System Requirements
This section covers the basic and recommended system requirements for successfully running MacForensicsLab. Modern forensic processes require not only powerful systems to process the massive amount of data, but a scalable solution designed to harness the system resources for greater speed and increased functionality. A database solution provides such potential. Since MacForensicsLab is database driven, the performance of the software is greatly influenced by the performance of the computer that is being used to perform the investigations. Nevertheless, MacForensicsLab has been specifically optimized for efficiency and speed through the use of appropriate memory allocation and a multi-threaded design.
Mac OS X Base Requirements
- Apple Macintosh G4 800MHZ or faster
- Mac OS X (version 10.4 or newer)
- 512 MB of RAM
- DVD-Rom drive for Boot CD/DVD and Installation from DVD
- 1 x USB 1.0 Port
- USB license dongle (supplied with MacForensicsLab)
Windows Base Requirements
- Processor 800MHZ or faster
- Windows 2000/XP/Vista
- 512 MB of RAM
- DVD-Rom drive for Boot CD/DVD and Installation from DVD
- 1 x USB 1.0 Port
- USB license dongle (supplied with MacForensicsLab)
Linux Base Requirements
- Processor 800MHZ or faster
- x86-based Linux distribution with GTK+ 2.0 (or higher), glibc-2.3 (or higher)
- We officially support the following:
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop
- 512 MB of RAM
- DVD-Rom drive for Boot CD/DVD and Installation from DVD
- 1 x USB 2.0 Port + USB license dongle (supplied with MacForensicsLab)
Recommended Desktop Forensic Workstation
- Apple MacPro (2.66 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor or better)
- Mac OS X (version 10.5 or newer)
- 8GB of RAM
- 1TB or more of available hard drive space
- DVD-ROM drive for Boot CD/DVD and Installation from DVD
- Firewire 800 <-> ATA/SATA hardware write blocker
- 1 x USB 2.0 Port + USB license dongle (supplied with MacForensicsLab)
Recommended Forensic Laptop
- Apple MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHZ or faster
- Mac OS X (version 10.5 or newer)
- 4GB of RAM
- Firmtek SeriTek Serial ATA ExpressCard Adapter
- 1TB or more of available hard drive space
- DVD-ROM drive for Boot CD/DVD and Installation from DVD
- 1 x USB 1.0 Port
- USB license dongle (supplied with MacForensicsLab)
Additional Considerations
Providing the system with more resources and faster equipment such as faster Processor, more RAM and and faster, larger hard disk drive will improve the performance of MacForensicsLab where data reading, calculation and verification functions are occurring.
The database/logging functionality is best performed with the fastest possible network interface when working with a centralized network database server.
