Hello Folks! In this Blog Post let’s see how to make use of MAP tool for discovering all of your SQL Servers in your Environment. MAP is one of the wonderful tools(free) provided by Microsoft, which basically scans all over your Network and present you with a wonderful report on all of your Servers. They could be Windows Servers, Linux Servers, SQL Servers, Oracle, MySQL. Many companies use this fabulous tool for planning future road maps(Could Be Server Upgrades, Desktop Upgrades, MS Office Suite upgrade and what not), consolidations, upgrades, Licensing etc. In My Organization, we are planning to move on to SQL 2012 very soon and we need a report which basically gives us a clear and simple picture of our current SQL Server Environment and I was assigned to achieve this goal 🙂
Sooo….., let’s get started. First thing you’ve to do is download MAP ToolKit from below location
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?&id=7826
Once downloaded, choose a Machine in your Domain where you want to Install MAP tool and start Discovery.
Note: MAP tool Installs SQL Server Express by Default for storing it’s Results.
Demo:
I’ve chosen “Mirror_Stand” machine in My Lab Domain to Install MAP. I copied over executable  to this box as the 1st step. Right click on the “Microsoft_Assessment_and_Planning_Toolkit_Setup.exe” and choose Run as Admin and you should be seeing the following Screen. (Make sure to Install all the Prereq’s. If not, you’ll be welcomed with an ugly X message as shown below!)
Once I finished meeting all the Prereq’s, I’ve opened the exe and now I’m welcomed with the below Screen 🙂
Click Next-> Accept License Terms and Next->Select your Installation Folder(I left it to default) and click Next. Now comes the interesting Screen where it asks for how do you want to Install SQL Express(see below Screenshot).
If your Box is connected to Internet, Just select the 1st Radio Button. If not, select 2nd option and provide it with the SQL express Installation media path. Â I’ve chosen 2nd option and provided path for my SQL Express 2008R2 as shown below.
Once you read and accept the license terms, you should see a similar screen as below.(In My case, I already have a SQL Server Installed on this Machine, hence you can see “New Instance” being stated by the Installation wizard).
Click on Install and go and grab a cup of coffee :). It’ll take a while! Â As you can see, my Installation is successful now.
It Installed SQL Express Edition Instance on my machine with Name “MAPS”. See below Screencap
We are done with the Installation. Now, let’s see how can we discover SQL Servers across our Domain using this Tool.
Step1: You will be welcomed with the below screen where you’ve to create an Inventory DB(I named it as “SQL_Inven”) for the First time. (You can create separate Databases for separate Discoveries, eg: One DB for SQL Servers, another for Exchange, another for VMWare Servers etc).
Step2: Select on Databases and Choose to perform an Inventory as shown below.
Step 3: Select SQL Servers to discover your SQL Servers as shown below.
Step 4:Â Choose a Discovery Method. I’ve left to default to AD as you can see below.
Step 5: Provide domain Credentials and select which parts of your AD Forest to scan for as shown below.
Once you proceed upto Finish, it automatically starts gathering info as per the options you’ve chosen. It will take a while for gathering all the required info…
Once it finished, you can see a neat and very useful summary of MAP assessment of your SQL Servers as shown below.
Don’t say it’s useless…It’s actually wonderful Summary of your Environment. For detailed Reports, gather the performance metrics as well and click on “Generate Report/Proposal” on your Tasks Pane to your Right. Once finished it’ll create couple of excel Reports which are very very detailed and useful…You’ll find those reports in your documents folder. In My case, it is “C:\Users\sreekanth\Documents\MAP\SQL_Inven”
Nice thing is, It’s agent less. All it needs is an Account name which has access to the Servers and the Servers should be Up and Running while It scans.
Hope this is informational and useful. Cheers!…
MSSQLTREK 