SEM pre-installation checklist

Before installing SEM, complete the pre-installation checklist below. This checklist helps you:

• Verify that system requirements are met, all required software is installed, and required roles and features are enabled.
• Gather the information required to complete the installation.

	1. Review the system requirements.	Make sure that your environment meets the hardware and software requirements for your installations. Hypervisor software should be installed prior to installing SEM. VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V are both supported. The hypervisor software provides the virtual environment that hosts your SEM deployment.
	2. Select a deployment architecture.	Determine if your architecture will include one or more syslog servers. See SEM deployment examples for details.
	3. Review the release notes.	Review the Security Event Manager release notes and available documentation in the Customer Success Center.
	4. Gather your credentials.	The Local Administrator Account is required for installation. The Local Administrator Account is not the same as a domain account with local admin rights. A domain account is subject to your domain group policies.

Prepare the server environment

Prepare the server where you will install the SEM VM.

	1. Build the environment.	Prepare the servers based on your deployment size and system requirements. Install either VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V. By default, Security Event Manager deploys with 8GB RAM and 2CPUs on both hypervisor platforms.
	2. Run all OS updates.	Before installation, check for and run all OS updates on all servers.
	3. Open ports according to the requirements.	If your log sources are located behind firewalls, see the SolarWinds SEM Port and Firewall requirements. SolarWinds uses these ports to send and receive data.

Download SEM

SolarWinds provides separate installation packages for Hyper-V and VMware vSphere, so be sure to download the correct version.

Download the SEM installer.

Download the SEM installer from the SolarWinds Customer Portal, or download a free trial version from www.solarwinds.com/log-event-manager. The trial version provides unlimited access to all product features for 30 days. See Licensing an evaluation version of SEM for more information.

Next steps:

• See Install SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) on Microsoft Hyper-V
• See Install SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) on VMware vSphere