About System Center Essentials Deployment
To deploy System Center Essentials 2007, you must install the Essentials 2007 server components and select and prepare the computers that you want to manage. After completing deployment, Essentials 2007 begins to actively monitor your system and you can start using all Essentials 2007 features.
Before you deploy Essentials 2007, you should review the following information:
Release Notes for System Center Essentials 2007
Before You Begin
Preparing to deploy Systems Center Essentials involves both gathering information for later use and making decisions about where you want System Center Essentials components to be deployed. Before deploying System Center Essentials, you should complete the following tasks:
Verify system requirements for each server on which you plan to install Essentials 2007 components. For more information, see System Requirements and Supported Platforms.
Determine whether or not you can use Domain Administrator credentials to set Group Policy during deployment. For more information, see Local Policy vs. Group Policy.
Determine how you want to deploy the Management Server database. You can deploy it locally on the Essentials 2007 Management Server or on a remote server, which can enhance performance. For more information, see Selecting Database Locations.
Determine whether the local computer is correctly configured to host the local Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services instance. The Essentials 2007 database can be installed remotely, but SQL Server Reporting Services must be installed on the Management Server computer. For more information, see Selecting Database Locations.
Determine whether you want to install a remote Essentials 2007 console. For more information, see How to Install a Remote Essentials 2007 Console.
Determine the Administrator account that you want to use to access managed computers. For more information, see Administration Account.
Determine where you want to store system and program updates (locally, or on the Microsoft Updates Web site). For more information, see Storing Updates.
Prepare for the upgrade from Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) if you have an existing WSUS 2.0 installation on the Management Server. For more information, see WSUS Upgrade Changes.
Determine whether you want to participate in the data collection phase of various Microsoft product improvement programs. For more information, see Error and Usage Reporting.
If the Setup prerequisite checker on Windows Server 2008 reports that it can't find .NET Framework 2.0 (even though .NET Framework 3.0 is already installed with Windows Server 2008), ensure that on Windows Server 2008, you have
Added the Application Server Role
Added the Web Server Role
Added Active Server Pages (ASP) under Roles > Web Server > Application Development
Setup should run successfully. For more information in installing Essentials 2007 on Windows Server 2008, see How to Install the Management Server.
Essentials 2007 Installation and Deployment Steps
Essentials 2007 provides easy-to-use wizards to help you complete the required deployment as detailed in the following steps:
Use the System Center Essentials Setup Wizard to install System Center Essentials.
Open the Essentials 2007 console, and complete the initial required configuration:
Use the Feature Configuration Wizard to configure various features of Essentials 2007.
Use the Computer and Device Management Wizard to discover and prepare objects for management with Essentials 2007.
Use the Updates Management Configuration Wizard to configure update management settings.
Install any additional Management Packs. A set of Management Packs is installed by default.
Install any remote System Center Essentials consoles that you want to use (limited to five).
See Also
Tasks
How to Configure Update Management
How to Discover and Prepare Objects for Management
Concepts
Computer and Device Management Wizard
Feature Configuration Wizard
Update Management Configuration Wizard