Prerequisites for connecting a computer to the server

  • Article

Published: April 26, 2010

Updated: March 30, 2011

Applies To: Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials

The following requirements must be met before connecting your computer to the network:

  1. You have completed the installation of Windows SBS 2011 Essentials, and the server is up and running. The Connector software will exit its installation if it is unable to communicate with the server.

  2. The computer is running a supported operating system. Computers running Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 Editions are not supported. For more information, see Supported operating systems for client computers.

  3. The computer is on the same IP subnet as the server that is running Windows SBS 2011 Essentials.

  4. The computer needs to have .NET Framework 4 installed on it. The Connector software installs it on the computer. For more information, see How do I connect computers to the server?

  5. The computer meets the following minimum system requirements:

    1. 1.4 GHz or faster processor.

    2. 1 GB RAM or more.

    3. 1 GB of available hard disk space; a portion of this disk will be freed after installation.

  6. The boot partition—that is, the disk partition where the Windows operating system is installed—is formatted with the NTFS file system.

  7. On computers running Windows XP, the installation must be run from a local administrator account. On computers running Windows Vista and Windows 7, you do not need to be a local administrator. Instead, the User Account Control (UAC) asks for Administrator credentials.

  8. A client computer can be connected to only one Windows SBS 2011 Essentials server at any given time.

  9. A client computer that is already joined to another Windows domain (Active Directory) cannot join a Windows SBS 2011 Essentials domain.

  10. The computer name does not include more than 15 characters.

  11. The computer name does not include an underscore (_).

For step-by-step instructions for connecting a computer to the server running Windows SBS 2011 Essentials, see How do I connect computers to the server? For additional information about connecting computers to the server, see Connect Computers to the Server.