RTM Announcement: Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 for Hyper-V
As many of you know, the much-anticipated Hyper-V hypervisor feature was just released last week. Many of the IT professionals like you have now began to use Hyper-V server virtualization technology to take back the control of your datacenter. With energy costs going sky high and the demand for IT services increasing, no wonder many of you are now looking to consolidate the physical servers using virtualization.
With server consolidation being the direction to go, we are pleased to announce the RTM of Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 for Hyper-V.
What is the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1?
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 (or MAP) is a network-wide agent-less tool that can help you quickly find out where your desktops and servers are as well as auto-generate upgrade recommendations for multiple products and technologies including server, desktop and virtualization migration scenarios covering:
· Hyper-V virtualization candidates assessment (New in MAP 3.1)
· SQL server discovery and assessment (New in MAP 3.1)
· Desktop Security Center assessment (New in MAP 3.1)
· Windows Server 2008 hardware and device compatibility assessment including server discovery
· Windows Vista hardware and device compatibility assessment including PC discovery
· Office 2007 hardware compatibility assessment
· Microsoft Application Virtualization hardware compatibility assessment
· SNMP inventory reporting
How can I use the MAP Toolkit to plan for my server consolidation project?
The MAP Toolkit can help you determine which subset of your currently physical servers are good candidates for Hyper-V virtualization. By capturing the workloads and utilization of each of your server over a defined period of time, this tool can recommend a set of consolidated hosts for your existing servers. It looks at many factors such as CPU utilization, memory utilization, Network IO and Disk IO rates and auto-generate a set of proposal documents and detailed spreadsheets for your virtualization planning process.
How does remote inventory work? Is it agent-based or agent-less?
Leveraging the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) protocol, all you need to do is a machine that has the MAP Toolkit 3.1 installed, the right set of administrative credentials to the “target machines” (i.e. the machines you want the MAP Toolkit to inventory and assess), as well as other WMI requirements here. The MAP Toolkit will then remotely ping each machine across your network securely all without installing any software agents on the individual target machines. Therefore, the MAP Toolkit is completely agent-less with zero foot-print!
Where do I go to get the MAP Toolkit 3.1 and learn more about it?
· Download the MAP Toolkit 3.1: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111000
· Learn more on TechNet: http://www.microsoft.com/MAP
· Read tips and tricks: http://blogs.technet.com/MAPBLOG
What else should I leverage to accelerate the planning, deployment, and operation of Hyper-V?
To help you accelerate the entire lifecycle of your virtualization project, the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team has developed tools and guidance including Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1, Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides for Virtualization (including guides for Hyper-V, App-V, Terminal Services, and SCVMM 2008), Windows Server 2008 Security Guide, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool.
Check out the latest Virtualization Solution Accelerators at: http://www.microsoft.com/VSA
