Microsoft Checks Exchange Health For Free

The new Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool stuffs top support issues and resolutions from the company's knowledge database into self-run software, said Microsoft. "I like to think of [it] as a Microsoft-engineer-in-a-box," said Paul Bowden, program manager for Exchange development, in a statement.

The tool includes about 800 XML-based rules that examine over 1,200 data points collected from the Exchange environment. It then generates a report that indicates errors, warnings, or non-default settings. In each case, the tool provides text to explain what it's found, then links to additional info on the Exchange TechCenter section of Microsoft's TechNet Web site.

Administrators can run the tool remotely against Exchange servers.

"One of the most important features of the tool is its ability to identify potential time bombs," added Bowden. "[It's] good at checking for things that may not be issues now, but might be three months from now."

The tool also self-updates each time it's run, guaranteeing that it offers up the most current help information.

Administrators can also use the analyzer to compare configurations of different Exchange servers, said Microsoft, a feature that came out of testing within Microsoft's own Exchange deployments.

"IT shops want their servers to be consistent," said Greg Winston, the head of Microsoft's Exchange Center of Excellence, in a separate statement. "They need to be able to select one server as an optimal configuration, and then to compare others against it. It's there because we realized from our own experience as Exchange managers that it was important."

The tool can be downloaded here.

*This story courtesy of TechWeb.com.