This topic identifies recommended hardware configurations for
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager site system
servers, clients, and the Configuration Manager console. Use these
recommendations as guidelines when you plan to scale your
Configuration Manager environment to support more than a very basic
deployment of sites, site systems, and clients.
Use the information in this topic as a guide for the hardware to
use when you run Configuration Manager at scale. For information
about supported configurations for Configuration Manager, see
Supported
Configurations for Configuration Manager.
These recommendations are not intended to cover each possible
site and hierarchy configuration. Instead, use this information as
a guide to help you plan for hardware that can meet the processing
loads for clients and sites that use the available Configuration
Manager features with the default configurations.
Configuration Manager Site
Systems
This section identifies recommended hardware
configurations for Configuration Manager site systems. In general,
the key factors that limit performance of the overall system
include the following, in order:
- Disk I/O performance
- Available memory
- CPU
For best performance, use RAID 10 configurations
for all data drives and 1Gbps Ethernet network connectivity between
site system servers, including the database server.
Site Servers
Use the following recommendations for each
Configuration Manager site server. For information about the disk
space requirements, see Disk Space
Configurations.
| Site details |
Suggested minimum configuration |
|
Central administration site with the Standard edition of
SQL Server
- SQL Server is located on the site server
computer.
- This configuration supports a hierarchy with
up to 50,000 clients
 Note |
| Database replication represents the largest processing load on
the central administration site. |
|
- 8 cores (Intel Xeon 5504 or comparable
CPU)
- 32 GB of RAM
- 300 GB of disk space for the operating
system, Configuration Manager, SQL Server, and all database
files.
|
|
Central administration site with the Enterprise or Datacenter
edition of SQL Server
- SQL Server is located on the site server
computer
- This configuration supports a hierarchy with
up to 400,000 clients
| Note |
| Database replication represents the largest processing load on
the central administration site. |
|
- 16 cores (Intel Xeon L5520 or comparable
CPU)
- 64 GB of RAM
- 1.5 TB of disk space for the operating
system, Configuration Manager, SQL Server, and all database
files.
|
|
Stand-alone primary site
- Up to 100,000 clients
- SQL Server is installed on the site server
computer
|
- 8 cores (Intel Xeon E5504 or comparable
CPU)
- 32 GB of RAM
- 550 GB hard disk space for the operating
system, SQL Server, and all database files
|
|
Primary site in a hierarchy
- Up to 50,000 clients
- SQL Server is installed on the site server
computer
|
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable
CPU)
- 16 GB of RAM
- 300 GB of hard disk space for the operating
system, Configuration Manager, SQL Server, and all database
files.
|
|
Primary site in a hierarchy
- Up to 100,000 clients
- SQL Server is remote from the site server
computer
|
Site Server:
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable
CPU)
- 8GB of RAM
- 200 GB of disk space for the operating system
and Configuration Manager.
Remote SQL Server:
- 8 cores (Intel Xeon E5504 or comparable
CPU)
- 32 GB of RAM
- 550 GB of hard disk space for the operating
system, SQL Server, and all database files.
|
|
Secondary site
- Communications from up to 5,000 clients
- SQL Server must be installed on the site
server computer
|
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable
CPU)
- 8 GB of RAM
- 100 GB of hard disk space for the operating
system, Configuration Manager, SQL Server, and all database
files.
|
Disk Space Configurations
Because disk allocation and configuration contributes
to the performance of System Center 2012
Configuration Manager, disk space requirements can be greater
than for previous product versions. Use the following information
as guidelines when you determine the amount of disk space
Configuration Manager requires. Because each Configuration Manager
environment is different, these values can vary from the following
guidance.
For the best performance, place each object on a
separate, dedicated RAID volume. For all data volumes
(Configuration Manager and its database files), use RAID 10
for the best performance.
| Data usage |
Minimum disk space1 |
25,000 clients |
50,000 clients |
100,000 clients |
|
Operating system
|
See guidance for the operating system.
|
See guidance for the operating system.
|
See guidance for the operating system.
|
See guidance for the operating system.
|
|
Configuration Manager Application and Log Files
|
25 GB
|
50 GB
|
100 GB
|
200 GB
|
|
Site database .mdf file
|
75 GB for every 25,000 clients
|
75 GB
|
150 GB
|
300 GB
|
|
Site database .ldf file
|
25 GB for every 25,000 clients
|
25 GB
|
50 GB
|
100 GB
|
|
Temp database files (.mdf and .ldf)
|
As needed
|
As needed
|
As needed
|
As needed
|
|
Content (distribution point shares)
|
As needed
|
As needed
|
As needed
|
As needed
|
1 The minimum disk space does not include
the space required for source content that is located on the site
server.
In addition to the preceding guidance, consider the
following general guidelines when you plan for disk space
requirements:
- Each client requires approximately 3 MB of
space in the database
- When planning for the size of the Temp
database for a primary site, plan for a size that is 25% to 30% of
the site database .mdf file. The actual size can be significantly
smaller, or larger, and depends on the performance of the site
server and the volume of incoming data over both short and long
periods of time.
- The Temp database size for a central
administration site is typically much smaller than that for a
primary site.
- The secondary site database is limited in
size to the following:
- SQL Server 2008 Express: 4 GB
- SQL Server 2008 R2 Express: 10
GB
Remote Site System Servers
Use the following as recommended hardware
configurations for computers that run the following site system
roles. These recommendations are for computers that hold a single
site system role and you should make adjustments when you install
multiple site system roles on the same computer. For more
information about the disk space requirements, see Disk Space Configurations in this
topic.
| Site system role |
Suggested minimum configuration |
|
Management point
|
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable
CPU)
- 8 GB of RAM
- 50 GB of disk space for the operating system
and Configuration Manager.
| Note |
| Management point performance relies most on memory and
processor capacity. |
|
|
Distribution point
|
- 2 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable
CPU)
- 8 GB of RAM
- Disk space as required for the operating
system and content you deploy to the distribution point.
| Note |
| Distribution point performance relies most on network I/O and
disk I/O. |
|
|
Application Catalog, with the web service and website on the
site system computer
|
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable
CPU)
- 16 GB of RAM
- 50 GB of disk space for the operating system
and Configuration Manager.
|
|
All other site system roles
|
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable
CPU)
- 8 GB of RAM
- 50 GB of disk space for the operating system
and Configuration Manager.
|
See Also
