We (our company) are planning to deploy Symantec Endpoint Protection and Symantec Desktop Recovery 2011 Desktop Edition to our 3000 - 4000 workstations (Windows7 32 and 64) with a few 100s with Windows XP 32/64 Bit.

I have read the implementation guide for SEP and have read tech-notes for Desktop Recovery 2011.

Our team have planned to deploy this as follows :

1 x dedicated SQL 2008R2 for Symantec Endpoint Protection (Instead of using the Embedded Database)
1 x Dedicated SQL 2008R2 for Symantec Desktop Recovery 2011 (Instead of using the Embedded Database)

1 x Dedicated W2K8 R2 Box for the SEPM (Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager - Mgmt. APP)
1 x Dedicated W2K8 R2 Box for the Symantec Desktop Recovery 2011 Management Application

Agent Deployment :

As per Symantec Documentation for both of the above, an agent can be pushed via the Mgmt. Application (provided no firewalls are blocking ports required etc. - we have Windows firewall disabled already).

Above is the initial plan we have for 3000 - 4000 client workstation (Windows)

Now my Questions :-)

a) If we had these users distributed amongst two sites with AD DC / GC in each site, How would I restrict SEPM and Desktop Mgmt. solution to only check for users in their respective site ?

b) At present all users are under one building but we are going to move some dept. to a new location (with dedicated connectivity), How would we control which SEPM / MGMT Server is responsible for which site ?

c) What Hardware would you recommend as a Server spec for the SQL server 16GB RAM, Dual XEON?

d) What Hardware would you recommend as a Server spec for the MGMT Servers 16GB RAM each with DUAL xeon and sas disks?

e) Also, how do you or would you recommend to protect these 4 servers (2 x SQL and 2 x MGMT Servers)?

f) How would you recommend to store backups for these desktops? We do have a SAN and a NAS in our environment and we do have one spare DAS (Dell MD3000).

If you have anything to add / correct - that will be really helpful before diving into the actual implementation phase.

Will be most grateful with your suggestions, recommendations and corrections with above - Many Thanks !

Rihatum