Configuration Manager-SQL Database proper sizing & setup

Question

Hi,

I was setting MECM and I just found out something that I clearly can't understand and reading guides didn't help me much. I hope someone can help with my confusion.

So, I was about to build MECM infra, following the known guides like SystemcenterDudes etc. All the guides I was checking, had in common one thing, they show a picture from their installation, and point, that calculation was done by DB sizing excel, also known "tool". First thing that is confusing me here is shown below:

All of guides I've checked, have the same, not making any sense numbers to what they calculated, or I am not understanding what is going on here.

Secondly, This is all according to pre ConfigMgr installation, so according to next steps in guides, I should configure CM Database...which also seems like creating again such files...and I got second question here, how does it work?

I create that standalone database as above, which creates x files of x weight, and CM DB made after this process, uses those files, or it creates separate x files of weight x and I got more files than I need?

It started to bother me and I can't find answers, all I just want to do is to create a good, properly working DB for 4k clients

Answer 1

It has been a while since I setup CM "from scratch" -- I think the last time I rebuilt my lab was 2019.... That said, if you pre-create your DB and db files (like CM_abc, if your site code is going to be abc), the install will use the pre-created files. It's a wizard, so I suspect the wizard just shows you things that it would do... IF the db files weren't already pre-created.

Just go for it, and see what happens is my advice. You can also re-adjust after install. Before you add clients, it's not a big deal (in my opinion) to adjust the tempdb initial size, or log initial size, or even move them to different drives.