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Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

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Published: July 13, 2009   |   Updated: MAY 19, 2018

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Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit is available for download!

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About This Solution Accelerator

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment tool for quicker and easier desktop, server and cloud migrations. MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports with extensive hardware and software information, and actionable recommendations to help organizations accelerate their IT infrastructure planning process, and gather more detail on assets that reside within their current environment. MAP also provides server utilization data for Hyper-V server virtualization planning; identifying server placements, and performing virtualization candidate assessments.

The latest version of the MAP Toolkit adds new scenarios to help you plan your IT future while supporting your current business needs. Included scenarios help you to:

  • Plan your deployment of Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server2016 with hardware and infrastructure readiness assessments
  • Assess your environment for Office 2013, Office 2016 and Office 365
  • Plan your migration to Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines
  • Track Lync Enterprise/Plus and Skype For Business 2015 usage
  • Size your desktop virtualization needs for both Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and session-based virtualization using Remote Desktop Services
  • Ready your information platform for the cloud with SQL Server 2017
  • Virtualize your existing Linux servers onto Hyper-V
  • Assess Microsoft Volume Licensing compliance
  • Assess your license positioning for Server and Cloud Enrollment

Included in the Download

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit includes the following components:

  • MAPSetup.exe - The installation package includes the MAP tool and SQL LocalDB.
  • Readme.htm - Provides information you should read before installing the MAP Toolkit, including installation prerequisites and known issues. Available as a separate download.
  • MAP_Sample_Documents.zip - Contains sample reports generated by the MAP Toolkit. Available as a separate download.
  • MAP_Training_Kit.zip - Available as a separate download. Contains sample database and instructions for completing various exercises.

Feature Overview

MAP performs four key functions: discovery and inventory of computers and applications, hardware and software migration readiness assessments, software usage tracking, and capacity planning for virtualization, public and private cloud migration.

MAP provides secure, agentless, and network-wide inventory that scales from small business to large enterprises. It collects and organizes system resources and device information from a single networked computer. Assessment tools often require users to first deploy software agents on all computers to be inventoried, but this tool does not. MAP uses technologies already available in your IT environment to perform inventory and assessments. These technologies include Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), the Remote Registry Service, Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), SSH, and the Computer Browser service.

You can use MAP to inventory the following technologies:

  • Windows 10
  • Windows 8.1
  • Windows 8
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows XP Professional
  • Office 2016 and previous versions
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Windows Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Windows Server 2003 R2
  • Windows Server 2003
  • Windows 2000 Professional or Windows 2000 Server
  • Internet Explorer
  • VMware vSphere
  • VMware vCenter
  • VMware ESX
  • VMware ESXi
  • VMware Server
  • Selected Linux distributions
  • SQL Server
  • Oracle
  • Hyper-V
  • Lync \ Skype For Business Server 2015
  • System Center Configuration Manager latest versions
  • Forefront Endpoint Protection
  • Exchange Server
  • SharePoint Server
  • BizTalk Server
  • Visual Studio 2010 and 2012 Premium and Ultimate editions
  • Software ID (SWID) Tags

Note: To see a list of platforms on which MAP can be installed, refer to the Installation Prerequisites section of the MAP readme file.

Comprehensive Data Analysis

MAP performs a detailed analysis of hardware for migration to Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server, Microsoft Office 2013, Office 2016, and Office 365. The hardware assessment looks at the installed hardware and determines if migration is recommended. If it is not recommended, then reports provide information about why it is not.

The device assessment looks at the devices installed on a computer and reports availability of drivers for those devices. Device assessment can be used for migration and consolidation scenarios for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

MAP identifies heterogeneous IT environments consisting of Windows Server, VMware Server, VMware vSphere, VMware VCenter and Linux operating systems, including those running in a virtual environment. MAP’s VMware ESXI 6.5 discovery feature identifies already-virtualized servers running under VMware that can be managed with the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager platform, or be migrated to the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor.

For customers interested in server consolidation and virtualization through technologies such as Hyper-V, MAP helps to gather performance metrics and generate server consolidation recommendations that identify the candidates for server virtualization and suggests how the physical servers might be placed in a virtualized environment.

