System and License Requirements

Disk Space Requirements (6.9.x and earlier)

Enterprise networks can vary in performance, capacity, protocols, and overall activity. Resource requirements to consider for deployments include raw network speed, the size of the network being monitored, and the configuration of the application. Processors, memory, and network cards are heavily based on the former. Disk space requirements vary depending on usage based on the amount and length of time data is stored on the system.

An important consideration is that Tenable Security Center can be configured to save a snapshot of vulnerability archives each day. In addition, the size of the vulnerability data stored by Tenable Security Center depends on the number and types of vulnerabilities, not just the number of hosts. For example, 100 hosts with 100 vulnerabilities each could consume as much data as 1,000 hosts with 10 vulnerabilities each. In addition, the output for vulnerability check plugins that do directory listings, etc. is larger than Open Port plugins from discovery scans.

For networks of 35,000 to 50,000 hosts, Tenable has encountered data sizes of up to 25 GB. That number is based on storage of 50,000 hosts and approximately 500 KB per host.

Additionally, during active scanning sessions, large scans, and multiple smaller scans have been reported to consume as much as 150 GB of disk space as results are acquired. Once a scan has completed and its results are imported, that disk space is freed up.

Requirements When Running Basic Network Scans + Local Checks

Version	# of Hosts Managed by Tenable Security Center	CPU Cores	Memory	Disk Space used for Vulnerability Trending
6.7.x and later	2,500 active IPs	8 2GHz cores	16 GB RAM	90 days: 130 GB 180 days: 260 GB
	10,000 active IPs	16 3GHz cores	32 GB RAM	90 days: 450 GB 180 days: 900 GB
	25,000 active IPs	32 3GHz cores	64 GB RAM	90 days: 2.4 TB 180 days: 5 TB
	100,000 active IPs	48 3GHz cores	96 GB RAM	90 days: 4.5 TB 180 days: 9 TB
6.6.x and earlier	2,500 active IPs	4 2GHz cores	8 GB RAM	90 days: 125 GB 180 days: 250 GB
	10,000 active IPs	8 3GHz cores	16 GB RAM	90 days: 450 GB 180 days: 900 GB
	25,000 active IPs	16 3GHz cores	32 GB RAM	90 days: 2.4 TB 180 days: 5 TB
	100,000 active IPs	32 3GHz cores	64 GB RAM	90 days: 4.5 TB 180 days: 9 TB

Requirements When Running Basic Network Scans + Local Checks + 1 Configuration Audit

Version	# of Hosts Managed by Tenable Security Center	CPU Cores	Memory	Disk Space used for Vulnerability Trending
6.7.x and later	2,500 active IPs	8 2GHz cores	16 GB RAM	90 days: 225 GB 180 days: 400 GB
	10,000 active IPs	16 3GHz cores	32 GB RAM	90 days: 900 GB 180 days: 1.8 TB
	25,000 active IPs	32 3GHz cores	64 GB RAM	90 days: 4.5 TB 180 days: 9 TB
	100,000 active IPs	48 3GHz cores	128 GB RAM	90 days: 9 TB 180 days: 18 TB
6.6.x and earlier	2,500 active IPs	4 2GHz cores	8 GB RAM	90 days: 225 GB 180 days: 450 GB
	10,000 active IPs	8 3GHz cores	16 GB RAM	90 days: 900 GB 180 days: 1.8 TB
	25,000 active IPs	16 3GHz cores	32 GB RAM	90 days: 4.5 TB 180 days: 9 TB
	100,000 active IPs	32 3GHz cores	128 GB RAM	90 days: 9 TB 180 days: 18 TB

Disk Space Requirements (6.10.x and later)

Disk requirements for Tenable Security Center 6.9 and later are primarily driven by scan result storage.

Tenable recommends installing Tenable Security Center on direct-attached storage (DAS) or a SAN with latency of 10 milliseconds or less. NAS and NFS are not supported. High-performance disks (SSDs) are strongly recommended. The /opt partition should reside on a dedicated disk or partition separate from the operating system.

