Primer on Licensing System Center Products

Microsoft currently has four major products in its System Center line targeted at large enterprise customers:

• Configuration Manager (CM), to automate software deployment, inventory hardware and software assets, and report on OS and application compliance with configuration policies set by administrators
• Data Protection Manager (DPM), to capture frequent backups of application and system data to disk, tape, or Internet storage
• Operations Manager (OM), to monitor hardware, OS, and applications; detect symptoms of poor health; and automatically take corrective action or help identify the root cause of a problem
• Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), to provision and manage virtual machines (VMs), store VM images in a library, and patch these images (with the assistance of CM or Windows Server Update Services, a free product)

All four major System Center products consist of an agent that executes on each managed device and a central management infrastructure. Typically run as a dedicated server or servers, this infrastructure communicates and coordinates with the agents; stores backup, performance, configuration, and other management data; and provides an administrative console. All four products require managed devices to be licensed, and all except VMM require customers to purchase additional server licenses for the central management infrastructure.