***

title: Hardware Requirements
description: Cluster and hardware specifications for Kubernetes STT deployment
---------------------

For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL. For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.smallest.ai/waves/v-4-0-0/self-host/kubernetes-setup/prerequisites/llms.txt. For full documentation content, see https://docs.smallest.ai/waves/v-4-0-0/self-host/kubernetes-setup/prerequisites/llms-full.txt.

## Cluster Requirements

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Kubernetes Version">
    **v1.19 or higher**

    v1.24+ recommended
  </Card>

  <Card title="Node Count">
    **Minimum 2 nodes**

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

  <Card title="Total Resources">
    **Minimum cluster capacity**

    * 8 CPU cores
    * 32 GB RAM
    * 1 NVIDIA GPU
  </Card>

  <Card title="Storage">
    **Persistent volume support**

    * Storage class available
    * 100 GB minimum capacity
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Tip>
  We recommend using L4 or L40s GPUs for the best performance.
</Tip>

## 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)

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

## 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)

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