Read this information carefully before you install or upgrade censhare. If you have any doubts about the compatibility of your environment, please contact our Service desk.
What's new?
censhare WP and Keycloak
As of censhare 2021.2, the installation packages are delivered with the web-packed censhare WP. The installation and update process requires additional steps and components. The packages contain Keycloak that is required to login and authenticate to censhare Web and the censhare Clients. If you are already using a Keycloak instance in your organization, you can use Keycloak versions as of v9 with censhare WP. We recommend the latest Keycloak version 16.1.1. and also provide this version as RPM download.
centOS has reached EOL on Dec 31, 2021 and has been replaced by a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Compatible Distribution (64-bit).
censhare Server
Supported operating systems
Operating system | Versions |
|---|---|
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (64-bit) | 7.x |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Compatible Distribution (64-bit) | 8.x (1) |
Oracle Linux (64-bit) | 6.x |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (x86 64-bit) | 12 (min. SP 5) |
(1) Installation packages may require adaptations.
Database
Database | Support | Versions | |
|---|---|---|---|
Oracle | | min. version 12cR2 | tested versions 18 & 19 (3) |
PostgreSQL | | min. version 9.6.3 | censhare 2020.1 + 2020.2: tested version 12 (3) censhare 2020.3: tested version 13.1 (3) |
(1)(1) censhare supports all Oracle certified Linux and Solaris distributions (Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition). See Oracle notes 742060.1 and 756671.1. If you run your Oracle database in a virtual environment, see this White paper before you start your installation.
(2) censhare supports PostgreSQL on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (64-bit), Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Compatible distributions, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (64-bit) and Oracle Linux (64-bit). For a detailed installation manual see the PostgreSQL installation article or the official documentation.
(3) The latest censhare version that was was tested. Newer release versions may cause unexpected behavior. In this case, please contact our support.
Supported Java development kit (JDK)
The censhare Server runs on Java and requires the Java development kit (JDK).
JDK version |
|---|
Java 11 SE |
To avoid support costs, censhare recommends OpenJDK .
Hardware hints
To achieve a good performance, there are three decisive factors:
High memory bandwidth
CPU performance
Fast disk drives (SSD) for the embedded database (CDB)
We recommend current processor architectures with high memory bandwidth (e.g. Intel Ivy Bridge / Haswell) and a CPU speed of 3GHz or faster. Java parallel GC (garbage collection) is a good choice for fast GCs. For more information about garbage collection see this Wikipedia article.
Calculate a minimum of 8 CPU threads for censhare. Large installations require more threads. Small installations can be run with less threads. The installation details must be calculated in the project planning phase. We recommend to calculate more CPU threads than actually necessary for additional services like a local ServiceClient or Web Client. As guiding values, calculate a minimum of 8 GB RAM and 4 core (threads) CPU for a small demo or test system.
We recommend that files for the embedded database (CDB) are located on a separate mount point.
Note on virtualization: censhare with all components supports Solaris Zones and VMWare ESX version 5.1 or higher.
Cloud services
The complete censhare platform or individual components can be installed on cloud computing platforms.
Service | censhare Server | Components |
|---|---|---|
Amazon Web Services (AWS) | | censhare Server - Elastic Cloud Computing - EC2 Database - Amazon Relational Database Service - ARDS - with Oracle or PostgreSQL database Asset file system - Simple Storage Service - S3 Interface file system (hotfolders) - Elastic Block store - EBS |
Microsoft Azure | | censhare standard applications - can be hosted and run on Microsoft Azure |
(1) Fore more information, see Amazon Web Services. For the AWS regions, see this page .
(2) Azure Storage currently supported using Azure Files Storage only.
For more information, please contact your partner manager.
censhare Admin Client
The censhare Admin Client is required to set up, configure and monitor your system. In the censhare Admin Client, you configure Master data, Services, Modules, and Servers.
Supported operating systems
Operating system | Versions |
|---|---|
Windows | 8 |
macOS | 10.13 High Sierra |
| 11.x Big Sur (1) | |
12.x Monterey (1)  |
(1) Apple ARM architecture is supported for censhare 2021.x with VFS 2.0.0. For the latest compatibility update, see VFS 2.0.0 compatibility and censhare Client installation on Apple ARM platforms with VFS.
