Before installing Sakai, ensure your system meets the following requirements.
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.
Maven
Sakai uses Apache Maven for building:
- Maven 3.9+ recommended
- Alternatively, use the included Maven wrapper:
./mvnw
Build Environment
- Memory: Minimum 4GB RAM for building
- Disk Space: At least 10GB free space for source code and build artifacts
Runtime Requirements
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.
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)
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
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
Quick Docker Installation (Linux)
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh
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
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
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.
Optional Components
Search
- Elasticsearch - Required if search functionality is enabled
Email
- SMTP server - For outgoing email
- Default SMTP port: 8025 (configurable)
SSL/TLS
- SSL certificate - For HTTPS connections
- Configure in Tomcat’s
server.xml