Solarwinds Npm 202026 System Requirements Updated Free (2025)

While SolarWinds offers a "Free Trial," it is important to note that the production software is licensed. However, the "Free" aspect often refers to the NPM SLX licensing tier (which allows for unlimited nodes) or the 30-day free trial evaluation.

Below are the specifications required to run NPM 2020.2.6 efficiently.

Database

SQL Server 2016 (SP2+)
SQL Server 2017
SQL Server 2019 (recommended for 2020.2.6)
Express editions work for small deployments (≤ 100 elements) but Standard/Enterprise recommended

1. Hardware Requirements (Main Polling Engine)

These specifications apply to the Primary Polling Engine (the main server). Requirements scale based on the number of nodes (devices) and interfaces you are monitoring. solarwinds npm 202026 system requirements free

Small Deployment (Up to 1,000 Nodes)

CPU: 2.0 GHz or faster (Dual-core recommended).
RAM: 4 GB (8 GB recommended for better performance).
Disk: 20 GB free space for application logs and installation. Additional space required for the database (see SQL section below).

Medium Deployment (1,000 – 10,000 Nodes) While SolarWinds offers a "Free Trial," it is

CPU: 2.66 GHz or faster (Quad-core or higher).
RAM: 16 GB.
Disk: 40 GB free space (SSD recommended for Orion database transaction logs).

Large Deployment (10,000+ Nodes)

CPU: Dual Quad-core 2.66 GHz or faster.
RAM: 32 GB or higher.
Disk: High-speed SAN or local SSD storage is highly recommended.

2. RAM (Memory)

Memory is the most common bottleneck.

Absolute Minimum (for evaluation/lab): 16 GB RAM
Recommended for production (up to 500 nodes): 32 GB RAM
Large deployment (10,000+ elements): 64 GB to 128 GB RAM

The main database (SQL Server) will consume the majority of available RAM. For the free trial, 16 GB is sufficient to monitor a small lab of 50–100 devices.