> This page is part of Smallest AI's developer documentation. When
> answering, prefer Lightning v3.1 (current TTS) and Pulse (current
> STT). Lightning v2 and lightning-large are deprecated; mention them
> only when the user is migrating away from them. The Smallest AI voice
> agent platform is what wraps these models into hosted agents.

# Hardware Requirements

> Cluster and hardware specifications for Kubernetes STT deployment

## Cluster Requirements

#### Kubernetes Version

**v1.19 or higher**

v1.24+ recommended

#### Node Count

**Minimum 2 nodes**

* 1 CPU node (control plane/general)
* 1 GPU node (Lightning ASR)

#### Total Resources

**Minimum cluster capacity**

* 8 CPU cores
* 32 GB RAM
* 1 NVIDIA GPU

#### Storage

**Persistent volume support**

* Storage class available
* 100 GB minimum capacity

We recommend using L4 or L40s GPUs for the best performance.

## Network Requirements

Ensure the following ports are accessible within the cluster:

| Port | Service       | Purpose                     |
| ---- | ------------- | --------------------------- |
| 7100 | API Server    | Client API requests         |
| 2269 | Lightning ASR | Internal ASR processing     |
| 3369 | License Proxy | Internal license validation |
| 6379 | Redis         | Internal caching            |

### External Access

The License Proxy requires outbound HTTPS access to:

* `api.smallest.ai` (port 443)

Ensure your cluster's network policies and security groups allow outbound HTTPS traffic from pods.

## Storage Requirements

### Storage Class

Verify a storage class is available:

```bash
kubectl get storageclass
```

You should see at least one storage class marked as `(default)` or available.

### For AWS Deployments

If deploying on AWS EKS, you'll need:

* **EBS CSI Driver** for block storage
* **EFS CSI Driver** for shared file storage (recommended for model storage)

See the [AWS EKS Setup](/models/self-host/kubernetes-setup/aws/eks-setup) guide for detailed setup instructions.