Preparing to deploy Essentials involves both gathering information for later use and making decisions about where you want Essentials components to be deployed. Before deploying Essentials, you should complete the following tasks:

• Verify system requirements for each server on which you plan to install Essentials components. For more information, see System Requirements and Supported Platforms and Supported Deployment Topologies.
  
  
• Determine whether or not you can use Domain Administrator credentials to set Group Policy during deployment. For more information, see Local Policy vs. Group Policy.
  
  
• Determine how you want to deploy the management server database. You can deploy it locally on the Essentials server or on a remote server, which can enhance performance. For more information, see Selecting Database Locations.
  
  
• Determine whether the local computer is correctly configured to host the local Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services instance. The Essentials database can be installed remotely, but SQL Server Reporting Services must be installed locally on the Essentials management server. For more information, see Selecting Database Locations.
  
  
• Determine whether you want to install a remote Essentials console. For more information, see How to Install a Remote System Center Essentials Console in the System Center Essentials 2010 Deployment Guide.
  
  
• Determine the Administrator account that you want to use to access managed computers. For more information, see Administration Account.
  
  
• Determine where you want to store system and program updates (locally or on the Microsoft Updates Web site). For more information, see Storing Updates.
  
  
• Prepare for the upgrade from Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) if you have an existing WSUS 2.0 installation on the management server. For more information, see WSUS Upgrade Changes.
  
  
• Determine whether you want to participate in the data collection phase of various Microsoft product improvement programs. For more information, see Error and Usage Reporting.
  
  
• If the Setup prerequisite checker on Windows Server 2008 reports that it can't find .NET Framework 2.0 (.NET Framework 3.0 is already installed with Windows Server 2008), ensure that on Windows Server 2008 you have done the following:
  
  
  • Added the Application Server Role
    
    
  • Added the Web Server Role
    
    
  • Added Active Server Pages (ASP) under Roles > Web Server > Application Development
    
    
  Read the System Center Essentials 2010 Deployment Guide for more information on installing Essentials on Windows Server 2008.
  
  

Tasks

Concepts