What are the requirements for the Network Connector?

  • The Network Connector should be installed on a server that meets these criteria:
    • Is “always-on” (i.e. not a desktop or laptop)
    • Runs Windows or Linux (see Minimum OS versions below)
    • Has Internet access (see Network requirements below))
    • Either hosts (or has network connectivity to) the services and applications your IoT devices need to connect to.
  • Minimum OS versions
    • Windows
      • Windows Server 2012
      • Windows 8.1
        Notes:

        • Recommendation is to use the latest Windows Server 2016 when available.
        • Network Connector should function normally on earlier versions of Windows (e.g. Server 2008, Windows 7 and even earlier), but no official support is offered for these now-obsolete Windows platform versions.
    • Linux (64-bit platforms only)
      • Enterprise Linux 7 based distros:
        • CentOS 7.0 and newer
        • Fedora 19+
        • RedHat Enterprise Linux 7.x and newer
      • Debian based distros:
        • Ubuntu 16.04 and newer. NOTE: Ubuntu 20.04 currently not supported
        • Debian 8.0 (Jessie) and newer

Note: As a good practice, the latest OS updates should always be installed for security and compatibility reasons.

  • Network requirements
    • In order to be able to connect to the devices and establish a secure VPN, the server or computer must be able to reach the internet (outbound connections to both port 80 and 443)
    • If you need DNS in your private network, the server or computer must have access to your DNS server (usually on port 53 both TCP and UDP)
    • The network connector might conflict with other VPN applications installed on the same host, even if not enabled at the same time.
  • Physical requirements
    We recommend that the physical machine or VM the network connector is installed and has access to 4GB of RAM. The CPU and network requirements will vary depending on the customer. If a connector is running on a VM, the physical machine the VM is on needs to have enough resources to provide the connector with what it needs. If there are multiple VMs on a physical machine, the physical machine must have the processing power, RAM, and network capabilities to support the connector VM at peak usage.

As a reference, we recommend an AWS instance type of t2.medium as specified here: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/

Other notes
In general, it is recommended that a Windows Server instance (e.g. Server 2012) is used over a client OS (e.g. Windows 10).