5.7

The best practice in production environments is to have the Managing Agent process the requests for a
single vCenter Server. Dedicate one Managing Agent machine for each vCenter Server. In a single
vCenter Server instance environment, the VCM Collector can be the Managing Agent.
A single Managing Agent can manage multiple vCenter Server instances depending on your collection
schedules and when potential job latency is not an issue, such as when a single Managing Agent must
process multiple requests serially. A single Managing Agent can manage multiple vCenter Server instances
as long as only one vCenter Server is collected at a time.
When job latency is not a problem, and depending on your collection schedules, you might dedicate a
single Managing Agent for every five vCenter Server instances or 100 hosts. You could dedicate one
Managing Agent to a vCenter Server that manages 100 hosts, or a collection of four vCenter Server
instances that each manage 10 hosts could share a Managing Agent.
Sizing Impact on Software Edition Requirements
Use the total number of managed machines that you identified in "Determine the Size of Your
Environment" on page 14 to locate your environment size: 1–1000, 1001–2000, 2001–5000, or more. If you
have more than 5000 machines in your environment, contact VMware Technical Support for your specific
requirements.
VCM supports Standard and Enterprise editions of SQL Server 2008 R2 or 2012.
NOTE Do not run VCM in a production environment when using only an evaluation version of SQL
Server. Evaluation versions are not supported for production.
Software
Component
Number of Managed Machines
1–1000 1001–2000 2001–5000
Operating
System
Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2
Enterprise Edition
SQL
Version
SQL Server 2008 R2 or
2012, Standard Edition (64-
bit)
SQL Server 2008 R2 or
2012, Standard Edition (64-
bit)
SQL Server 2008 R2 or
2012, Standard Edition (64-
bit)
SSRS
Version
SQL Server 2008 or 2012
Reporting Services
SQL Server 2008 or 2012
Reporting Services
SQL Server 2008 or 2012
Reporting Services
Table 1–9. Minimum Software Edition Requirements by Number of VCM Managed Machines
Additional Requirements for Virtual Machine VCM Servers
These sections apply only when installing VCM on a virtual machine.
VCM can place heavy workloads on the database, so installing the database on a virtual machine requires
adequate settings. You should provision a VCM virtual machine similar to one that runs a high
throughput OLTP database application.
Follow these guidelines to install VCM in a development, test, or IT environment. For large scale
environments, you might need to expand these requirements.
IMPORTANT Do not install VCM on a virtual machine on an ESX server that has over-allocated resources.
vCenter Configuration Manager Installation Guide
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