The official announcement of Monterey support for censhare is planned for the next major censhare release. You will be able to use censhare on Monterey before our official confirmation but will do so at your own risk. If you encounter any problems, please create a support ticket. For compatibility with the Adobe plugin and VFS, see Adobe plugin - compatibility.
Supported Java Development Kit (JDK)
The censhare Client runs on Java. As of Java version 11, there is no longer a separate Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The Java Development Kit (JDK) is included in the censhare Admin Client bundle.
Client OS | JRE / JDK version |
|---|---|
Windows | Java 11 SE |
macOS |
The censhare Admin Client is bundled with OpenJDK version 11. You do not need to install a JDK locally.
censhare Service Client
Supported operating systems
Operating system | Versions |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (64-bit) | 7.x (1) |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Compatible Distribution (64-bit) | 8.x (1) |
Oracle Linux (64-bit) | 6.x (1) |
Oracle Solaris (x86 64-bit) | 11.x (2) |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (x86 64-bit) | 12.x (1) |
Windows Server | 2012 |
macOS | 10.13 High Sierra (3) |
| 11.x Big Sur (5) | |
| 12.x Monterey (5) |
(1) Installation packages may require adaptations.
(2) No standard installation packages available for this OS. Ask our support for installation on this OS.
(3) Installation on macOS not recommended.
(5) Apple ARM architecture is supported for censhare 2021.x with VFS 2.0.0. For the latest compatibility update, see VFS 2.0.0 compatibility and censhare Client installation on Apple ARM platforms with VFS.
The official announcement of Monterey support for censhare is planned for the next major censhare release. You will be able to use censhare on Monterey before our official confirmation but will do so at your own risk. If you encounter any problems, please create a support ticket. For compatibility with the Adobe plugin and VFS, see Adobe plugin - compatibility.
Supported Java development kit (JDK)
Client OS | JRE version |
|---|---|
Windows | Java 11 SE |
macOS |
The censhare Service Client is bundled with OpenJDK version 11. You do not need to install a JDK locally.
Hardware hints
As a guideline for your hardware, calculate 1 CPU thread and 1 GB RAM for each instance.
censhare Render Client
The censhare Render Client is an optional component and only required for external image rendering with Adobe InDesign. For more information, see the specifications for Adobe InDesign Server.
Supported operating systems
Operating system | Versions |
|---|---|
Windows Server | 2012 |
macOS Server | 10.13 High Sierra |
| 11.x Big Sur (2) | |
12.x Monterey |
(1) Requires censhare version 2020.1.1 or higher.
(2) Apple ARM architecture is supported for censhare 2021.x with VFS 2.0.0 . For the latest compatibility update, see VFS 2.0.0 compatibility and censhare Client installation on Apple ARM platforms with VFS..
The official announcement of Monterey support for censhare is planned for the next major censhare release. You will be able to use censhare on Monterey before our official confirmation but will do so at your own risk. If you encounter any problems, please create a support ticket. For compatibility with the Adobe plugin and VFS, see Adobe plugin - compatibility.
Java development kit (JDK)
Client OS | JRE version |
|---|---|
Windows | Java 11 SE |
macOS |
Hardware hints
As a guideline for your hardware, calculate 1 CPU thread and 1 GB RAM for each instance.
censhare Client (aka Java Client)
The censhare Client is installed on the computer of the censhare user and connects to the censhare Server and database. The censhare Client can be installed with or without a virtual file system (VFS).
Supported operating system
Operating system | Versions |
|---|---|
Windows | 8 |
macOS | 10.13 High Sierra (2) |
| 11.x Big Sur (4) | |
| 12.x Monterey (4) |
(1) Requires Visual C++ 2015. On some distributions of Windows 10, Visual C++ 2008 is installed as standard. This causes censhare Client not to start correctly.
(2) Requires virtual file system (VFS) version 1.1.5 or higher. Latest version recommended. For more information, see Virtual file system.
(3) Requires censhare version 2020.1.1 or higher.
(4) Apple ARM architecture is supported for censhare 2021.x with VFS 2.0.0 . For the latest compatibility update, see VFS 2.0.0 compatibility and censhare Client installation on Apple ARM platforms with VFS.
