microsoft assessment and planning toolkit exchange

Detailed guidance concerning these matters can be found in the “Getting Started Guide” for MAP 4.0. This is because MAP uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to connect to remote computers on your network. Depending on how your computers are configured, you may need to set passwords for local accounts, enable exceptions in Windows Firewall and perform other actions. The Server Consolidation screen lets a systems administrator launch different wizards to inventory the network, assess readiness, collect performance metrics and generate recommendations for server consolidation ( Figure 1).įigure 1: Server Consolidation screen of MAP 4.0īefore you inventory your existing infrastructure using MAP, you may need to take steps to prepare your environment, especially if your computers belong to a workgroup and not a domain. MAP provides recommendations concerning guest placement, enabling an organization to efficiently consolidate a large number of existing servers onto fewer Hyper-V servers. MAP can automatically discover VMs already running on a network and configure host machine equivalents for existing servers on the network.

Run the Numbersīy using MAP 4.0 you can inventory which servers on your network can run Hyper-V R2 and gather performance metrics for them. Hyper-V R2 allows up to 64 logical processors in the host processor pool, supports Live Migration across different processor versions within the same processor family, provides improved networking using TCP Offload, and includes other performance and scalability enhancements. Where does MAP fit into this? One of the enhancements of Version 4.0 is that it supports virtualization candidate assessments for the latest version of Hyper-V, which is included in Windows Server 2008, Release 2. Having only a handful of physical servers simplifies management and reduces maintenance costs. Instead of having multiple single-core servers utilized at 10 percent to 20 percent of capacity, you can rely on one or two dual- or quad-core servers running at much higher utilization rates. This also leads to more efficient use of IT assets. This would let you retire older hardware and take advantage of newer, power-efficient systems, which reduces your electricity bill and takes up less rack space in the data center. Microsoft Hyper-V lets you leverage the power of 64-bit computing with AMD-V or Intel VT hardware virtualization, to run multiple guest (virtual) operating systems on a single host (physical) server.įor example, instead of having a separate domain controller, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server and database server on your network, you can consolidate three physical servers into one Hyper-V server that has three virtual machines running on it. One of the ways any organization can save money is by consolidating existing server workloads using virtualization.

The latest version of this powerful free tool, MAP Version 4.0, can help plan desktop and server migrations while also making sure that an organization uses its IT resources efficiently. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit is an inventory, assessment and reporting tool that you can use to securely inventory your IT infrastructure.

Microsoft assessment and planning toolkit exchange