Overview

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment tool for quicker and easier desktop, server and cloud migrations. MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports and executive proposals with extensive hardware and software information, and actionable recommendations to help organizations accelerate their IT infrastructure planning process, and gather more detail on assets that reside within their current environment. MAP also provides server utilization data for Hyper-V server virtualization planning; identifying server placements, and performing virtualization candidate assessments, including ROI analysis for server consolidation with Hyper-V. Learn more.
MAP is one of the tools provided by the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and Security Compliance Manager provide tested guidance and automated tools to help organizations plan, securely deploy, and manage new Microsoft technologies—easier, faster, and at less cost. All are freely available, and fully-supported by Microsoft. Learn more.
The MAP Toolkit includes the following components:

• Microsoft_Assessment_and_Planning_Toolkit_Setup.exe. Installation package containing the tool, release notes, Getting Started Guide and toolkit help (chm file).
• readme_en.htm. Available as a separate download. Provides information to read before installing the MAP Toolkit, including installation prerequisites and known issues.
• Getting_Started_Guide.en.doc. Provides information about toolkit installation, environment preparation, and assessment scenarios supported by toolkit wizards and the UI.
• MAP_Sample_Documents.zip. Available as a separate download. Contains sample reports and proposals.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?&id=7826

I installed Win8 RTM last night on my primary work machine, a Samsung 700T tablet.

I did all my customizations, installed Office and such…and then went out to the store to grab all the apps I had already installed previously (Win8 does a really nice job of keeping track of this for you…install a new machine, login with your live credentials and it ‘knows’ what you’ve already downloaded on that or other machines…).  I found this Flight Aware app…for those that spend any amount of time in the airports, you’ll appreciate this one too.  It will at least give you something sorta fun and relevant to do while your delayed somewhere. 

Check it out:

One of the great new features in Windows Server 2012 is Data Deduplication.   There’s a cool tool that allows you to see what kind of savings you’d get on a particular volume.  You can see more details on dedup, including this feature here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831700.aspx

When the deduplication feature is installed, the DDPEval.exe tool is automatically installed to the \Windows\System32\ directory. This tool can be copied from any Windows Server® 2012 installation and then run on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012 systems to determine the expected savings that you would get if deduplication was enabled on a particular volume.

DDPEval.exe can be run using the following command syntax for any given folder. DDPEval.exe supports local drives and also supports evaluating mapped or unmapped remote shares.

One folder that you’d want to try this one for sure is your VMM Library.  Here’s what happened with mine.  Definitely something to think about as you start installing Server 2012 and System Center 2012.  Since VMM 2012 SP1 requires installation on Server 2012, you might want to consider a dedicated volume for the VMM library (if you don’t do that already) and enable dedup.

In my case, I have almost 100GB in my library.  Dedup optimized that to around 16GB at a 82% space savings!

Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for System Center 2012 - Operations Manager

The Infrastructure Planning and Design team is working on a new guide:System Center 2012 - Operations Manager. Get the beta by visiting the Connect website athttps://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=1587&InvitationID=IPDM-QX6H-7TTV&SiteID=14.

This guide outlines the infrastructure design elements that are crucial to a successful implementation of Operations Manager. It guides you through the process of designing components, layout, and connectivity in a logical, sequential order. You’ll find easy-to-follow steps on identification and design of the required management groups, helping you to optimize the management infrastructure.

Download the Beta!Get theInfrastructure Planning and Design Guide for System Center 2012 - Operations Managerby visiting the Microsoft Connect website athttps://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=1587&InvitationID=IPDM-QX6H-7TTV&SiteID=14.

Tell us what you think! Download and review the beta guide and then send your feedback toIPDfdbk@microsoft.com byAugust 29th, 2012. We would especially appreciate feedback in the following areas:

• Usefulness– Is the technical depth of this guide sufficient for the topics covered? Will this guide be useful to you on a day-to-day basis? What portions of the guide are the most useful to your organization?
• Usability– Is the structure or flow of this guide effective? Is the information presented in a clear and logical manner? Can you easily find key content?
• Impact– Do you anticipate that this guide will save you time and accelerate deployment of Microsoft products in your organization? Has this guide had a positive influence on your opinion of the Microsoft technologies it addresses?

Benefits for participation:

• You get an early look at the guide.
• You will be listed on the acknowledgments page for providing usable feedback.

We look forward to hearing from you! Your input helps to make each guide as useful as possible. Thanks in advance for taking the time to review theInfrastructure Planning and Design Guide for System Center 2012 - Operations Manager.

Infrastructure Planning and Design streamlines the planning process by:

• Defining the technical decision flow through the planning process.
• Listing the decisions to be made and the commonly available options and considerations.
• Relating the decisions and options to the business in terms of cost, complexity, and other characteristics.
• Framing decisions in terms of additional questions to the business to ensure a comprehensive alignment with the appropriate business landscape.

Tell your peers about IPD guides!Please forward this mail to anyone who wants to learn more about Infrastructure Planning and Design guides.

Join the Beta Program

Subscribe to the IPD beta program and we will notify you when new beta guides become available for your review and feedback. These are open beta downloads. If you are not already a member of the IPD Beta Program and would like to join, follow these steps:

1. Go here to join the IPD beta program:
   https://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=1587&InvitationID=IPDM-QX6H-7TTV&SiteID=14
   If the link does not work for you, copy and paste it into the web browser address bar.
2. Sign in using a valid Windows Live ID.
3. Enter your registration information.
4. Continue to the IPD program beta page, scroll down to Infrastructure Planning and Design, and click the link to join the IPD beta program.

Already a member of the IPD beta program? Go here to get the latest IPD beta downloads:https://connect.microsoft.com/content/content.aspx?ContentID=6556&SiteID=14

Related Resources

Check out all that the Infrastructure Planning and Design team has to offer! Visit the IPD page on TechNet,www.microsoft.com/ipd, for additional information, including our most recent guides.