SQL Server 2012 Best Practices Analyzer Now Available

Shortly after making the SQL Server 2012 available for the general public, Microsoft also announced the availability of SQL Server 2012 Best Practices Analyzer.

Basically, this is nothing more than a diagnostic tool, which has been designed to perform a series of functions on SQL Server 2012.

The Best Practices Analyzer for Microsoft’s latest SQL Server release was made available for download with support for both x86 and x64-based systems.

It was developed with support for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, and requires PowerShell V2.0 and Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer V2.0 to be installed in order to be used.

Some of the main features that the new tool arrives with include:

- Gathers information about a Server and a Microsoft SQL Server 2012 instance installed on that Server
- Determines if the configurations are set according to the recommended best practices
- Reports on all configurations, indicating settings that differ from recommendations
- Indicates potential problems in the installed instance of SQL Server
- Recommends solutions to potential problems

It is important to note that SQL Server 2012 Best Practices Analyzer was destined to offer scanning of both local computer and remote machines.

In both local and remote cases, the PowerShell settings should be modified. The changes support PowerShell remoting, and increase maximum number of concurrent shells for a user.

A series of commands will be executed on the machine where SQL Server 2012 BPA is initiated. The “Select to continue…” box must be selected to apply modifications. There is also the option to select Cancel to exit.

Through Enable Remoting using "Enable-PSRemoting", configuration actions to enable the machine for remote management are performed.

Some additional info on Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Best Practices Analyzer are available on Microsoft’s website. The diagnostics tool is available for download from Softpedia as well, from this page.