Documentation forWeb Help Desk
Thinking of upgrading to the cloud? Learn more about migrating from Web Help Desk to Service Desk.

WHD 2026.2 System Requirements

Release date: June 2, 2026

See the following sections:

I thnk

Note for upgrading users: WHD 2026.2 replaces Apache Tomcat with Caddy 2.11.1. Caddy provides automatic TLS, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, and HTTPS redirect with no manual certificate management for self-signed deployments.

WHD server requirements

Hardware

If you will have more than 20 tech sessions open, WHD recommends adding 1 GB RAM for each additional 10 technicians. Sizing examples are listed in the following table. You might also need to adjust the maximum memory available, as described in Configuring the JVM.

Component Minimum Recommended
CPU

64-bit x86_64, dual-core, 2.0 GHz

 Quad-core x86_64, 3.0 GHz or faster
RAM

  • Fewer than 20 technicians: 4 GB

  • 20 technicians: 4 GB

  • 30 technicians: 5 GB

  • 40 technicians: 6 GB

  • 50 technicians: 7 GB

  • 100 technicians: 12 GB

  • Fewer than 20 technicians: 8 GB

  • 20 technicians: 8 GB

  • 30 technicians: 10 GB

  • 40 technicians: 11 GB

  • 50 technicians: 12 GB

  • 100 technicians: 12 GB
Hard drive space

20 GB

 40 GB+ (SSD / NVMe recommended)
Disk Type HDD SSD or NVMe (significantly improves startup and database I/O)
Network 100 Mbps 100 Mbps x86_64 only
Architecture x86_64 only  

Operating system

Platform Supported versions
Microsoft Windows Server
  • 2025 (64-bit)
  • 2022 (64-bit)
  • 2019 (64-bit)
  • 2016 (64-bit)

FIPS 140-2 mode is supported on Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022 only.

Microsoft Windows

  • 11 (64-bit)
  • 10 (64-bit)

Supported Windows desktop operating systems are reserved for trial installations only. For production environments, install a supported Windows Server operating system on your WHD server.

Operating system languages English (UK or US)
Red Hat® Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
  • 10 (64-bit)
  • 9 (64-bit)
CentOS™
  • 10 (64-bit)
  • 9 (64-bit)
Fedora
  • 41 (64-bit)
  • 40 (64-bit)
  • 39 (64-bit)

Fedora is classified as Community Supported, and is not recommended for production deployments.
macOS
  • 15, Sequoia
  • 14, Sonoma
  • 13, Ventura

  • macOS 12 (Monterey) has reached end-of-life and is no longer supported. macOS 13 or higher is required.

  • Apple Silicon Macs must have Rosetta 2 installed.
Java Microsoft Build of OpenJDK 21.0.9 (LTS)

JAVA_HOME must point to a JDK 21 installation.

Configuring the JVM

If you have more than 20 technicians, you might need to increase the max heap memory on the JVM. To do so, edit the configuration for your platform. The backend JVM starts with -Xms256m -Xmx1024m by default.

How you edit the configuration depends on the operating system: 

  • Linux: Edit ExecStart in the whd-backend.service systemd unit.

  • macOS: Edit EnvironmentVariables in the com.solarwinds.whd.backend.plist launchd plist.

  • Windows: Edit <arguments> in service\win\whd-backend.xml.

Database requirements

Web Help Desk uses an embedded PostgreSQL database as its standard database. Optionally, you can use a separate database. The following databases are supported.

Database Supported versions
PostgreSQL

Bundled: 13.20

External:

  • 17.x
  • 16.x (recommended for new deployments)
  • 15.x
  • 14.x
  • 13.x
MySQL
  • 8.4 LTS (recommended for new deployments)
  • 8.0
Microsoft SQL Server
  • 2022 (recommended for new deployments)
  • 2019
  • 2017

External database server requirements

If you do not use the bundled PostgreSQL database, the server on which the external database runs must meet the following requirements.

For optimal performance, run WHD and the external database on separate servers.

Component Minimum Recommended
CPU speed 64-bit x86_64, dual-core, 3.0 GHz or better Quad-core 3.0 GHz
Hard drive space 20 GB 50 GB+ SSD/NVMe
Memory 3 GB plus 1 GB for every additional 10 techs 8 GB+

Web browser

Browser Supported versions
Google Chrome Latest version
Mozilla Firefox Latest version
Microsoft Edge Latest version (Chromium-based)
Apple Safari

Safari 16 and later

Internet Explorer is not supported.

Authentication and directory requirements

LDAP and Active Directory

Product Supported versions
Microsoft Active Directory
  • 2025
  • 2022
  • 2019
  • 2016
OpenLDAP
  • 2.4 and later (including 2.6.x)
Open Directory

  • 4+

Single sign-on (SSO)

Protocol Notes
SAML 2.0

SP-initiated and IdP-initiated

Tested with Entra ID (Azure AD), Okta, and ADFS
OAuth 2.0 / OIDC

Authorization Code with PKCE

Tested with Entra ID and Okta
CAS

Central Authentication Service

Configurable through conf/application.properties

Mail server requirements

Software

Mail server or service Supported versions
Microsoft Exchange Server
  • Exchange 2019
  • Exchange 2016
Microsoft 365 (Office 365)

  • IMAP / SMTP with OAuth 2.0 Modern Auth
Google Workspace (Gmail)

  • IMAP / SMTP with OAuth 2.0
Any standards-compliant server
  • IMAP
  • POP3
  • SMTP

Supported protocols

  • IMAP / IMAPS
  • POP3 / POP3S
  • SMTP (STARTLS / SSL / TLS)

FIPS 140-2 requirements

FIPS mode is optional and disabled by default. FIPS mode is supported on Windows Server only.

