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ArcGIS Notebook Server system requirements

ArcGIS Notebook Server is an ArcGIS Server role licensed and configured for the purpose of hosting ArcGIS Notebooks. The server role uses Docker containers to host and run notebooks, and provides an isolated and secure environment for the notebooks without interfering with operations of the host operating system.

Learn more about Docker and its role in ArcGIS Notebook Server

The system and hardware requirements to run ArcGIS Notebook Server are listed below. A diagnostics tool runs during the setup to help you determine if your machine meets the minimum system requirements.

Hardware requirements

The minimum RAM requirement for an ArcGIS Notebook Server node is 8 GB.

For a production environment, minimum hardware requirements are not listed because the user and business needs of the software may vary. These requirements must be considered in determining hardware needs to meet performance and scalability expectations.

Ensure that the /var directory, where ArcGIS Notebook Server stores its Docker container images locally, has at least 50 GB of available disk space. For more information, see Docker and ArcGIS Notebook Server.

Firewall settings

ArcGIS Notebook Server communicates on port 11443. You'll need to open this port on your firewall before installing the software.

To communicate with the ArcGIS Enterprise portal with which it's federated, ArcGIS Notebook Server needs access to port 7443 on the portal machine.

Temp space requirements

By default, resources are extracted to the system /tmp directory. This directory must have read, write, and execute permissions enabled. If the required space is not available in the /tmp directory, the setup program will attempt to extract resources to the user's HOME directory. If the required space is not available in the user's HOME directory, the setup program will report an error indicating this problem. Optionally, you can specify an alternate temp location by setting the IATEMPDIR environment variable.

File handles and process limits

ArcGIS Notebook Server is a data-intensive server product, and many of its data formats consist of hundreds of thousands of files. In heavily used systems, thousands or tens of thousands of files may be in use at any given time. If there are insufficient file handles and processes, requests may start failing randomly, leading to system downtime. The actual number of file handles and processes needed varies based on the data and the number of instances (threads/processes) running. Setting a file handle limit of at least 65,535 and a process limit of at least 25,059 will allow you to ensure that the system remains running.

There are soft and hard limits for file handles and processes on Linux. To determine the hard limits, use the ulimit -Hn -Hu (or limit -h descriptors if you're using csh) command. To determine the soft limits, use the ulimit -Sn -Su (or limit descriptors if you're using csh) command.

To increase the soft and hard limits, you'll need to edit the /etc/security/limits.conf file with superuser access. You can add four lines in the file as follows to change the limit values:

<ArcGIS Notebook Server installation user> soft nofile <file limit>
<ArcGIS Notebook Server installation user> hard nofile <file limit>
<ArcGIS Notebook Server installation user> soft nproc <process limit>
<ArcGIS Notebook Server installation user> hard nproc <process limit>

After making this change, you'll need to sign out and sign in again with the particular user for the new values to take effect. To verify that the limits have been modified appropriately, use the ulimit -Hn -Hu and ulimit -Sn -Su commands as described above.

Operating system requirements

The following 64-bit operating systems satisfy the minimum operating system requirements. Support is not provided for 32-bit operating systems; the setup will only proceed if the operating system is 64 bit.

ArcGIS Notebook Server is only supported on Linux x86_64, on CPUs that adhere to the x86_64 architecture (64 bit), with supported Linux releases.

Machines with an underscore (_) in the name are not supported. The setup will not proceed if an underscore is detected in the machine name.

You cannot install the software as a root user. If you attempt to do this, the installation will not proceed and a software diagnostics tool will display an error message indicating that you cannot install as root.

Prior and future updates or service packs on these operating systems are supported unless otherwise stated. The operating system version and updates must also be supported by the operating system provider.

Supported operating systems

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7

Ubuntu Server LTS 16.04 and 18.04

If you want to install the software, run the ArcGIS Software Authorization Wizard, or run the Check for Updates tool using the operating system graphical user interface (GUI), the X Window System package group is required.

SSL certificates

ArcGIS Notebook Server is preconfigured with a self-signed certificate, which allows the server to be initially tested and to help you quickly verify that your installation was successful.

You must request a certificate from a trusted certificate authority (CA) and configure ArcGIS Notebook Server to use it. This could be a domain certificate issued by your organization or a CA-signed certificate. The certificate must have a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) configured, or ArcGIS Notebook Server will not work properly.

Portal for ArcGIS also comes with a preconfigured self-signed certificate. Because you'll be federating an ArcGIS Notebook Server site with your portal, you should request a certificate from a trusted CA and configure the portal to use it.

Software prerequisites

Before installing ArcGIS Notebook Server, you must have at least a base deployment of ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7 ready. During the setup process, you will federate your new ArcGIS Notebook Server site with your ArcGIS Enterprise portal. ArcGIS Notebook Server can be installed on a machine that has other ArcGIS Enterprise software (of the same version) installed.

  • ArcGIS Notebook Server requires Docker runtime (version 17.0 or later) to be installed. Follow the steps in Prepare Docker for ArcGIS Notebook Server to install the appropriate edition of Docker.
  • ArcGIS Notebook Server requires the following package groups be installed:
    • If using Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server: acl and gettext
    • If using Ubuntu Server: acl and gettext-base
To install these package groups, run the following commands pertaining to your OS in a terminal:

For Red Hat Enterprise Linux machines

sudo yum install acl
sudo yum install gettext

For Ubuntu machines

sudo apt-get install acl
sudo apt-get install gettext-base

DNS host name entry

ArcGIS Notebook Server must be installed on a machine that has a domain name service (DNS) host name entry. This may require the system administrators for the site to add an entry to a name server in their network and that this name server be listed in the /etc/resolv.conf configuration file on the system.

Because you'll be federating your site with your portal, it's recommended that you configure your organization's DNS to include fully qualified domain name (FQDN) entries. The portal will request the FQDN of each site when you federate.

Supported web browsers

The ArcGIS Notebook Server Configuration Wizard requires one of the following web browsers to be installed:

  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Internet Explorer is not recommended when using ArcGIS Notebook Server.