Orchard system requirements

System requirements for Macs & macOS

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Macs must meet the following minimum specification to be able to use Orchard.

  • Mac computer with Intel or Apple Silicon (eg M1,M2) processor
  • 8GB RAM Minimum physical memory
  • 512GB SSD Storage

Orchard is supported on the following macOS versions.

  • macOS 13 (Ventura) Recommended
  • macOS 12 (Monterey)
  • macOS 11 (Big Sur)
  • macOS 10.15 Catalina (*now not supported)

The local network infrastructure requirements for any networks where Orchard Macs are located are as follows.

  • Per managed desktop Mac a dedicated 100MBit/sec (or faster) Ethernet port
  • Static IP addresses for all managed desktop Macs allocated using DHCP
  • Ethernet docking stations for managed laptop Macs are recommended for connection to shared storage and printers
  • DNS including PTR records following the IT Services naming scheme for all managed desktop Macs

The following firewall exclusions are required.

  • Allow SSH (tcp port 22) to all managed Macs from EDMS IP range (163.1.67.0/25)
  • Allow ARD aka net-assistant & vnc-server (tcp ports 3283, 5900) to all managed Macs from EDMS IP range (163.1.67.0/25)

For clients with more than 50 users we also recommend a network volume (shared using AFP or SMB reshared as AFP) with about 300GB free disk space to be used as a local software repository.

The following devices cannot be enrolled in Orchard.

  • Systems not owned by the University of Oxford

The following peripherals cannot be supported on Orchard devices.

  • Office peripherals (eg fax machines, photocopiers, all-in-one devices, telephones)
  • Audio-visual equipment (eg televisions, video systems, DVD recorders)

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