This guide covers installing FreeTAKServer on different operating systems, including system requirements, dependencies, and deployment options.
System requirements Before installing FreeTAKServer, ensure your system meets these minimum requirements:
Hardware requirements Component Minimum Recommended CPU 2 cores 4+ cores RAM 2 GB 4 GB+ Storage 1 GB 10 GB+ (for database and data packages) Network 100 Mbps 1 Gbps
Software requirements FreeTAKServer 2.x requires Python 3.11 . Earlier versions are not compatible.
Python : 3.11 or higher (3.11 recommended)Pip : Latest versionOperating System :
Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, RHEL 8+, or equivalent)
Windows 10/11 or Windows Server 2019+
macOS 11+ (Big Sur or later)
Network requirements FTS requires these ports to be accessible:
Port Protocol Service Purpose 8087 TCP CoT Service Client connections (ATAK/WinTAK) 8080 HTTP Data Package Service Data package uploads/downloads 8443 HTTPS Secure Data Package Service SSL data packages 8089 TCP/SSL SSL CoT Service Encrypted client connections 19023 HTTP REST API API endpoints 9000 TCP Federation Server Server-to-server connections (optional)
All ports are configurable. These are the default values.
Installing Python 3.11 If you don’t have Python 3.11 installed, follow these platform-specific instructions:
Ubuntu/Debian
RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
Windows
macOS
# Add deadsnakes PPA for Python 3.11 sudo apt update sudo apt install software-properties-common sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa sudo apt update # Install Python 3.11 sudo apt install python3.11 python3.11-dev python3.11-venv # Install pip sudo apt install python3-pip # Verify installation python3.11 --version
# RHEL 8/9 or CentOS 8/9 sudo dnf install python3.11 python3.11-devel # Install pip sudo dnf install python3-pip # Verify installation python3.11 --version
Download Python 3.11 from python.org/downloads
Run the installer
Important : Check “Add Python to PATH” during installationVerify installation:
# Using Homebrew brew install [email protected] # Verify installation python3.11 --version # Ensure pip is installed python3.11 -m ensurepip --upgrade
Installation methods Choose the installation method that best fits your deployment:
Method 1: PyPI installation (recommended) The simplest way to install FreeTAKServer is using pip from PyPI.
Install FreeTAKServer
Install the latest stable version: # Basic installation pip3 install FreeTAKServer # With optional UI pip3 install FreeTAKServer[ui] # With development tools pip3 install FreeTAKServer[dev]
The [ui] extra installs FreeTAKServer_UI for web-based administration. The [dev] extra includes testing tools like pytest.
Verify installation
Confirm FreeTAKServer is installed: Expected output: Name: FreeTAKServer Version: 2.2.1 Summary: An open source server for the TAK family of applications.
Method 2: Virtual environment installation Using a virtual environment isolates FTS dependencies from other Python packages.