Requirement Details
Operating system
  • Windows Server 2022 (64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2019 (64-bit)
OS FIPS policy FipsAlgorithmPolicy registry key must be set to 1
Preparation script

  1. Run the following in a Command Prompt as an administrator:

    conf\disable-non-fips-ciphers.ps1

  2. Reboot.
Node.js Bundled Node.js 22 compiled with OpenSSL FIPS support
Database External PostgreSQL with SSL enabled, or bundled PostgreSQL with SSL

Enable FIPS in conf/whd.env:

WHD_FIPS_ENABLED=true
WHD_DB_SSL=true

JVM FIPS flags injected automatically on startup:

-Djava.security.properties=<WHD_HOME>/conf/java.security.fips
-Dorg.bouncycastle.fips.approved_only=true
-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStoreProvider=BCFIPS
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStoreProvider=BCFIPS

Discovery connector requirements

The following table lists the supported discovery connectors used for asset discovery.

Connector Supported version
Network Performance Monitor (NPM) 2021.2 and later
Server and Application Monitor (SAM) 2020.4 and later
Network Configuration Manager (NCM) 2020.4 and later
Lansweeper 10.x and later
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM/MECM) SCCM 1511+ / MECM (64-bit)
WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) Built-in. No additional software required.

SolarWinds product integration requirements

The following table lists the SolarWinds products that integrate with Web Help Desk. To minimize port conflicts, install Web Help Desk and Dameware on separate servers.

Product Supported version
SolarWinds Platform 2020.2 and later
Network Performance Monitor (NPM) 2019.4 and later
Server and Application Monitor (SAM) 2019.4 and later
Network Configuration Manager (NCM) 2019.4 and later
Dameware Mini Remote Control (MRC) 12.3 and later

Supported protocols

Category Protocols
Email (inbound) IMAP, POP3
Email (outbound) SMTP (STARTTLS / SSL/TLS)
Web / TLS TLS 1.2, TLS 1.3 (via Caddy 2)
SSO SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0 / OIDC
Directory LDAP, LDAPS
Database PostgreSQL wire protocol, MySQL protocol, TDS (SQL Server)

Port requirements

Web Help Desk provides communication ports for the following resources: 

Web Help Desk interfaces

The following table lists the Web Help Desk ports for secure and non-secure interface traffic.

Port Protocol Description
8443 TCP (Default) Secure HTTPS traffic from the Web Help Desk Console.
8080 TCP Non-secure HTTP traffic. Redirects to HTTPS.
8081 TCP Spring Boot Backend (internal only — only Caddy connects)
3000 TCP Next.js Frontend (internal only — only Caddy connects)

Databases

The following table lists the Web Help Desk ports for external and embedded database communications.

Port Protocol Description
5432 TCP PostgreSQL (embedded or external)
20293 TCP Embedded PostgreSQL (macOS non-standard port)
3306 TCP MySQL external database
1433 TCP

Microsoft SQL Server external database

Email

The following table lists the Web Help Desk ports for email traffic.

Port Protocol Description
25 TCP SMTP — outbound email notifications
80 TCP Non-secure connection with Microsoft Exchange Web Services (EWS)
110 TCP Non-secure traffic with the POP3 mail server
143 TCP Non-secure traffic with the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) mail server
443 TCP Secure traffic with EWS / OAuth 2.0 token endpoints
993 TCP Secure traffic with the IMAP (IMAPS) mail server
995 TCP Secure traffic with the POP3 (POP3S) mail server

LDAP and Active Directory

The following table lists the Web Help Desk ports for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol / Active Directory (LDAP / AD).

Port Protocol Description
389 TCP Non-secure LDAP traffic to the directory server
636 TCP Non-secure LDAP (LDAPS) traffic to the directory server

Asset Discovery

The following table lists the Web Help Desk ports for Asset Discovery.

Port Type Description
135 TCP WMI asset discovery (Windows targets)
3306 TCP  MySQL database for discovery connectors
4445 TCP Remote log server reader
5433 TCP Apple Remote Desktop for asset discovery
61616 TCP WHD Discovery engine (JMS queue port)

Firewall port requirements for data traffic

Firewalls between any two points of communication must have the requisite ports open to inbound or outbound traffic according to the relative direction of the communication traffic.

Security recommendation: Only ports 8443 and 8080 should be open at the firewall. All internal ports (8081, 3000, 5432/20293) should be bound to 127.0.0.1 in production.

Port configuration

All ports are configurable in conf/whd.env:

WHD_HTTPS_PORT=8443

WHD_HTTP_PORT=8080

WHD_BACKEND_PORT=8081

WHD_FRONTEND_PORT=3000

WHD_DB_PORT=5432