Hardware and Licensing Requirements
Determine the number of SMS site licenses and SQL Server licenses you must have to deploy your SMS hierarchy. Your exact SMS hardware requirements are dependent on numerous factors that are derived from your computing and network environment, and from how you will use SMS features. Use the information in Chapter 9, "Capacity Planning for SMS Component Servers," with your pilot project results to determine server sizing. Also, review the basic hardware recommendations in the "Getting Started" chapter. You should adjust your hardware requirements as needed during the pilot project.
Your deployment plan should include the following tasks:
Checking the hardware compatibility list
Obtaining SMS site licensing and SQL Server licensing
Determining how to allocate hardware
Checking the hardware compatibility list
Before you install Microsoft Windows Server(tm) 2003 or Microsoft Windows 2000 family products on a computer, check the Microsoft hardware compatibility list (HCL) to determine whether the computer is certified by Microsoft as being compliant with Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003, and that the computer hardware is listed in the HCL. You can access the HCL at https://www.microsoft.com/hwdq/hcl. SMS runs successfully on a variety of host systems. There are no SMS-specific reasons to run SMS on hardware certified by Microsoft. However, if you do require the assistance of Microsoft Product Support Services, they might require that your hardware be certified by Microsoft before they can assist in resolving any issues you have.
Obtaining SMS site licensing and SQL Server licensing
Carefully plan to purchase the correct number of SMS site licenses and SQL Server licenses that you estimate needing before deploying SMS. For licensing requirements, see the "Getting Started" chapter.
Determining how to allocate hardware
Consider the logistical aspects of deploying your SMS site server hardware at locations that do not have existing server hardware in place. Determine who will do the server installations and how to ship the computers to remote locations. You might decide to install SMS on the servers before shipping the servers to their locations. Or, you might choose to ship the servers to their production location and then install SMS on them.
Three possible staging methods for server installations are described in the following sidebar.
Three Possible Server Staging Methods
Perform the SMS installation at a central location for all primary and secondary site servers, and then ship the preinstalled servers out to each site.
At primary site locations, the local SMS administrator physically installs the primary site server computer.
At secondary sites, a local user physically installs the secondary site server computer, according to instructions accompanying the computer.
Perform the SMS software installation centrally for all primary site servers, but do not install SMS on the secondary site servers. Install and configure the operating system on the secondary site servers and ship those computers to each site. A local user at the secondary site installs the secondary site server computer equipment. The SMS administrator installs SMS from the SMS Administrator console at the central location. Or, if network bandwidth is limited, the administrator uses another method to install the remote secondary site.
Perform the installation of each primary and secondary site server computer and SMS software on location. This is done by an SMS administrator who travels to the location.
For More Information
Did you find this information useful? Please send your suggestions and comments about the documentation to smsdocs@microsoft.com.