System Requirements
This topic lists the system requirements for the various M-Files components.
Operating system requirements
M-Files Desktop:
- Microsoft Windows 10
- Microsoft Windows 8.1
- Microsoft Windows Server 2019
- Microsoft Windows Server 2016
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
M-Files Server:
- Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (recommended)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (recommended)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012
- Microsoft Windows 10
- Microsoft Windows 8.1
The operating system version can be either Workstation or Server. M-Files Server can be installed either on a physical or a virtualized server, for instance using Hyper-V or VMWare ESXi.
Running M-Files in a Windows Container or Nano Server environment is currently not supported.
For data security reasons, we do not recommended installing M-Files Server on a computer that is also used as a Microsoft domain controller. However, M-Files Server can technically run on a Microsoft domain controller server.
Linux and macOS
Linux and macOS users can access M-Files via M-Files Web. For macOS users, we recommend using M-Files Web with Google Chrome and the M-Files for Chrome extension. See the knowledge base document Installing and Enabling the M-Files for Chrome Extension for instructions on how to install and enable the extension.
32/64-bit support
M-Files is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems. The 32-bit and 64-bit systems have separate installation programs.
.NET Framework requirements
Both the server computer and client workstations must have Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later installed in order for all M-Files functions to work properly. M-Files Compliance Kit installations require Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later to be installed on both the server and client computers. Intelligent Metadata Layer features require Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later to be installed on the server computer.
Server requirements
The M-Files system can be set up to run on a single server machine or on dedicated database, application, and search servers. If you are using M-Files Ground Link, see the recommended hardware setup for the Ground Link proxy server.
Single-server environments
The minimum requirements and recommended hardware setups are listed below for environments where the M-Files server machine is running both the M-Files Server application and the database server (Firebird or Microsoft SQL Server).
Minimum requirements:
CPU | 2 cores |
Memory | 1 GB |
Storage | 300 MB disk space for M-Files Server |
Recommendation for up to 50,000 objects:
CPU | 4 cores |
Memory | 4 GB |
Storage | RAID 1 or RAID 5 disks and enough disk space for files, database, and backups |
Recommendation for up to 1 million objects:
CPU | 8 cores |
Memory | 16 GB |
Storage | RAID 1 or RAID 5 disks and enough disk space for files, database files, and backups. Database files, Microsoft SQL Server transaction logs, and search index files should be stored on solid state drives (SSD) for optimal performance. |
Operating system | 64-bit operating system |
Database management system | Microsoft SQL Server 2019 or later, Standard or Enterprise Edition |
Environments with multiple servers
For environments with a large number of objects and users, it is recommended to have separate dedicated server machines for the M-Files Server application, the vault database, and the full-text search indexing. For better scalability and availability, it is also possible to have multiple application, vault database, and full-text search indexing servers.
Below are recommended example configurations for three different environments. Notice that the performance of the system also depends on the degree of concurrent activity (concurrent user sessions) as well as on the type of operations being performed in the vault. For instance, records management and archiving typically requires less hardware resources than managing active content with workflows.
Recommendation for up to one million objects when the Microsoft SQL Server is on a separate server:
System component | Database server | Application server |
---|---|---|
CPU |
8 cores |
8 cores |
Memory |
32 GB |
16 GB |
Storage |
2 TB SSD drive |
10 TB in total (4 TB for files + 4 TB for indexing + 20% as a buffer) |
Database management system |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 or later, Standard or Enterprise Edition |
It is also recommended to have a separate SSD drive for indexing on the M-Files Server. The requirements on the table assume that the file data is stored on the M-Files Server according to the recommendation.
The structure of the vault influences the requirements. You can follow these recommendations for simple vaults without complex access definitions.
