Recommended Hardware

This document describes the hardware which we currently recommend for deploying a device farm which you can use to run Appium tests on iOS devices at scale.

NUC

We’ve selected the Intel NUC7i5 computers as nodes in the device farm. We’ve opted for using multiple, low-cost computing nodes (as opposed to scaling up a single, large server).

• Intel NUC7i5DNKE. (Sample supplier)
• Samsung EVO 960 (V6E250BW) M.2 SSD
• 8 GB RAM (DDR4 SODIMM)

Regardless of which server you use, make sure your server has:

• An high-quality USB controller
• An Intel HD Graphics GPU. This GPU is used when capturing video recordings of a device

USB Hub

The USB Hub is arguable the most important part of your device farm. Keep in mind that your USB hub should:

• Power the mobile devices you connect to it, so they remain (fully) charged. We recommend selecting a USB Hub which can supply at least 1A of power per USB port.
• Provide sufficient bandwidth. This includes for pushing applications (potentially very large .ipa files to your device) and capturing screenshots or recording videos.
• Be extremely reliable. A device which disconnects from your server during a test because of an instable USB stack, can cause your tests to fail.

We’ve selected the following hardware for use in our data centers:

• Hub: StarTech ST1030USBM. (Sample supplier)
• Power supply: Advantech 96PSA-A90W19OT-1. (Sample supplier)
• Power Cord: Qualtek 364012-01. (Sample supplier)

Rack

If you want to host the device farm in a rack, you’ll need a shelf to store the devices.

We’ve selected the following shelf:

• Tripp Lite SR16SHELF. (Sample supplier)

In your rack, you’ll also need:

• 1 power socket per NUC
• 1 power socket per USB hub

Devices

For each device, you’ll need:

• A high-quality USB cable
• An active SIM card

Deploying a device farm at scale

We use Ubuntu MAAS and Ansible to deploy an on-premise iOS Appium device farm at scale.