System Requirements and Supported Platforms for System Center Essentials 2010

Updated: August 23, 2010

Applies To: System Center Essentials 2010

This section describes the environmental prerequisites and considerations for you to review before you deploy System Center Essentials 2010. When installing Essentials 2010 on the designated Essentials management server, the Setup program runs a prerequisite checker that lists which requirements have passed and which have not. The prerequisite checker provides links to help you comply with the requirements for running Essentials 2010.

Hardware Requirements

The following table describes the minimum and recommended requirements for running Essentials 2010.

Component	Minimum Requirement	Recommended
Essentials management server (all management components on a single server)	2.0 GHz processor 2 GB of RAM 16 GB of available hard disk space (1 GB on the system drive). 6 GB of available hard disk space for storing updates.	2.8 GHz or faster processor(s) 4 GB of RAM 20 GB of available hard disk space (1 GB on system drive); 150 GB of available hard disk space if planning virtualization management
Remote reporting	2.0 GHz processor 1 GB of RAM 12 GB of available hard disk space (1 GB on the system drive).	2.8 GHz or faster processor(s) 2 GB of RAM 20 GB of available hard disk space (1 GB on system drive)
Essentials console only	1.0 GHz processor 512 MB of RAM 1 GB of available hard disk space	2.8 GHz or faster processor 1 GB of RAM 1 GB of available hard disk space
Managed computers	Refer to the minimum hardware requirements for the operating system	Refer to the minimum hardware requirements for the operating system

Operating System and Other Software Requirements

The following table describes the operating system requirements for running Essentials 2010.

Component	Operating System	Other Software
Essentials management server	Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition with SP1 (x64) Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition (x64) Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition with the Hyper-V role (x86 or x64. x64 required for virtualization management) Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition without the Hyper-V role, (x86 or x64. x64 required for virtualization management) Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise Edition with SP2 or later (x86 or x64) Windows Small Business Server 2008 (x64 only) Windows Essentials Business Server 2008 (x64 only) Internet Information Services (IIS) and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.0 must be enabled. Active Directory Domain Services must be deployed in the environment	Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 with SP1 Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 6.0 Windows Installer 3.1, included as part of Windows Server 2008 Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.81 Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0 Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 or 7.0 Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Microsoft SQL Server Database Services Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Windows PowerShell 1.0, included as part of Windows Server 2008 Windows Remote Management (WinRM), included as part of Windows Server 2008
Remote reporting	Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition with SP1 (x64) Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition (x64) Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition with the Hyper-V role (x86 or x64) Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition without the Hyper-V role, (x86 or x64) Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise Edition with SP2 or later (x86 or x64) Windows Small Business Server 2008 (x64 only) Windows Essentials Business Server 2008 (x64 only) Active Directory Domain Services must be deployed in the environment	Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 with SP1 Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 6.0 Windows Installer 3.1, included as part of Windows Server 2008 Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.81 Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0 Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Microsoft SQL Server Database Services Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Windows PowerShell 1.0, included as part of Windows Server 2008
Essentials console only	Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition with SP1 (x64) Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition (x64) Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition with the Hyper-V role (x86 or x64) Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition without the Hyper-V role (x86 or x64) Windows Server 2003, Standard or Enterprise Edition with SP2 or later (x86 or x64) Windows Essentials Business Server 2008 (x64 only) Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise Edition (x86 or x64) Windows XP Professional with SP2 or later (x86 or x64) Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate Edition (x86 or x64)	Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 6.0 Windows Installer 3.1, included as part of Windows Server 2008 Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0 Windows PowerShell 1.0, included as part of Windows Server 2008 Windows Remote Management (WinRM), included as part of Windows Server 2008
Managed computers	Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition with SP1 (x64) Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition (X64) Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter Edition with the Hyper-V role (x86 or x64) Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition without the Hyper-V role (x86 or x64) Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise Edition with SP2 or later (x86 or x64) Windows Essentials Business Server 2008 (x64 only) Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise Edition (x86 or x64) Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate Edition (x86 or x64) Windows XP Professional with SP2 or later (x86 or x64) Windows Server 2003 Web Edition with SP2 or later	Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 6.0 Windows Installer 3.1, included as part of Windows Server 2008 WS-Management protocol for remotely exchanging management data with other computers.

Database Requirements

The following list describes the Microsoft SQL Server editions and versions that are supported in Essentials 2010.

SQL Server 2008 Express Edition with Advanced Services, with SP1 or later (x86 and x64)
SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition (x86 and x64)
SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition with SP1 or later (x86 and x64)
SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition (x86 and x64)
SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition with SP1 or later (x86 and x64)

Important
Essentials 2010 requires an instance of SQL Server Reporting Services that is not shared with other applications. If an existing instance of SQL Server Reporting Services is used during Essentials 2010 installation, any reports that are already published on that instance will be deleted.

Virtualization Host Requirements

To create and manage virtual machines in Essentials 2010, you must designate a physical server capable of supporting virtual machines as the host server. System requirements for virtual machine hosts are shown below.

Supported Operating Systems
- Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64 only)
- Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise Edition (x86 and x64)
- Windows Server 2003 with SP2 or later (x86 and x64)
Prerequisites
- Host servers running Windows Server 2003 with SP2 must have the following components installed:
  - Windows Virtual Server 2005 R2 and later
  - Windows Remote Management 1.1 and later
- Host servers running Windows Server 2008 must have the following components installed:
  - Windows Virtual Server 2005 R2 and later (x86)
  - On 64-bit platforms, the Hyper-V role must be enabled, and Hardware Assisted Virtualization must be enabled in the BIOS.
- Host servers running Windows Virtual Server 2005 R2 must have the following updates installed:
  - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Update 948515 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=160366
- Host servers running Windows Server 2008 with the Hyper-V role enabled must have the following updates installed:
  - Microsoft KB Update 950050 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=160367
  - Microsoft KB Update 956589 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=160370
  - Microsoft KB Update 956774 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=160372

Additional Requirements

Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services must be deployed in your environment. Active Directory Domain Services simplifies the setup, security, configuration, and ongoing total cost of ownership when using the product.
On a clustered server or a server running Windows Virtual Server 2005 R2, you must enable the agent on that computer to act as a proxy for the health service to submit discovery data about other computers. Use the following procedure to enable an agent to act as a proxy. For more information, see "Virtualizing Your Server Environment" in the System Center Essentials 2010 Operations Guide (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=180739).

Unsupported Environments for System Center Essentials

No support for any Essentials 2010 components across Active Directory forests without certificate-based authentication.
No support for SQL Server Database Mirroring.
No support for Essentials 2010 managing computers with IA-64-based processors.
No support for the Essentials management server to use a remote Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server for its update services.
No support for the Essentials management server to act as a downstream WSUS server.
No support for the Essentials management server to remotely monitor computers without agents installed.

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