Detailed System Requirements
Abstract
This technote is intended to provides information about the requirements for IBM Storage Defender connection manager, sensor and sensor control nodes.
Content
Use the following links to go to the requirements section that you require:
- IBM Storage Defender connection manager
- IBM Storage Defender sensor control node
- IBM Storage Defender sensor
Note: IBM Storage Defender support for third-party operating systems, applications, services, and hardware depend on the respective vendor. If a third-party product or version moves into extended support, self-service support, or end-of-life, IBM Storage Defender supports the product or version at the same level as the vendor. See also IBM Support General Guidelines and Limitations - IBM support for software on unsupported operating systems.
Requirements for IBM Storage Defender connection manager
The IBM Storage Defender Data Resiliency Service connection manager (connection manager) is used to connect your local storage and backup systems and your Data Protect cluster to Data Resiliency, to do inventory operations and also to do test recovery and recovery operations by using Data Resiliency.
Inside the connection manager, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® is used as the operating system. The connection manager software is built to require less configuration and connect to your local resources and the Data Resiliency Service that runs in the cloud.
You can connect IBM Storage Defender Data Resiliency Service (Data Resiliency) to your on-premises resources by deploying a connection manager either on a VM or on a bare metal server. The connection manager section in the Data Resiliency Service user interface helps you to create and update the connection manager.
Add a connection manager
The corresponding connection manager ISO file be deployed in a virtual machine or on a bare metal server. For more information, see Adding a connection manager.
The minimum hardware requirements are:Hardware System - Systems based on the x86 64-bit architecture such as Intel-64 or AMD-64
- VMware virtual hardware version: v19 and laterProcessor - 4-core central processing unit (CPU)
- Physical or virtual CPU that supports x86-64-v3 microarchitecture specificationDisk space 256 GB of disk space Memory 16 GB Random Access Memory (RAM)
- Update an installed connection manager
To update the installed connection manager check the connection manager section in the Data Resiliency. In this section you can check if any new updates for the connection manager are available.- You can perform a offline update to the latest available version. For more information, see Updating connection manager offline.
- For connection managers with versions 2.0.10 and later, you can also set the preference to update the connection manager to the latest version either as automatic or on demand by editing the update settings. For more information, see Updating connection manager.
To run the automatic update, the connection manager must have outbound network connectivity to the online update server hosted in Amazon Web Services CloudFront content delivery network (CDN). If the connection manager is deployed in a network that has an outbound firewall, make sure that it is configured to allow outbound connections from the connection manager to host *.cloudfront.net on HTTPS port 443.
Network connections to the connection manager
The connection manager collects metadata about your storage and backup systems as described in Inventory metadata that is collected from Data Resiliency. It also performs data movement when recovering VMware virtual machines from backups on an IBM Storage Protect server. Network connections to the connection manager should be sized based on how it will be used.Minimal requirement Preferred Network 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Notes:
- If you do not have IBM Storage Protect in your environment, or do not use IBM Storage Protect to backup VMware virtual machines, then the connection manager must have at least the minimal network requirements.
- If you use the connection manager to recover VMware virtual machines from IBM Storage Protect, then you should configure the network connection to the connection manager with the preferred network requirements. You should also connect the connection manager to a network that is close to the IBM Storage Protect server and the clean room to which you will recover your virtual machines.
- For a detailed list of network connections required for the connection manager to function as a source or a target, see IBM Storage Defender Data Resiliency Service: Network requirements.
Connection manager supported sensors
For the minimum hardware requirements the supported virtual machines with sensors are:
- maximum 3000 virtual machines with sensors, or
- maximum 1000 virtual machines with sensors (If you are using IBM Storage Protect to restore VMware virtual machines)
If you want to support more sensors, you can add CPU cores to your system.
The following table displays the connection manager system resources usage:Hardware System resources usage Minimum hardware requirements:
4-core processor and 16 GB RAM- 1 core and 8 GB RAM used for general compute use
- 1 core and 1 GB RAM per 1000 virtual machines with sensors
- 2 cores and 2 GB RAM allocated for IBM Storage Protect VM's restore processingExample for hardware requirements:
8-core processor and 128 GB RAM- 1 core used for general compute use
- 5 cores used for up to 5000 virtual machines with sensors
- 2 cores allocated for IBM Storage Protect VM's restore processing
Requirements for IBM Storage Defender sensor control node
IBM Storage Defender implements the concept of sensor control nodes. The sensor control nodes are used to host the sensor management systems. The sensor management systems are used for sensors that get installed on resources like virtual machines. For more information, see in the IBM Documentation the sensor control architecture illustration.
IBM Storage Defender sensor control node requires the following software:
| Software | |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 9 |
| Automation software application | Ansible Playbook Software (command: ansible-playbook) Note: Ansible collection Community.General should be installed. |
Requirements for IBM Storage Defender sensors
The sensor is installed on VMware virtual machines. The sensor software is hosted by the sensor control node and distributed to those virtual machines where the sensor is to be installed. The sensors observe the systems that they are installed on and can detect cyberattacks like ransomware attacks in real time. When the sensor detects cyberattacks, the sensor alerts you by sending messages to the on-premises connection manager and Data Resiliency Service.
Before proceeding to install and register IBM Storage Defender sensor on a Linux system, ensure that your system meets the following requirements:
| Hardware | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| System | Systems based on the x86 64-bit architecture | ||
| Disk space | A minimum of 256 MB of disk space | ||
| Memory | 8 GB Random Access Memory (RAM) | ||
| Software | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Communication Protocol | Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) | ||
| Operating system | Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 9.6 and later maintenance and modification levels | Required packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 9: -bash -kernel 5.9 or later version -libgomp -python3 | |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 and later maintenance and modification levels | Required packages for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6: -bash -kernel 5.9 or later version -libgomp1 -python311 Note: To install python311, the Python3 module must be enabled. For details on enabling modules, refer to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server documentation. | ||
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and later maintenance and modification levels | Required packages for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS: -bash -libgomp1 -linux-image-generic 5.9 or later version -python3 | ||
| File system | - XFS - EXT4 Note: on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server the BTRFS (B-tree File System) is not supported | ||
| More requirements | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ensure the latest compatible version of VM tools is installed and running on the guest virtual machines the sensors are being installed on. |
Before proceeding to install and register IBM Storage Defender sensor on a Windows system, ensure that your system meets the following requirements:
| Hardware | |
|---|---|
| System | x64: An AMD64 or EM64T processor or multi-processor based computer |
| Disk space | A minimum of 400 MB of disk space |
| Memory | 8 GB Random Access Memory (RAM) |
| Software | |
|---|---|
| Communication Protocol | Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) |
| Operating system | - Windows Server 2025, all editions - Windows Server 2022, all editions - Windows Server 2019, all editions - Windows 11, all editions |
| File system | - NTFS - ReFS |
| More requirements | |
|---|---|
| Ensure the latest compatible version of VM tools is installed and running on the guest virtual machines the sensors are being installed on. | |
| Ensure the Open SSH Server is enabled. For more information, see Get started with OpenSSH for Windows | |
| Ensure the Update Sequence Number (USN) change journal is enabled for all volumes that have to be monitored. For more information, see Prerequisites for IBM Storage Defender sensor for Windows. | |
| Ensure the Windows VM system is not in the reboot pending state. |
Restriction
On VMware vSphere 7 the Windows 11 operating system shows up as Windows 10. Thus on the IBM Storage Defender Data Resiliency user interface the operating system is also shown as Windows 10.
Related Information
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Document Information
Modified date:
26 November 2025
UID
ibm17166694