Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 7.0 is an
inventory, assessment, and reporting tool you can use to assess your
current IT infrastructure and determine the right Microsoft
technologies for your business needs. The MAP toolkit uses Windows
Management Instrumentation (WMI), Active Directory Domain Services (AD
DS), SMS Provider, and other technologies to collect data from your
environment and inventory hardware, software, and operating systems.
MAP does this without installing any agent software on the target
devices. MAP then provides you with an analysis of the collected data
to help you plan for server migration, desktop refresh, server
consolidation through virtualization, or cloud-capacity and migration
planning.
The MAP Toolkit can simplify the planning process for migration
to the following Microsoft platforms:
As Figure 2
shows, there are six phases involved in using the MAP Toolkit to
perform an assessment of your environment. The first four phases
outline the steps you need to perform before you run the
toolkit:
-
Phase 1: Choose Goals
Familiarize yourself with the different inventory, assessment,
capacity-planning, and software-usage tracking scenarios
supported by the MAP Toolkit. Decide which wizards to use and
what selections to make in these wizards. -
Phase 2: Gather
Requirements The MAP Toolkit uses various collection
protocols to communicate with devices on your network to collect
data to use in performing the various assessments. Because the
communications performed by these protocols are subject to the
administration and security settings of your environment, you
must gather the user accounts and passwords needed to connect
and successfully inventory the devices in your environment prior
to running the toolkit. -
Phase 3: Prepare
Environment The MAP Toolkit uses several different
communication protocols based upon your goals and how the
environment is configured. These include WMI, Active Directory
Domain Services, SQL Server commands, VMware Web services, and
SSH with remote shell commands. In Phase 3, you will prepare
your environment to ensure that the toolkit can successfully
connect and gather information from the target machines in your
environment. -
Phase 4: Install Toolkit
Download and install the toolkit using the options that best
suit your environment and goals. The MAP Toolkit is available as
a free download from the Microsoft Download Center at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?&id=7826.
The final two phases of the assessment process describe how to
run the MAP Toolkit to address the goals you identified at the
beginning of the process:
-
Phase 5: Collect Data
Launch the MAP Toolkit console, and click on the buttons for the
first two options shown in Figure 3 under
Steps To Complete to begin the data collection process for your
environment. Selecting these options launches the following two
wizards:
-
Inventory And Assessment
Wizard Use this wizard first to select your
inventory scenario, select your discovery method, and
provide the credentials needed to connect and inventory the
devices targeted. -
Performance Metrics
Wizard Use this wizard next to collect performance
data such as CPU, memory, network, and disk-utilization
information. The MAP Toolkit lets you collect such data for
Windows servers and clients as well as for LINUX-based
servers. The toolkit then uses the collected performance
data for capacity planning for server consolidation, desktop
virtualization, Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track, Azure
Application migration, and Microsoft Database Consolidation
Appliance planning.
-
Phase 6: Review Reports The
MAP Toolkit can generate custom reports and proposals that are
specific to the assessment the toolkit performed. For example,
the Windows Server 2012 Hardware Assessment report package
summarizes the hardware readiness of servers for a migration to
Windows Server 2012 and indicates whether they are capable of
running Windows Server 2012.
Figure 4
shows an excerpt from a sample Windows Server 2012 Readiness
Assessment proposal generated by the MAP Toolkit. This proposal is
in the form of a Microsoft Word document (.docx file) that contains
the following:
-
An Executive Overview section that summarizes where your
organization is now and outlines some potential benefits of
cloud-optimizing your IT infrastructure using Windows Server
2012. -
An Assessment Results section that summarizes your
organization’s Windows Server 2012 readiness and provides
detailed analysis and recommendations about the servers,
operating systems, and server roles inventoried. -
Appendices containing information about Windows Server
2012 system requirements and report worksheets.
Figure 5
shows an excerpt from a sample Windows Server 2012 Assessment
Summary generated by the MAP Toolkit. This proposal is in the form
of a Microsoft Excel workbook (.xlsx file) that has four
worksheets:
-
Summary Displays the number
of physical servers and virtual machines inventoried, servers
running earlier versions of Windows Server, servers running
Hyper-V, and servers meeting the minimum system requirements for
installing Windows Server 2012 -
AssessmentValues Displays
the Windows Server 2012 system requirements used in performing
the assessment along with any other requirements you specified
for the assessment -
ServerAssessment Lists the
information collected from each system inventoried, including
the computer name, WMI status, machine type, IP address, subnet,
current operating system, service pack level, current Windows
Server 2012 readiness, and any further recommendations -
ServerRolesSummary
Summarizes the server roles currently deployed in your
environment; the operating system or systems, number of physical
servers, and number of virtual machines each role is running on;
and any recommendations concerning the migration of these roles
to Windows Server 2012
Besides using MAP, there are other tools and methodologies you
can use to assess the readiness of your environment for migration to
Windows Server 2012. The tools you could use include the
following:
-
System Center Configuration Manager
(SCCM) System Center Configuration Manager provides a
comprehensive solution for change and configuration management for
the Microsoft platform. SCCM lets you deploy operating systems,
software applications, and software updates throughout your
organization; monitor hardware and software inventory; monitor and
remediate computers for compliance settings; and even remotely
administer computers. With SCCM 2012 SP1, you can collect detailed
information about the hardware of client devices in your
organization, including servers managed by SCCM, and then use this
information to determine Windows Server 2012 migration readiness.
SCCM hardware inventory runs on devices managed by SCCM according
to a schedule you specify in the client settings on the device.
For more information on performing inventory using SCCM 2012, see
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg682202. -
Application Compatibility Toolkit
(ACT) This free life-cycle management tool from Microsoft
helps you analyze your portfolio of applications, websites, and
computers; allows you to deploy automated mitigations for known
compatibility issues; and enables you to create custom shims for
new compatibility issues you might identify. For more information
on managing application compatibility on Windows platforms and to
download the latest version of ACT, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/application-compatibility.aspx. -
Third-party products If you
are using a third-party, systems-management product for managing
the hardware and software infrastructure of your organization, you
will likely be able to use the product to assess the readiness of
your environment for migration to Windows Server 2012, provided
that your systems-management product is up to date. There are also
third-party dedicated inventory and assessment products available
from different vendors that you might use if desired. -
Engage outside help If you
feel you need help assessing the readiness of your environment for
migration to Windows Server 2012, you can engage Microsoft
Consulting Services (MCS) and/or Microsoft Services Premier
Support to assist you with this process, and also with the
migration itself if you feel this is needed. For more information,
see http://www.microsoft.com/microsoftservices/en/us/home.aspx.
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