The AEM platform in AEM 6 is based on Apache Jackrabbit Oak.

Apache Jackrabbit Oak is an effort to implement a scalable and performant hierarchical content
repository for use as the foundation of modern world-class web sites and other demanding
content applications.
It is the successor to Jackrabbit 2 and is used by AEM 6 as the default backend for its content
repository, CRX.

Design principles and goals

Oak implements the JSR-283 (JCR 2.0) spec. Its principal design objectives are:
 Better support for big repositories
 Multiple distributed cluster nodes for high availability
 Better performance
 Support for many child nodes and Access Control Levels

Architecture Concept

Storage

The purpose of the Storage layer is to:

 Implement a tree model
 Make storage pluggable
 Provide a clustering mechanism

Oak Core

The Oak Core adds several layers to the storage layer:

 Access Level Controls
 Search and Indexing
 Observation

Oak JCR

The main objective of the Oak JCR is to transform JCR semantics into tree operations. It is also
responsible for:
 Implementing the JCR API
 Containing commit hooks that implement JCR constraints
In addition, non-Java implementations are now possible and part of the Oak JCR concept.

Storage overview
The Oak storage layer provides an abstraction layer for the actual storage of the content.
Currently, there are two storage implementations available in AEM6: Tar
Storage and MongoDB Storage.

Tar Storage

The Tar storage uses tar files. It stores the content as various types of records within larger
segments. Journals are used to track the latest state of the repository.
There are several key design principles it was build around:
 Immutable Segments
The content is stored in segments that can be up to 256KiB in size. They are immutable, which
makes it easy to cache frequently accessed segments and reduce system errors that may corrupt
the repository.
Each segment is identified by a unique identifier (UUID) and contains a continuous subset of the
content tree. In addition, segments can reference other content. Each segment keeps a list of
UUIDs of other referenced segments.
 Locality
Related records like a node and its immediate children are usually stored in the same segment.
This makes searching the repository very fast and avoids most cache misses for typical clients
that access more than one related node per session.
 Compactness
The formatting of records is optimized for size to reduce IO costs and to fit as much content in
caches as possible.

Mongo Storage

The MongoDB storage leverages MongoDB for sharding and clustering. The repository tree is
kept in one MongoDB database where each node is a separate document.
It has several particularities:
 Revisions
 For each update (commit) of the content, a new revision is created. A revision is basically a
string that consists of three elements:
1. A timestamp derived from the system time of the machine it was generated on
2. A counter to distinguish revisions created with the same timestamp
3. The cluster node id where the revision was created
 Branches
Branches are supported, which allows client to stage multiple changes and make them visible
with a single merge call.
 Previous documents
MongoDB storage adds data to a document with every modification. However, it only deletes
data if a cleanup is explicitly triggered. Old data is moved when a certain threshold is met.
Previous documents only contain immutable data, which means they only contain committed and
merged revisions.
 Cluster node metadata
Data about active and inactive cluster nodes is kept in the database in order to facilitate cluster
operations.

A typical AEM cluster setup with MongoDB storage:

What is different from Jackrabbit 2?

Because Oak is designed to be backwards compatible with the JCR 1.0 standard, there will be
almost no changes on the user level. However, there are some noticeable differences that you
need to take into account when setting up an Oak based AEM installation:

 Oak does not create indexes automatically. Because of this, custom indexes will need to be
created when necessary.
 Unlike Jackrabbit 2 where sessions always reflect the latest state of the repository, with Oak a
session reflects a stable view of the repository from the time the session was acquired. This is
due to the MVCC model on which Oak is based on.
 Same name siblings (SNS) are not supported in Oak.
 Other Platform Related Documentation
For more information regarding the AEM platform, also check the articles below:
 Configuring Node Stores and Data Stores in AEM 6
 Oak Queries and Indexing
 Storage Elements in AEM 6
 AEM with MongoDB

Adobe supports Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) on the platforms as detailed in the following
information in this document.
For any issues that are specifically related to the platform itself, you will need to contact the
platform vendor directly.
Note:
Depending upon the platform on which you install AEM, there could be different sets of requirements for user
management.

Prerequisites
To install Adobe Experience Manager you need at a minimum:
 Installed Java Platform, Standard Edition JDK - or other supported Java Virtual Machines
 Experience Manager Quickstart file (Standalone JAR or web-application deployment WAR)

Minimum Sizing Requirements

The following are the minimum requirements:
 5 GB free disk space in the installation directory
 2 GB memory
Note:
Digital asset use cases need more base memory. See Deploying and Maintaining for details.

