit Linux Operating System (supported by PostgreSQL) and use it as a storage host for CAST AIP:

PostgreSQL release Supported Supported by ref. Deprecated support Notes
15.x (tick)

  • Minimum required release of CAST AIP core: 8.3.55
  • Minimum required release of specific extensions - same as for PostgreSQL 10.x and 11.x - see below.
14.x (tick)

13.x (tick)

  • Minimum required release of CAST AIP core: 8.3.23
  • Minimum required release of specific extensions - same as for PostgreSQL 10.x and 11.x - see below.
12.x
(tick)
11.x (tick)

Support is available for PostgreSQL 10.x and 11.x (64bit) as storage, i.e. AIP schemas can be created on these versions and analyses will run as expected. Some prerequisites do apply:

  • Minimum required release of CAST AIP core: 8.3.16
  • Minimum required release of specific extensions:
JEE Analyzer extension com.castsoftware.jee ≥ 1.0.19 The required minimum releases of these extensions are delivered as "shipped extensions" in AIP 8.3.16.
.NET Analyzer extension com.castsoftware.dotnet ≥ 1.0.13
SAP BusinessObjects Analyzer extension com.castsoftware.businessobject ≥ 1.0.4 (LTS)
C and Cpp Analyzer extension com.castsoftware.cpp ≥ 2.0.5-funcrel -
iOS - Objective-C Analyzer extension com.castsoftware.cfamily ≥ 1.5.2-funcrel -
10.x
(tick)
9.6.11 (tick)

-
9.2.x

(tick) -

CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL running in encrypted SSL mode

Support is available for connecting to CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instances running in encrypted SSL mode. See SSL encrypted mode configuration for CAST Storage Service and PostgreSQL:

CAST AIP core (any application provided with the CAST AIP "core" setup) (tick) ≥ 8.3.24
CAST Architecture Checker (standalone) (tick) ≥ 1.2.0-funcrel
CAST Dashboards (tick)

≥ 2.0.0-beta1
CAST Imaging (for Source Code configuration) (tick) ≥ 2.0.0-funcrel (when using Microsoft Windows traditional installer)
CAST AIP Console (AIP Node) (tick) ≥ 1.17.0-funcrel
Sherlock (CAST Support tool) (tick) Sherlock delivered in AIP Core ≥ 8.3.25.

Official CAST AIP Extensions are compatible, however specific minimum releases are required:

JEE Analyzer extension com.castsoftware.jee ≥ 1.0.28 The required minimum releases of these extensions are those that are delivered as "shipped extensions" in AIP 8.3.24.
.NET Analyzer extension com.castsoftware.dotnet ≥ 1.0.17
SAP BusinessObjects Analyzer extension com.castsoftware.businessobject ≥ 1.0.6 (LTS)
C and Cpp Analyzer extension com.castsoftware.cpp ≥ 2.1.0-funcrel -
iOS - Objective-C Analyzer extension com.castsoftware.cfamily ≥ 1.5.4-funcrel -

Required ports

The following TCP ports must be opened on the server hosting CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL:

CSS / PostgreSQL release

Listening Port
CSS 4.13.x 2284
CSS 3.0.x 2282
CSS 2.0.x 2280
PostgreSQL ≥ 10.x Custom port (2282/2284 highly recommended)
PostgreSQL 9.6.11 Custom port (2282 highly recommended)
PostgreSQL 9.2.x Custom port (2280 highly recommended)