Determining Site System Hardware Requirements

The hardware you need for your network largely depends on the SMS features that you choose. As your business grows and changes, you will find that your hardware requirements change as well. Your hardware requirements for SMS are no different. For your initial SMS deployment, you need to develop initial hardware requirements that you can use to start your pilot project. To determine hardware requirements for each computer, you need to complete the following planning tasks:

1. Determine the number of clients you plan to install and the number of SMS objects (packages, inventory files, discovery data records, and so on) you expect to have at your site.
2. Use these numbers and your basic plan for the site hierarchy and site systems to develop the initial hardware requirements for your site hierarchy.

These two planning tasks are described in more detail in the following sections. The hardware requirements you develop after reading these sections are for production purposes only. For your pilot project, you should adjust these numbers. For more information, see “Sizing Site System Hardware Within the Pilot Project,” later in this chapter.