Planning for Hardware Configurations for Configuration Manager
Updated: May 28, 2015
Applies To: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1, System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP2, System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager SP1
This topic identifies recommended hardware configurations for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager site system servers, clients, and the Configuration Manager console. Use these recommendations as guidelines when you plan to scale your Configuration Manager environment to support more than a very basic deployment of sites, site systems, and clients.
Use the information in this topic as a guide for the hardware to use when you run Configuration Manager at scale. For information about supported configurations for Configuration Manager, see Supported Configurations for Configuration Manager.
These recommendations are not intended to cover each possible site and hierarchy configuration. Instead, use this information as a guide to help you plan for hardware that can meet the processing loads for clients and sites that use the available Configuration Manager features with the default configurations.
Configuration Manager Site Systems
Site Servers
Disk Space Configurations
Remote Site System Servers
Configuration Manager Site Systems
This section identifies recommended hardware configurations for Configuration Manager site systems. In general, the key factors that limit performance of the overall system include the following, in order:
Disk I/O performance
Available memory
CPU
For best performance, use RAID 10 configurations for all data drives and 1Gbps Ethernet network connectivity between site system servers, including the database server.
Site Servers
Use the following recommendations for each Configuration Manager site server. For information about the disk space requirements, see Disk Space Configurations.
Site details |
Suggested minimum configuration |
|---|---|
Central administration site with the Standard edition of SQL Server
Note Database replication represents the largest processing load on the central administration site. |
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Central administration site with the Enterprise or Datacenter edition of SQL Server
Note Database replication represents the largest processing load on the central administration site. |
|
Beginning with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP2: Central administration site with the Enterprise or Datacenter edition of SQL Server
|
|
Stand-alone primary site
|
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Beginning with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP2: Stand-alone primary site
|
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Primary site in a hierarchy
|
|
Primary site in a hierarchy
|
Site Server:
Remote SQL Server:
|
Secondary site
|
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Beginning with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP2: Secondary site
|
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Disk Space Configurations
Because disk allocation and configuration contributes to the performance of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, disk space requirements can be greater than for previous product versions. Use the following information as guidelines when you determine the amount of disk space Configuration Manager requires. Because each Configuration Manager environment is different, these values can vary from the following guidance.
For the best performance, place each object on a separate, dedicated RAID volume. For all data volumes (Configuration Manager and its database files), use RAID 10 for the best performance.
Data usage |
Minimum disk space |
25,000 clients |
50,000 clients |
100,000 clients |
150,000 clients |
600,000 clients (Central administration site) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Operating system |
See guidance for the operating system. |
See guidance for the operating system. |
See guidance for the operating system. |
See guidance for the operating system. |
See guidance for the operating system. |
See guidance for the operating system. |
Configuration Manager Application and Log Files |
25 GB |
50 GB |
100 GB |
200 GB |
300 GB |
200 GB |
Site database .mdf file |
75 GB for every 25,000 clients |
75 GB |
150 GB |
300 GB |
500 GB |
2 TB |
Site database .ldf file |
25 GB for every 25,000 clients |
25 GB |
50 GB |
100 GB |
50 GB |
100 GB |
Temp database files (.mdf and .ldf) |
As needed |
As needed |
As needed |
As needed |
As needed |
As needed |
Content (distribution point shares) |
As needed1 |
As needed1 |
As needed1 |
As needed1 |
As needed1 |
As needed1 |
1 The disk space guidance does not include the space required for content that is located in the content library on the site server or distribution points. For information about planning for the content library, see the Plan for Content Libraries section in the Planning for Content Management in Configuration Manager topic.
In addition to the preceding guidance, consider the following general guidelines when you plan for disk space requirements:
Prior to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP2, each client requires approximately 3 MB of space in the database
Beginning with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP2, each client requires approximately 5 MB of space.
When planning for the size of the Temp database for a primary site, plan for a combined size that is 25% to 30% of the site database .mdf file. The actual size can be significantly smaller, or larger, and depends on the performance of the site server and the volume of incoming data over both short and long periods of time.
Note
When you have 50,000 or more clients at a site, plan to use 4 or more Temp database .mdf files.
The Temp database size for a central administration site is typically much smaller than that for a primary site.
The secondary site database is limited in size to the following:
SQL Server 2008 Express: 4 GB
SQL Server 2008 R2 Express: 10 GB
Remote Site System Servers
Use the following as recommended hardware configurations for computers that run the following site system roles. These recommendations are for computers that hold a single site system role and you should make adjustments when you install multiple site system roles on the same computer. For more information about the disk space requirements, see Disk Space Configurations in this topic.
Site system role |
Suggested minimum configuration |
|---|---|
Management point |
Note Management point performance relies most on memory and processor capacity. |
Distribution point |
Note Distribution point performance relies most on network I/O and disk I/O. |
Application Catalog, with the web service and website on the site system computer |
|
Software update point |
Prior to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP2:
Beginning with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP2, use the following recommendations to support the increase of supported clients:
|
All other site system roles |
|