Robert Smit MVP Blog   Azure and Microsoft Windows Insider Server Cloud Blog

Did you know that the BPA is build-in in windows server 2012. In the old days you need to download al the BPA

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15556

But now in 2012 the BPA is build-in this is a great feature but did you know this I see al lot of items and some IT admins did not know the BPA feature.

You can check the BPA in powershell or in the GUI

The gui verson :

Go to the service manager and check local server  ( this is my test demo server so plenty of errors here )

    

Click on task ans click the BPA scan. and the output will be a nic listing of config items.

 

 

 

 

 

But there is more did you know you can do this with powershell .

Find the BPA Models are available

Get-BpaModel | Select Id

Id
—
Microsoft/Windows/ADRMS
Microsoft/Windows/CertificateServices
Microsoft/Windows/DHCPServer
Microsoft/Windows/DirectoryServices
Microsoft/Windows/DNSServer
Microsoft/Windows/FederationServices
Microsoft/Windows/FileServices
Microsoft/Windows/Hyper-V
Microsoft/Windows/LightweightDirectoryServices
Microsoft/Windows/NPAS
Microsoft/Windows/RemoteAccessServer
Microsoft/Windows/TerminalServices
Microsoft/Windows/UpdateServices
Microsoft/Windows/VolumeActivation
Microsoft/Windows/WebServer

 

SO all these models can be run on your server build-in easy and quick some scans are quick and some take a little time.

Invoke-BpaModel Microsoft/Windows/WebServer

 

 

 

 

 

 

View a summary of the BPA results by Severity

Get-BpaResult Microsoft/Windows/DNSServer| Group Severity

You will see a list with all the items in the console.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View the details for all results with “Warning” severity level :

Get-BpaResult Microsoft/Windows/DNSServer| ? Severity -eq "Warning"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and if you want to exclude items

Set-BPAResult -IdSpecified Model Id-Exclude $true

 

these are just samples on how to start more options are available

yes easy if you know all the Command lets.

it is not that hard to start

get-comand *bpa*

 

 

 

 

 

these are all the commands you can use for BPA.

Cmdlet          Get-BpaModel                                      BestPractices
Cmdlet          Get-BpaResult                                      BestPractices
Cmdlet          Invoke-BpaModel                                 BestPractices
Cmdlet          Set-BpaResult                                      BestPractices

 

But what about remote computer ?

easy enter :

Enter-PSSession Yourcomputer -Credential administrator

the line is change now and will start with the server you used.

[mvpdc01]: PS C:UsersAdministrator.000Documents> Get-BpaModel