Preparing your environment for System Center 2012 R2 Service Manager

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 R2 Service Manager

Here are the system requirements and considerations to keep in mind before you deploy System Center 2012 R2 Service Manager.

If you’re evaluating your environment, see System Requirements for System Center 2012 R2

First things first

Before you begin, it’s a good idea to get to know this information:

Minimum hardware

The following table lists the recommended hardware requirements for the individual parts of Service Manager. These computers can be physical servers or virtual servers.

For System Center 2012 SP1 only: The hardware requirements for Service Manager in System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) are unchanged from its initial release.

Hardware requirements table

Service Manager database 8-core 2.66 gigahertz (GHz) CPU

8 gigabytes (GB) of RAM for 20,000 users, 32 GB of RAM for 50,000 users (See Hardware Performance)

80 GB of available disk space

RAID Level 1 or Level 10 drive*
Service Manager management server 4-Core 2.66 GHz CPU

8 GB of RAM (See Hardware Performance)

10 GB of available disk space
Service Manager console 2-core 2.0 GHz CPU

4 GB of RAM

10 GB of available disk space
Data warehouse management server 4-Core 2.66 GHz CPU

8 GB of RAM (See Hardware Performance)

When a data warehouse management group and SQL Server Analysis Services are hosted on a single server, it should contain at least 16 GB RAM.

10 GB of available disk space
Data warehouse databases 8-core 2.66 GHz CPU

8 GB of RAM for 20,000 users, 32 GB of RAM for 50,000 users (See Hardware Performance)

400 GB of available disk space

RAID Level 1 or Level (1+0) drive
Self-Service Portal: Web Content Server with SharePoint Web Parts 8-Core 2.66 GHz CPU

8-core, 64-bit CPU for medium deployments

16 GB of RAM for 20,000 users, 32 GB of RAM for 50,000 users (See Hardware Performance)

80 GB of available hard disk space

* For more information, see RAID levels and Microsoft SQL Server.

** Hardware requirements are based on SharePoint specifications. For more information, see Hardware and Software Requirements (SharePoint Server 2010).

SQL Server

Check for updates and hotfixes for Microsoft SQL Server. See SQL Server in System Center 2012 R2.

SQL Server considerations for Service Manager:

RAM: 4 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended

Disk: As per the Service Manager Sizing Helper Tool recommendations - see Planning for Performance and Scalability in System Center 2012 - Service Manager

Features Required: Database Engine Services, Full-Text for Search, Reporting Services, Analysis Services

Collations Supported: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS, Latin1_General_100_CI_AS. Also see Support for languages in addition to English.

Dynamic Port Support: Yes

AlwaysOn Support: Supported

Coexistence: Cannot be installed with Data Protection Manager or Operations Manager. Should not be installed with Virtual Machine Manager on the same computer, to avoid potential performance problems.

For a sizing tool for Service Manager, see specific information in topic Planning for Performance and Scalability in System Center 2012 - Service Manager.

Requirements for Service Manager features

Requirements for Service Manager vary by the feature you choose to install. Feature include:

  • Service Manager management server

  • Service Manager data warehouse management server

  • Service Manager or data warehouse databases

  • Stand-alone Service Manager console

  • Self-Service Portal web content server

  • Self-Service Portal SharePoint web parts

  • Self-Service Portal web console

Service Manager management server

The Service Manager management server handles all the workflows in your Service Manager environment. It also manages the Service Manager database, which is a repository for configuration items—a type of configuration management database (CMDB). Service Manager consoles connect to the Service Manager management server.

Software requirements

Before you install the System Center 2012 R2 Service Manager management server, you must install the following software.

Software Notes
A supported operating system For more information, see Supported operating systems in this topic.
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is required for running Service Manager. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is included with the Service Manager installation media.
ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 To obtain the ADO.NET Data Services update, you can download it at ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
A supported version of SQL Server For more information about the supported versions of SQL Server and required configuration, see SQL Server support.
SQL Server 2008 R2 Native Client or SQL Server 2012 Native client The SQL Server Native Client is contained in the SQL Server Feature Packs, available at Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 Feature Pack and Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Feature Pack.
SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects are required regardless of the SQL Server version that you use to support the Service Manager console with SQL Server Analysis Server. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects is a part of the SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack, available at Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Feature Pack.
Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable The Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable is available with the Service Manager media. For more information, see How to Install the Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable Security Update in the Deployment Guide for System Center 2012 – Service Manager.
Optional: Excel 2007 or later You must have Microsoft Excel 2007 or later installed in order to view OLAP data cubes on the computer running a Service Manager console.

