Microsoft held a great event called Microsoft Private Cloud Day where changes to System Center 2012 were announced,With the current shipping versions of System Center products (and previous), we have always had individual products such as System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 or System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. We are simplifying this and now we are offering System Center 2012 as a single product / suite. We are offering two editions, System Center 2012 Datacenter and System Center 2012 Standard.
As you can see from the figure above, both Editions include the same components. Both editions are also licensed per two physical processors. The only difference is the number of Virtual Machines supported per license– 2 for Standard and Unlimited for Datacenter. If you have a minimal virtualization footprint, the Standard Edition may be just fine (branch office or a smaller datacenter for example); if you have a large virtualization footprint and are looking for high density of VMs, then definitely go with Datacenter edition.
What’s included?
To maximize the support for your private cloud the following tools will be included when you buy a standard or Datacenter edition of System center 2012:
- Configuration Manager
- Service Manager
- Virtual Machine Manager
- Operations Manager
- Data Protection Manager
- Orchestrator
- App Controller
- Endpoint Protection
Difference between Standard and Datacenter Edition of System Center 2012:
The Standard and Datacenter editions of the System Center 2012 server management licenses differ only based on the number of Operating System Environments (OSEs) that may be managed.
Standard edition:
- allow customers to manage two OSEs on premises or two OSEs in a public cloud environment.
- Targeted at lightly or non-virtualized private cloud workloads.
DataCenter edition:
- Allow an unlimited number of OSEs in an on premises environment or eight OSEs in a public cloud environment.
- Maximizes cloud capacity with unlimited Operating System Environments (OSEs) for high density private clouds.
Server Management Licensing
System Center 2012 server management licensing maximizes your private cloud value while simplifying purchasing:
- License required only for endpoints being managed. No additional licenses needed for management servers or SQL Server technology.
- Consistent licensing model across editions. Processor based license, covering up to two processors targeted at most common hardware configuration.
- Same capabilities across editions differentiated by virtualization rights. All server management licenses include the same components and the ability to manage any private cloud workload.
Client Management Licensing
System Center 2012 client management licensing provides simple, cost-effective options to manage and protect client systems. Client management licenses are available in three offers:
- System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager is available on a per-user or per-OSE basis as well as in the Core CAL and Enterprise CAL suites.
- System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection: System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection (the next version of Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010) is available as a per-user or per-device subscription as well as in the Core CAL and Enterprise CAL suites. The subscription includes all antimalware updates and product upgrades during the subscription period.
- System Center Client Management Suite: The System Center 2012 Client Management Suite is available on a per-user or per-OSE basis as well as in the Enterprise CAL suite. It is composed of Data Protection Manager, Operations Manager, Service Manager, and Orchestrator.
Core CAL and Enterprise CAL Suites will continue to be the most cost effective way to purchase client management products.
The new licensing model is mainly focused towards the private cloud and significantly reduces the number of options to choose from while keeping enough options for your environment.
System Center 2012 Components
App Controller
App Controller helps IT administrators manage private and public clouds, including cloud-based virtual machines and services.
Configuration Manager
Allows IT administrators to deploy applications, operating systems and software updates, as well as to monitor compliance settings on computers and remediate them. Configuration Manager gathers hardware and software inventory from computers and has multivendor platform support for devices that use Exchange Active technology. It can stream virtualized applications to computers. IT admins can deliver applications to systems on the corporate network or remotely through the cloud.
Data Protection Manager
DPM is a backup and recovery solution that has built-in intelligence to backup files and folders, Exchange server, SQL Server, Virtual Machine Manager, SharePoint, Hyper-V and client systems.
Endpoint Protection
This component provides antimalware and security protection for Microsoft systems and services.
Operations Manager
SCOM provides IT admins critical insight to the state of the IT infrastructure. It includes support for multiplatform network-device monitoring, as part of its cloud-based orientation.
Orchestrator
Orchestrator is a workflow management solution. It automates the creation, monitoring and deployment of resources in the datacenter.
