# Positioning the Management Server

The Management Server is positioned on a corporate headquarters or data center central site where it can reach all other SMC Manager components.

The Management Server does not need to be close to administrators. The SMC Clients connect to the Management Server and Log Servers over the network using an encrypted connection.

We recommend using the same SMC to manage all your engines. This unified approach simplifies managing physically distributed network environments and allows closer integration, for example, sending Block List requests from IPS engines to Engines. The configuration information and log data can then be shared and used efficiently together. A single Management Server can manage many components efficiently. You can optionally install one or more additional Management Servers for a high availability setup. Only one Management Server is active at a time. The additional Management Servers function as standby Management Servers.
Note: The SMC Appliance does not support high availability for the Management Server or the Log Server.

The Management Server also handles active alerts and alert escalation to inform the administrators of critical events. In an environment with multiple Management Servers, all active alerts are replicated between the Management Servers.