---
description: System requirements for running cloudflared.
title: System requirements
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/platform/system-requirements/og.png?v=3515c014872b40cd
---

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# System requirements

Last updated Sep 11, 2026|Copy as Markdown| [View as Markdown](https://developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/platform/system-requirements/index.md)| [Agent setup](https://developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

`cloudflared` is lightweight enough to run on a Raspberry Pi or a data center server. Tunnel throughput is primarily limited by the number of ports configured in system software, not hardware.

## Baseline recommendations

Run a `cloudflared` [replica](https://developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/configuration/#replicas-and-high-availability) on two dedicated hosts per location with a minimum of 4 GB RAM and 4 CPU cores. Allocate 50,000 ports per host.

## Port configuration

To increase the number of ports available to `cloudflared` on Linux:

If your machine has a `/etc/sysctl.d/` directory:

```sh
echo 'net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 11000 60999' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.d/99-cloudflared.conf
sudo sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/99-cloudflared.conf
```

Otherwise:

```sh
echo 'net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 11000 60999' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.conf
```

To increase the number of ports available to `cloudflared` on Windows, set the [dynamic port range ↗︎](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/networking/tcp-ip-port-exhaustion-troubleshooting) for TCP and UDP:

```txt
netsh int ipv4 set dynamicport tcp start=11000 num=50000
netsh int ipv4 set dynamicport udp start=11000 num=50000
netsh int ipv6 set dynamicport tcp start=11000 num=50000
netsh int ipv6 set dynamicport udp start=11000 num=50000
```

## ulimits (Linux and macOS)

On Linux and macOS, `ulimit` settings determine the system resources available to a logged-in user. We recommend configuring the following ulimits on the `cloudflared` server:

| ulimit | Description | Value |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `-n` | Maximum number of open files or file descriptors | ≥ 70,000 |

To view your current ulimits, open a terminal and run:

```sh
ulimit -a
```

To set the open files `ulimit`:

```sh
ulimit -n 70000
```

The command above sets the open files limit only for the current terminal session and will not persist after a reboot or new login. To apply this limit permanently, configure it using the persistent method appropriate for your operating system.

## Capacity calculator

To estimate tunnel capacity requirements for your deployment:

1. Use the [metrics endpoint](https://developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/observability/#cloudflared-metrics) to measure `cloudflared_tcp_total_sessions` and `cloudflared_udp_total_sessions`.
2. Compute the average **TCP requests per second** by dividing `cloudflared_tcp_total_sessions` by total time.
3. Compute the average **Non-DNS UDP requests per second** by dividing `cloudflared_udp_total_sessions` by total time.
4. Input **TCP requests per second** and **Non-DNS UDP requests per second** into the calculator below. (You can leave **Private DNS requests per second** as `0` unless you are using the tunnel for [private network access](https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/networks/connectors/cloudflare-tunnel/configure-tunnels/tunnel-availability/system-requirements/).)

### System configuration

Available ports per host  

Number of cloudflared replicas  

DNS UDP session timeout (in seconds)  

Average non-DNS UDP session timeout (seconds)  

### Metrics

TCP requests per second  

Non-DNS UDP requests per second  

Private DNS requests per second  

### Result

Percent capacity per replica  

Percent capacity across all replicas  

Maximum DNS requests per minute across all replicas  

<sup>This calculator is for informational purposes only and all results are estimates.</sup>

To increase tunnel capacity, add identical hosts running `cloudflared` replicas.

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