Table of Contents
Index Manager system requirements
20. April 2026
Table of Contents
Software requirements
- Windows Server 2025, 2022. and 2019
- Local Administrator privileges for process account (Why is this required?)
Office document support
In Index Manager 8.1, support for indexing Microsoft Office documents is built in and requires no additional components.
RAW file support
Index Manager can use the Adobe DNG Converter to render accurate previews of indexed RAW files. This has the advantage that all corrections made to the RAW file in the Photoshop Camera RAW module or Lightroom are reflected in the rendered preview that is served to the connected clients.
Download the Adobe DNG converter from the Adobe website and install it on the server. Then restart the Index Manager service to use the DNG Converter to process RAW files.
Optional add-ons
- Adobe InDesign Server is required for Adobe InDesign document support.
Note: Preview generation using InDesign Server executables in Index Manager was set to End of Life on January 1st, 2024. - Third-party EPS file processing software, such as Ghostscript, is required for vector EPS files.
Supported directory services
- Windows Server Active Directory
- SAML 2.0 compliant Identity Providers
Hardware requirements
| Recommended specifications | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU requirements | Minimum quad-core or 4 individual CPUs. An increase in users/search activity will impact CPU requirements. | |
|
Memory requirements for Index Manager service. (Additional memory required for system services) |
3GB + additional 400 MB per 100.000 assets (= 4 GB memory per 1 million assets) |
Preview generation requires additional memory if images are very large ( > 100 MB or so). For example, 1 GB PSD may require 5 GB of memory during preview generation. |
| Disk requirements |
1 GB per 100 000 files for the index + 800 MB per archive (cache) Learn more about controlling Index Manager's disk cache |
Notes on hardware
- The table above outlines the requirements for a system with a normal workflow of JPEG files. CPU and memory requirements are greater in systems that handle other asset types, such as PDF, Office documents, or RAW files. Note also that the memory requirements stated above apply only to the Index Manager service; the operating system and other processes on the server require additional memory.
- The primary parameter for deciding the number of CPU cores is the number of users. If performance is unsatisfactory as the number of users increases, adding cores or CPUs is the best solution.
- Disk space required for archived files is not included in this estimate. Always ensure there is 20-30% free space remaining on the disk after reserving space for Index Manager. NAS disks are not supported for index and data cache storage. Disk performance is very important. SAN disks with low or moderate caching will not have acceptable performance.
- Index Manager 8.0 build 800 and later is 64-bit and supports license stacking, allowing you to increase the total number of assets per server to up to 12 million. This method requires additional system resources.
Remarks on logging and firewall configuration
All Fotoware applications report to the Fotoware Log Server, which is installed alongside the server application. Communication between the server application and the log server uses UDP port 7000. Since the communication occurs internally on the server, you do not need to open UDP port 7000 in your firewall. However, the Microsoft DNS server can be configured to use arbitrary ports for communication, potentially interfering with communication with the Log Server if it uses UDP port 7000. Therefore, you should block port 7000 on the DNS server and make it exclusive to Fotoware applications.