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[VIDEO] Tech Ed Interview - Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1

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A few weeks ago at TechEd North America, Kevin Remde, IT Pro Evangelist from Microsoft, got together with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit team (Jay Sauls and myself) to discuss the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 program and...(read more)

[VIDEO] Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 Short Video Series - Part 1 (Windows Vista and PC Security)

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Want to learn how to determine if your networked PCs are ready for Windows Vista? Need to know if your PCs are secured (e.g. Are their Windows Firewall turned off? Is anti-virus software not installed?) Check out this short video to see how the Microsoft...(read more)

[VIDEO] Get Ready to Migrate to SQL Server 2008 with Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1

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SQL Server 2008 has just been released to manufacturing! And with the SQL Server 2000 already going out of mainstream support , it is now time to start planning for migrating your older SQL servers to SQL Server 2008! To help you get started more quickly...(read more)

[VIDEO] MICROSOFT ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING TOOLKIT 3.1 SHORT VIDEO SERIES - PART 2 (SQL SERVER 2008 MIGRATION)

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SQL Server 2008 is here! View the short video below to see how you can quickly find all of your SQL servers and identify good candidates for migration to SQL Server 2008. View the video demo below or click this MAP Toolkit demo link here Download...(read more)

[RTM News] Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.2 Now Available!

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Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkt 3.2 New Features Expanding to assess readiness for Microsoft Online Services, SQL Server 2008, Forefront Client Security, and Network Access Protection Many of you are in the midst of an IT migration or...(read more)

[RTM News] Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.2 for SQL Server 2008 Now Available!

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Today, the Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team is pleased to announce the RTM release of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 3.2 that sports news features such as SQL Server Database Instance Discovery . Click here to learn more about...(read more)

[RTM News!] Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.2 for Forefront Client Security and Network Access Protection (NAP) Readiness Now Available!

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Today, the Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team is pleased to announce the RTM release of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 3.2 that sports news features such as readiness assessment for Forefront Client Security and Network Access Protection...(read more)

[Video Demo] Free Tool Showcase: Save IT Dollars with Hyper-V Server Consolidation Technology and Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

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With the current state of the global economy, IT managers like you are probably wondering how you can save money while maintaining agility and scalability for your IT organizations. Obvious places to look at are: 1) under-utilized servers th at are...(read more)

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit - Technical FAQ

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Hello! The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit team has just released a new set of Technical FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) . We hope that you will find this useful as to learn how to use the MAP Toolkit for various technology migration projects...(read more)

[NEWS!] New Version of Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit - now compatible with Windows 7 Beta

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Hello IT Users! Back by popular demand of the Windows 7 Beta Program , our team has just released a new version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 3.2 (Build 2315) that now gives you the newly-added capability of running this MAP...(read more)

[NEWS!] Web Launch: Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit Online Resources Now Available

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Today, we are officially launching the revamped online web resource pages for the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) including web demo videos, case studies and documentation. The MAP Toolkit is a network-wide inventory and planning toolkit...(read more)

[NEWS!] Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 Beta Now Available

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Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be available in the near future. Are you thinking about deploying these new operating systems? Get a head start with Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 Beta . Over 680,000 Microsoft customers and partners...(read more)

[Video Demo] Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit Demo #1 – Windows 7 Hardware Assessments

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The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit makes it easier for you to determine if your existing Windows PCs are compatible for Windows 7 upgrade. Use this free toolkit to conduct a quick network-wide assessment now. 1) Download the MAP Toolkit...(read more)

[Video Demo] Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit Demo #3 – Server Migration and Virtualization Assessments

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Have you considered consolidating your datacenter servers down to a more manageable number? Are your servers taking up too much of your IT budget simply to power and cool them? Did you know that many organizations like yours may have under-utilized servers...(read more)

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.0 Beta 2 now open!

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We're happy to announce that the beta for the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 5.0 is now open. We encourage you to join the beta review program and help influence the development of the toolkit. To participate, register for the MAP...(read more)

Migration planning made easier with MAP Toolkit 5.5

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We are pleased to announce the next version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit-version 5.5- is now available for download. Download MAP 5.5 Simplify planning for migration to the latest Microsoft products and technologies...(read more)

Simplify Windows 7 & Windows Internet Explorer deployment planning with MAP 5.5 toolkit

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Last week, in his blog " Identifying Browsers and Plugins That Might Represent a Risk" Gartner's Neil MacDonald stressed on the significance of MAP 5.5 Internet Explorer discovery scenario. With the proliferation of web browsers, and plugins such as...(read more)

Windows Azure Platform Readiness Assessment using MAP Toolkit 5.5

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We launched MAP 5.5 couple of weeks ago. In the last blog, we explored on the Internet Explorer discovery scenario within the context of Windows7 deployment. In MAP 5.5, we extended the scope of MAP toolkit beyond the traditional server and desktop hardware...(read more)

The Remote Desktop License Feature in the MAP Toolkit

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The Remote Desktop Services (RDS) product, formerly known as Terminal Services, has provided a reporting solution for device and user client access dating back to the Windows 2000 timeframe. Since MAP has emerged as the standard tool used for SAM and license renewal engagements, a growing number of requests have been made by MAP users over the past several years for the addition of RDS Usage Tracking to MAP.

