Windows Hardware Assessment

In addition to the console scenarios, you can use the MAP Toolkit to generate detailed documents by selecting Prepare New Reports and Proposals from the File menu. Reports are Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that summarize the inventory data in various ways; proposals are Microsoft Word documents that contain boilerplate text with the tables and charts found in the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit console. Reports are intended for less technical individuals who require further explanation of the assessment results.

The reports and proposals you can generate are as follows:

1. Windows 7 Hardware Assessment—Specifies in a report and a proposal which computers on the network have the hardware, firmware, and device drivers needed to run Windows 7.
2. Windows Server 2008 R2 Hardware Assessment—Specifies in a report and a proposal which computers on the network have the hardware needed to run Windows Server 2008 R2.
3. Windows Vista Hardware Assessment—Specifies in a report and a proposal which computers on the network have the hardware, firmware, and device drivers needed to run Windows Vista.
4. Microsoft SQL Server Discovery—Specifies in a report and a proposal what SQL Server resources the wizard found on the network and specifies how best to migrate them to SQL Server 2008.
5. Virtual Machine Discovery—Lists in a report the Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Microsoft Virtual PC servers running on the network and the VMs running on them.
6. Windows Server 2008 Hardware Assessment—Specifies in a report and a proposal which computers on the network have the hardware needed to run Windows Server 2008.
7. Windows Server Roles Discovery—Lists in a report the roles installed on the computers on the network running Window Server.
8. Office 2007 Assessment—Lists in a report the Microsoft Office products installed on the network computers and specifies which are ready to have Office 2007 installed.
9. Performance Metrics Report—Using information compiled by a separate Gather Performance Metrics Wizard, this report contains detailed statistics quantifying the performance of the processors, memory, network interfaces, physical disks, and logical disks in your network computers.
10. Server Consolidation and Virtualization Recommendations—Using information compiled by a separate Server Virtualization Planning Wizard, this report contains information about the virtual server host computers on the network and how you might consolidate the VMs for greater efficiency.
11. Security Assessment—Specifies in a report and a proposal which of the computers on the network are capable of supporting Network Access Protection (NAP) and Forefront Client Security.
12. Application Virtualization Hardware Assessment—Specifies in a report and a proposal how you might deploy Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 on your network.
13. Power Savings Assessment—Specifies in a proposal the power savings you can realize by upgrading the computers on your network to the latest Windows OSs and taking advantage of their power-management capabilities.
14. Inventory Report—Lists in a report all of the computers discovered on the network and provides details of their hardware and software configurations, as Figure 4 shows.

Using the Data
The information you obtain from running the MAP Toolkit can provide a useful start for managing your network. Determining the current state of your network will help you project future hardware and software needs. You can quickly see which computers could benefit from hardware upgrades, as well as which computers might be nearing the end of their useful lives. In addition, with a little editing and a few additions, you can easily rework the Inventory and Assessment wizard’s summary reports into a format that you can submit to your CTO.