The official announcement of Monterey support for censhare is planned for the next major censhare release. You will be able to use censhare on Monterey before our official confirmation but will do so at your own risk. If you encounter any problems, please create a support ticket. For compatibility with the Adobe plugin and VFS, see Adobe plugin - compatibility.
Supported Java Development Kit (JDK)
The censhare Client runs on Java. As of Java version 11, there is no longer a separate Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The Java Development Kit (JDK) is included in the censhare Client bundle.
Client OS | JRE version |
|---|---|
Windows | Java 11 SE |
macOS | Java 11 SE |
censhare Web
censhare Web is the web interface for the censhare platform. Users access censhare Web in their web browser. If not otherwise stated, the latest version of a browser is supported. The version in brackets refers to the browser version the censhare platform was tested with.
Operating system | Browser |
|---|---|
Windows | Edge (Chromium based) |
Chrome (71) | |
macOS | Safari (12) |
Chrome (71) | |
iOS | Mobile Safari (latest) (1,2) |
Android | Chrome for Android (latest) (1,2) |
(1) Limited functionality of censhare Web on mobile devices. Built-in editors are not supported.
(2) Only tablets with a recommended minimum screen size of 9.7 inches. Smart phones and other mobile devices are not supported.
Performance of the censhare platform with censhare Web
The performance that users experience with censhare Web depends on the network bandwidth. Therefore, performance can vary depending on whether users are working in an internal or public network. As a rule of thumb, our web application works well with a network bandwidth of 1 MB/s upstream, 100 KB/s downstream and <50 ms latency or better.
If users upload and download large files to and from censhare Web (high-resolution images, videos, 3D models, etc.), upload and download times can be significantly longer. This is due to bandwidth limitations and not caused by performance issues of the censhare Server.
You can test the client/server communication and server performance in the developer mode of censhare Web.
The file upload in censhare Web can be configured to make it robust when working with low bandwidth or network quality.
censhare Online Channel
The censhare Online Channel is a publishing portal for editorial content, documents or media assets. It can be setup independently from the censhare Server and is not bound to a censhare Server version. For more information, see censhare Installation of the Online Channel.
Prepare your host for installation
If you plan to prepare a host and let censhare install the system software on it, make sure that the following requirements are fulfilled:
Proper IP setup
Proper DNS setup
SSH or VNC/RDP access
Working package management system
NTP setup
censhare Server
Supported operating systems
Operating system | Versions |
|---|---|
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (64-bit) | 7.x (1) |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Compatible Distribution (64-bit) | 8.x (1) |
Oracle Linux (64-bit) | 6.x (1) |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (x86 64-bit) | 12 (min. SP 5) (1) |
(1) Installation packages may require adaptations.
Database
Database | Support | Versions | |
|---|---|---|---|
Oracle | | min. version 12cR2 | tested versions 18 & 19 (3) |
PostgreSQL | | min. version 9.6.3 | censhare 2020.1 + 2020.2: tested version 12 (3) censhare 2020.3: tested version 13.1 (3) |
(1) censhare supports all Oracle certified Linux and Solaris distributions (Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition). See Oracle notes 742060.1 and 756671.1. If you run your Oracle database in a virtual environment, see this White paper before you start your installation.
(2) censhare supports PostreSQL on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (64-bit), CentOS (64-bit), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (64-bit) and Oracle Linux (64-bit). For a detailed installation manual see the PostgreSQL installation article or the official documentation.
(3) The latest version censhare was tested with. Newer release versions may cause unexpected behavior. In this case, please contact our support.
Java development kit (JDK)
The censhare Server runs on Java and requires the Java development kit (JDK).
JDK version |
|---|
Java 11 SE |
To avoid support costs, censhare recommends OpenJDK .
Hardware hints
To achieve a good performance, there are three decisive factors:
High memory bandwidth
CPU performance
Fast disk drives (SSD) for the embedded database (CDB)
We recommend current processor architectures with high memory bandwidth (e.g. Intel Ivy Bridge / Haswell) and a CPU speed of 3GHz or faster. Java parallel GC (garbage collection) is a good choice for fast GCs. For more information about garbage collection see this Wikipedia article.