Recommendation for up to 5 million object versions and 5 terabytes of files:
System component | Database server | Application server | Full-text search indexing (distributed IDOL installation on 1 server) |
---|---|---|---|
CPU |
16 cores |
8 cores |
8 cores |
Memory |
32 GB |
16 to 32 GB |
16 to 32 GB |
Storage |
256 GB SSD drive for operating system SSD disks for database data and database transaction log Use RAID 1 or similar |
256 GB SSD drive for operating system 15 TB HDD for file data and backups. The file storage can be attached to the application server or the application server can connect to a separate file server. Use RAID 1 or similar |
256 GB SSD disk for operating system 256 GB HDD/SSD disks for IDOL installations:
Use RAID 1 or similar |
Operating system |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
Database management system |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 or later, Standard or Enterprise Edition |
Recommendation for up to 15 million object versions and 8 terabytes of files:
System component | Database server | Application server |
The full-text search indexing (distributed IDOL installation on 3 servers) |
|
---|---|---|---|---|
Frontend server |
2 backend servers |
|||
CPU |
32 cores |
16 cores |
8 cores |
16 cores per server |
Memory |
128 GB |
32 GB |
128 GB |
128 GB per server |
Storage |
256 GB SSD disk for operating system Two 512 GB SSD disks for database data Two 128 GB SSD disks for database transaction log Use RAID 1 or similar |
256 GB SSD disk for operating system 25 TB HDD for file data and backups. The file storage can be attached to the application server or the application server can connect to a separate file server. Use RAID 1 or similar |
256 GB SSD disk for operating system 256 GB HDD/SSD disks for IDOL installations:
Use RAID 1 or similar |
256 GB SSD disk for operating system 256 GB HDD/SSD disks for IDOL installations:
Use RAID 1 or similar |
Operating system |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
Database management system |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 or later, Standard or Enterprise Edition |
Recommendation for up to 50 million object versions and 10 terabytes of files:
System component | Database server | Application server |
The full-text search indexing (distributed IDOL installation on 6 servers) |
|
---|---|---|---|---|
Frontend server |
5 backend servers |
|||
CPU |
32 cores |
16 cores |
8 cores |
16 cores per server |
Memory |
512 GB |
64 GB |
128 GB |
128 GB per server |
Storage |
256 GB SSD disk for operating system Two 1 TB SSD disks for database data Two 256 GB SSD disks for database transaction logs Use RAID 1 or similar |
256 GB SSD disk for operating system 30 TB HDD for file data and backups. The file storage can be attached to the application server or the application server can connect to a separate file server. Use RAID 1 or similar |
256 GB SSD disk for operating system 256 GB HDD/SSD disks for IDOL installations:
Use RAID 1 or similar |
256 GB SSD disk for operating system 256 GB HDD/SSD disks for IDOL installations:
Use RAID 1 or similar |
Operating system |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 |
Database management system |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 or later, Standard or Enterprise Edition |
Ground Link proxy server
For environments that are dedicated for Ground Link proxy services, we recommend the following setup.
Recommendation for one Ground Link proxy:
CPU | 4 cores |
Memory | 8 GB |
Storage | 10 GB disk space for M-Files Server and temporary files |
If the same server machine is used for running multiple Ground Link proxies, we recommend doubling the hardware resources.
Supported operating systems for the M-Files Mobile apps
App name | Required OS version |
---|---|
M-Files Mobile for iOS | iOS 9 or later |
M-Files Mobile for Android | Android 5.0 or later |
Supported browsers for M-Files Web
Web browser | Recommended version | Operating system |
---|---|---|
Google Chrome | Latest available version | Microsoft Windows, macOS |
Mozilla Firefox | Latest available version | Microsoft Windows |
Safari | Latest available version | macOS |
Microsoft Edge | Latest available version | Microsoft Windows |
Recommended browsers for the classic M-Files Web
For optimal user experience, use the classic M-Files Web with the M-Files for Chrome extension. The extension is available in the Chrome Web Store for Chromium-based browsers, such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
Web browser | Recommended version | Operating system |
---|---|---|
Google Chrome (recommended) | Latest available version | Microsoft Windows, macOS |
Microsoft Edge (recommended) | Latest available version | Microsoft Windows |
Internet Explorer | IE11 | Microsoft Windows |
Mozilla Firefox | Latest available version | Microsoft Windows |
Safari | Latest available version | macOS |
M-Files Server disk space requirements
Metadata database
- Local hard disk drive
- 2–5 GB of disk space for 100,000 objects
- 20–50 GB of disk space for 1,000,000 objects
Please also note that the hard disk space requirements for the metadata database highly depend on the complexity of the metadata structure as well as on the number of object versions in the database. The estimates above apply to typical document management use cases.
File data
- Local hard disk drive OR a network file server
- Sufficient disk space for storing the document files, thumbnails, viewer files, and full-text search index files
M-Files uses a binary delta algorithm to process old versions of document files. This reduces the disk space consumption of old file versions considerably.
Administrators can free disk space by archiving or destroying old versions.
Microsoft SQL Server requirements
You can use Microsoft SQL Server 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, or later with its latest service pack as the vault database engine. This covers all the Microsoft SQL Server editions, such as Express Edition, Standard Edition, and Enterprise Edition. M-Files supports the use of Microsoft SQL Server on Microsoft Windows. With your self-hosted cloud-based SQL database, you can also use Microsoft Azure SQL Database managed instance as the database engine.
Additionally, please take into consideration that the SQL server assembly may be updated from time to time, so you may need to repeat the whitelisting process after an upgrade.
The following features need to be enabled if you wish to use Microsoft SQL Server as the M-Files database engine:
Instance features:
- Database Engine Services
- Reporting Services, Native Mode (if reporting is used)
Shared features:
- Management Tools, Basic
- Management Tools, Complete (if reporting is used)