ConfigMgr for Deployment - Rough Sizing Guidelines

I have been doing some sizing work for a customer around System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (ConfigMgr) and its use specifically for deployment (Windows Vista)– there seems to be some conflicting info in many different places – however the tables below gives some very rough guidelines pulled from different sources...thought it may be useful

Site System

Maximum recommended number per site

Clients

Up to 200,000 per hierarchy

Primary Site Server

Up to 100,000 directly assigned clients

Secondary Site Server

Up to 500 secondary sites per primary

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The number of secondary sites recommended per primary site is based on reasonably well connected and reliable WAN network connections. Unreliable server hardware or network connections can dramatically reduce this number.

Management Point

Up to 25,000 clients

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To support more than 25,000 clients in one site, management point site systems can be configured to use Network Load Balancing (NLB).

Distribution Point

Up to 4,000 clients

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The number of clients that one distribution point can support is dependent on network speed, disk performance, and software distribution package size.

Branch distribution point

Up to 2,000 per site, each capable of supporting up to 100 clients.

Software update point

Up to 25,000 clients

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To support more than 25,000 clients in one site, software update point site systems can be configured to use Network Load Balancing (NLB).

System Health Validator point

Up to 100,000 clients (or one per hierarchy if less than 100,000 clients)

Fallback status point

Up to 100,000 clients (or one per site)

 

ConfigMgr Site Server

(running site server all roles not specifically listed on other servers)

Component

Capacity

CPU

Twin Processor with Quad Cores 2.2 Ghz

Disk

OS 80 GB Raid 1

ConfigMgr Application 80 GB RAID 10 or 5

Distribution Point 250 GB RAID 10 or 5

Data drive can be SAN or DAS if external

LAN

100 /1000 MB (sec) production LAN

1000 / MB or Fibre for NLN array Comms

RAM

8 GB

OS

Windows Server 2003/8 Standard Edition 64 bit

IIS

Network Load Balancing

Licences

Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition or 2003 R2 with SP2

ConfigMgr site server licence (only 1 required fo this implementation)

 

ConfigMgr Site Database Server

(running site server all roles not specifically listed on other servers)

Component

Capacity

CPU

Twin Processor with Quad Cores 2.2 Ghz

Disk

OS 80 GB Raid 1

Data 300 GB RAID 10 or 5

SQL Logs 300 GB RAID 10 or 5

Data drive can be SAN or DAS if external

LAN

100 /1000 MB (sec) production LAN

1000 / MB or Fibre for NLN array Comms

RAM

8 GB

OS Components

Windows Server 2003/8 Enterprise Edition 64 bit

IIS

Network Load Balancing

Licences

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (if clustering) or 2003 R2 with SP2

SQL Server 2005 Enterprise (if clustering support is needed otherwise standard will suffice)

20,000 ConfigMgr Client Access Licences

 

ConfigMgr Management Point Servers

Component

Capacity

CPU

Twin Processor with Dual Cores 2.2 Ghz

Disk

OS 80 GB Raid 1

Data 80 GB RAID 10 or 5

Data drive can be SAN or DAS if external

LAN

100 /1000 MB (sec) production LAN

1000 / MB or Fibre for NLN array Comms

RAM

8 GB

OS Components

Windows Server 2003/8 Standard Edition 64 bit

IIS

Network Load Balancing

Licences

Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition or 2003 R2 with SP2

 

ConfigMgr Software Update Point Server

Component

Capacity

CPU

Twin Processor with Dual Cores 2.2 Ghz

Disk

OS 80 GB Raid 1

Data 80 GB RAID 10 or 5

Data drive can be SAN or DAS if external

LAN

100 /1000 MB (sec) production LAN

1000 / MB or Fibre for NLN array Comms

RAM

8 GB

OS Components

Windows Server 2003/8 Standard Edition 64 bit

IIS

Network Load Balancing

Windows Software Update Services

Licences

Servers 2008 / 3 OS

ConfigMgr Remote/Branch Infrastructure Options

Branch Size (# users)

ConfigMgr Remote Architecture

Capacity / Licence Requirements

0-3 users

No local infrastructure

No ConfigMgr specific licence required beyond the ConfigMgr CAL

3-25 users

Single Branch Distribution Point

No ConfigMgr specific licence required beyond the SCCM CAL

25 – 100 users

Dual Branch Distribution Points (fault tolerance and capacity as images and packages will be extensively used)

No ConfigMgr specific licence required beyond the SCCM CAL

100 – 1000 users

Distribution Point

Windows Server 2003 / 2008 NTFS volume with 100 GB of capacity.

Can leverage existing file / application server capacity.

No ConfigMgr specific licence required

1000 – 2000 users

Secondary SCCM site Server

No ConfigMgr specific licence required beyond the SCCM CAL.

Windows Server 2003 / 2008 server licence

2000 users +

Primary site server

ConfigMgr site server

 

This post was contributed by Richard Smith a Senior Consultant with Microsoft Services, UK.