System Requirements#

Hardware Requirements#

  • CPU: x86_64 or compatible processor.

  • Memory: 4 GB RAM minimum (8 GB recommended when running OpenVINO local inference).

  • Disk: 2 GB free space for Docker image layers and log files. Additional space required for local VLM model files if using openvino_local backend.

  • GPU (optional): Intel integrated or discrete GPU supported via OpenVINO for local inference.

Device

Minimum

Recommended

CPU

x86_64

Dual-core or higher

Memory

4 GB RAM

8 GB RAM (16 GB for local VLM)

Disk

2 GB free

10 GB free (model files vary by size)

GPU

Not required

Intel GPU for OpenVINO local inference

Software Requirements#

Operating System#

  • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (validated) or a compatible Linux distribution, Windows, or macOS.

  • For container deployment: Docker Engine 24+ and Docker Compose v2.

Host Packages (Standalone Run)#

For local development or standalone execution, Python development tools are required:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y python3.11 python3.11-venv python3-pip

Python#

  • Python 3.11 or newer.

  • Dependencies installed from requirements.txt.

VLM Backend (Optional)#

Required only when DEFAULT_MATCHING_STRATEGY is set to semantic or hybrid.

Backend

Requirement

ovms

Running OpenVINO Model Server instance with a vision-language model loaded.

openvino_local

OpenVINO IR model files on disk. OPENVINO_MODEL_PATH must point to them.

openai

Valid OPENAI_API_KEY with access to the configured model.

Network Requirements#

  • Inbound access to TCP port 8080 (default) for the REST API.

  • Inbound access to TCP port 9090 (default) for the Prometheus metrics endpoint.

  • Outbound access to the OVMS server host and port if using VLM_BACKEND=ovms.

  • Outbound internet access to api.openai.com if using VLM_BACKEND=openai.

  • Port 6379 access for Redis if using CACHE_BACKEND=redis.