Environmental Prerequisites and Considerations for System Center Essentials 2010

Applies To: System Center Essentials 2010

This section describes the environmental prerequisites and considerations you should review prior to deploying System Center Essentials 2010.

Before You Begin

Preparing to deploy Essentials 2010 involves both gathering information for later use and making decisions about where you want Essentials components to be deployed. Review the information described in the following table before deploying Essentials 2010.

Task Reference

Verify the system requirements for each server on which you plan to install Essentials 2010.

System Requirements and Supported Platforms for System Center Essentials 2010

Determine whether you can use Domain Administrator credentials to set Group Policy settings during deployment.

Local Policy vs. Group Policy in System Center Essentials 2010

Determine whether you have a server that is correctly configured to host an instance of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. Both the Essentials database and SQL Server Reporting Services can be installed either remotely or locally.

Selecting Database Locations in System Center Essentials 2010

Determine whether to use local versus remote database instances when installing Essentials Reporting on a remote database server.

Local Reporting vs. Remote Reporting in System Center Essentials 2010

Determine the Administrator account that you want to use to access managed computers.

Administration Accounts in System Center Essentials 2010

Determine where you want to store system and program updates (locally, or on the Microsoft Updates Web site).

Storing Updates in System Center Essentials 2010

Prepare for the upgrade from Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) if you have an existing WSUS installation on the Essentials server.

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Changes in System Center Essentials 2010

Determine whether you want to participate in the data collection phase of various Microsoft product improvement programs.

About Error and Usage Reporting in System Center Essentials 2010

Configure Windows Firewall exceptions on computers in your environment in order to install agents and allow communication between the server and managed computers.

Firewall Exceptions for System Center Essentials 2010

Use certificates to authenticate workgroup-joined computers to the Essentials server.

“Using Certificates in Essentials” in System Center Essentials 2010 Operations Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=180739)

See Also

Concepts

Supported Topologies and Performance Guidance for System Center Essentials 2010