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h1. Preparing the environment

Make sure you have read the [production requirements|Production Requirements].
Petals ESB requires a JDK to be installed. At startup, and by default, it searches the *JAVA_HOME* environment variable. If it does not find it, it will try to find the *java* executable. Depending on your operating system, you may have to set the *JAVA_HOME* environment variable.

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| Debian-based Linux | all | Debian packages | [Installing Petals ESB using the Debian packages]|
| Linux | all | ZIP archive | [Installing Petals ESB using the ZIP archive] |
| Microsoft Windows | all | ZIP archive | [Installing Petals ESB using the ZIP archive] |
| Mac OS | all | ZIP archive | [Installing Petals ESB using the ZIP archive] |

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+Note:+ The ZIP archive can be used on Debian-based systems. In this case, Petals ESB should be installed as a user software without integration with the operating system.