Create virtual environment
# Create project directory mkdir freetakserver cd freetakserver # Create virtual environment python3.11 -m venv venv # Activate virtual environment source venv/bin/activate # Linux/macOS venv\Scripts\activate # Windows
Install FreeTAKServer
# Upgrade pip pip install --upgrade pip # Install FreeTAKServer pip install FreeTAKServer[ui]
Create startup script
Create a script to activate the environment and start FTS: start_fts.sh (Linux/macOS)
start_fts.bat (Windows)
#!/bin/bash cd /path/to/freetakserver source venv/bin/activate python -m FreeTAKServer.controllers.services.FTS -DataPackageIP $( hostname -I | awk '{print $1}' )
Make it executable (Linux/macOS): Method 3: Development installation For contributors or those who want to modify FTS source code:
Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/FreeTAKTeam/FreeTakServer.git cd FreeTakServer
Install in editable mode
# Create virtual environment python3.11 -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate # Install in editable mode pip install -e . # Or install with extras pip install -e ".[ui,dev]"
Run from source
python -m FreeTAKServer.controllers.services.FTS -DataPackageIP YOUR_IP
Dependencies FreeTAKServer automatically installs these core dependencies:
Web framework Flask == 3.0 .2 # Web application framework Flask - Cors == 4.0 .0 # Cross-origin resource sharing Flask - HTTPAuth == 4.8 .0 # HTTP authentication Flask - Login == 0.6 .3 # User session management Flask - SocketIO == 5.3 .6 # WebSocket support Flask - SQLAlchemy == 3.1 .1 # Database ORM Flask - Classy == 0.6 .10 # Class-based views Werkzeug == 3.0 .1 # WSGI utilities
Database and ORM SQLAlchemy == 2.0 .29 # SQL toolkit and ORM
Data processing lxml # XML processing defusedxml == 0.7 .1 # Secure XML parsing xmltodict # XML to dict conversion protobuf == 3.18 .3 # Protocol buffers pykml == 0.2 .0 # KML generation
Async and networking eventlet == 0.36 .1 # Concurrent networking python - socketio == 5.11 .1 # Socket.IO server python - engineio == 4.9 .0 # Engine.IO server pyzmq # ZeroMQ messaging
Security and cryptography cryptography == 36.0 .2 # Cryptographic primitives pyOpenSSL == 22.0 .0 # OpenSSL wrapper bcrypt == 3.1 .7 # Password hashing PyJWT # JSON Web Tokens
Geospatial geographiclib == 1.52 # Geodesic calculations geopy == 2.2 .0 # Geocoding and distance
Utilities tabulate == 0.8 .7 # Table formatting click == 8.1 .7 # Command-line interface colorama == 0.4 .4 # Colored terminal output PyYAML == 6.0 .1 # YAML parser ruamel.yaml == 0.17 .21 # Advanced YAML processing qrcode == 7.3 .1 # QR code generation pillow == 9.3 .0 # Image processing
FTS-specific digitalpy >= 0.3 .13.7 # FTS framework layer opentelemetry - sdk # Telemetry and tracing
You don’t need to install these manually. Pip handles all dependencies automatically.
Ubuntu/Debian Complete installation on Ubuntu:
Update system
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Install dependencies
# Install Python 3.11 and development tools sudo apt install python3.11 python3.11-dev python3.11-venv \ python3-pip build-essential libssl-dev \ libffi-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev zlib1g-dev
Install FreeTAKServer
pip3 install FreeTAKServer[ui]
Configure firewall
# Allow FTS ports sudo ufw allow 8087/tcp # CoT Service sudo ufw allow 8080/tcp # Data Packages sudo ufw allow 8443/tcp # HTTPS Data Packages sudo ufw allow 8089/tcp # SSL CoT sudo ufw allow 19023/tcp # REST API sudo ufw enable
Windows Complete installation on Windows:
Install Python
Download Python 3.11 from python.org
Run installer with “Add to PATH” checked
Open Command Prompt as Administrator
Install FreeTAKServer
python - m pip install -- upgrade pip python - m pip install FreeTAKServer[ui]
Configure Windows Firewall
Open PowerShell as Administrator: # Allow FTS ports New-NetFirewallRule - DisplayName "FTS CoT Service" - Direction Inbound - LocalPort 8087 - Protocol TCP - Action Allow New-NetFirewallRule - DisplayName "FTS Data Packages" - Direction Inbound - LocalPort 8080 - Protocol TCP - Action Allow New-NetFirewallRule - DisplayName "FTS SSL CoT" - Direction Inbound - LocalPort 8089 - Protocol TCP - Action Allow
Start FTS
python - m FreeTAKServer.controllers.services. FTS - DataPackageIP YOUR_IP
Use Command Prompt, not PowerShell. PowerShell can cause issues with FTS.