Supported operating systems

For Service Manager in System Center 2012 R2 Edition Service pack System architecture
Windows Server 2012 (Server with a GUI and Server Core Installation options) Standard and Datacenter Not applicable x64
Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server with a GUI and Server Core Installation options) Standard and Datacenter Not applicable x64
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Standard and Datacenter Service Pack 1 X64

Additional information

  • Service Manager has the capability to import alerts and configuration items from your Operations Manager 2007 environment. You must have Operations Manager 2012, Operations Manager 2007 SP1, or Operations Manager 2007 R2 installed to work with Service Manager.

  • You cannot use Operations Manager 2007 SP1 to monitor Service Manager management servers. You must use Operations Manager 2007 R2 or Operations Manager 2012.

  • If you plan to install both Service Manager and Operations Manager 2007 in the same environment, see Operations Manager Considerations in System Center 2012 - Service Manager.

  • Service Manager can import configuration items from your Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 environment. You must have Configuration Manager 2007 SP1, Configuration Manager 2007 R2, Configuration Manager 2012, or Configuration Manager 2012 R2 installed to work with Service Manager.

  • You must have access to a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server to use the Notification feature and for incident creation through email.

  • You can view external content from within knowledge articles. To view external content, computers that host the Service Manager console must have Internet access, either directly or through a proxy server.

  • Service Manager does not operate and the services used by Service Manager do not start if Windows is running in safe mode. If you attempt to start the Service Manager services manually while in safe mode, the services fail to start and an error is written into the event log.

Service Manager data warehouse management server

The Service Manager data warehouse management server manages the data warehouse databases. It is used to store long-term historical data and it is optimized for reporting. You can use a variety of reporting methods to view and analyze Service Manager data.

Software requirements

Before you install the System Center 2012 R2 Service Manager data warehouse management server, you must install the following software.

Software Notes
A supported operating system For more information, see Supported operating systems in this topic.
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is required for running Service Manager. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is included with the Service Manager installation media.
ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 To obtain the ADO.NET Data Services update, you can download it at ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
A supported version of SQL Server For more information about the supported versions of SQL Server and required configuration, see SQL Server support.
SQL Server Analysis Services SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) is included with the version of SQL Server that you’re using. For more information about SSAS, see Analysis Services.
SQL Server Reporting Services SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is included with the version of SQL Server that you’re using.
SQL Server 2008 R2 Native Client or SQL Server 2012 Native client The SQL Server Native Client is contained in the SQL Server Feature Packs, available at Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 Feature Pack and Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Feature Pack.
SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects are required regardless of the SQL Server version that you use to support the Service Manager console with SQL Server Analysis Server. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects is a part of the SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack, available at Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Feature Pack.

Supported operating systems

For Service Manager in System Center 2012 R2 Edition Service pack System architecture
Windows Server 2012 (Server with a GUI and Server Core Installation options) Standard and Datacenter Not applicable x64
Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server with a GUI and Server Core Installation options) Standard and Datacenter Not applicable x64
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Standard and Datacenter Service Pack 1 X64

Additional information

  • You cannot use Operations Manager 2007 SP1 to monitor Service Manager management servers. You must use Operations Manager 2007 R2 or Operations Manager 2012.

  • If you plan to install both Service Manager and Operations Manager 2007 in the same environment, see Operations Manager Considerations in System Center 2012 - Service Manager.

  • Service Manager does not operate and the services used by Service Manager do not start if Windows is running in safe mode. If you attempt to start the Service Manager services manually while in safe mode, the services fail to start and an error is written into the event log.

Service Manager or data warehouse databases

You can install the Service Manager and data warehouse databases on dedicated servers to optimize performance or storage.

Software requirements

The following software is needed to support the databases.

