Web Browser Requirements
Regardless of whether Partek® Flow® is installed on a server or the cloud, users will be interacting with the software using a web browser. We support the latest Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari browsers. While we make an effort to ensure that Partek Flow is robust, note that some browser plugins may affect the way the software is viewed on your browser.
Hardware Requirements (Single-node Linux)
If you are installing Partek Flow on your own single-node server, we require the following for successful installation:
- Linux: Ubuntu® 16.041, Redhat® 7, CentOS® 7 or later versions of these distributions2
- 64-bit 2GHz quad-core processor3
- 48GB of RAM4
- 1TB of storage available for data
- /opt – 100GB of storage available for installation
- A broadband internet connection
We support Docker-based installations. Please contact support@partek.com for more information.
1Recent versions of Ubuntu ship with incompatible packages. Until we have resolved this, deploy Flow with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
2The Redhat® 8, CentOS® 8, and Ubuntu® 20 are currently having issues with installation of python and python-pip, please request aid from support to see alternatives and solutions.
3Note that some analyses have higher system requirements for example to run the STAR aligner on a reference genome of size ~3 GB (such as human, mouse or rat), 16 cores are required.
4Input sample file size can also impact memory usage, which is particularly the case for TopHat alignments.
Increasing hardware resources (cores, RAM, disk space, and speed) will allow for faster processing of more samples.
Hardware Requirements (Cluster or Cloud)
Please contact Partek Technical Support if you would like to install Partek Flow on your own HPC or cloud account. We will assist in assessing your hardware needs and can make recommendations regarding provisioning sufficient resources to run the software.
Storage Recommendations
Proper storage planning is necessary to avoid future frustration and costly maintenance. Here are several DO’s and DO NOT’s:
DO:
Plan for at least 3 to 5 times more storage than you think is necessary. Investing extra funds in storage and storage performance is always worth it.
Keep all Flow data on a single partition that is expandable, such as RAID or LVM.
Back up your data, especially the Partek Flow database.
DO NOT:
Store data on ‘removable’ USB drives. Partek Flow will not be able to see these drives.
Store data across multiple partitions or folder locations. This will increase the maintenance burden substantially.
Use non-Linux file systems like NTFS.