You will have to increase these in accordance with your operational expectations. Please see
the Hardware Sizing Guidelines for further information.

Support Levels
This document lists the supported client and server platforms for Adobe Experience Manager.
Adobe provides several levels of support, both for our recommended configurations and for other
configurations.
Recommended Configurations
Adobe recommends these configurations and provides full support as part of the standard
software maintenance agreement.

Support Level Description

A: Supported Adobe provides full support and maintenance for this

configuration. This configuration is covered by Adobe's
quality assurance process.

R: Restricted To ensure our customers project success, Adobe provides

Support full support within a restricted support program, which
requires that specific conditions are met. R-level support
requires a formal customer request and confirmation by
Adobe. For more informations, please contact Adobe
Customer Care.

Unsupported Configurations
Support Level Description

E: Expected to The configuration is expected to work, and there are no reports to the
work contrary.

Z: Not The configuration is not supported. Adobe does not make any statements
supported about whether the configuration works, and does not support it.

Supported Platforms

Java Virtual Machines

The application requires a Java Virtual Machine to run, which is provided by the Java
Development Kit (JDK) distribution.
Adobe Experience Manager operates with the following versions of the Java Virtual Machines:
Caution:
It is recommend to track the Security Bulletins from the Java vendor to ensure the safety and security of
production environments and install the latest Java Updates.
 Platform Support Level

Oracle SE 8 JDK 1.8.x (64bit) A: Supported

Oracle SE 7 JDK 1.7.x (64bit) Z: Not supported

IBM J9 VM (build 2.8, JRE 1.8.0) Z: Not supported

IBM J9 VM (build 2.6 & 2.7, JRE 1.7.0) A: Supported

IBM J9 VM (build 2.4 & 2.6, JRE 1.6.0) Z: Not supported

HP JDK 8.0.x A: Supported

HP JDK 7.0.x Z: Not supported

 The IBM JRE is only supported on IBM server platforms (AIX), or in conjunction with
WebSphere Application Server.
 The HP JRE is only supported on HP server platforms (HP-UX).

Storage & Persistence

There are various options to deploy the repository of Adobe Experience Manager. Following a
list of supported technologies and storage options.

Platform Description Support Level

File System (1) Repository Microkernel (TAR files) A: Supported

File System (1) To store binaries A: Supported

MongoDB Enterprise 2.6 (2) Repository Microkernel Z: Not supported

MongoDB Enterprise 3.0 (2)(3) Repository Microkernel A: Supported

MongoDB Enterprise 3.2 (2)(3) Repository Microkernel A: Supported

IBM DB2 10.5 Repository Microkernel R: Restricted Support

Oracle Database 12c Repository Microkernel R: Restricted Support

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (4) Repository Microkernel R: Restricted Support

Amazon S3 To store binaries A: Supported

 Apache Solr To use as internal search engine A: Supported

1. 'File System' includes block storage that is POSIX compliant. This includes network storage
technology. Mind that file system performance might vary and influences the overall
performance. It is recommended to load test AEM in combination with the network/remote file
system.
2. MongoDB Sharding is not supported in AEM.
3. MongoDB Storage Engine WiredTiger is supported only.

Note:
See Deploying Communities for additional information regarding the AEM Communities capability.

Note:
MongoDB is third-party software and is not included in the AEM licensing package. For more information see
the MongoDB licensing policypage.
In order to get the most of your AEM deployment, Adobe recommends licensing the MongoDB Enterprise
version in order to benefit from professional support. See Recommended Deployments for more information.
The license includes a standard replica set, which is composed of one primary and two secondary instances
that can be used for either the author or the publish deployments.
In case you wish to run both author and publish on MongoDB, two separate licenses need to be purchased.
Adobe Customer Care will assist qualifying issues related to the usage of MongoDB with AEM.
For more information, see the MongoDB for Adobe Experience Manager page.

Note:
Supported relational databases as listed above is third-party software and is not included in the AEM licensing
package.
In order to run AEM 6.2 with a supported relational database, it is required that you have a separate support
contract with a database vendor directly. Adobe Customer Care will assist qualifying issues related to the
usage of relational databases with AEM 6.2.
Please note, that all relational databases are currently supported within Level-R on AEM 6.2, which
comes with support criterias and a support program as stated in the Level-R description above.

