Hardware Requirements
Review the hardware requirements for the computer where Netwrix Data Classification will be installed.
You can deploy Netwrix Data Classification on a virtual machine running Microsoft Windows guest OS on the corresponding virtualization platform, in particular:
- VMware vSphere
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- Nutanix AHV
Note that Netwrix Data Classification supports only Windows OS versions listed in the Software Requirements section.
Netwrix Data Classification Server
The requirements in this section apply to a single Netwrix Data Classification server.
To deploy a server cluster, make sure all planned cluster nodes meet the requirements listed below. Consider deploying 1 Netwrix Data Classification Server per approx. 16, 000, 000 objects to process.
See Deployment Planning and Configuring NDC Servers Cluster and Load Balancing with DQS Mode for more information.
| Hardware Component | 1 Server per 16 M objects |
|---|---|
| Cores | 8 Cores |
| RAM | 32 GB |
| Hard disk | UP TO 35% of all data in scope |
| Hard drive type | SSD storage (recommended) |
SQL Server
Review the hardware requirements for the computer where Netwrix Data Classification SQL Database will be deployed.
| Hardware Component | Up to 16 M objects | Up to 32 M objects and up to 8 M objects for SharePoint | Up to 64 M objects and up to 16 M objects for SharePoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | 8 cores | 8 cores | 8 cores |
| RAM | 32 GB | 64 GB | 128 GB |
| Hard disk | Estimate required disk space assuming 10 - 12 KB per indexed object. For example, for 5, 000, 000 objects, the database size will be approximately 50 GB. See also Deployment Planning. | ||
| Hard disk type | SSD storage (recommended) |
Network Access
| Specification | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Network access | Ensure that your Netwrix Data Classification servers are available over the network on a HTTP compliant port from all machines where the client interface (management console) will run. |
Object and Scope Estimations
Provide the total amount of data and total file count from all file shares that will be in the scope. Supported file shares types:
- CIFS\SMB (a normal Windows-like share)
- NFS
Administration Dashboards for most Network Attached Storages include storage usage such as the amount of data and files count. In case you need a tool to calculate file count and size, you can use NDC script-based file scanning tool.
Exchange Mailboxes
In case you have Exchange on-prem you would need to know the additional information:
- Number of Mailboxes
- Mailbox retention policy (for how long users keep their emails before they are archived)
- The average number of emails per Mailbox or total number in all mailboxes.
The number of emails in all mailboxes can be obtained with the PowerShell script for the Exchange Management Shell bellow. The script will return email stats for every mailbox. Use the script results calculate the average number of emails per mailbox or provide the total number.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxStatistics SelectItemCount | ForEach {$totalItems+=$_.ItemCount}
Office 365: Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and One Drive
Provide the total amount of data and total file stored on Office 365. You can use the usage statistics numbers for 180 days period from the O365 Admin Center dashboard. Refer to the following Microsoft article for additional information: Microsoft 365 Reports in the admin center
Databases
In case your scope includes databases, the following details are required:
- Database type (MS SQL, Oracle, MySQL)
- What applications and systems those databases support
- How many databases the data need to be classified in
Netwrix Data Classification will need to be pointed at certain tables in the specified databases, the customer is expected to know which tables within a database may potentially contain sensitive data.
Box
Provide the total file count and storage usage from the BOX Admin Dashboard
Plan the Production Deployment
To size servers for your Netwrix Data Classification setup, use the metrics produced during the scoping stage. Apply the total number of files, documents, emails from all data sources to the table below to obtain corresponding hardware requirements.
CAUTION: Netwrix Data Classification servers and SQL servers require high-performance SSD drives for optimal performance.
Due to the performance limitations of the SQL database back end, the maximum capacity of clustered setup with 4 Data Classification servers is limited to 64 million files with supported content types. Environments that exceeds this number can be supported with implementing the followings:
- Multiply separate installations of clustered setup with 4 Data Classification servers. Where each installation is pointed at its own subset of data. Each installation requires its own SQL Server instance.
- Phased data processing with one installation of clustered setup with 4 Data Classification servers. With phased data processing, the dataset is divided into subsets and processed by chunks.
See the hardware sizing for Netwrix Data Classification setup in the following table:
| Scope | Up to 10 TB of data or 1,000,000 - 16,000,000 files | Up to 25 TB of data or 16,000,000 - 32,000,000 files | Up to 45 TB of data or 32,000,000 - 64,000,000 files |
| Setup | 2 Servers total: SQL Server Instance + NDC Server | 3 servers total: SQL Server Instances + 2 Clustered NDC Servers | 5 servers total: SQL Server Instances + 4 Clustered NDC Servers |
| SQL Server Requirements | Standard or Enterprise SQL Server 8 cores CPU, 32 GB RAM Disk Space Consumption: 10 - 12 KB per indexed object SSD storage | Standard or Enterprise SQL Server 8 cores CPU, 64 GB RAM Disk Space Consumption: 10 - 12 KB per indexed object SSD storage | Standard or Enterprise SQL Server 8 cores CPU, 128 GB RAM Disk Space Consumption: 10 - 12 KB per indexed object SSD storage |
| NDC Server Requirements | Single Server Setup Netwrix Data Classification 8 cores CPU, 32 GB RAM Disk Space Consumption: up to 35% of all data in the scope SSD storage | Clustered Setup: 2 Servers Netwrix Data Classification #1 8 cores CPU, 32 GB RAM Netwrix Data Classification #2 8 cores CPU, 32 GB RAM Disk Space Consumption: up to 35% of all data in the scope distributed across 2 clustered Data Classification servers SSD storage | Clustered Setup: 4 Servers Netwrix Data Classification #1 8 cores CPU, 32 GB RAM Netwrix Data Classification #2 8 cores CPU, 32 GB RAM Netwrix Data Classification #3 8 cores CPU, 32 GB RAM Netwrix Data Classification #4 8 cores CPU, 32 GB RAM Disk Space Consumption: up to 35% of all data in the scope distributed across 4 clustered Data Classification servers SSD storage |