14 DAY TRIAL // A new tool available for download from Microsoft is designed to allow customers to analyze their environments running SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2. SQL Server 2008 R2 Best Practices Analyzer is available free of charge through the Microsoft Download Center. The tool can easily evaluate a specific server and grab all the information available on any SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2 instances that are installed. Despite also supporting SQL Server 2008, the SQL Server 2008 R2 Best Practices Analyzer is tailored to the latest iteration of the software giant’s data platform.
“BPA is designed for administrators who want to determine the overall conformance of their SQL Server instances and topology with established best practices. BPA examines your SQL Server instance for system events, reviews login permissions, scans your SQL Metadata for advisable settings, and recommends solutions to items that do not conform with established Microsoft best practices,” Dana H. Burnell, program manager Microsoft SQL Server, revealed.
Customers running Microsoft’s data platform can turn to the tool in order to verify if their configurations of SQL Server respect the best practices recommended by the Redmond company. The SQL Server 2008 R2 Best Practices Analyzer will put together reports with all configurations it identifies, and will highlight problem areas. More importantly, the tool is even capable of producing recommendations designed to solve problems it comes across.
“BPA runs within the framework of the Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer (MBCA 2.0) and supports both, SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2. It is supported on a variety of operating systems including Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7,” Burnell added. “As always, we appreciate your feedback. Subsequent releases will ‘learn’ from experiences of our customer base and we plan on expanding the best practices portfolio over time.”
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Best Practices Analyzer is available for download here.
The new SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM downloads are available here.