In-Depth Readiness Reporting

MAP generates reports containing both summary and detailed assessment results for each migration scenario. The results are provided in Microsoft Office Excel workbooks. Reports are generated for the following scenarios:

  • Evaluate existing hardware against the recommended system requirements for Windows 10. Recommendations detailing which machines meet the requirements and which machines may require hardware upgrades
  • Evaluate existing hardware against the recommended system requirements for Windows 8.1. Recommendations detailing which machines meet the requirements and which machines may require hardware upgrades
  • Assess the readiness of your IT infrastructure for a Windows Server 2016 deployment. Includes a comprehensive inventory of servers, operating systems, workloads, devices, and server roles to help in planning efforts
  • Assess the readiness of your IT infrastructure for a Windows Server 2012 R2 deployment. Includes a comprehensive inventory of servers, operating systems, workloads, devices, and server roles to help in planning efforts
  • Gather performance data for Linux-based physical and virtual machines and use that information to perform virtualization and private cloud planning analysis for both Windows and Linux-based machines within the Hyper-V and Private Cloud Fast Track scenarios.
  • Identification of currently installed Windows client operating systems, their hardware, and recommendations for migration to Windows 10.
  • Identification of currently installed Windows client operating systems, their hardware, and recommendations for migration to Windows 8.1.
  • Inventory and reporting of deployed web browsers, Microsoft ActiveX controls, and add-ons for migration to Windows 7 compatible versions of Internet Explorer.
  • Identification of currently installed Microsoft Office software and recommendations for migration to Microsoft Office 2013, Office 2016 and Office 365.
  • Identification of currently installed Windows Server operating systems, underlying hardware and devices, as well as recommendations for migration to Windows Server 2016.
  • Identification of currently installed Windows Server operating systems, underlying hardware and devices, as well as recommendations for migration to Windows Server 2012 R2.
  • Identification of currently installed Linux operating systems and underlying hardware for virtualization on Hyper-V or management by Microsoft System Center Operations Manager R2.
  • Identification of virtual machines running on both Hyper-V and VMware, their hosts, and details about hosts and guests.
  • Identification and analysis of web applications, IIS servers, and SQL Server databases for migration to the Microsoft Azure Platform.
  • Detailed assessment and reporting of server utilization, as well as recommendations for server consolidation and virtual machine placement using Hyper-V.
  • Discovery of SQL Server databases, instances, and selected characteristics.
  • Inventory of Microsoft Software products by SWID tag.
  • Heterogeneous database discovery of Oracle instances.
  • Identification of SQL Server host machines and SQL Server components.
  • Detailed assessment of Windows Volume Licensing application for client operating systems.
  • Detailed assessment of enterprise Remote Desktop License usage.

Software Usage Tracker Feature Overview

The enhanced Software Usage Tracking feature in MAP simplifies your software license management and compliance process in terms of product coverage and the ability to track devices. MAP’s usage tracking scenario measures server and client usage for the each of the core CAL products

Active Users and Devices is an inventory scenario that allows organizations to report on user which are active on the network in addition to Windows devices. This information is useful in Enterprise Agreement scenarios as well as for maintaining Active Directory information for the environment. This strengthened tracking feature provides consistent software usage reports for the following key Microsoft Server products:

  • Windows Server
  • SharePoint Server
  • Exchange Server
  • SQL Server
  • System Center Configuration Manager
  • Forefront Endpoint Protection
  • Lync Server\ Skype For Business 2015
  • Remote Desktop Licensing
  • Server and Cloud Enrollment

With the MAP software usage tracker, you can run updated reports whenever you need to accurately assess current software usage and client access history in your environment. This reduces time and administrative costs for managing your server and CALs and helps you to streamline the management of your software assets.

Related Resources

Community and Feedback

To interact with other members of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning community, learn more about the tool, and get help with questions, visit the Microsoft Assessment and Planning forum on TechNet at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=110990.

To send feedback or suggestions for improving the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP), send e-mail to mapfdbk@microsoft.com.

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