Servlet Engines / Application Servers

Adobe Experience Manager can run either as a standalone server (the quickstart JAR file) as web
application within a third party application server (the WAR file).
Minimum Servlet API Version required: 3.0

Platform Support Level

Quickstart built-in Servlet Engine (Jetty 9.2) A: Supported

Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2 (12cR2) A: Supported

Oracle WebLogic Server 12.1.3 (12c) A: Supported

Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.6 (11g) Z: Not supported

IBM WebSphere Application Server 9 Z: Not supported

IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5 A: Supported

IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5 Liberty Profile A: Supported

IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.5 A: Supported

IBM WebSphere Application Server 8 Z: Not supported

IBM WebSphere Application Server 7 Z: Not supported

Apache Tomcat 8 A: Supported (2)

Apache Tomcat 7 Z: Not supported

Apache Tomcat 6 Z: Not supported

JBoss EAP 7.0.0 with JBoss Application Server Z: Not supported

JBoss EAP 6.4.0 with JBoss Application Server 7.5 A: Supported

JBoss EAP 6.3.0 with JBoss Application Server 7.4 A: Supported

JBoss EAP 6.2.0 with JBoss Application Server 7.3 Z: Not supported

JBoss EAP 6.1.0 with JBoss Application Server 7.2 Z: Not supported

JBoss Application Server 7.1 Z: Not supported

Server Operating Systems

Adobe Experience Manager works with the following server platforms:

Platform Support Level

Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Z: Not supported

 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 A: Supported

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 A: Supported

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Z: Not supported

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Z: Not supported

Oracle Solaris 11 A: Supported with limitations (3,5)

Oracle Solaris 10 A: Supported with limitations (3,5)

RedHat Linux Kernel 2.6 and 3.x Distributions (1) A: Supported

Debian Distribution incl. Ubuntu 14 A: Supported

HP-UX 11i v1-3 A: Supported with limitations (2,3,4,5)

IBM AIX 7.1 A: Supported with limitations (2,3,5)

IBM AIX 6.1 Z: Not supported

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 A: Supported

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Z: Not supported

Apple OS X Server E: Expected to work (6)

1. Linux Kernel 2.6 and 3.x includes derivatives from Red Hat distribution, including Red Hat
Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Oracle Linux and Amazon Linux.
2. Please see the section Support for XMP metadata write-back
3. No support for Dynamic Media Imaging. Dynamic Media Video is supported.
4. No support for XFA based adaptive forms, XFA to PDF and/or HTML conversion (Experience
Manager Forms), and AEM Forms add-on features.
5. No support for Advanced Raw file transformation (Experience Manager Assets)
6. Not supported in production environment for AEM Forms.

Virtual & Cloud Computing Environments

Adobe Experience Manager running in virtual machines in the cloud computing environments is
supported in compliance with Adobe's support policy for all other system components (operating
system, JVM, application server, etc).
 Experience Manager works with virtual machines in the following cloud computing
environments, similar to the deployment on other virtual servers or dedicated servers:
 Amazon EC2
 Rackspace Cloud
 VMware vCloud

Dispatcher Platforms (Web Servers)

The Dispatcher is the caching and load balancing component. Download the latest Dispatcher
version from Adobe PackageShare. Experience Manager 6.2 requires Dispatcher version 4.1.12
or higher.
The following web servers are supported for use with a Dispatcher version 4.1.12:

Platform Support Level

Apache httpd 2.4.x A: Supported (1)

Apache httpd 2.2 A: Supported (1) (2)

Apache httpd 2.0 Z: Not Supported

Microsoft IIS 10 (Internet Information Server) Z: Not Supported

Microsoft IIS 8.5 (Internet Information Server) A: Supported

Microsoft IIS 8.0 (Internet Information Server) A: Supported

Microsoft IIS 7.5 (Internet Information Server) Z: Not Supported

Microsoft IIS 7 (Internet Information Server) Z: Not Supported

Oracle iPlanet Web Server 7 A: Supported

(1) Web servers built on the basis of Apache httpd source code will have the same level of
support as the version of httpd on which it is based only in the following cases:
 The HTTP server was built using only official Apache source distributions, or
 The HTTP server was delivered as part of the operating system on which it is running.
Examples: IBM HTTP Server, Oracle HTTP Server
If in doubt, please ask Adobe for confirmation of the support level related to the respective
server product.
Dispatcher is not available for Apache 2.4.x for Windows operating systems.
(2) Adobe will drop support for Apache httpd 2.2 after Dec 2017, and recommends to upgrade to
Apache httpd 2.4. In case you stay with Apache 2.2 beyond Dec 2017, it is recommended to
use a Linux distribution that commits to Apache 2.2 security updates. The latest dispatcher
release of 2017 for Apache 2.2 will still be available for download until end of 2018.

