Hyper-V Best Practices Analyzer for Windows Server 2008 R2 now available

In Windows management, best practices are guidelines to configure a server as defined by experts. For example, it is considered a best practice for most server technologies to keep open ports that are required for the technologies to communicate with other networked computers and also block unused ports.

Whereas best practice violations, even very important best practice violations, are not necessarily problematic, they indicate server configurations that can result in poor performance, poor reliability, unexpected conflicts, increased security risks, or other potential problems.

Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) is a server management tool that is available in Windows Server 2008 R2. BPA reports best practice violations to the administrator after BPA scans the roles that are installed on Windows Server 2008 R2.

Administrators can filter out unnecessary information or exclude results from BPA reports. Administrators can also perform BPA tasks with either the Server Manager GUI, or Windows PowerShell cmdlets.

The update contains best practice benchmarks against a computer that is running Hyper-V on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2. After this update is installed on a server that is running Windows Server 2008 R2, you can run a series of Best Practices Analyzer scans on Hyper-V that will help you to bring the role into compliance with best practices.