System Requirements
Provision a server that meets these requirements before installing. The bundled preflight.sh verifies them automatically.
Deployment model
Registry OS is deployed as a single sovereign instance dedicated to your organization. All registry data resides on your server and is never transmitted to BorgLayer. One server runs one TLD namespace (or a small group of related TLDs).
Operating system
- Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS (recommended) or 22.04 LTS
- x86-64 (amd64) or ARM64
- Root or sudo access for installation
Hardware sizing
| Tier | Domains | vCPU | RAM | Disk (SSD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small ccTLD | up to 50,000 | 4 | 8 GB | 100 GB |
| Medium | 50k – 500k | 8 | 16 GB | 250 GB |
| Large | 500k – 2M+ | 16+ | 32 GB+ | 500 GB+ NVMe |
SSD/NVMe is strongly recommended because PostgreSQL and PowerDNS are I/O sensitive. Provision offsite backup storage of at least twice your database size.
Software dependencies
| Component | Version | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PHP | 8.4 (8.3 min) | CLI + FPM; sodium extension mandatory |
| PostgreSQL | 16 (14+ min) | primary registry database |
| PowerDNS Authoritative | 4.8+ | PostgreSQL backend |
| Node.js | 20 LTS | web console build |
| Nginx + Certbot | current | reverse proxy + TLS |
Required PHP extensions: sodium (mandatory for license validation), pdo_pgsql, pgsql, mbstring, openssl, curl, bcmath, gmp, intl, xml, zip, fileinfo.
Network & ports
| Port | Purpose | Exposure |
|---|---|---|
| 53 (TCP/UDP) | DNS (PowerDNS) | Public |
| 443 (TCP) | Console, portal, RDAP over HTTPS | Public |
| 80 (TCP) | ACME / redirect | Public |
| 700 (TCP) | EPP (registrars) | Restricted |
| 43 (TCP) | WHOIS (optional) | Public |
| 5432 (TCP) | PostgreSQL | localhost only |
A static public IPv4 is required; IPv6 is strongly recommended. Reverse DNS (PTR) for the server IP should be configured.
DNS, TLS & DNSSEC prerequisites
- The parent authority must delegate your TLD to this server’s nameservers.
- Prepare at least two nameserver hostnames, ideally on separate networks.
- A domain for the console and RDAP endpoint, ready for ACME issuance.
- Plan KSK/ZSK management and DS submission to the parent for DNSSEC.
Verify before installing
The installer bundle includes a preflight script that reports PASS/FAIL for every requirement and exits non-zero if anything is missing:
sudo ./preflight.shReady to deploy Registry OS?
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