Nessus Agent Hardware Requirements

Tenable Nessus Agents is a lightweight, user space program and only use minimal system resources.

Generally, an agent uses 50 MB to 60 MB of RAM (all pageable). However, agents use additional memory when scanning (all pageable; the amount of memory depends on the scan configuration) and when updating plugins (all pageable). Agents use almost no CPU while idle, but they are designed to use up to 100% of CPU when available during jobs.

The following table outlines the minimum recommended hardware for operating a Tenable Nessus Agent. You can install Tenable Nessus Agents on a virtual machine that meets the same requirements specified.

Hardware	Minimum Requirement
Processor	1 dual-core CPU
Processor Speed	> 1 GHz
RAM	> 1 GB
Disk Space	> 3 GB, not including space used by the host operating system The agent may require more space during certain processes, such as applying a plugin update. The selected scan frequency, volume of findings, and log rotation options impact agent disk utilization. If disk space is a chief concern in your deployment scenario, Tenable recommends allocating up to 4 GB (not including space used by the host operating system).
Disk Speed	15-50 IOPS