At long last, the wait is over. Starting in the MAP Toolkit 9.0 release, MAP will include a report on the data it obtains from the Remote Desktop License Server. The addition of this feature further expands MAP’s capabilities and usefulness as a central point for gathering data.

Getting the Data

For this feature, a new option has been added to the list of Inventory Scenarios in the Inventory Wizard, so you will want to choose both:

  • Windows computers
  • Client Access Tracking for Remote Desktop Services

MAP will conduct a general inventory of the environment and for any RD License servers that are discovered, MAP will use WMI and PowerShell queries to obtain the information needed for the reports. For details on how to prepare your environment for a successful WMI and PowerShell connection, see these TechNet Wiki articles:

Limitations

To make this feature as useful as possible, we included versions of Windows Server as far back as we could; however, some data didn’t exist prior to a particular version. As such, this feature does not support collecting data on versions prior to Windows Server 2008 because many of the WMI classes that MAP needs were not introduced until that version of Windows Server, and some were introduced even later.

Some User CAL data was only made available via WMI starting in Windows Server 2012. The following data will be missing from the report or not included in the counts for any RD License Servers running on Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2:

  • Count of issued User licenses will not include licenses issued from servers running Windows Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2
  • Count of available User licenses will not include licenses issued from servers running Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2
  • Issue date for User CALs
  • Expiration date for User CALs (available starting with Server 2008 R2)
  • KeyPack ID for KeyPacks containing User CALs
  • License Status of KeyPacks containing User CALs

The Report

Here is a brief explanation of the report which contains 5 worksheets:

  1. Overview – This worksheet reports the total number of RD License Servers discovered as well as the total number of User or Device CALs installed, issued, and available.
  2. RD License Server Summary – Similar to the Overview worksheet, this worksheet displays summary information, but on a server by server basis.
  3. RD License Key Pack – This is a list of all the Key Packs installed on the discovered servers.
  4. User CAL Details – Detailed list of the users that have a CAL issued to them, including the OS version of the issued CAL and the server that issued the CAL.
  5. Device CAL Details – Detailed list of the devices that have a CAL issued to them, including the OS version of the issued CAL and the server that issued the CAL.

Announcing the MAP Toolkit 9.0!

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We are pleased to announce the availability of version 9.0 of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit. This release of the MAP Toolkit helps increase the agility and cost effectiveness of deploying the latest Microsoft technologies. It also enhances usage tracking to include accounting for Remote Desktop Services as well as Server and Cloud Enrollment licensed deployments. MAP 9.0 additionally helps organizations assess their environment for Office 2013 and Office 365, track usage of Windows Server 2012, Lync Server 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, Exchange Server 2013, System Center Configuration Manager 2012, and SQL Server 2012.  The Windows Azure assessment report has also been updated to include the latest Azure sizing.

New Server and Cloud Enrollment scenario helps to simplify adoption

Server and Cloud Enrollment (SCE) is a new offering under the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement that enables subscribers to standardize broadly on one or more Microsoft Server and Cloud technologies.  The MAP Toolkit 9.0 features an assessment scenario to identify and inventory SCE supported products within an enterprise and help streamline enrollment.

New Remote Desktop Services Licensing Usage Tracking scenario creates a single view for enterprise wide licensing

With an increase in enterprises deploying Remote Desktop Services (RDS) across wider channels, RDS license management has become a focus point for organizations.  With the new RDS Licensing scenario, the MAP Toolkit rolls up license information enterprise-wide into a single report, providing a simple alternative for assessing your RDS licensing position.

Support for software inventory via Software ID tags now available

As part of the Microsoft effort to support ISO 19770-2, the MAP Toolkit now supports inventory of Microsoft products by Software ID (SWID) tag.  SWID enhanced reports will provide greater accuracy and assist large, complex environments to better manage their software compliance efforts by simplifying the software identification process and lowering the cost of managing software assets.

Improved Usage Tracking data collection for SQL Server Usage Tracking scenario

As part of our ongoing improvement initiatives, Usage Tracking for SQL Server 2012 has been enhanced to use User Access Logging (UAL).  UAL is a standard protocol in Windows Server 2012 that collects User Access information in near real time and stores the information in a local database, eliminating the need for log parsing to perform Usage Tracking assessments.  UAL vastly improves the speed and helps to eliminate long lead times for environment preparation associated with running Usage Tracking assessments.

Download the MAP Toolkit 9.0 now!

You asked, We listened

As part of the MAP team’s ongoing improvement initiatives, we’ve reviewed a number of feedback submissions and have implemented changes based on the MAP community’s suggestions.  We’d love to hear more. Please send comments and suggestions to mapfdbk@microsoft.com.

 

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