Supported Client Platforms

Supported Browsers for Authoring User Interface

The Adobe Experience Manager user interface works with the following client platforms. All
browsers are tested with the default set of plug-ins and add-ons.
The user interface is optimized to be used on larger screens (typically notebooks and desktop
computers) and tablet form factor (such as Apple iPad or Microsoft Surface). The phone form
factor is not supported.
Note:
Support for browsers with rapid release cycles:
Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge release updates every few months. Adobe is committed
to provide updates for Adobe Experience Manager to maintain the support level as stated below with
upcoming versions of these browsers.

Browser Support for Classic Support for Touch-optimized

UI UI

Microsoft Edge (1) A: Supported A: Supported

Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 A: Supported A: Supported

(1)

Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 Z: Not supported Z: Not supported

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 (2) A: Supported Z: Not supported

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Z: Not supported Z: Not supported

Mozilla Firefox 50+ A: Supported A: Supported

Mozilla Firefox 45 (ESR) (3) A: Supported A: Supported

Google Chrome 55+ A: Supported A: Supported

 Apple Safari 10 (macOS) A: Supported A: Supported

Apple Safari 9 (OS X) A: Supported A: Supported

Apple Safari 8 (OS X) A: Supported A: Supported

Apple Safari on iOS 10 (1,4) Z: Not supported Z: Not supported

Apple Safari on iOS 9 (1,4) Z: Not supported A: Supported

 (1) AEM Forms does not support authoring on mobile devices.

 (2) Not supported for AEM Forms

 (3) Extended Support Release of Firefox Learn more about this on mozilla.org
 (4) support for Apple iPad and Apple iPad mini
Note:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 is not supported for the user administration interface of AEM, including Adobe’s
identity management system.

Supported Browsers for Websites

Generally, the browser support level for sites is depending on the implementation of the
templates, design and component output, and therefore in control of the party implementing
these parts.
Note:
Some browser-related exceptions for mobile clients are as listed below. These exceptions are only for AEM
Forms:
 HTML5 Forms does not support default Android browser.
 Mobile clients are supported only for HTML5 Forms and Forms Portal.
 Forms Portal is supported on Safari on iPad only.
 Blackberry browser supports only adaptive forms.

WebDAV Clients
Microsoft Windows 7+
To successfully connect with Microsoft Windows 7+ to an AEM instance that is not secured with
SSL, basic authentication over unsecured network must be enabled in Windows. This requires a
change in the Windows Registry of the WebClient:
1. Locate the registry subkey:
 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters
2. Add the BasicAuthLevel registry entry to this subkey using a value of 2 or more.
 See Microsoft Support KB 841215.
To improve responsivness of the WebDav Client under Windows - see Microsoft Support KB
2445570

Additional Platform Notes

This section provides special notes and more detailed information about running Adobe
Experience Manager and its add-ons.

IPv4 and IPv6

All elements of Adobe Experience Manager (Instance, Dispatcher) can be installed in both IPv4
and IPv6 networks.
Operation is seamless as no special configuration is required, when needed you can simply
specify an IP address using the format that is appropriate to your network type.
This means that when an IP address needs to be specified you can select (as required) from:
 an IPv6 address
for example http://[ab12::34c5:6d7:8e90:1234]:4502
 an IPv4 address
for example http://123.1.1.4:4502
 a server name
for example, http://www.yourserver.com:4502
 the default case of localhost will be interpreted for both IPv4 and IPv6 network installations
for example, http://localhost:4502

Requirements for Dynamic Media Add-on

With dynamic media enabled, the system also has additional technical requirements.
Dynamic Media is disabled by default. You can enable Dynamic Media.