Service Manager
Automates an organization’s IT service management using best practices and provides processes for change control, incident and problem resolution, and asset management.
Virtual Machine Manager
VMM uses shared physical resources and abstracting hardware to create a flexible platform for applications and services. By helping manage “Fabric” resources, IT admins can build private clouds with many benefits such as Self-service and Resource pooling.
System Center 2012 Licensing
Managed Servers
There are two editions of System Center 2012: Standard and Datacenter. Both editions include the same components, which is all the components described above. It is not possible to purchase the components separately.
In the Datacenter edition, each license covers up to two physical processors. As long as you have purchased sufficient Management Licenses (MLs) for a server, you can manage any number of Operating System Environments (OSEs) on that server. An OSE could be physical or virtual.
In the Standard edition, you’ll have to count for each managed server the number of physical processors and the number of managed OSEs. You would need to purchase licenses to cover for the greater number. For the processor count, each license covers up to two physical processors; for the managed OSE count, each license covers up to two OSEs. There’s an exception to this rule if the physical OSE on your server is used solely to run hardware virtualization software. Check the licensing documentation if this is your case.
To understand the licensing difference between the two editions, it is necessary to understand the following two key points:
- License is required only for endpoints being managed. No additional licenses are needed for management servers of SQL Server.
- It is a processor-based license for server management. It is a User or OSE-based license for client management. Note that you can’t split Server MLs across multiple servers (a single Server ML can’t be used to license two one-processor servers).
The following charts are provided by Microsoft (not that they are subject to change):
Microsoft System Center 2012
In the Datacenter edition, the number of Server MLs is determined by the number of physical processors in the server. In the Standard edition, the number of MLs is determined by the number of physical processors in the server or the number of OSEs being managed, whichever is greater. Server MLs are required for managed devices that run server OSEs.
Examples from Microsoft
Microsoft System Center 2012
Managed Clients
Client MLs are needed for managed devices not running server OSEs. Components included in the Client MLs are not available separately. These are the three Client MLs license types:
Microsoft System Center 2012
Planning for Hardware Configurations for System Center 2012
Applies To: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
This topic identifies recommended hardware configurations for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager site system servers, clients, and the Configuration Manager console. Use these recommendations as guidelines when you plan to scale your Configuration Manager environment to support more than a very basic deployment of sites, site systems, and clients.
Use the information in this topic as a guide for the hardware to use when you run Configuration Manager at scale. For information about supported configurations for Configuration Manager, see Supported Configurations for Configuration Manager.
These recommendations are not intended to cover each possible site and hierarchy configuration. Instead, use this information as a guide to help you plan for hardware that can meet the processing loads for clients and sites that use the available Configuration Manager features with the default configurations.
This section identifies recommended hardware configurations for Configuration Manager site systems. In general, the key factors that limit performance of the overall system include the following, in order:
- Disk I/O performance
- Available memory
- CPU
For best performance, use RAID 10 configurations for all data drives and 1Gbps Ethernet network connectivity between site system servers, including the database server.
Use the following recommendations for each Configuration Manager site server. For information about the disk space requirements, see Disk Space Configurations for Site Servers.
Site details |
Suggested minimum configuration |
Central administration site with the Standard edition of SQL Server
- SQL Server is located on the site server computer.
- This configuration supports a hierarchy with up to 50,000 clients
Note |
Database replication represents the largest processing load on the central administration site. |
|
- 8 cores (Intel Xeon 5504 or comparable CPU)
- 32 GB of RAM
- 300 GB of disk space for the operating system, Configuration Manager, SQL Server, and all database files.
|
Central administration site with the Enterprise edition of SQL Server
- SQL Server is located on the site server computer
- This configuration supports a hierarchy with up to 400,000 clients
Note |
Database replication represents the largest processing load on the central administration site. |
|
- 16 cores (Intel Xeon L5520 or comparable CPU)
- 64 GB of RAM
- 1.5 TB of disk space for the operating system, Configuration Manager, SQL Server, and all database files.
