How to use MAP Tool–Microsoft Assessment and Planning toolkit

Uncategorized 4 Minutes

 

    Introduction

    Larger IT organizations are likely to have a proliferation of SQL Server installations that are not fully known to the internal IT department. Furthermore, some of these installations may be in various stages of repair because they are not managed systematically. If these unsupervised SQL databases carry business-critical or sensitive information without backup or control, this can be problematic for the organization.

    The MAP Toolkit helps you create an inventory of all the SQL Server installations in the network, complete with component and version information. This information can help you consider the value of consolidating, possibly virtualizing, certain databases, and bringing them under IT supervision when appropriate.

     

     

    Install MAP tool

  • Download MAP tool : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb977556.aspx
  • Install the MAP tool

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    How to run MAP tool

  • Open MAP tool
  • Create inventory database which will be used to save inventory data and collected statistics inside it when working with the MAP tool , by default SQL express is installed by default when installing MAP tool , SQL express is used to host the inventory database.

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  • After creating the database. the MAP console launches giving the option to select your Inventory scenario , since MAP tool can be used to target different scenarios like SQL database consolidation, VM migration, windows upgrade, lync readiness check, etc…

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  • The MAP tool will launch the home screen (Inventory and assessment) page, for most scenarios you need to run the first two steps as preparation steps before performing any assessment , these steps are:
    • Perform an inventory
    • Collect performance data

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    To do so , follow below steps which will guide you through this.

    • Click on Perform an inventory à Go
    • Determine the discovery method

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    Select an account that have administrative permission on the targeted servers, you can add more than one account , and the MAP tool will try to login to servers using all the accounts sequentially until it succeed to login

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    • Collect Performance data à Go

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    select all the SQL servers to participate in the analysis

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    Though it runs a different thread where you can continue using the tool simultaneously but for SQL MAP you have to wait until this (collecting counters) are completely finished.

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    Now collect performance Data step is done.

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  • Since the MAP tool is used to cover multiple technology assessment scenarios , we don’t need to run the rest of steps below in case of SQL consolidation, just move to next step now (step 8)

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  • To continue with SQL consolidation , From the left tree view , click expand Database , run the uncompleted scenarios to have a complete SQL consolidation assessment

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  • If you are planning to consolidate your current environment having hardware appliances ,make sure to run Microsft database consolidation Appliance wizard:
    • Click Go button
    • Currently you have two hardware flavor , version 1.2 is Intel processor based where v1.2 is AMD processor based, for this scope v1.2 is selected

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    • Select the servers you wish to consolidate, in this scenario all SQL servers are selected

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    Finish

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    Important: I will show in a later step where to find and how to read all the reports generated by our assessment.

     

     

    Reports generation and collection

    After completing all previous steps , its now time to generate the reports :

  • To generate SQL Server Proposal Report , SqlServerAssessment, and SqlServerDatabaseDetails, follow the below steps
    • From the right hand tree view , click on Microsoft SQL Server Discovery , this will display a summary view for the MAP execution

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    • To get a detailed report , from the most right actions list , select generate report/proposal

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    • Wait until report generation is finished:

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    • then from view menu select

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    • This will open the physical location for the report

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  • to generate Microsoft Database Consolidation Appliance Report follow these steps:
    • From the right hand tree view , click on Microsoft SQL Server Discovery , this will display a summary view for the MAP execution

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    • To get a detailed report , from the most right actions list , select generate report
    • Wait until report is generated

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    • From view menu , open saved reports
    • Physical file location will be opened , collect Microsoft Database Consolidation Appliance Report.xlxs
    • HardwareAndSoftwareSummary

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  • PerfMetricResults report

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    Or there is another way to generate all reports of your selection :

    • To create SQL Server Reports
    • From the main menu, select File → Prepare New Reports and Proposals to launch the Select Reports and Proposals dialog.

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    • Click Select All/Unselect All too clear all selections.
    • Click Microsoft SQL Server Discovery.
    • Click Next to review the list of reports and proposals that will be generated.
    • Click Finish to start generating the reports and proposals and to launch a status dialog.
    • After the status dialog reports that the generation has completed, click Close.
    • Select View → Saved Reports and Proposals from the main menu (or navigate to a previously opened file explorer) to launch a file browser on the directory where the generated files are stored.

    Note: Reports and proposals are created in folders named after the database currently in use.

    • Open the following reports:
      • SQLServerAssessment-<date-and-time> excel
        • view the Summary tab to see how many SQL Server database components were found in the network in total.
        • View the Database Instances tab to see all database instances listed with server details including if the server is virtualized (Machine Type).
        • View the Components tab to see all installed database components listed with server details.
    • SQLServerDatabaseDetails-<date-and-time> excel
      • In the SQLServerDatabaseDetails Excel report, view the SQL Server database information.
      • Database summary
      • Instances summary
    • SQLServerProposal-<date-and-time> Word document
      • inspect the discovered instances of SQL Server.
      • The Word document is provided in a customer-ready format that you can include in a larger proposal or analysis with a small amount of customization.
      • The proposal contains most of the information provided in the Excel spreadsheet, but also contains background information on the advantages of SQL Server 2012

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