Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Best Practices Analyzer automates the verification of settings and the status of components in your Lync Server 2010 environment.

Author: Peter Schmatz and Linda Wells

Publication date: February 2011

Product version: Microsoft Lync Server 2010

You've deployed Microsoft Lync Server 2010. The Lync Server wizards guided you through much of the design, setup, and configuration, but how do you know if you followed the appropriate recommendations and best practices, put it all together correctly, and got everything right? And what if something is not right, but you don't know what it is? You can use Lync Server 2010, Best Practices Analyzer to check components in your environment, as follows:

  1. Install Lync Server 2010, Best Practices Analyzer.
  2. Use Best Practices Analyzer to scan your Lync Server environment and automatically capture the results in reports that you can then view in Best Practices Analyzer. You can scan your entire environment or select only the items you want to include in a scan. Scans usually take only a couple of minutes. And you can run as many scans as you want.
  3. Review and analyze the issues in the individual reports to determine if you need to make any changes to your environment. Issues can include:
  • Errors Critical issues that require a change to one or more components. For example, missing prerequisite software.
  • Warnings Important issues that might require changes. For example, a server role that is running on system hardware that does not conform to recommendations.
  • Information Additional details about the state of your environment and the scan results. For example, the number of Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition server objects in Active Directory Domain Services.

Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007 R2 provided an extensive set of rules to enable extensive screening of Communications Server environments. This initial release of Lync Server 2010, Best Practices Analyzer supports basic screening of Lync Server 2010 environments, using a core set of rules. Future updates will build on this functionality.

The Help provided with Best Practices Analyzer provides guidance for installing, using, and updating Best Practices Analyzer, as well as information about primary issues that you can use to troubleshoot and resolve specific issues.

You can download and install Best Practices Analyzer for free at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=211230. For details about installing and using Best Practices Analyzer, see the online documentation at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=210536.

NOTE   The Lync Server 2010, Best Practices Analyzer gathers configuration information only from Lync Server 2010 components. You can use the previous version of the tool to scan Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007 R2 environments. For details about downloading and installing the previous version of Best Practices Analyzer to scan Communications Server environments, see Best Practices Analyzer for Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007 R2 at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=210651.

Whether you recently deployed Lync Server 2010 and just want to verify your deployment, or you are looking for an effective method to help monitor and maintain your Lync Server 2010 environment and troubleshoot issues, Best Practices Analyzer can make your job easier.

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Keywords: Best Practices Analyzer, BPA, configuration settings, updates