Software Notes
A supported operating system For more information, see Supported operating systems in this topic.
A supported version of SQL Server For more information about the supported versions of SQL Server and required configuration, see SQL Server support.
SQL Server Analysis Services Required only for the data warehouse database server. SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) is included with the version of SQL Server that you’re using. For more information about SSAS, see Analysis Services. The SQL Server and Analysis Services collation settings must be compatible between the Service Manager data warehouse and SSAS. The collation used must be the same for the computers hosting the Service Manager database, data warehouse database, analysis services database, and Reporting Services database.
SQL Server Reporting Services Required only for the data warehouse database server. SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is included with the version of SQL Server that you’re using.

In a deployment topology where the computer hosting SSRS is not on the same computer that hosts the data warehouse management server, you have to add Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Reporting.Code to the global assembly cache. For more information, see Manual Steps to Configure the Remote SQL Server Reporting Services [SP1] in the Service Manager for System Center 2012 Deployment Guide.
SQL Server 2008 R2 Native Client or SQL Server 2012 Native client The SQL Server Native Client is contained in the SQL Server Feature Packs, available at Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 Feature Pack and Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Feature Pack.
SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects are required regardless of the SQL Server version that you use to support the Service Manager console with SQL Server Analysis Server. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects is a part of the SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack, available at Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Feature Pack.

Supported operating systems

For Service Manager in System Center 2012 R2 Edition Service pack System architecture
Windows Server 2012 (Server with a GUI and Server Core Installation options) Standard and Datacenter Not applicable x64
Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server with a GUI and Server Core Installation options) Standard and Datacenter Not applicable x64
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Standard and Datacenter Service Pack 1 X64

SQL Server support

Service Manager is supported with the following versions of SQL Server:

  • SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Standard, Datacenter

  • SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2 Standard, Datacenter

  • SQL Server 2012 Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)

  • SQL Server 2012 SP1 Enterprise, Standard (64-bit)

SQL Server configuration

Use the following configuration with your version of SQL Server:

  • SQL Server full-text search: Full-text search must be selected during installation on the computers running SQL Server that will host the Service Manager and data warehouse databases.

  • SQL Server configured to use case-insensitive databases.

  • Service Account configured in accordance with your organization’s requirements.

  • The SQL Server Reporting Services (MSSQLSERVER) service, configured and running. For more information about how to configure the MSSQLSERVER service, see How to: Verify a Reporting Services Installation.

  • Ensure that you use the same collation in SQL Server and Analysis Services on the computers that host the Service Manager database, the data warehouse database, and the analysis services database. For more information about SQL Server collations, see Using SQL Server Collations.

If your SQL Server installation is using the default collation (SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS), a warning message appears, stating that the collation is not one of the supported collations for Service Manager and that an unsupported collation can cause unpredictable behavior in multilingual environments.

Warning

Support for languages other than English in Service Manager is not possible when you are using the collation SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. If later you decide to support multiple languages using a different collation, you have to reinstall SQL Server. There are no issues with using the SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation with the English-only installations of Service Manager. SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS is supported despite the warning message in setup. It is generally used for installations where the Service Manager databases will share a SQL Server instance with other System Center components which must be installed on SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS, most notably Operations Manager. If Service Manager will be installed on its own SQL Server instance, it is recommended to use the newer and more complete collation Latin1_General_100_CP1_CI_AS. For more information about language support, see Support for languages in addition to English.

You can define the collation when you install SQL Server. During Setup, on the Server Configuration page, click the Collation tab, and then click Customize for both the Database Engine and Analysis Services entries.

Additional information

  • If you plan to install both Service Manager and Operations Manager 2007 in the same environment, see Operations Manager Considerations in System Center 2012 - Service Manager.

  • Service Manager does not operate and the services used by Service Manager do not start if Windows is running in safe mode. If you attempt to start the Service Manager services manually while in safe mode, the services fail to start and an error is written into the event log.

Service Manager console

The Service Manager console is the management interface that you use to conduct your day-to-day service desk tasks with Service Manager. The Service Manager console is the only Service Manager component that you can install on a non-server operating system.

Software requirements

Before you install the Service Manager console, you must install the following software.