Hardware

The following hardware requirements are applicable for both Linux and Windows:
 Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron CPU with at least 4 cores
 16GB of RAM minimum

Linux
 If you are using Dynamic Media on Linux, the following prerequisites need to be met:
 RedHat Enterprise 5 or CentOS 5.5 and later with latest fix patches
 64-bit Operating System
 Swapping disabled (recommended)
 SELinux disabled (See note that follows)
Note:
If the locale is set such that LC_CTYPE is not equal to en_US.UTF-8, it will prevent dynamic media from
working. To see what its value is type "locale" at the command prompt. If it not set to that, then set the
LC_CTYPE environment variable to the empty string by typing "export LC_CTYPE=" before running AEM.

Note:
Disabling SELinux: Image Serving does not work with SELinux turned on. This option is enabled by default.
To remedy this issue, edit the /etc/selinux/config file and change the SELinux value from:
SELINUX=enforcing to SELINUX=disabled

Note:
NUMA Architecture: Systems with processors featuring AMD64 and Intel EM64T are typically configured
as non-uniform memory architecture (NUMA) platforms, which means that the kernel constructs multiple
memory nodes at boot-time rather than constructing a single memory node.
The multiple node construct can result in memory exhaustion on one or more of the nodes before other nodes
become exhausted. When memory exhaustion happens the kernel can decide to kill processes (for example, the
Image Server or Platform Server) even though there is available memory.
Therefore, Adobe recommends that if you are running such a system that you turn off NUMA using
the numa=off boot option to avoid the kernel killing these processes.

Note:
Hostname of server must be resolvable: Make sure that the hostname of the server is resolvable to an IP
address. If that is not possible, please add the fully qualified hostname and the IP address to /etc/hosts:
<ip address> <fully qualified hostname>

Windows

 Microsoft Windows Server (2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2)

 Swap space equal to at least twice the amount of physical memory (RAM)
To use Dynamic Media on Windows, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, 2013, and 2015
redistributables must be installed.
 The Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 redistributable can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/download/details.aspx?id=13523
 The Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 redistributable can be found at https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/download/details.aspx?id=40784
 The Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 redistributable can be found at https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/download/details.aspx?id=48145
 MacOS

 10.9.x and later

 Only supported for trial and demo purposes

Requirements for AEM Forms PDF Generator

AEM Forms PDF Generator supports only English, French, German, and Japanese versions of
the supported operating systems and applications.
In addition:
 PDF Generator requires Acrobat DC to perform the conversion.
 AEM Forms supports only 32-bit editions of supported software.
 The OCR PDF (Searchable PDF), Optimize PDF, and Export PDF features are supported only on
Microsoft Windows.

Product Supported Formats for Conversion to PDF

Adobe® Acrobat® DC Pro XPS, image formats (BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPG, TIF, TIFF,
PNG, JPF, JPX, JP2, J2K, J2C, JPC), HTML, HTM, DWG,
DXF, and DWF

Microsoft® Office 2013 DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, RTF, and TXT

Microsoft® Office 2010 DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, RTF, and TXT

OpenOffice 3.4 ODT, ODP, ODS, ODG, ODF, SXW, SXI, SXC, SXD, XLS,
XLSX, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, image formats (BMP,
GIF, JPEG, JPG, TIF, TIFF, PNG, JPF, JPX, JP2, J2K, J2C,
JPC), HTML, HTM, RTF, and TXT

OpenOffice 3.3 ODT, ODP, ODS, ODG, ODF, SXW, SXI, SXC, SXD,
DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, image formats
(BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPG, TIF, TIFF, PNG, JPF, JPX, JP2,
J2K, J2C, JPC), HTML, and HTM

Requirements for AEM Assets XMP metadata write-back

 XMP write-back is supported and enabled for the following platforms and file formats:
Operating Systems
 Linux (32-bit, needs 32-bit application support on 64-bit systems). For steps to install 32-bit
client libraries, see How to enable XMP write-back on 64-bit RedHat Linux.
 Windows Server
 Oracle Solaris
 Mac OS X (64-bit)
File Formats
 JPEG
 PNG
 TIFF
 PDF
 INDD
 AI
 EPS

Requirements for AEM Screens Player

The AEM Screens Player 3 supports media player hardware with following Operating
Systems:
 Apple iOS 10.2 and newer
 Apple OSX 10.11 and macOS 10.12
 Google Android 4.4.2
 Google Android 5.1.1 with updated Android System WebView Version 52+