Disk Space Components

Component	Size	Notes
Scan result storage	Scales with host count, scan frequency, and retention	Dominant driver. See sizing tables below.
Repository data	~1 MB per host (with local checks) ~2 MB per host (with local checks and 1 compliance audit)
OS, plugins, and application databases	~23 GB	Flat overhead included in sizing tables below.
Active scan temp space	150 GB baseline (peak; scales with deployment)	Ephemeral. Required under /opt during active scans.
Upgrade temp space	~6 GB ~10 GB	Required in /tmp during upgrades.

Scan Result Sizing

The following tables apply to directly attached Nessus scanners without scan attachments enabled. If you are using linked scanners or have plugin attachments enabled, see Linked Scanners or Enabling Plugin Attachments below for additional sizing guidance.

The following tables show total disk requirements based on weekly scans with a 60-day retention period (9 scans stored). Scan result sizes assume a high-water mark of 250 findings per host per scan.

Basic Network Scans + Local Checks (Credentialed)

Active IPs	Repository Data	Scan Results (9 scans)	Flat Overhead	Total Disk Required
2,500	2.5 GB	13.5 GB	23 GB	39 GB
10,000	10 GB	54 GB	23 GB	87 GB
25,000	25 GB	135 GB	23 GB	183 GB
100,000	100 GB	540 GB	23 GB	663 GB

Basic Network Scans + Local Checks + 1 Configuration Audit

Active IPs	Repository Data	Scan Results (9 scans)	Flat Overhead	Total Disk Required
2,500	5 GB	36 GB	23 GB	64 GB
10,000	20 GB	144 GB	23 GB	187 GB
25,000	50 GB	360 GB	23 GB	433 GB
100,000	200 GB	1.44 TB	23 GB	1.66 TB

Adjusting for Scan Frequency and Retention

The tables above assume weekly scans with a 60-day retention period. To calculate disk requirements for different configurations, use the following approach:

• Scan results per year: (scans per week) × 52 × (30 MB per 50 hosts scanned)

• Retention adjustment: Multiply by (retention days ÷ 365) to scale proportionally.

• Compliance audit adjustment: For environments running basic network scans plus one configuration audit, use (active IPs ÷ 50) × 80 MB per scan instead of the 30 MB figure above (1.6 MB per host per scan).

The default scan result retention period is 365 days and is configurable. Reducing retention is the most effective way to reduce disk consumption.

Linked Scanners or Enabling Plugin Attachments

When using linked scanners or when plugin attachments are enabled, scan results take up significantly more disk space than the directly attached baseline. Use the following per-host estimates when sizing scan result storage:

• Credentialed vulnerability scans: 4 MB per host per scan

• Configuration audits: 2 MB per host per scan

For example, a weekly scan of 2,500 hosts with 60-day retention (9 scans) requires approximately 90 GB of scan result storage for credentialed vulnerability scans. Multiply by your host count, scan frequency, and configured retention period to determine total allocation.

For a combined credentialed vulnerability scan and one configuration audit, use 6 MB per host per scan (4 MB + 2 MB); a weekly scan of 2,500 hosts with 60-day retention (9 scans) requires approximately 135 GB of scan result storage. Multiply by your host count, scan frequency, and configured retention period to determine total allocation.

Amazon EC2 Instance Type Sizing Tables

Requirements When Running Basic Network Scans + Local Checks

# of Hosts Managed by Tenable Security Center	EC2 Instance Type	Total Disk Required
1 to 2,500	m5.2xlarge	39 GB
2,501 to 10,000	m5.4xlarge	87 GB
10,001 to 25,000	m5.8xlarge	183 GB
25,001 to 50,000	m5.12xlarge	343 GB
50,001 or more	For assistance with large enterprise deployments greater than 50,000 active IP addresses, contact your Tenable representative.

Requirements When Running Basic Network Scans + Local Checks + 1 Configuration Audit

# of Hosts Managed by Tenable Security Center	EC2 Instance Type	Total Disk Required
1 to 2,500	m5.2xlarge	64 GB
2,501 to 10,000	m5.4xlarge	187 GB
10,001 to 25,000	m5.8xlarge	433 GB
25,001 to 50,000	m5.12xlarge	843 GB
50,001 or more	For assistance with large enterprise deployments greater than 50,000 active IP addresses, contact your Tenable representative.

