Hardware Requirements
Enterprise networks can vary in performance, capacity, protocols, and overall activity. Resource requirements to consider for Nessus deployments include raw network speed, the size of the network, and the configuration of Nessus.
Note: The following recommendations are guidelines for the minimum hardware allocations. Certain types of scans are more resource intensive. If you run complex scans, especially those with credentials, you may require more disk space, memory, and processing power.
Tip: For information about Tenable Core + Nessus, see Requirements in the Tenable Core User Guide.
Storage Requirements
You must install Nessus on direct-attached storage (DAS) devices. Nessus does not support storage area networks (SANs) or network-attached storage (NAS) configurations.
Tenable recommends a minimum of 1,000 MB of temporary space for the Nessus scanner to run properly.
NIC Requirements
Tenable recommends you configure the following, at minimum, to ensure network interface controller (NIC) compatibility with Nessus:
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Disable NIC teaming or assign a single NIC to Nessus.
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Disable IPv6 tunneling on the NIC.
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Disable packet capture applications that share a NIC with Nessus.
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Avoid deploying Nessus in a Docker container that shares a NIC with another Docker container.
For assistance confirming if other aspects of your NIC configuration are compatible with Nessus, contact Tenable Support.
Nessus Scanners and Nessus Professional
The following table lists the hardware requirements for Nessus scanners and 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. |
Nessus Manager
The following table lists the hardware requirements for Nessus Manager.
Scenario |
Minimum Recommended Hardware |
---|---|
Nessus Manager with 0-10,000 agents |
CPU: 4 2GHz cores Memory: 16 GB RAM Disk space: 30 GB, not including space used by the host operating system. 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: 64 GB RAM Disk space: 30 GB, not including space used by the host operating system. Note: Scan results and plugin updates require more disk space over time. Note: Engage with your Tenable representative for large deployments.
|
You can install Nessus on a Virtual Machine that meets the same requirements.
Nessus Agents
Nessus Agents are lightweight and only minimal system resources. Generally, a Nessus Agent uses 40 MB of RAM (all pageable). A Nessus Agent uses almost no CPU while idle, but is designed to use up to 100% of CPU when available during jobs.
For more information on Nessus Agent resource usage, see Agent Software Footprint.
The following table outlines the minimum recommended hardware for operating a Nessus Agent. You can install 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 |
The agent may require more space during certain processes, such as a plugins-code.db defragmentation operation. |
Disk Speed | 15-50 IOPS |