System Requirements: VMM Database

Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 and VMM 2008 R2 use a Microsoft SQL Server database to store the information you view in the VMM Administrator Console, such as managed virtual machines, virtual machine hosts, virtual machine libraries, jobs, and other virtual machine–related data.

When you install the VMM server, you can do the following:

  • Specify an existing local instance of a supported version of SQL Server.

  • Specify an existing remote instance of a supported version of SQL Server.

    Important

    If you specify a remote instance of SQL Server for the VMM database, there are important additional steps you need to perform. For more information about configuring and using a remote instance of SQL Server for the VMM database, see Configuring a Remote Instance of SQL Server for VMM.

  • Warning

    If you do not configure VMM with a new instance of SQL Server the Setup Wizard will install SQL Server 2005 Express Edition locally on the VMM server. SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is no longer supported by Microsoft. You should install the VMM database on a supported version of SQL Server.

The following are the system requirements for installing the VMM database on a computer that is separate from the VMM server, and these requirements are based on the number of hosts you manage. Actual requirements vary based on your system configuration and the number of hosts and virtual machines that you manage.

Note

If the computer that is running SQL Server is not in the same Active Directory domain as the VMM server, there must be a two-way trust relationship between the two domains.

Hardware Requirements

The following tables provide the minimum and recommended hardware requirements for the VMM database based on the number of hosts you manage.

Managing up to 150 hosts

Hardware component Minimum Recommended

Processor

Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz

Dual-Core 64-bit, 2 GHz

RAM

2 GB

4 GB

Hard disk space

80 GB

150 GB

Managing more than 150 hosts

Hardware component Minimum Recommended

Processor

Dual-Core 64-bit, 2 GHz

Dual-Core 64-bit, 2.8 GHz

RAM

4 GB

8 GB

Hard disk space

150 GB

200 GB

Software Requirements

The following table shows the supported versions of Microsoft SQL Server for the VMM database. If you use the Setup Wizard to install SQL Server, the VMM 2008 Setup Wizard installs SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP4 and the VMM 2008 R2 Setup Wizard installs SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP4.

Supported versions of SQL Server

Supported SQL Server versions Supports Reporting in VMM

SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition [VMM 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2 SP1 only]

No

SQL Server 2008 R2 (32-bit and 64-bit) Standard Edition [VMM 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2 SP1 only]

Yes

SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2(32-bit and 64-bit) Enterprise Edition [VMM 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2 SP1 only]

Yes

SQL Server 2008 Express Edition

No

SQL Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) Standard Edition

Yes

SQL Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) Standard Edition SP1 [VMM 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2 SP1 only]

Yes

SQL Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) Standard Edition SP2 [VMM 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2 SP1 only]

Yes

SQL Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) Standard Edition SP3 [VMM 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2 SP1 only]

Yes

SQL Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) Enterprise Edition

Yes

SQL Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) Enterprise Edition SP1 [VMM 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2 SP1 only]

Yes

SQL Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) Enterprise Edition SP2 [VMM 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2 SP1 only]

Yes

SQL Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) Enterprise Edition SP3 [VMM 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2 SP1 only]

Yes

Important

To use SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2 for the VMM database, SQL Server Management Tools must be installed on the VMM server.

See Also

Concepts

System Requirements: Installing VMM on a Single Computer
System Requirements: VMM Server
VMM System Requirements