System Requirements

Hardware Requirements

• CPU: x86_64 or compatible processor.

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

• Disk: 2-GB free space for Docker image layers and log files. You will need an additional space for local VLM model files if using the openvino_local backend.

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

Device	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	x86_64	Dual-core or higher
Memory	4-GB RAM	8-GB RAM (16-GB RAM for local VLM)
Disk	2-GB free space	10-GB free (model files vary by size)
GPU	Not required	Intel® GPU for OpenVINO local inference

Software Requirements

Operating System

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

• For container deployment: Docker Engine version 24 or higher, and Docker Compose tool v2.

Host Packages (Standalone Run)

For local development or standalone execution, you need Python development tools:

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

Python

• Python programming language version 3.11 or newer.

• Dependencies installed from requirements.txt.

VLM Backend (Optional)

Required only when you set DEFAULT_MATCHING_STRATEGY to semantic or hybrid.

Backend	Requirement
ovms	Running OpenVINO model server instance with a vision-language model loaded.
openvino_local	OpenVINO Intermediate Representation (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 OpenVINO model 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 the Redis cache if using CACHE_BACKEND=redis.