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EMS Administration Guide

Management capacity

Management capacity

FortiClient EMS is intended for enterprise use and has the capacity to manage a large number of endpoints.

Having at least 200 GB of disk space available is recommended.

You can use FortiClient EMS with SQL Server Express, Enterprise, or Standard. When managing more than 5000 endpoints, install SQL Server Enterprise or Standard instead of SQL Server Express, which the EMS installation installs by default. Otherwise, you may experience database deadlocks. See Installing FortiClient EMS to specify SQL Server Enterprise or Standard instance. The following table summarizes which SQL Server edition to use for different numbers of managed endpoints.

Number of managed endpoints

Required SQL Server edition

Other configuration notes

Up to 5000

Express. Optionally, you can use SQL Server Enterprise or Standard.

EMS and SQL Server can be installed on the same Windows Server machine, or two different Windows Server machines.

5000 to 50000

Enterprise or Standard

EMS and SQL Server can be installed on the same Windows Server machine, or two different Windows Server machines.

More than 50000

Enterprise or Standard

EMS and SQL Server must be installed on two different Windows Server machines.

The following topics include suggested host system hardware configurations for FortiClient EMS. The suggested configurations depend on the number of endpoints FortiClient EMS is managing, whether SQL Server and EMS are on the same or different servers, and whether there are FortiGates connected to EMS. The configurations in the following topics apply when a maximum of 20 multitenancy sites are configured. See the following for the suggested host system hardware configurations for these scenarios:

The requirements listed for managing 50000 to 75000 endpoints are considered best practice, even when managing a smaller number of endpoints.

Management capacity

FortiClient EMS is intended for enterprise use and has the capacity to manage a large number of endpoints.

Having at least 200 GB of disk space available is recommended.

You can use FortiClient EMS with SQL Server Express, Enterprise, or Standard. When managing more than 5000 endpoints, install SQL Server Enterprise or Standard instead of SQL Server Express, which the EMS installation installs by default. Otherwise, you may experience database deadlocks. See Installing FortiClient EMS to specify SQL Server Enterprise or Standard instance. The following table summarizes which SQL Server edition to use for different numbers of managed endpoints.

Number of managed endpoints

Required SQL Server edition

Other configuration notes

Up to 5000

Express. Optionally, you can use SQL Server Enterprise or Standard.

EMS and SQL Server can be installed on the same Windows Server machine, or two different Windows Server machines.

5000 to 50000

Enterprise or Standard

EMS and SQL Server can be installed on the same Windows Server machine, or two different Windows Server machines.

More than 50000

Enterprise or Standard

EMS and SQL Server must be installed on two different Windows Server machines.

The following topics include suggested host system hardware configurations for FortiClient EMS. The suggested configurations depend on the number of endpoints FortiClient EMS is managing, whether SQL Server and EMS are on the same or different servers, and whether there are FortiGates connected to EMS. The configurations in the following topics apply when a maximum of 20 multitenancy sites are configured. See the following for the suggested host system hardware configurations for these scenarios:

The requirements listed for managing 50000 to 75000 endpoints are considered best practice, even when managing a smaller number of endpoints.