Hardware and Software Requirements

IBM® Connect:Direct® for UNIX and its related software require the following hardware and software: It supports systems running in 64-bit mode.

Attention: IBM Sterling Connect:Direct ends support for Oracle Solaris on 30 September 2025. After this date, security fixes for IBM Java on Solaris will no longer be available. The following products are affected:
  • IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for UNIX
  • IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent
  • IBM Sterling Connect:Direct FTP+
Component or Functionality Hardware Software RAM (min.) Disk Space (min.)
IBM Connect:Direct for UNIX with TCP/IP or FASP connectivity HP Integrity system with Intel Itanium processor HP-UX version 11iv3 or higher
Note: Not supported with FASP.
2 GB 1.5 GB
  IBM® System pSeries, POWER7 or greater processor required AIX versions 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3
Note: AIX 7.3 support requires IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for UNIX v6.2.0.5 or greater.
2 GB 1.5 GB
  IBM System pSeries, POWER8 or greater processor required SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (ppc64le) version 12.4 and greater.
Note: Not supported with FASP.
2 GB 1.5 GB
  Sun SPARC system Solaris 11.
Note: Not supported with FASP.
2 GB 1.5 GB
  Intel and AMD x86-64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 7.8, 7.9.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 8.1 and above†††

Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 9.2 and above†††

2 GB 1.5 GB

CentOS version 7.8, 7.9.††

Note: Not supported with FASP.

Amazon Linux 2.††

Note: Not supported with FASP.

Ubuntu version 18 and above†††

Ubuntu version 22.04 and above.†††

Note: Not supported with FASP.
2 GB 1.5 GB
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server version 12.3 and above or 15.x.††† 2 GB 1.5 GB
  Linux® zSeries Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 7.8, 7.9
Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 8.1 and above.†††
2 GB 1.5 GB
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server version 12.3 and above or 15.x.†††
Note: Not supported with FASP.
2 GB 1.5 GB
Connect:Direct Integrated File Agent Same as requirements for Connect:Direct for UNIX Same as requirements for IBM Connect:Direct for UNIX. 2 GB 275 MB
Connect:Direct Secure Plus Same as requirements for IBM Connect:Direct for UNIX. Same as requirements for Connect:Direct Secure Plus.

Java™ Standard Edition 8, installed with Connect:Direct Secure Plus.

2 GB 70 MB
High-Availability support IBM System pSeries, POWER7 or greater processor required IBM HACMP    
Sun SPARC system SunCluster 2.2, 3.0 or 3.2    

Virtualization and public cloud support

IBM cannot maintain all possible combinations of virtualized platforms and cloud environments. However, IBM generally supports all enterprise class virtualization mechanisms, such as VMware ESX, VMware ESXi, VMware vSphere, Citrix Xen Hypervisor, KVM (Kernel-based virtual machine), and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

IBM investigates and troubleshoots a problem until it is determined that the problem is due to virtualization. The following guidelines apply:
  • If a specific issue is happening because the system is virtualized and the problem cannot be reproduced on the non-virtualized environment, you can demonstrate the issue in a live meeting session. IBM can also require that further troubleshooting is done jointly on your test environment, as there is not all types and versions of VM software installed in-house.
  • If the issue is not able to be reproduced in-house on a non-virtualized environment, and troubleshooting together on your environment indicates that the issue is with the VM software itself, you can open a support ticket with the VM software provider. IBM is happy to meet with the provider and you to share any information, which would help the provider further troubleshoot the issue on your behalf.
  • If you chose to use virtualization, you must balance the virtualization benefits against its performance impacts. IBM does not provide advice that regards configuring, administering, or tuning virtualization platforms.
When upgrading IBM Connect:Direct for UNIX through Control Center Directer, an extra 3 GB is required for temporary storage.
†† IBM does not formally test and certify IBM Connect:Direct on CentOS and Amazon Linux 2. However as CentOS and Amazon Linux 2 are derived from the sources of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), we believe that the product should work correctly. IBM will investigate and troubleshoot a problem until it is determined that the problem caused by a difference in behavior between CentOS, Amazon Linux 2 and RHEL. Defect support will only be available for problems that can be reproduced on a certified platform as documented in the Software Product Compatibility Reports (link: https://www.ibm.com/software/reports/compatibility/clarity/index.html?lnk=uctug_ratl_dw_2013-02-01_clarity_updated).
††† Due to a system library change on more recent versions of Linux, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 8, you must set your current working directory (CWD) to {CDU install dir}/ndm/bin to invoke the executable modules there. To invoke these modules from another CWD, there are two options:
  • As root, create the following symbolic link:
    • For RHEL and SLES systems, in/lib64: ln -s /lib64/libtirpc.so.3 /lib64/libtirpc.so.1
    • For Ubuntu systems, in /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu: ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtirpc.so.3 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtirpc.so.1
    • Note: Interactive (cdinstall) installations and upgrades done from current maintenance will check to see if this symbolic link is needed and offer to add it for you when performing configurations requiring root privilege. Automated (cdinstall_a) installations and upgrades can achieve the same result via the cdai_tirpcCreateLink parameter, set to ‘y’ or ‘n’.
  • Set the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH={CDU install dir}/ndm/lib for the user that starts Connect:Direct.