Minimum System Requirements

Hostwinds offers several operating systems to choose from, either Linux or Windows, in various versions.  This guide intends to list the minimum requirements each of these systems requires to operate to be successful while using your services. All of our current Dedicated and VPS server plans meet these requirements.

cPanel Minimum Requirements are not included in this guide

Linux OS Minimum Server Requirements

Debian 8 & 9

• 128MB of system memory (RAM)
• 2GB of disk space

Minimum requirements subject to change, and we recommend reviewing Debian's official documentation here.

Fedora (versions 25-28)

• 1GB of system memory (RAM)
• 10GB of disk space

Minimum requirements subject to change, and I recommend reviewing Fedora's official documentation here.

Ubuntu (versions 14.04-18.04)

• 256MB of system memory (RAM)
• 1.5 GB of disk space

Minimum requirements subject to change, and we recommend reviewing Ubuntu official documentation here.

Windows OS Minimum Server Requirements

2016

• 512MB of system memory (RAM)
• 32GB of disk space

Minimum requirements subject to change and recommend reviewing Windows 2016 official documentation here

2012 R2

• 512MB of system memory (RAM)
• 32GB of disk space

Minimum requirements subject to change and recommend reviewing Windows 2012 official documentation here

2008 R2

• 512MB of system memory (RAM)
• 10GB of disk space

Minimum requirements subject to change, and we recommend reviewing Windows 2008 official documentation here.

Available ISO's and Minimum Requirements

CentOS ISO Options (6.9 i386 minimal, 6.9 x86_64, 7 i386 minimal, 7 x86_64 minimal)

6.9 i386 and x86_64

• 392M CLI/512M GUI per logical CPU
• 1GB RAM
• 1G/5GB Disk Space

7 i386 and x86_64

• 1 CPU
• 1GB/logical RAM
• 10GB/20GB Disk Space

Alpine Linux 3.7.0 Virtual x86_64

• 1 CPU
• 8MB RAM
• 130MB Disk Space

Clear Linux

• 1 CPU
• 128MB RAM
• 600MB Disk Space

CoreOS

• Since etcd writes data to disk, SSD is highly recommended
• 2 CPU
• 2GB RAM
• 80GB of Disk Space

Devuan

• 1 CPU
• 2GB RAM
• 15GB Disk Space

Finnux

• 1 CPU
• 32MiB RAM absolute minimum
• 2GB of disk space

FreeNAS

• 1 CPU
• 8GB RAM
• 8GB Disk Space

NixOS

• 1 CPU
• 768MB RAM
• 8GB Disk Space

OpenBSD

• 1 CPU
• 128MB of RAM, however, depends heavily on the use case.
• OpenBSD can be installed in as little as 512MB, but using a small device is something for advanced users. Until you have some experience, 8GB or more disk space is recommended.

OpenSUSE

• 1 CPU
• 1GB RAM
• 3 GB available disk space for a minimal install, 5 GB available for a graphical desktop

pfSense

• 1 CPU
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB Disk Space

Ubuntu (14.04, 16.04, 18.04 w/ i386 or x86_64)

• 2 GHz dual-core processor
• 2 GiB RAM (system memory)
• 25 GB of hard-drive space

RancherOS

• 1 CPU
• 512MB RAM
• 20GB Disk Space

Vyos

• 1 CPU
• For small branch offices, Atom/C3 CPU and 256-384M RAM should be enough; for edge routers, large VPN concentrators, and other high load appliances, you should consider powerful servers
• 2GB Disk Space

Fedora (27 & 28 w/ x86_64)

• 1 CPU
• 2GB RAM
• 6GB Disk Space

Debian (8 &  9 w/ i386 or x86_64)

• 1 CPU (1GHz Pentium processor)
• 256MB RAM
• 10GB Disk Space

FreePBX

• 4 CPU
• 2GB RAM
• 100GB Disk Space (VOIP Service)

FreeBSD

• 1 CPU
• 96MB RAM
• 1.5GB Disk Space

Arch Linux

• 1 CPU
• 128MB RAM
• 800MB Disk Space