Calculate a minimum of 8 CPU threads for censhare. Large installations require more threads. Small installations can be run with less threads. The installation details must be calculated in the project planning phase. We recommend to calculate more CPU threads than actually necessary for additional services like a local ServiceClient or Web Client. As guiding values, calculate a minimum of 8 GB RAM and 4 core (threads) CPU for a small demo or test system.
We recommend that files for the embedded database (CDB) are located on a separate mount point.
Note on virtualization: censhare with all components supports Solaris Zones and VMWare ESX version 5.1 or higher.
Cloud services
The complete censhare platform or individual components can be installed on cloud computing platforms.
Service | censhare Server | Components |
|---|---|---|
Amazon Web Services (AWS) | | censhare Server - Elastic Cloud Computing - EC2 Database - Amazon Relational Database Service - ARDS - with Oracle or PostgreSQL database Asset file system - Simple Storage Service - S3 Interface file system (hotfolders) - Elastic Block store - EBS |
Microsoft Azure | | censhare standard applications - can be hosted and run on Microsoft Azure |
(1) Fore more information, see Amazon Web Services. For the AWS regions, see this page .
(2) Azure Storage currently supported using Azure Files Storage only.
For more information, please contact your partner manager.
censhare Admin Client
The censhare Admin Client is required to set up, configure and monitor your system. In the censhare Admin Client, you configure Master data, Services, Modules, and Servers.
Supported operating system
Operating system | Versions |
|---|---|
Windows | 8 |
macOS | 10.13 High Sierra |
| 11.x Big Sur (1) | |
| 12.x Monterey (1) |
(1) Apple ARM architecture is supported for censhare 2021.x with VFS 2.0.0 . For the latest compatibility update, see VFS 2.0.0 compatibility and censhare Client installation on Apple ARM platforms with VFS.
The official announcement of Monterey support for censhare is planned for the next major censhare release. You will be able to use censhare on Monterey before our official confirmation but will do so at your own risk. If you encounter any problems, please create a support ticket. For compatibility with the Adobe plugin and VFS, see Adobe plugin - compatibility.
Java Development Kit (JDK)
The censhare Client runs on Java. As of Java version 11, there is no longer a separate Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The Java Development Kit (JDK) is included in the censhare Admin Client bundle.
Client OS | JRE / JDK version |
|---|---|
Windows | Java 11 SE |
macOS |
The censhare Admin Client is bundled with OpenJDK version 11. You do not need to install a JDK locally.
censhare Service Client
Operating system | Versions |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (64-bit) | 7.x (1) |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Compatible Distribution (64-bit) | 8.x (1) |
Oracle Linux (64-bit) | 6.x (1) |
Oracle Solaris (x86 64-bit) | 11.x (2) |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (x86 64-bit) | 12.x (1) |
Windows Server | 2012 |
macOS | 10.13 High Sierra (3) |
| 11.x Big Sur (4) | |
| 12.x Monterey (4) |
(1) Installation packages may require adaptations.
(2) No standard installation packages available for this OS. Ask our support for installation on this OS.
(3) Installation on macOS not recommended.
(4) Apple ARM architecture is supported for censhare 2021.x with VFS 2.0.0 . For the latest compatibility update, see VFS 2.0.0 compatibility and censhare Client installation on Apple ARM platforms with VFS..
The official announcement of Monterey support for censhare is planned for the next major censhare release. You will be able to use censhare on Monterey before our official confirmation but will do so at your own risk. If you encounter any problems, please create a support ticket. For compatibility with the Adobe plugin and VFS, see Adobe plugin - compatibility.
Java development kit (JDK)
Client OS | JRE version |
|---|---|
Windows | Java 11 SE |
mac OS |
The censhare Service Client is bundled with OpenJDK version 11. You do not need to install a JDK locally.
Hardware hints
As a guideline for your hardware, calculate 1 CPU thread and 1 GB RAM for each instance.
censhare Render Client
The censhare Render Client is an optional component and only required for external image rendering with Adobe InDesign. For more information, see the specifications for Adobe InDesign Server.
