System requirements for data gateways

The gateway appliance that you install on your premises communicates with QRadar® on Cloud and must meet certain specifications.

The physical appliance hardware limit is based on the number of CPUs in your deployment.

Tip: To ensure that your data gateway meets the requirements, see Prerequisites for data gateways.
Table 1. Gateway system requirements for physical appliances
Specification Required value
CPU 2.6 GHz, 16 Core, 15 MB Cache
RAM 16 GB
HDD 500 GB minimum (2 TB recommended)

300 IOPS

300 MB/s data transfer rate

Important: When a data gateway handles both flows and events, the maximum amount of events per second (EPS) might be lower depending on the flows per minute (FPM). For more information on the limits for EPS and flows per minute (FPM), see EPS and FPM limits.
Table 2. Gateway system requirements for virtual appliances
Specification Required value
CPU

4 cores for 1000 events per second (EPS) or less

8 cores for up to 7,000 EPS

16 cores for 7,500 - 17,000 EPS

16 cores for deployments with QRadar Vulnerability Manager

16 cores for any Data Gateway that is also running flows.

Tip: It is not recommended to send more than 17,000 EPS on a Data Gateway. Data Gateways with extra resources and available bandwidth may be able to send more than 17,000 EPS.
RAM

16 GB

32 GB for deployments with QRadar Vulnerability Manager

HDD

500 GB minimum (2 TB recommended)

300 IOPS

300 MB/s data transfer rate

Port 443 outbound

You must ensure that port 443 is open on your firewall for both the HTTPS and VPN IP addresses that are provided for your deployment. IBM® provides you with two IP addresses for your QRadar on Cloud deployment. One is the HTTPS address for the console, and the second is for the VPN. These addresses are listed in the welcome email. Port 443 for both of these addresses must be open on your firewall.

Network time protocol

IBM QRadar on Cloud uses GPS, with a receiver in each data center, to sync systems for Network Time Protocol. This time might differ slightly from customers that use the common NIST pool for NTP for their own systems.