IBM Endpoint Manager Server System Requirements

The following article specifies the hardware and server configurations for a single dedicated IBM Endpoint Manager Server. It assumes that the main server machine will host theIBM Endpoint Manager Server software, IBM Endpoint Manager Web Reports and the database. The specifications below may change if your IBM Endpoint Manager deployment uses an advanced configuration like a separate database Server, a separate Web Reports Server, a SAN (Storage Area Network) or DSA (Distributed Server Architecture). Please contact IBM Technical Support for assistance with an advanced configuration.

Resolving the problem

Use the following information to specify hardware and server configurations for a single dedicated IBM Endpoint Manager Server. It is assumed that the computer hosts the IBM Endpoint Manager Server software, IBM Endpoint Manager Web Reports and the database.

Click here for IBM Endpoint Manager Server requirements for evaluation installations.
Click here for IBM Endpoint Manager Console requirements.

IBM Endpoint Manager Server System Specifications
Recommended Operating Systems

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 (x64) - IBM Endpoint Manager (BigFix) 9.0 or later
• Windows 2012 (x64) Enterprise - IBM Endpoint Manager (BigFix) 9.0 or later
• Windows 2008 R2 (x86, x64) Enterprise - IBM Endpoint Manager (BigFix) 8.0 or later
• Windows 2008 (x86, x64) Enterprise - IBM Endpoint Manager (BigFix ) 7.1 or later
• Windows 2003 (x86, x64) Enterprise - IBM Endpoint Manager (BigFix ) 6.0 or later

Recommended Databases

• DB2 Workgroup Edition 10.1 Latest fixpack - IBM Endpoint Manager (BigFix) 9.0 or later
• SQL Server 2012 (x86, x64) Enterprise - IBM Endpoint Manager (BigFix ) 9.0 or later
• SQL Server 2008 R2 (x86, x64) Enterprise - IBM Endpoint Manager (BigFix ) 8.0 or later
• SQL Server 2008 (x86, x64) Enterprise - IBM Endpoint Manager (BigFix ) 7.2 or later
• SQL Server 2005 (x86, x64) Enterprise - IBM Endpoint Manager (BigFix ) 6.0 or later

SQL Standard edition is usually sufficient for smaller deployments with fewer than 50,000 computers. For more information please refer to the this Microsoft KB article:
http://www.microsoft.com/Sqlserver/2005/en/us/compare-features.aspx
* Currently the deployment size recommendation for Red Hat Enterprise Linux/DB2 deployments is 10,000 seats or fewer.

Note: Microsoft MSDE and SQL Express editions are not recommended for use in production deployments of TEM. The SQL Express versions have limitations, please explore the Microsoft knowledge articles stipulating what each versions limitations are.

Note: Always apply the latest service pack and hot fixes for the server operating system and database.

Click here for the Support Policy page with more details on supported Operating Systems and SQL Server configurations.

IBM Endpoint Manager Server Hardware Specifications

The values listed below are recommended hardware specifications that will provide good performance for similar sized deployments of IBM Endpoint Manager. If your deployment will have over 100 IBM Endpoint Manager Console Operators you should consider raising your hardware specifications to the next higher scale to support the large number of users or contact IBM Technical Support for more help in selecting hardware.

Hardware Specifications

For best performance, use the following recommendations:

Deployment Size	CPU	Memory	Hard Disks
< 250	2-3 GHz - 2 Cores	2 GB	Standard HD
1,000	2-3 GHz - 2-4 Cores	6 GB	1 RAID Array (RAID 10, 5)
10,000	2-3 GHz - 4 Cores	8 GB	1-2 RAID Arrays (RAID 10)
50,000	2-3 GHz - 4-8 Cores	16 GB	2 RAID Arrays (RAID 10)
100,000	2-3 GHz - 8-16 Cores	16-32 GB	2 RAID Arrays (RAID 10)
> 200,000	2-3+ GHz - 16 Cores	32-64 GB	3 RAID Arrays (RAID 10)

Note: RAID arrays must support using the disk cache for both reading and writing. The disk cache should be set to 50/50 read write.

RAID Configurations

See Recommended RAID Configurations for more information.

Disk Space Requirements

The Hard Disk configurations listed above are focused on providing high performance disks for the database and IBM Endpoint Manager Server. The physical capacity needed for IBM Endpoint Manager is generally considered very small. A minimum of 6 GB free disk space is needed by the database, data files, and the file caches to run IBM Endpoint Manager. It is recommended that an additional 20-60 GB of disk space be available for flexibility for administrative tasks like database backups and to allow for growth.

Multiple RAID arrays normally provide more than enough disk space for IBM Endpoint Manager so capacity concerns are not common.

Network Card Specifications

The IBM Endpoint Manager Server is the central communication hub of a IBM Endpoint Manager deployment and should be positioned in a data center with a high-speed network connection.

IBM Endpoint Manager Server network speed recommendations:

• 10 Mbps network connection is possible but not recommended for performance reasons.
• 100 Mbps network connection or higher is recommended.
• 1000 Mbps network connection is recommended if possible.

For deployments over 25,000 seats, please consider using teamed network cards or 1 GB connections to provide optimal network throughput for the IBM Endpoint Manager Server.

Message Level Encryption

In IBM Endpoint Manager 7.1 or later, you can enable a feature to encrypt IBM Endpoint Manager Client reports. The IBM Endpoint Manager Server and IBM Endpoint Manager Relay infrastructure will need to use additional CPU resources to decrypt these documents. If you anticipate use of the message level encryption feature, IBM recommends the following additional CPU requirements on the IBM Endpoint Manager Server.

Deployment Size	CPU
< 250	2-3 GHz - 2 Cores
1,000	2-3 GHz - 2-4 Cores
10,000	2-3 GHz - 4 Cores
50,000	2-3 GHz - 4-8 Cores
100,000	2-3 GHz - 8-16 Cores
>200,000	2-3+ GHz - 16 Cores

Note: If your deployment is over 50,000 seats or you are using an encryption key strength of 2048 or 4096 you should also create decrypting top level IBM Endpoint Manager Relays with 2-4 CPU cores each.

Note: The specs provided above outline the resources needed when the TEM server application and the SQL database exist together on the same host. Most of the resource specifications given above are to accommodate the SQL database. We do not currently have system specifications for the configuration where the TEM application server and the SQL database exist apart on separate hosts. It is recommended as a best practice to keep the TEM application and SQL database server on the same host and that the host be sufficiently provisioned with the necessary system resources (and a dedicated SQL database) as this configuration protects resources, reduces complexity, and increases manageability.

With that being stated, some resource considerations for just the TEM application server typically depend on the size of the deployment and if certain configurations (such as message level encryption MLE) are being employed. Disk requirements on the application server are typically light (RAID 5 is typically fine for even larger instances). Space considerations are based on usage (if you need to store software libraries, OS images, etc...). CPU and memory come into play with increased numbers of operators and MLE configuration. If you are using MLE, the CPU/memory requirements given in this article for the recommended shared host configuration should be used. If you are not using MLE, memory could probably be limited to 8GB (even at larger scales), and maybe up to 8 CPUs even at larger scales.