Technical Requirements for Citavi for DBServer

To use Citavi for DBServer, please ensure that the following technical requirements are fulfilled:

Hardware

• Database server: An up-to-date Microsoft Windows Server system. We recommend Windows Server 2019 LTSC or newer  with at least 8 GB RAM.

Warning

Do not install Citavi for DBServer on a server that is also the domain controller (see the Microsoft Knowledge Base).

• Enough disk space for the database in which Citavi projects will be saved. Typically, 1 GB is sufficient.
• Enough disk space for attached files. Usually 5 GB are sufficient.

SQL Server Software

• All Microsoft SQL Server versions currently supported by Microsoft.
• Citavi includes its own server management tools. We recommend installing the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio alongside Citavi.

Network

• Data volume: When Citavi projects are loaded, a considerable amount of data is transferred over the network. A fast network (100 Mbps or 1000 Mbps) can noticeably reduce the amount of time it takes to load projects. Editing and saving in Citavi projects does not have any noticeable impact on network load.
• On the server computer, the firewall for the SQL Server needs to be open.
• The location for attachments (PDF files, etc.) needs to be a shared folder on a network drive. The drive can be on the same computer on which the SQL Server database is run, but it doesn't have to be.
• FileTables: Attachments can be managed using SQL Server FileTables. However, compared to storage on a file server, there are functional limitations and manual configuration steps are required. In cloud environments such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS, the FileTable feature is not available.

User Logins

Citavi for DBServer supports authentication in Active Directory domains as well as in Active Directory trees and forests. It uses standard authentication via the .NET libraries, which rely on Kerberos. LDAP or LDAP Secure do not affect this process, since they do not play a direct role in SQL Server authentication. Thus, support for Windows domain controllers using LDAP Secure is fully provided. However, logins via Microsoft Entra ID – formerly known as Azure Active Directory – are not supported. Authentication with SQL Azure or SQL Server Managed Instance is only possible using SQL logins. The same applies to configurations with ADFS or SQL Server on Linux: only SQL authentication is supported. While using these systems is technically possible, no further technical documentation or individual support is currently available.