Operating system
Operating system | Versions |
|---|---|
Windows Server | 2012 |
macOS Server | 10.13 High Sierra |
| 11.x Big Sur (2) | |
| 12.x Monterey (2) |
(1) Requires censhare version 2020.1.1 or higher.
(2) Apple ARM architecture is supported for censhare 2021.x with VFS 2.0.0 . For the latest compatibility update, see VFS 2.0.0 compatibility and censhare Client installation on Apple ARM platforms with VFS..
The official announcement of Monterey support for censhare is planned for the next major censhare release. You will be able to use censhare on Monterey before our official confirmation but will do so at your own risk. If you encounter any problems, please create a support ticket. For compatibility with the Adobe plugin and VFS, see Adobe plugin - compatibility.
Java development kit (JDK)
Client OS | JRE version |
|---|---|
Windows | Java 11 SE |
macOS |
Hardware hints
As a guideline for your hardware, calculate 1 CPU thread and 1 GB RAM for each instance.
censhare Client (aka Java Client)
The censhare Client is installed on the computer of the censhare user and connects to the censhare Server and database. The censhare Client can be installed with or without a virtual file system (VFS).
Supported operating systems
Operating system | Versions |
|---|---|
Windows | 8 |
macOS | 10.13 High Sierra (2) |
| 11.x Big Sur (4) | |
| 12.x Monterey (4) |
(1) Requires Visual C++ 2015. On some distributions of Windows 10, Visual C++ 2008 is installed as standard. This causes censhare Client not to start correctly.
(2) Requires virtual file system (VFS) version 1.1.5 or higher. Latest version recommended. For more information, see Virtual file system.
(3) Requires censhare version 2020.1.1 or higher.
(4) Apple ARM architecture is supported for censhare 2021.x with VFS 2.0.0 . For the latest compatibility update, see VFS 2.0.0 compatibility and censhare Client installation on Apple ARM platforms with VFS..
The official announcement of Monterey support for censhare is planned for the next major censhare release. You will be able to use censhare on Monterey before our official confirmation but will do so at your own risk. If you encounter any problems, please create a support ticket. For compatibility with the Adobe plugin and VFS, see Adobe plugin - compatibility.
Java Development Kit (JDK)
The censhare Client runs on Java. As of Java version 11, there is no longer a separate Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The Java Development Kit (JDK) is included in the censhare Client bundle.
Client OS | JRE version |
|---|---|
Windows | Java 11 SE |
macOS | Java 11 SE |
censhare Web
censhare Web is the web interface for the censhare platform. Users access censhare Web in their web browser. If not otherwise stated, the latest version of a browser is supported. The version in brackets refers to the browser version the censhare platform was tested with.
Operating system | Browser |
|---|---|
Windows | Edge (Chromium based) |
Chrome (71) | |
macOS | Safari (12) |
Chrome (71) | |
iOS | Mobile Safari (latest) (1,2) |
Android | Chrome for Android (latest) (1,2) |
(1) Limited functionality of censhare Web on mobile devices. Built-in editors are not supported.
(2) Only tablets with a recommended minimum screen size of 9.7 inches. Smart phones and other mobile devices are not supported.
Performance of the censhare platform with censhare Web
The performance that users experience with censhare Web depends on the network bandwidth. Therefore, performance can vary depending on whether users are working in an internal or public network. As a rule of thumb, our web application works well with a network bandwidth of 1 MB/s upstream, 100 KB/s downstream and <50 ms latency or better.
If users upload and download large files to and from censhare Web (high-resolution images, videos, 3D models, etc.), upload and download times can be significantly longer. This is due to bandwidth limitations and not caused by performance issues of the censhare Server.
You can test the client/server communication and server performance in the developer mode of censhare Web.
The file upload in censhare Web can be configured to make it robust when working with low bandwidth or network quality.
censhare Online Channel
The censhare Online Channel is a publishing portal for editorial content, documents or media assets. It can be setup independently from the censhare Server and is not bound to a censhare Server version. For more information, see censhare Installation of the Online Channel.
Prepare your host for installation
If you plan to prepare a host and let censhare install the system software on it, make sure that the following requirements are fulfilled:
Proper IP setup
Proper DNS setup
SSH or VNC/RDP access
Working package management system
NTP setup