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Before installing Sakai, ensure your system meets the following requirements.

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Java Requirements

Sakai requires Java Development Kit (JDK) for building and running:
  • Java 17 - Required for Sakai 24+ (trunk/master)
  • Java 11 - Required for Sakai 22 and Sakai 23
  • Java 1.8 - Required for older versions
Ensure you have the correct Java version for your Sakai release. The build will fail if using an incompatible Java version.

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Build Tools

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Maven

Sakai uses Apache Maven for building:
  • Maven 3.9+ recommended
  • Alternatively, use the included Maven wrapper: ./mvnw

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Build Environment

  • Memory: Minimum 4GB RAM for building
  • Disk Space: At least 10GB free space for source code and build artifacts

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Runtime Requirements

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Application Server

Sakai does not work with Tomcat installed via package managers (apt-get, yum, etc.). You must download and extract the binary distribution from Apache.

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Memory Requirements

Recommended JVM settings for production:
  • Heap Memory: -Xms2g -Xmx2g (2GB minimum, adjust based on load)
  • New Generation: -XX:NewSize=500m -XX:MaxNewSize=500m
  • Garbage Collector: G1GC (-XX:+UseG1GC)

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Database

Sakai requires a database server:
  • MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.x (recommended)
  • Oracle Database (supported)
  • PostgreSQL (supported)
For MariaDB/MySQL:
  • Use --lower-case-table-names=1 configuration
  • UTF-8 character encoding required
  • InnoDB storage engine

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Docker Requirements

For Docker-based deployment:
  • Docker Engine - Latest version
  • Docker Compose (optional, for multi-container setups)
  • 4GB+ RAM allocated to Docker
  • 20GB+ disk space for images and containers

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Quick Docker Installation (Linux)

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Network Requirements

  • Port 8080 - Default HTTP port for Tomcat
  • Port 8443 - Default HTTPS port (if SSL configured)
  • Port 3306 - Default MySQL/MariaDB port
  • Port 8005 - Tomcat shutdown port

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Operating System

Sakai runs on any platform that supports Java:
  • Linux (Ubuntu, RHEL/CentOS, Debian) - Recommended for production
  • macOS - Suitable for development
  • Windows - Supported with PowerShell

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Browser Requirements

For end users accessing Sakai:
  • Modern evergreen browsers (auto-updating)
  • Chrome (current version)
  • Firefox (current version)
  • Safari (current version)
  • Edge (current version)
Sakai targets ES2022+ JavaScript features and assumes modern browser APIs.

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Optional Components

  • Elasticsearch - Required if search functionality is enabled

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Email

  • SMTP server - For outgoing email
  • Default SMTP port: 8025 (configurable)

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SSL/TLS

  • SSL certificate - For HTTPS connections
  • Configure in Tomcat’s server.xml