Supported Azure Instance Types

You can install Tenable Security Center in an Azure Virtual Machine (Azure Virtual Image) cloud-based environment that meets all of the following requirements. Tenable recommends the following virtual machine instance types based on your Tenable Security Center deployment size. You may need to increase the storage allocated to the virtual machine instance depending on usage.

Requirements When Running Basic Network Scans + Local Checks

# of Hosts Managed by Tenable Security Center	Virtual Machine Instance	Total Disk Required
1 to 2,500	D4s_v3	39 GB
2,501 to 10,000	D16s_v3	87 GB
10,001 to 25,000	D32s_v3	183 GB
25,001 to 50,000	D48s_v3	343 GB
50,001 or more	For assistance with large enterprise deployments greater than 50,000 active IP addresses, contact your Tenable representative.

Requirements When Running Basic Network Scans + Local Checks + 1 Configuration Audit

# of Hosts Managed by Tenable Security Center	Virtual Machine Instance	Total Disk Required
1 to 2,500	D4s_v3	64 GB
2,501 to 10,000	D16s_v3	187 GB
10,001 to 25,000	D32s_v3	433 GB
25,001 to 50,000	D48s_v3	843 GB
50,001 or more	For assistance with large enterprise deployments greater than 50,000 active IP addresses, contact your Tenable representative.

Supported Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Instance Types

You can install Tenable Security Center in a GCP cloud-based environment that meets all of the following requirements. Tenable Security Center uses a balance of networking and compute resources and requires persistent storage for proper operation. Tenable recommends the following GCP instance types based on your Tenable Security Center deployment size.

Requirements When Running Basic Network Scans + Local Checks

# of Hosts Managed by Tenable Security Center	GCP Instance Type	Total Disk Required
1 to 2,500	c4a-standard-8	39 GB
2,501 to 10,000	c4a-standard-16	87 GB
10,001 to 25,000	c4a-standard-32	183 GB
25,001 to 50,000	c4a-standard-48	343 GB
50,001 or more	For assistance with large enterprise deployments greater than 50,000 active IP addresses, contact your Tenable representative.

Requirements When Running Basic Network Scans + Local Checks + 1 Configuration Audit

# of Hosts Managed by Tenable Security Center	GCP Instance Type	Total Disk Required
1 to 2,500	c4a-standard-8	64 GB
2,501 to 10,000	c4a-standard-16	187 GB
10,001 to 25,000	c4a-standard-32	433 GB
25,001 to 50,000	c4a-standard-48	843 GB
50,001 or more	For assistance with large enterprise deployments greater than 50,000 active IP addresses, contact your Tenable representative.

External PostgreSQL

Deployments exceeding 100,000 active IPs require an external PostgreSQL instance. Repository data, trending results, and configuration data are stored in PostgreSQL. Size the external PostgreSQL instance using the repository data figures from the tables above as a baseline, and account for growth as scan and configuration data accumulates over time.

External PostgreSQL Requirements

You can install Tenable Security Center configured to work with a PostgreSQL instance managed by you. PostgreSQL is required for certain features introduced in Tenable Security Center 6.5.0. For more information about connecting a PostgreSQL database, see Connect an External PostgreSQL Server.

This is a required configuration if you have more than 100K hosts.Tenable Security Center supports PostgreSQLversion 16 or laterversions 13 through 17.Tenable Security Center 6.5.x supports PostgreSQL version 16 or later. Tenable Security Center 6.6.x and later supports PostgreSQL versions 13 through 17. It is also recommended that wal_segment_size is set to be at least 64MB.

Your PostgreSQL instance should meet the following sizing requirements. Please note that the disk space in the following table is only for PostgreSQL data, and does not include any other OS or other dependencies you have.

# of Hosts Managed by Tenable Security Center	CPU Cores	Memory	Minimum Disk Space Required for PostgreSQL Data
2,500 active IPs	4	16 GB RAM	20 GB
10,000 active IPs	8	32 GB RAM	50 GB
25,000 active IPs	16	64 GB RAM	100 GB
100,000 active IPs	32	128 GB RAM	400 GB
250,000 active IPs	64	256 GB RAM	1 TB