Tenable Nessus Scanner Hardware Requirements
Enterprise networks can vary in performance, capacity, protocols, and overall activity. Resource requirements to consider for Tenable Nessus deployments include raw network speed, the size of the network being monitored, and the Tenable Nessus configuration.
Tenable Nessus Scanners and Tenable Nessus Professional
The following table lists the hardware requirements for Tenable Nessus scanners and Tenable Nessus Professional.
Scenario |
Minimum Recommended Hardware |
---|---|
Scanning up to 50,000 hosts per scan |
CPU: 4 2GHz cores Memory: 4 GB RAM (8 GB RAM recommended) Disk space: 30 GB, not including space used by the host operating system Note: Your usage (e.g., scan results, plugin updates, and logs) increases the amount of disk space needed over time. |
Scanning more than 50,000 hosts per scan |
CPU: 8 2GHz cores Memory: 8 GB RAM (16 GB RAM recommended) Disk space: 30 GB, not including space used by the host operating system Note: Your usage (e.g., scan results, plugin updates, and logs) increases the amount of disk space needed over time. |
Tenable Nessus Manager
The following table lists the hardware requirements for Tenable Nessus Manager.
Scenario |
Minimum Recommended Hardware |
---|---|
Nessus Manager with 0-10,000 agents |
CPU: 4 2GHz cores Memory: 16 GB RAM Disk space: 5 GB per 5,000 agents per concurrent scan Note: Scan results and plugin updates require more disk space over time. |
Nessus Manager with 10,001-20,000 agents
|
CPU: 8 2GHz cores Memory: 32 GB RAM Disk space: 5 GB per 5,000 agents per concurrent scan Note: Scan results and plugin updates require more disk space over time. Note: Engage with your Tenable representative for large deployments.
|
Virtual Machines
Tenable Nessus can be installed on a virtual machine that meets the same requirements. If your virtual machine is using Network Address Translation (NAT) to reach the network, many of the Tenable Nessus vulnerability checks, host enumeration, and operating system identification are negatively affected.