2.2. Requirements#

Note

This section is almost the same as the server requirements section - their requirements are very similar.

Below are the minimal requirements for vantage6 infrastructure components. Note that these are recommendations: it may also work on other hardware, operating systems, versions of Python etc. (but they are not tested as much).

Hardware

  • x86 CPU architecture + virtualization enabled

  • 1 GB memory

  • 50GB+ storage

  • Stable and fast (1 Mbps+ internet connection)

Software

  • Operating system: Ubuntu 18.04+ , MacOS Big Sur+, Windows 10+

  • Python

  • Docker

Note

For the server, Ubuntu is highly recommended. It is possible to run a development server (using v6 server start) on Windows or MacOS, but for production purposes we recommend using Ubuntu.

Warning

The hardware requirements of the node also depend on the algorithms that the node will run. For example, you need much less compute power for a descriptive statistical algorithm than for a machine learning model.

2.2.1. Python#

Installation of any of the vantage6 packages requires Python 3.10. For installation instructions, see python.org, anaconda.com or use the package manager native to your OS and/or distribution.

Note

We recommend you install vantage6 in a new, clean Python (Conda) environment.

Higher versions of Python (3.11+) will most likely also work, as might lower versions (3.8 or 3.9). However, we develop and test vantage6 on version 3.10, so that is the safest choice.

Warning

Note that Python 3.10 is only used in vantage6 versions 3.8.0 and higher. In lower versions, Python 3.7 is required.

2.2.2. Docker#

Docker facilitates encapsulation of applications and their dependencies in packages that can be easily distributed to diverse systems. Algorithms are stored in Docker images which nodes can download and execute. Besides the algorithms, both the node and server are also running from a docker container themselves.

Please refer to this page on how to install Docker. To verify that Docker is installed and running you can run the hello-world example from Docker.

docker run hello-world

Warning

Note that for Linux, some post-installation steps may be required. Vantage6 needs to be able to run docker without sudo, and these steps ensure just that.

For Windows, if you are using Docker Desktop, it may be preferable to limit the amount of memory Docker can use - in some cases it may otherwise consume much memory and slow down the system. This may be achieved as described here.

Note

  • Always make sure that Docker is running while using vantage6!

  • We recommend to always use the latest version of Docker.