From NewHaven Software Wiki

CMS System requirements are fairly meager considering the capabilities of today's machines. As such, most anything you buy today will be more than adequate. You do, however, want to make sure you're meeting the following system requirements.

64-bit vs 32-bit

Many Windows operating systems are available in either a 32-bit or 64-bit version. Either will work with CMS but the 64-bit version also does not offer any benefits to CMS over the 32-bit counterpart. If you're looking at running Windows XP, Vista or 2003 Server we'd recommend sticking with the 32-bit editions. If you're considering Windows 7 or 2008 Server you may opt for either the 32 or 64-bit editions.

Contents 1 Hardware 1.1 Servers 1.2 CMS workstations - Those machines which are connecting to a separate server 2 Operating Systems 2.1 Servers 2.2 Workstations

Hardware

Servers

This section applies to machines that are operating as pure servers or for stand-alone installations which are acting as both a server and workstation.

Minimum Requirements

• Pentium 4 - 1.8 GHz or faster CPU
• 1 Gigabyte RAM
• 20 GB Hard Drive with 2 GB available
• CD-ROM or CD-R/RW Drive
• SVGA Monitor

Database Server Additional Recommendations

1. The best things you can do to improve the performance of your CMS server is maximize your RAM and purchase fast hard drives. The speed and number of processors has less to do with CMS performance than does I/O (disk read/write) and being able to cache most or all of the database into RAM. Ideally you would have twice as much RAM as your database size. So a 2Gig db file would warrant 4Gig of RAM on the server for optimal performance. This should be your first goal when purchasing a new server or optimizing and existing server.
2. The CMS database server can make use of dual processors but, as a rule, processing speed does not play a huge role in performance. Consider this nice to have but not a necessity and lower in priority than the RAM and fast drive recommendations above.
3. Fast network cards - Especially useful if you run a lot of reports from your workstations.
4. RAID 6 or other drive array. Priority of redundancy over striping if going with a different RAID configuration. Your server is at the heart of your company's operation and you need to make sure you can keep it going. Redundancy will help you sleep at night.
5. Backups - Have an automated system in place to move the nightly CMS backup (must be turned on and configured) to other storage locations. Ideally you'd have a rolling backup routine that allowed you to store backups for each night without overwriting the previous backups and then move the last backup of the week offsite (DVD, tape or online backup location). This way even if your place of business was in a natural disaster or your server was stolen, you would reasonably be able to recover. We had a customer of ours go out of business because they were unable to recover. Don't let this happen to you.

CMS workstations - Those machines which are connecting to a separate server

Minimum Requirements

• Pentium III 500 MHz or faster
• 1 GB RAM
• CD-ROM Drive
• 20GB Hard Drive with 2GB available
• SVGA Monitor
• 10Mbps Network Card(s) or faster

CMS Workstation Recommendations Very little processing, disk space or hardware is required to run a CMS workstation. Most everything takes place on the server so your workstation needs will be reasonable. Our only recommendation beyond the minimums is to maximize your RAM and consider faster network cards.

Operating Systems

Servers

• Windows Server 2003 R2
• Windows Server 2008 R2

Workstations

• Windows XP Pro (only SP3)
• Vista Business Edition SP2
• Vista Ultimate SP2
• 7 Professional
• 7 Ultimate

64-bit vs 32-bit

Many Windows operating systems are available in either a 32-bit or 64-bit version. Either will work with CMS but the 64-bit version also does not offer any benefits to CMS over the 32-bit counterpart. If you're looking at XP, Vista or 2003 Server we'd recommend sticking with the 32-bit editions. If you're considering Windows 7 or 2008 Server you may opt for either the 32 or 64-bit editions.

Windows 2000

Microsoft will end support for Windows 2000 Professional on July 13, 2010. Windows 2000 is also not compatible with CMS version 7.0. For more information please refer to the article Windows 2000 and CMS