Storage Manager Disk Requirements

As part of its security analysis, Tenable Identity Exposure stores the differences for each Active Directory (AD) change either from the AD database or the SYSVOL network share.

The Storage Manager component oversees the storage of these events using the following:

  • An event log storage for attacks related events

  • A Microsoft SQL Server instance for all other events

Tenable provides both minimum and recommended hardware requirements depending on your Active Directory activity:

  • A minimum sizing configuration to start and run the platform in most infrastructures.

  • A recommended sizing configuration to cover the needs of most event-intensive AD infrastructures.

Tenable Identity Exposure also requires the implementation of a specific disk layout to store the different database files and to ensure that I/O performances are compatible with its activity.

Due to the amount of Active Directory data it processes, Tenable Identity Exposure is a disk-intensive application. To avoid any bottleneck introduced by the storage (disk or SAN), Tenable Identity Exposure offers a minimal and recommended configuration.

  • As with sizing, the minimal disk performances generally cover the needs of most infrastructures.

  • The recommended infrastructure offers better experience for large or active AD infrastructures.

Supported and Recommended Disk Layout

Some specific environments require splitting the database files across different disks:

  • One data file disk

  • One temporary DB disk

  • One log file disk

  • (Optional) 1 backup disk

Minimum and Recommended Disk Sizing

The following tables describe the minimal and recommended disk sizing to store six months of Active Directory events in Tenable Identity Exposure.

Storage managers – Disk Sizing Matrix

Active AD users

Disk Space (per instance)

Data File Disk Space

Log File Disk Space

TempDb Disk Space

Minimum Recommended Minimum Recommended Minimum Recommended

1 – 25,000

600 GB

340 GB

375 GB

100 GB

200 GB

10 GB

25 GB

25,001 – 50,000

800 GB

400 GB

500 GB

125 GB

250 GB

25 GB

50 GB

50,001 - 75,000

1.2 TB

600 GB

775 GB

150 GB

350 GB

50 GB

75 GB

75,001 – 100,000

2 TB

725 GB

1.3 TB

200 GB

600 GB

75 GB

100 GB

100,001 – 150,000

4 TB

1.6 TB

3 TB

300 GB

800 GB

100 GB

200 GB

150,001 – 300,000

6 TB

2.45 TB

4.7 TB

400 GB

1 TB

150 GB

300 GB

300,001 – 500,001+

8 TB

3.3 TB

6.4 TB

500 GB

1.2 TB

200 GB

400 GB

Minimum and Recommended Disk Performance

The limiting factor of the database is usually the underlying disk performances. The better disk throughput/IOPS, the better overall performances of Tenable Identity Exposure are. A low latency is also necessary (<5 ms).

Storage managers – Disk Performance Matrix

Active AD users

 

Minimal Disk Performance

Recommended Disk Performance

Throughput (MB/sec)

IOPs (read/write)

Throughput (MB/sec)

IOPs (read/write)

1 – 25,000

150

2,500

300

5,000

25,001 – 50,000

200

5,000

400

10,000

50,001 - 75,000

200

5,000

400

10,000

75,001 – 100,000

200

5,000

400

10,000

100,001 – 150,000

250

7,500

500

15,000

150,001 – 300,000

250

7,500

500

15,000

300,001 – 500,001+

500

16,000

1,000

32,000