Hardware requirements for version : Orbit Mobile Mapping Update 11.0 - June 2014.

The Orbit Mapping solutions do not require special hardware.
Do make smart choices in relation to the volume of data to be processed and the desired performance.

Either Windows or Linux, review : Hardware and Operating System
Orbit desktop Clients are be available for OSX. The Orbit server not yet.

The Orbit engine needs proper computing power to work easily with and process large amounts of image and point cloud data. The requirements depend of the number of concurrent users, the amount and type of data (images / point cloud) and the performance expectations. Here's a guideline :

Orbit desktop Client requirements

• Minimum : 64 Bit OS, 4 GB ram, Dual core processor(s)
• Recommended : 64 Bit OS, 8-12 GB ram or more, Dual/Quad core processor

Orbit Server requirements

• Minimum : 64 Bit OS, 4 GB ram, Dual core processor
• Recommended : 64 Bit OS, 8 GB or more ram, Dual or Quad core processor

Orbit desktop Client requirements

• Minimum : 64 Bit OS, 4 GB ram, Dual core processor(s)
• Recommended : 64 Bit OS, 8 GB ram or more, Quad core processor

Orbit publishing Server requirements (Single unit)

• Minimum : 64 Bit OS, 8 GB ram, Dual core processor
• Recommended : 64 Bit OS, 32 GB or more ram, Quad core processor or higher
• Note : Required RAM for Orbit Publisher can be calculated at about 7.5 MB per concurrent user (per image).

Orbit publishing Server requirements (High-End)

• Multiple scalable single units combined using a load balancer.

Orbit publishing Clients¹⁾ requirements

• Ram : 150MB on start-up, and 100MB supplementary when using the (optimized/processed) panoramas.
• CPU usage : 10 up to 30% for active use of panoramas on a 2.66Gg single core

Orbit desktop products use the Java Runtime Engine (JRE) and CPU to process graphic requests.
The used JRE is embedded in the Orbit Installation so you do not need seperate installations for Java.
On Windows, DirectX should have version 9 or higher.

Orbit desktop products will use the 3D graphics card (GPU) to render complex 3D graphics, e.g. 3D tin models.
If no 3D graphics card is available, complex 3D requests will be processed by the JRE using CPU.

Virtual environments (like Citrix, Virtualbox, VMWare, etc.) are still struggling to incorporate movies or the use of moving high resolution images and may thus cause the Client to act slower.
For example, smooth viewing and roaming through high resolution spherical images or free navigating through a 3D point cloud requires an adequate frame refresh rate. These actions can be compared with watching a HD movie.
When using Citrix we do advise XenApp, including video optimization and a 1GB network connection.

Orbit publishing Clients will use the 3D graphics card if available.
If no 3D graphics card is available, 3D rendering will be processed via a virtual 3D graphics card using CPU.
3D graphics cards are embedded in most contemporary computers, but unfortunately virtual environments (like Citrix, Virtualbox, VMWare, etc.) are still struggling to incorporate 3D hardware and may thus cause the Web Client to be slower.
Orbit developed a dedicated software render technique to optimize the use of the publishing Clients on virtual environments.

No special requirement for the Orbit software installation. A clean install is about 500MB.
Much more attention is required to organize the large volumes of mapping resources :

Storage
Orbit requires a file-based storage system. Can be either local or network storage system that supports direct file access.
On importing Orbit will process all mapping data into performance-optimized resource files, which may need a bit more storage capacity. The optimized storage reduces other hardware requirements.

File Access and Disc
Orbit requests result in direct file access, performance is particularly determined by the disc speed and disc access.
Slow discs or slow connections will create a bottleneck.

Big files
When processing large mapping datasets your file system should be able to store big files. Processing errors may occur due to (1) lack of disk-space to complete, (2) file size limitation of file system (FAT32 is limited up to 4GB, NTFS is advised) and (3) extremely fragmentation of storage volume.

For standalone systems or other small setups you may want to store the data on external discs.
The use of a high-speed interfaces like eSATA or USB3 are highly recommended.

For larger volumes of data we advise to use one optimized central storage system (e.g. raid systems on server side) conform the volume of data and expected number of users. Make a wise decision, the slowest link will define the speed of use. This could be your network and not the data storage.
Note that you may host the mapping data on hardware other than the Orbit Server installation. As long as there is a fast connection between both, this will be no problem.

Database storage for Asset Inventory
When doing feature extraction (e.g. using Asset Inventory) on large scale using an Orbit Client-Server (+500,000 thousand objects, multiple concurrent users, one single central database) the use of an SSD drive for database storage will speed up the database handling. It is not a must, but nowadays value for money adding a 500GB SSD to your server configuration.

There is no local data storage required for Clients connecting to a Orbit Publisher. All data will be served by the Orbit Publisher.

The network speed units are expressed in Bits per second (no Bytes). In the rightmost columns the equivalent copy time is calculated for one file e.g. a panorama image. Note that this is in ideal conditions, only if the entire network capacity can be used.

Network Connection
In a production environment it is important to have a fast network connection between Orbit Clients, the Orbit Server and, if applicable, the data server. At least a 1 GBit connection is recommended.

Port
Orbit Server - desktop Client communication requires one port to operate, default configuration port 1100.
If required this can be reconfigured.

Internet/Intranet Connection
When hosting a Publisher, take the Server upload and Client download speed into account relative to the average size of the images and the amount of images to be served within a given time frame.

Port
Orbit Publisher (server) - publishing Client communication requires one port to operate, default configuration port 1100.
If required this can be reconfigured, but we do advise to use a reverse proxy : IT Requirements for Orbit Publisher

No software requirements.

Flash
Flash 11.0 or higher will be used to run the Orbit server management tool (EOS Console).

Database storage for asset inventory
When doing Asset Inventory on large scale using an Orbit Client-Server one central database is required.
Orbit supports any by Java supported database. Opensource and community databases are supported as well.

Flash 11.0 or higher is required to run the Orbit WebClient component.

64bit, dual core, intel i5 processor or equivalent, 4 GB memory, 2 USB3 connections

• Viewing Purposes :
  64bit, dual core, Intel i5 or equivalent, 6GB Ram, 2 or more USB3 connections.
  
• Processing Purposes :
  64bit, quad core, Intel i7 or equivalent, 8GB Ram or more, 1TB hard disk, 2 or more USB 3 connections.
  
• Heavy Duty Processing Purposes :
  64bit, quad core or more, Intel i7 or equivalent, 16 or 32 GB Ram, 500GB or 1TB SSD, 4 or more USB 3connections.

• Server : 64bit, 12 to 16GB Ram
  
• Client : 64bit, Intel core i3 / i5 or equivalent
  
• Network connection : minimum 1 gigabit, recommended 10 gigabit or more.
  

Publisher for 500 concurrent users :

• Requires 500 MB network throughput / second (assuming 500 simultaneous image requests)
• Requires 4 GB RAM
• above specs is only for panoramas; add resources for planar imagery, point cloud, general services

Other server activities that require power and RAM :

• Map data, especially vector data
• Any use of Point Clouds

Total required hosting hardware - for 500 concurrent users :

• At least 8GB RAM, recommended 12 GB
• At least 1GB LAN or higher (asap to backbone)
• Robust and high performance RAID discs