The following recommendations can be used as a baseline to help determine site capacity planning information that is appropriate to your organization’s infrastructure. For information about Configuration Manager performance recommendations, see Configuring Configuration Manager Sites for Best Performance.

Capacity Planning Recommendations

The following recommendations can be used as a baseline for Configuration Manager 2007 site system capacity planning. Actual site capacity requirements may vary from the listed recommendations depending on your specific networking environment and how Configuration Manager 2007 features are implemented. The hardware used to host Configuration Manager 2007 site systems also contributes to the performance of Configuration Manager 2007. The number of Configuration Manager 2007 component servers, number of clients installed, and the features enabled also affect server performance.

Important
These recommendations define the maximum support limitations for Configuration Manager 2007 site system capacity planning and are based on using the default settings for all Configuration Manager 2007 features and the deployment of hardware suitable for the site system role and number of clients that it will support. For more information about common Configuration Manager 2007 performance related questions and sample configurations, see the technical whitepaper at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113136.

Site System Maximum recommended number per site

Clients

Up to 200,000 per hierarchy

Note
Configuration Manager 2007 R3 supports up to 300,000 clients per hierarchy when using the default settings for all Configuration Manager 2007 features.

Primary Site Server

Up to 100,000 directly assigned clients

Secondary Site Server

Up to 500 secondary sites per primary

Note
The number of secondary sites recommended per primary site is based on reasonably well connected and reliable WAN network connections. Unreliable server hardware or network connections can dramatically reduce this number.

Management Point

Up to 25,000 clients

Note
To support more than 25,000 clients, management point site systems can be configured to use Network Load Balancing (NLB).

Distribution Point

Up to 100 per site, each capable of supporting up to 4,000 clients.

Note
The number of clients that one distribution point can support is dependent on network speed, disk performance, and software distribution package size.

Branch distribution point

Up to 2,000 per site, each capable of supporting up to 100 clients.

Note
These numbers apply whether the branch distribution point is installed on a workstation-class operating system or a server-class operating system.

Software update point

The number of supported clients is dependent on the version of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) that runs on the software update point and on whether the software update point site system role co-exists with another site system role.

  • Up to 25,000 clients1 when WSUS 3.0 or WSUS 3.0 Service Pack 1 runs on the software update point computer.

  • Up to 25,000 clients1 when WSUS 3.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) runs on the software update point computer and the software update point co-exists with another site system role.

  • Up to 100,000 clients2 when WSUS 3.0 SP2 runs on the software update point computer and the software update point does not co-exist with another site system role.

1To support more than 25,000 clients, the software update point can be configured to use Network Load Balancing (NLB).

2The software update point must meet the WSUS requirements to support up to 100,000 clients. For more information, see Determine WSUS Capacity Requirements (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=164389).

Important
For supported configurations and capacity planning information about Microsoft Forefront Client Security Definition updates in Configuration Manager 2007, see Deploying FCS definition updates with a shared System Center Configuration Manager WSUS infrastructure (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=164390).

PXE service point

The maximum number of PXE service points is dependent upon a variety of factors including, but not limited to, network speed and the volume of PXE requests. As a result, the following is offered as a guideline:

Up to 10 PXE service points per site, with a maximum of 75 PXE service points per primary site database.

Note
Configuration Manager 2007 secondary sites use the database server of the parent site.

System Health Validator point

Up to 100,000 clients (or one per hierarchy if less than 100,000 clients)

Fallback status point

Up to 100,000 clients (or one per site)

See Also