Article
06/04/2020

SQL Server Requirements for System Center 2012 R2

Updated: June 04, 2020

Applies To: System Center 2012 R2

Use this information to evaluate if your SQL Server environment is ready to support the installation of or upgrade to System Center 2012 R2. Use this information whether you are deploying one or multiple components of System Center.

Note

SQL Server 2012 SP2 is only supported as a database server for installations with Update Rollup 4 applied, except for Operations Manager which supports SQL Server 2012 SP2 without requiring any update rollups.

SQL Server 2014 is only supported as a database server for installations of Orchestrator, SPF and Virtual Machine Manager with Update Rollup 5 applied.

SQL Server 2014 is only supported as a database server for installations of Data Protection Manager (DPM), and Service Manager with Update Rollup 6 applied. A new installation of DPM 2012 R2 cannot work with SQL Server 2014. To use SQL Server 2014 with DPM 2012 R2, you must install DPM 2012 R2 with SQL Server 2012, and then upgrade to SQL Server 2014.

No Update Rollups are required to use SQL Server 2014 or 2016 as the database Server for Operations Manager.

In the table below all entries for Operations Manager refer to both the Operations Manager database as well as the Audit Collection Services database.

Virtual Machine Manager supports the currently supported Service Pack of SQL Server. This support applies to VMM 2007, VMM 2008, VMM 2008 R2, VMM 2012, and VMM 2012 R2.

SQL Server version support

App Controller Server

SQL Server 2008 (R2 SP2 Standard, Datacenter) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2012 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here

Data Protection Manager (DPM) Database

SQL Server 2008 (R2 SP1, SP2, and SP3 Standard, Datacenter) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2012 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2014 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here

Operations Manager Operational, Data Warehouse and Reporting Server Databases

SQL Server 2008 (R2 SP1, SP2, and SP3* Standard, Datacenter) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2012 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2014 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2016 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here

Orchestrator Management Server

SQL Server 2008 (R2 SP1 and SP2 Standard, Datacenter) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2012 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2014 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here

Service Management Automation Management Server

SQL Server 2012 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2014 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here

Service Manager Database or Data Warehouse Database

SQL Server 2008 (R2 SP1 and SP2 Standard, Datacenter) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2012 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2014 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here

Service Provider Foundation

SQL Server 2012 (SP2 and SP3 Enterprise, Standard (64 bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2014 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here

Virtual Machine Manager Database Server

VMM supports the following versions of SQL and all the associated service packs supported by SQL.

SQL Server 2008 (R2 SP3 Standard, Datacenter) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2012 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2014 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here
SQL Server 2016 (Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)) and Service Packs as detailed here

Note

* If you plan to use SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 to host your Operations Manager Operational, Reporting Server, or Data Warehouse databases for a new Operations Manager installation you must first install with SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2, and then upgrade SQL Server 2008 R2 to the SP3 version.

General SQL Server recommendations for System Center 2012 R2

This information describes general recommendations for SQL Server regardless of what System Center component you are deploying.

You will need a minimum of four computers to deploy all System Center components. Aside from performance reasons, not all system components can coexist on the same computer. For more information, see Component Coexistence.
For testing purposes only, one SQL Database Engine Services instance may be used for all components, but is not recommended in a production setting due to performance concerns.
Reporting Services instances cannot be shared between System Center components.
SQL_* collations are being deprecated for their Windows equivalents.
Limit the memory of each SQL Server instance such that the Total Memory setting allows a minimum of 1 GB (2GB preferred) of free memory after all services are running.
System Center components requiring the most disk resources are Service Manager, Operations Manager and Configuration Manager.
Disks used should be formatted to a 64K allocation unit size.
Disks used should be configured to allow 20% free space after all calculations for monitoring. Set growth upper limits to not exceed this space limit.
Pre-sizing is preferred - use auto-grow if needed as it uses more resources.
Set Pre-size to 8GB/2GB as a minimum. 20-30% of the database file size is a rule of thumb.
Set Auto-grow to 500/100 as a minimum.

This information does not apply to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. For those system requirements, see Supported Configurations for Configuration Manager.

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