RHEL/CentOS Complete installation on RHEL-based systems:
Install EPEL repository
# RHEL 8/9 sudo dnf install epel-release sudo dnf update
Install dependencies
sudo dnf install python3.11 python3.11-devel gcc \ openssl-devel libffi-devel libxml2-devel \ libxslt-devel zlib-devel
Install FreeTAKServer
pip3.11 install FreeTAKServer[ui]
Configure firewalld
# Allow FTS ports sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8087/tcp sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8089/tcp sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=19023/tcp sudo firewall-cmd --reload
macOS Complete installation on macOS:
Install Homebrew
If not already installed: /bin/bash -c "$( curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Install FreeTAKServer
pip3.11 install FreeTAKServer[ui]
Configure firewall (if enabled)
If macOS firewall is enabled, allow FTS in:
System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Firewall → Firewall Options
Running as a system service For production deployments, run FTS as a system service that starts automatically.
Linux systemd service
Create service file
Create /etc/systemd/system/freetakserver.service: [Unit] Description =FreeTAKServer After =network.target [Service] Type =simple User =fts WorkingDirectory =/home/fts ExecStart =/usr/bin/python3.11 -m FreeTAKServer.controllers.services.FTS -DataPackageIP YOUR_IP Restart =on-failure RestartSec =10 [Install] WantedBy =multi-user.target
Replace YOUR_IP with your server’s IP address.
Create FTS user
# Create dedicated user sudo useradd -r -s /bin/ false fts # Create home directory sudo mkdir -p /home/fts sudo chown fts:fts /home/fts
Enable and start service
# Reload systemd sudo systemctl daemon-reload # Enable service to start on boot sudo systemctl enable freetakserver # Start service sudo systemctl start freetakserver # Check status sudo systemctl status freetakserver
View logs
# Follow logs in real-time sudo journalctl -u freetakserver -f # View recent logs sudo journalctl -u freetakserver -n 100
Windows service To run FTS as a Windows service:
Create service
Open Command Prompt as Administrator: nssm install FreeTAKServer
Configure in the GUI:
Path : C:\Python311\python.exeStartup directory : C:\FTSArguments : -m FreeTAKServer.controllers.services.FTS -DataPackageIP YOUR_IP Updating FreeTAKServer To update to the latest version:
# Stop FTS if running sudo systemctl stop freetakserver # Linux # Update via pip pip3 install --upgrade FreeTAKServer # Restart FTS sudo systemctl start freetakserver # Linux
Verifying installation After installation, verify everything is working:
Check Python version
python3 --version # Should show Python 3.11.x
Check FreeTAKServer version
pip3 show FreeTAKServer | grep Version
Test startup
python3 -m FreeTAKServer.controllers.services.FTS --help
Should display command-line options without errors.
Check ports
After starting FTS, verify ports are listening: # Linux/macOS sudo netstat -tuln | grep -E '8087|8080|19023' # Windows netstat -an | findstr "8087 8080 19023"
Troubleshooting
pip install fails with compiler errors
Install build dependencies: Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install build-essential python3.11-dev libssl-dev libffi-dev
RHEL/CentOS: sudo dnf install gcc python3.11-devel openssl-devel libffi-devel
macOS:
ModuleNotFoundError when starting FTS
Ensure you’re using the correct Python version: # Check which Python installed FTS pip3 show FreeTAKServer # Use that Python version to run FTS python3.11 -m FreeTAKServer.controllers.services.FTS -DataPackageIP YOUR_IP
Linux: # Install for current user only pip3 install --user FreeTAKServer # Or use virtual environment (recommended) python3.11 -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate pip install FreeTAKServer
Windows:
Run Command Prompt as Administrator.
SSL/TLS errors during installation
Update pip and try again: pip3 install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel pip3 install --upgrade certifi pip3 install FreeTAKServer
Install XML development libraries: Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev
RHEL/CentOS: sudo dnf install libxml2-devel libxslt-devel
macOS: brew install libxml2 libxslt
Next steps
Quick start Follow the quick start guide to get FTS running
Configuration Configure ports, SSL, and advanced options
SSL setup Set up SSL encryption for secure communications
Docker deployment Deploy FTS in production with Docker