|
Stand-alone primary site
- Up to 100,000 clients
- SQL Server is installed on the site server computer
|
- 8 cores (Intel Xeon E5504 or comparable CPU)
- 32 GB of RAM
- 550 GB hard disk space for the operating system, SQL Server, and all database files
|
Primary site in a hierarchy
- Up to 50,000 clients
- SQL Server is installed on the site server computer
|
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable CPU)
- 16 GB of RAM
- 300 GB of hard disk space for the operating system, Configuration Manager, SQL Server, and all database files.
|
Primary site in a hierarchy
- Up to 100,000 clients
- SQL Server is remote from the site server computer
|
Site Server:
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable CPU)
- 8GB of RAM
- 50 GB of disk space for the operating system and Configuration Manager.
Remote SQL Server:
- 8 cores (Intel Xeon E5504 or comparable CPU)
- 32 GB of RAM
- 550 GB of hard disk space for the operating system, SQL Server, and all database files.
|
Secondary site
- Communications from up to 5,000 clients
- SQL Server must be installed on the site server computer
|
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable CPU)
- 8 GB of RAM
- 100 GB of hard disk space for the operating system, Configuration Manager, SQL Server, and all database files.
|
Because disk allocation and configuration contributes to the performance of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, disk space requirements can be greater than for previous product versions. Use the following information as guidelines when you determine the amount of disk space Configuration Manager requires. Because each Configuration Manager environment is different, these values can vary from the following guidance.
For the best performance, place each object on a separate, dedicated RAID volume. For all data volumes (Configuration Manager and its database files), use RAID 10 for the best performance.
Data usage |
Minimum disk space1 |
25,000 clients |
50,000 clients |
100,000 clients |
Operating system |
See guidance for the operating system. |
See guidance for the operating system. |
See guidance for the operating system. |
See guidance for the operating system. |
Configuration Manager Application and Log Files |
10 GB |
10 GB |
10 GB |
10 GB |
Site database .mdf file |
75 GB for every 25,000 clients |
75 GB |
150 GB |
300 GB |
Site database .ldf file |
25 GB for every 25,000 clients |
25 GB |
50 GB |
100 GB |
Temp database files (.mdf and .ldf) |
As needed |
As needed |
As needed |
As needed |
Content (distribution point shares) |
As needed |
As needed |
As needed |
As needed |
1 The minimum disk space does not include the space required for source content that is located on the site server.
In addition to the preceding guidance, consider the following general guidelines when you plan for disk space requirements:
- Each client requires approximately 3 MB of space in the database
- When planning for the size of the Temp database for a primary site, plan for a size that is 25% to 30% of the site database .mdf file. The actual size can be significantly smaller, or larger, and depends on the performance of the site server and the volume of incoming data over both short and long periods of time.
- The Temp database size for a central administration site is typically much smaller than that for a primary site.
- The secondary site database is limited in size to the following:
- SQL Server 2008 Express: 4 GB
- SQL Server 2008 R2 Express: 10 GB
Use the following as recommended hardware configurations for computers that run the following site system roles. These recommendations are for computers that hold a single site system role and you should make adjustments when you install multiple site system roles on the same computer. For more information about the disk space requirements, see Disk Space Configurations for Site Servers in this topic.
Site system role |
Suggested minimum configuration |
Management point
|
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable CPU)
- 8 GB of RAM
- 50 GB of disk space for the operating system and Configuration Manager.
Note |
Management point performance relies most on memory and processor capacity. |
|
Distribution point |
- 2 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable CPU)
- 8 GB of RAM
- Disk space as required for the operating system and content you deploy to the distribution point.
Note |
Distribution point performance relies most on network I/O and disk I/O. |
|
Application Catalog, with the web service and website on the site system computer |
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable CPU)
- 16 GB of RAM
- 50 GB of disk space for the operating system and Configuration Manager.
|
All other site system roles |
- 4 cores (Intel Xeon 5140 or comparable CPU)
- 8 GB of RAM
- 50 GB of disk space for the operating system and Configuration Manager.
|