Software Notes
A supported operating system For more information, see Supported operating systems in this topic.
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is required for running Service Manager. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is included with the Service Manager installation media.
ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 To obtain the ADO.NET Data Services update, you can download it at ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects are required regardless of the SQL Server version that you use to support the Service Manager console with SQL Server Analysis Server. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects is a part of the SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack, available at Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Feature Pack.
Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable The Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable is available with the Service Manager media. For more information, see How to Install the Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable Security Update in the Deployment Guide for System Center 2012 – Service Manager.
Optional: Excel 2007 or later You must have Microsoft Excel 2007 or later installed in order to view OLAP data cubes on the computer running the Service Manager console.

Supported operating systems

The Service Manager console in System Center 2012 R2 Service Manager is supported on the following operating systems:

  • Windows® 7

  • Windows® 8

  • Windows® 8.1

  • Windows Server® 2008 R2

  • Windows Server® 2012

  • Windows Server® 2012 R2 Standard, Datacenter

Self-Service Portal web content server

The Self-Service Portal web content server is one of the Service Manager components that are used to support the Self-Service Portal. It is a web application that forms the interface between the Silverlight application and the Service Manager database. The web content server provides a path for data from the Service Manager database to the Silverlight-based application that is running in the browser.

Software requirements

Before you install the Self-Service Portal: Web Content server, you must install the following software.

Software Notes
A supported operating system For more information, see Supported operating systems in this topic.
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is required for running Service Manager. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is included with the Service Manager installation media.
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 or later IIS must be configured with IIS 6 metabase compatibility installed.
Optional: Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate You can use the SSL certificate on the IIS server that hosts the Self-Service Portal.

Supported operating systems

For Service Manager in System Center 2012 R2 Edition Service pack System architecture
Windows Server 2012 (Server with a GUI and Server Core Installation options) Standard and Datacenter Not applicable x64
Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server with a GUI and Server Core Installation options) Standard and Datacenter Not applicable x64
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Standard and Datacenter Service Pack 1 X64

Self-Service Portal SharePoint web parts

The SharePoint server hosts the web parts for the Self-Service Portal.

Software requirements

Before you install the System Center 2012 R2 Service ManagerSelf-Service Portal SharePoint web parts, you must install the following software.

Software Notes
A supported operating system For more information, see Supported operating systems in this topic.
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is required for running Service Manager. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is included with the Service Manager installation media.
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
One of the following versions of Microsoft SharePoint:

- Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 SP2
- Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 SP2
- Microsoft SharePoint 2010 SP2 for Internet Sites Enterprise
If your Service Manager database uses SQL Server 2012, then you must have Service Pack 2 or later applied to your SharePoint 2010 installation.

SharePoint 2013 is not supported on the server hosting the SharePoint Web Parts.

You must install the English language pack in non-English SharePoint installations so that the Self-Service Portal installs correctly.
Excel Services in SharePoint Excel Services in SharePoint Server 2010 is required for hosting dashboards for advanced analytical reports. For more information about installing and configuring Excel Services, see Configure Excel Services for a BI test environment.

Supported operating systems

For Service Manager in System Center 2012 R2 Edition Service pack System architecture
Windows Server 2012 (Server with a GUI and Server Core Installation options) Standard and Datacenter Not applicable x64
Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server with a GUI and Server Core Installation options) Standard and Datacenter Not applicable x64
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Standard and Datacenter Service Pack 1 X64

Additional information

Self-Service Portal web console

Use this information to evaluate if your Microsoft SilverLight and Internet Explorer environments are ready to support the Self-Service Portal in System Center 2012 R2 Service Manager.

SilverLight 4 SilverLight 5 Internet Explorer 8 Internet Explorer 9 Internet Explorer 10 Internet Explorer 11

This information does not apply to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. For those system requirements, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=248315

Support for languages in addition to English

It is assumed in this guide that you are installing System Center 2012 – Service Manager on a computer where no previous version of Service Manager is installed. For information about upgrading Service Manager, see the Upgrade Guide for Service Manager 2012 - System Center.

Including English, System Center 2012 – Service Manager supports a total of 21 languages. There are some search-related issues with six languages: Czech, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Polish, and Turkish. For more information about these issues, see the section "Search Issues" in this topic.

