Forefront Protection Server Management Console FAQs and Best Practices

What is the Forefront Protection Server Management Console? The Microsoft Forefront Protection Server Management Console (FPSMC) is a management tool that provides information technology (IT) administrators with a way to centrally manage Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server and Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint deployments within your enterprise. Using a browser-based user interface, the management console provides centralized management. From Forefront Protection Server Management Console.
Where can I download FPSMC? It is available at Microsoft Forefront Protection Server Management Console (FPSMC) 2010 on the Microsoft Download Center.
Where can I find installation and deployment instructions? Installing FPSMC on a Stand-Alone Server on TechNet.
What products can I manage with FPSMC? FPSMC will support only Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server and Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint. See FPSMC Release Notes.
How many servers can one FPSMC installation support? FPSMC has been verified to support up to 100 servers per deployment. See FPSMC Release Notes.
I can’t see server groups or jobs that I know exist. What’s the problem? It could be an issue relating to an upgrade to Internet Explorer 9. See After upgrading to Internet Explorer 9, the Forefront Protection Server Management Console (FPSMC) no longer displays all data.
I installed FPSMC, but I can’t access the console. I get the following error: FPSMC Access Denied - "[user] is not a member of any of the required security groups". What is the problem? To access the console, the user must be a local administrator on the FPSMC server and they must be added to the console under User Management. For more details see Before You Begin.
What is the minimum server operating system requirement for running FPSMC? Can you use Windows Server 2008? No. You must use Windows Server 2008 R2. See Verifying System Requirements.
Does FPSMC support managing multiple tenant organizations? No there isn’t support for multi tenancy. All administrators can see all servers and their data within the same console.
Can you use FPSMC to deploy the Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server software? No. But you can distribute policy packages (see Managing Packages), or create jobs (see Managing Jobs), and so on.
Can I create a backup for an FPSMC instance? Yes. See Installing FPSMC on a Primary or Backup Server.