CommServe Server: System Requirements (Windows)

Verify that your Windows environment meets the system requirements for the CommServe server.

Operating System

Important

Use the most recent version of the operating system that is listed. The Commvault software fully supports the most recent version of an operating system, until the vendor ends support. More recent versions of the Commvault software might not install on operating systems that are not supported by the vendor anymore. For information about the support lifecycle of an operating system, contact the vendor.

For new installations of Commvault version 11.24 and later versions, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 is not supported. New installations of Commvault version 11.24 and later versions use MS SQL Server 2019, which requires a minimum of MS Windows Server 2016. Commvault upgrades are still supported.

Beginning with Commvault version 11.34 (Commvault Platform Release 2024), Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 will not be supported for Commvault upgrades because Microsoft has ended mainstream support for these Windows versions.

Windows 2012 and 2012 R2 clients will continue to be supported.

Operating system	Processor architecture
Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Editions	All Windows-compatible processors are supported
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Editions	All Windows-compatible processors are supported
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Core Editions	All Windows-compatible processors are supported
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Editions For more information, see Considerations for Microsoft Windows Server 2016.	All Windows-compatible processors are supported

Note

Beginning Commvault Platform Release 2022E, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 are no longer supported. For more information, see Announcements.

Hardware

For the hardware requirements for the CommServe sever, installed on either physical or virtual machines, see Hardware Specifications for CommServe.

Note

The software installation requires 10 GB of disk space on the operating system drive. This space is used for temporary files copied during the installation or upgrade of the CommServe and Microsoft SQL Server software.
For hard drive requirements details of other components (such as the Deduplication Mode), see the corresponding system requirements pages.

Database Engine

The Commvault software embeds Microsoft SQL Server as its database engine. The following table shows the releases of MS SQL Server that are supported for the different releases of the Commvault software.

The MS SQL Server application that is installed on the CommServe computer must be dedicated to support the software and cannot be shared by other applications.

Microsoft SQL Server release	Supported editions	Installed by default when you create a new CommServe server	Certified cumulative update/service pack	Microsoft information about scalability, performance, and other supported features	Notes
Microsoft SQL Server 2022	Standard		Cumulative Update 16 Cumulative Update 15 + GDR	Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2022	Microsoft SQL Server 2022 is not installed during a fresh CommServe server installation. You can only upgrade an existing SQL server standard installation on the CommServe server to Microsoft SQL Server 2022. For upgrade instructions, see Supported version and edition upgrades (SQL Server 2022).
Microsoft SQL Server 2019	Enterprise Standard Express	Standard edition only with Feature Release 11.24 and more recent releases.	Cumulative Update 29, Cumulative Update 29 + GDR	Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2019
Microsoft SQL Server 2017	Enterprise Standard Express		Cumulative Update 22 (RTM-CU22)	Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2017
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Note In virtual environments, for MS SQL Server 2016, set the socket count and the core count to 4.	Enterprise Standard Express	Feature Release 11.16 and more recent releases.	Service Pack 3,GDR for SP3	Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2016

Later MS SQL Server service packs and updates must be installed manually. You must update the MS SQL Server with any important updates released by Microsoft.

Recommended SQL Server Settings

The database instance used by the software requires specific SQL server settings.

Note

For information about SQL Server on Linux, see Microsoft guidelines for SQL Server on Linux on the Microsoft website.

Using the SQL Management Studio, verify the SQL properties listed below.

SQL Memory Size

Access the server properties and navigate to the Memory page. The maximum server memory should be 50% of the physical memory available in the computer on which the software is installed.

Server Collation

Run the sp_helpsort system stored procedure, and verify that the server default collation has the following properties:

Character Set is 1252/ISO (default)
Sort Order is Dictionary order, and case is Insensitive
Unicode Collation includes General Unicode, case Insensitive, width Insensitive
SQL Server collation is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

Temp Database Properties

Navigate to the tempdb database (under the Databases | System Databases node), and access its properties to verify the following:

The tempdb database has at least 100 GB of disk space. Depending on the components that you decide to install later, additional space may needed.
Click the Files page to check the autogrowth properties of the database files. The Enable Autogrowth option must be selected, and the file growth should be set to 10%.

For more information about the CommServe Server hardware requirements, see Hardware Specifications for the CommServe Server.

Service Accounts

For Service Accounts on non-clustered environments, use the domain administrator account or a gMSA (Group Managed Service Account). Alternatively, you can use the same Local System account for each service and enable auto-start for SQL services.

Note

gMSAs provide enhanced security.
Ensure that the gMSA is a part of the Domain Administrators group.

On clustered environments, use an account with administrator privileges (such as, a member of the Administrator local group of the computer or domain).

Note

For SQL Server 2014, the license is limited to 4 sockets or 16 cores, whichever is less or whichever comes first.
For SQL Server 2016, 2017, and 2019, the license is limited to 4 sockets or 24 cores, whichever is less.
For the SQL Server scheduler, use NUMAs for distributing or scheduling the SPID load.
For VMs that have more than 4 sockets, SQL Server uses only the first 4 sockets. This configuration is considered to be a bad configuration.
Each VM socket must have its own NUMA association for SQL Server Schedulers and for CPUs that have more than 4 sockets per NUMA.
SQL Server VMs must have matching, dedicated physical CPUs on the VM Host. For the best performance, the VMs must not be shared.
For a SQL Server VM used in the CommServe environment, I/O per second (IOPS) must be at least 150.

CommServe Database on CIFS

The CommServe SQL database is not supported on a CIFS share.

CommServe Name Cannot Be "CommCell"

By default, the Commvault software uses the name of the server computer (where the CommServe component is installed) as the CommServe name. During the installation of the CommServe component, the software also allows you to specify a different CommServe name.

Caution

The CommServe name cannot be "CommCell". If you change the CommServe name during installation, do not change it to "CommCell".

Software That Is Automatically Installed

.NET Framework

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2 is required and is automatically installed.

Internet Information Services

By default, the Web Server and Web Console packages are installed with the CommServe computer. To install this software, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) must be enabled on the CommServe computer and must meet the following requirements:

Internet Information Services Manager version 10.0 (on Windows 2016 only)
Internet Information Services Manager version 8.0 or 8.5 (on Windows 2012 only)
Internet Information Services Manager version 7.5

Java SE Platform

Java is installed automatically during the installation of this software. If you already have a system-installed Java version, the software installs another instance of the supported Java version in the software installation path.

All Commvault binaries (JAR files) are signed by SHA-256 Digest. To verify that the downloaded JAR files from Java webstart/netx.jar are not modified, use SHA 256.

Note

Commvault always updates the Java version with the most recent security updates, so that the components using Java do not have any vulnerabilities that are reported by the open source community. To manually upgrade the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for the Commvault software, see KB article 57019.

Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2017

Starting with Service Pack 18, Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2017 (vcredist2017.exe) is automatically installed.

If a computer does not have the most recent Windows updates, the installation of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2017 will fail in installing Universal C Runtime. The following Windows updates must be installed to prevent the installation failure. The updates are not required on the most recent Windows operating system versions, such as Microsoft Windows 10 and Microsoft Windows Server 2016, because these versions have the Universal C Runtime already installed.

KB2919355
KB2939087
KB2975061
KB2999226

DISCLAIMER

Certain third-party software and service releases (together, "Releases") may not be supported by Commvault. You are solely responsible for ensuring Commvault’s products and services are compatible with any such Releases.