MECM/WSUS - SQL option collocate or remote SQL?

Question

Hi All

Wanted to bounce my thoughts with fellow members.

I am about to embark on a mini project for a customer. It's for a small experiment and a new network and infrastructure environment will be created on-premises. Unfortunately for this piece of work cloud is not an option. So a Virtualisation environment, SAN, networking, firewalls will all be procured.

I need to build MECM to help deploy a gold image to approx. 100 workstations, there are 2 variances of laptops I need to consider. As its an experiment it also not going to grow. I also need to ensure patching is configured for both clients and the small server estate being built.

So my thoughts are to build a new VM with MECM 2006 with the SUP role for WSUS and then use the OSD techniques with TS to build the Windows 10 image using PXE.

They will be building a SQL server to host a database for a third party application. My question is as its such a small environment should I put SQL on the same standalone server which will host the Primary site MECM server and SUP or it is doing a lot already and I should move the SQL stuff to a remote SQL rather than collocate?

From reading the docs I understand some considerations need to be taken into account to host both WSUS and ConfigMgr DBs within SQL (difference instances?) but because the environment will be so small my personal preference would be to keep it on same box, easier for me to deploy and easier for the customer to manage.

The security of the environment is high due to the nature of the customer.

What would others recommend and what would your approach be?

Many thanks

Answer 1

Keep everything on the same server and use the same instance for both CM and WSUS.

Answer 2

Hi isotonicuk-8740,

Thanks for your posting on Q&A.

We can place the SQL Server on the site Server computer or a computer that is remote from the site server. Both are OK. For both structures, SQL Server has limited memory. Please refer to the following picture:

In addition, here is a link for your reference:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/configmgr/core/plan-design/configs/support-for-sql-server-versions

In my opinion, there are different instances between the WSUS and SCCM. But we could place the different instances into the same SQL Server. Here is my environment for your reference:

Please remember to MARK the answer if it is helpful.

Regards,
Rita

Answer 3

This is an older post that is still applicable in most scenarios and reinforces the answer from @GarthJones-0118.