Setting your Windows locale on a computer that hosts a Service Manager console to one of the supported languages results in Service Manager being displayed in that language. In addition to the languages that Service Manager supports, you must also consider the ability to search and sort data in the Service Manager databases. The ability to search and sort data in a specific language is defined by the collation settings in Microsoft SQL Server.

The information in the following table represents the approved collations and the locale identifiers that were tested for Service Manager. In the list of collations in this table, “CI” indicates case-insensitive, and “AS” indicates accent-sensitive.

Windows locale Collation
English Latin1_General_100_CI_AS
English SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
English Latin1_General_CI_AS
Chinese_PRC Chinese_Simplified_Pinyin_100_CI_AS
Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan) Chinese_Traditional_Stroke_Count_100_CI_AS
Czech (Czech Republic) Czech_100_CI_AS
Danish (Denmark) Danish_Norwegian_CI_AS
Dutch (Netherlands) Latin1_General_100_CI_AS
Finnish (Finland) Finnish_Swedish_100_CI_AS
French French_100_CI_AS
German_Standard Latin1_General_100_CI_AS
Greek (Greece) Greek_100_CI_AS
Hungarian Hungarian_100_CI_AS
Italian_Standard Latin1_General_100_CI_AS
Japanese Japanese_XJIS_100_CI_AS
Korean Korean_100_CI_AS
Norwegian (Bokmål, Norway) Norwegian_100_CI_AS
Polish (Poland) Polish_100_CI_AS
Portuguese (Brazil) Latin1_General_100_CI_AS
Portuguese (Portugal) Latin1_General_100_CI_AS
Russian Cyrillic_General_100_CI_AS
Spanish_Modern_Sort Modern_Spanish_100_CI_AS
Swedish (Sweden) Finnish_Swedish_100_CI_AS
Turkish (Turkey) Turkish_100_CI_AS

Search issues

This section describes search issues, sort issues, and word-break issues with some of the languages that are supported in Service Manager.

Greek, Czech, and Finnish languages

For these languages, full-text search is not supported in SQL Server 2008. Therefore, sorting and searching activities in these languages do not function correctly.

Danish, Polish, and Turkish languages

Full-text search does not function in SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2 for these languages. You can load a licensed third-party word breaker that enables full-text search to function correctly. If you have Service Manager consoles using the Danish, Polish, or Turkish languages, regardless of the language collation that you have selected for your SQL Server installation, you have to install a third-party word breaker.

For more information, see the following links for the version of SQL Server that you are using:

Turkish language

None of the Turkish collations is supported in Service Manager. The Latin1_General_100_CI_AS collation was used for testing with the Turkish language. As a result, some search and sort operations in Service Manager will be affected for some Turkish characters.

Port assignments for firewalls

As part of your security infrastructure, you may want to keep track of port numbers that are used throughout your System Center 2012 – Service Manager environment. And while, in this release, these port numbers are not configurable, you can review the following table that lists port numbers that are used between the parts of Service Manager. You will want to ensure that these firewall ports are opened on computers that host Service Manager.

Port assignments

Service Manager piece A Port number and direction Service Manager piece B
Service Manager console 5724 ---> Service Manager management server*
Service Manager console 5724 ---> Data warehouse management server
Service Manager management server 1433 ---> Remote Service Manager database
Service Manager management server 5724 ---> Data warehouse server
Service Manager management server 5724 ---> Operations Manager 2007 Alert and CI connectors
Service Manager management server 389 ---> Active Directory Connector
Service Manager management server 1433 ---> Configuration Manager Connector
Data warehouse management server 1433 ---> Remote data warehouse database server
Data warehouse management server 1433 ---> Remote Service Manager database server
Data warehouse management server 2383 ---> SQL Server Analysis Services**
SQL reporting service server 1433 ---> Remote data warehouse database server
Web browser 80 ---> SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
Web browser [setup***] ---> SharePoint Web Parts server
Web browser [setup***] ---> Web content server
Web content server 1433 ---> Service Manager database

* Includes initial Service Manager management server and subsequent Service Manager management servers

** Port 2383 is the default port for SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS). However, the port number can be changed. For more information, see Configure Windows Firewall for Analysis Services Access.

*** The port number that is used between the browser and the SharePoint Web Parts server and the web content server is configured during installation of the Self-Service Portal.