Installing and running Map 7.0 on Server 2008 R2

This blog post covers the following:

• Installing Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 7.0 (MAP)
• Performing an  Inventory of selected computers
• Collecting Performance Data from discovered computers
• Generating Reports and Proposals

There are a few Software Pre-requisites you will need, don't worry if you don't have them all as the installer provides download links during installation, the pre-reqs are:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1
• Microsoft .NET 4.0 Full Profile
• Update 4.0.2 for Microsoft .NET Framework 4

Installing Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 7.0 (MAP)

First of all download MAP 7.0 from here (you only need to download the file called Microsoft_Assessment_and_Planning_Toolkit_Setup.exe for the purpose of installation)

Start the installer, tick the check-box and click next

Accept the terms of the license agreement, click next

Choose the installation folder, click next

Make your choice around CEIP, click next

Click install

This will install MAP 7.0 and a SQL Server Express Local Database

Once complete hit finish and MAP will launch.

Performing an Inventory of selected computers

You will be presented with the option of creating a new database or using an existing one upon launching MAP for the first time. Select create an inventory database, fill out the details and press ok

Press the GO button shown below to launch the inventory and assessment wizard

In my example I am going to choose only Windows Computers, but you can choose whatever you need to gather information from.

Press next

This screen has some very important options and considerations:

I will go through each method and let you decide which ones you wish to use:

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) - Excellent if your Active Directory is squeaky clean, otherwise you will end up with a lot of failures

Windows Networking protocols - This will utilize NetBIOS to discover computers on the network. It is usually a very successful method, however devices that are powered off will not be found

System Centre Configuration Manager - This will use your Config Manager database as the source, another excellent method

Scan IP Range - Again another solid method which can be used to scan domain and non-domain computers. However devices that are powered off will not be found

Manually enter computer names and credentials - very time consuming and laborious

Import computer names from a file - An excellent method if you happen to have a CSV of your devices handy

In my example I will choose AD DS and windows networking protocols and press next

Below fill in your domain and an account that has enough privileges to list the objects in Active directory

Press next

Below you can drill down through your AD structure and select individual OUs, in my example I have chosen the OU my servers reside in.

Press next

Now onto the windows networking protocols. Fill in your domain name

Press next

Now we need to supply credentials that can be used to interrogate the machines we find. In my example I am using a single account - the domain admin. However best practice here is to use and account that has local admin rights across the machines and NOT the domain admin. You can specify multiple accounts here if you wish. Click create to enter your credentials and hit close and next when done

On this screen you can simply set the order you wish the credentials to be tried in, order as you wish and press next, then hit finish.

The discovery will begin, once complete we proceed to step 2

Collecting Performance Data from discovered computers

This time press GO on step 2

Again I am only interested in windows machines and will set my duration to one week from today's date

Once done hit next

On the next screen I am just going to press next, but if you have a text file listing your computers you can also import it.

Hit next

As you can see the computers discovered in the first step are listed

Select all and press next

On the next screen you have the option to add more credentials to use if you wish, MAP remembers and will use the credentials we specified in step 1. Here I am going to hit next to skip past this and then finish.

Now the performance metrics will be gathered

PIC15
You can safely click close and this will still run in the background

**Note** This is using the built in windows counters to gather information and shouldn't impact servers, however if it does you can cancel the process as shown below:

Once the time you specified has elapsed you will see step 2 change to complete:

Now we need to refresh the inventory assessment and collect our reports, to do this:

Click Tools -> Refresh Inventory Assessment

Now click File -> Prepare New Reports and Proposals

Select all:

Hit next and then finish

Once complete click View-> Saved Reports and Proposals to be taken to the location on disk of those reports comprised of all the info we have gathered.

Troubleshooting

I thought I would throw this in for good measure, If you are unable to discover computers, then the 2 main causes in my experience are:

1) A firewall is blocking NetBIOS & WMI
2) The credentials you have specified are invalid

Another possibility is that WMI is corrupt on the computer, in which case you will have to rebuild the WMI repository (which I'm not going to cover here)

That's all for now,
Cheers!