What is needed or configured during initial SMP installation via SIM?

ITMS 8.1, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7

On the computer where you plan to install IT Management Suite, you must install the following server roles and server role services:
¦ Application server
¦ Web server (IIS)
¦ File Services
¦ .NET framework 3.5.1
¦ Windows Process Activation Service
¦ Message Queuing Activation
Note: Depending on our software release, if the new or required role services are not previously installed, you are prompted to install the roles during the Install Readiness Check in the
Symantec Installation Manager installation wizard.
 
Regarding our IRC (Install Readiness Check) configuration for IIS, it 
•    installs .net 4.5
•    installs .net features (win2012): NET-WCF-Services45, NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45, NET-WCF-MSMQ-Activation45, NET-WCF-Pipe-Activation45, NET-WCF-TCP-Activation45, NET-WCF-TCP-PortSharing45
•    installs .net features (not win2012): NET-HTTP-Activation NET-Non-HTTP-Activ
•    sets asp.net mappings for .ashx, .asmx, .aspx, .axd, .rem, .soap
•    installs windows features: AS-Web-Support, Web-Mgmt-Compat, Web-Asp

SIM itself performs several tasks:
•    Configures "Classic .NET AppPool" for the default website. 
•    Enables HTTPS for selected web root and sets certificate for it.
 
Also, there are a lot of Altiris website configuration steps performed by the platform installation process.

As far as services needed, we use an installer service that installs our MSIs, we use scheduling service to run our schedules, an RPC service to perform agent push, certificate services to process SSL communication, cryptography services,  etc. 
All these processes are positioned as services and those are used as any other Windows application usually does.