The following are estimated system requirements for installing the System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2 server on a dedicated computer. If your computer has less than the minimum requirements, you cannot install this component. Actual requirements vary based on your system configuration and the number of hosts and virtual machines that the VMM server manages.

Hardware Requirements

The minimum and recommended hardware requirements for the VMM server depend on the number of hosts that the VMM server manages.

Managing up to 150 hosts

Hardware component Minimum Recommended

Processor

Pentium 4, 2 GHz (x64)

Dual-Processor, Dual-Core, 2 GHz (x64) or greater

RAM

2 GB

4 GB

Hard disk space (with remote database)

2 GB

40 GB

Hard disk space (with the default local SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2 database installed)

10 GB

50 GB

Note
For the default local SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2, the database size is limited to 4 GB.
Note
If you use plan to use the VMM server as a library server, you need to provide additional hard disk space for storing objects. For more information, see System Requirements: VMM Library Server.

Managing more than 150 hosts

Hardware component Minimum Recommended

Processor

Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz (x64)

Dual-Processor, Dual-Core, 3.6 GHz or greater (x64)

RAM

4 GB

8 GB

Hard disk space

10 GB

50 GB

Note
For better performance, when the VMM server is managing more than 150 hosts, it is recommended that you add one or more library servers and that you do not use the default library share on the VMM server.
Note
The SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2 database size is limited to 4 GB, and so it is recommended that you use a full version of SQL Server when the VMM server is managing more than 150 hosts.

Software Requirements

The following software must be installed prior to installing the VMM server.

Software requirement Notes

A supported operating system

For more information, see Supported Operating Systems for VMM Components.

Windows Remote Management (WinRM)

This software is included in Windows Server 2008 and the WinRM service is set to start automatically. If the WinRM service is stopped, the Setup Wizard starts the service.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0

This software is included in Windows Server 2008. If this software has been removed, the Setup Wizard automatically adds it.

Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) 1.1

If this software has not been installed previously, the Setup Wizard automatically installs it.

If you use the same computer for your VMM server and your VMM database, you must install a supported version of Microsoft SQL Server. For more information about supported versions of SQL Server, see System Requirements: VMM Database.

Note
For better performance, when the VMM server is managing a large number of hosts, it is recommended that you use a separate computer for your VMM database.

See Also


For the most up-to-date Setup information, go to Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Deployment. To find additional Virtual Machine Manager 2008 documentation, go to the Virtual Machine Manager 2008 TechCenter Library.