Best Practices Analyzer

Applies To: Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012

In Windows management, best practices are guidelines that are considered the ideal way, under normal circumstances, to configure a server as defined by experts. For example, it is considered a best practice for most server technologies to keep open only those ports required for the technologies to communicate with other networked computers, and block unused ports. While best practice violations, even critical ones, are not necessarily problematic, they indicate server configurations that can result in poor performance, poor reliability, unexpected conflicts, increased security risks, or other potential problems.

What is Best Practices Analyzer?

Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) is a server management tool that is available in Windows Server® 2008 R2, Windows Server® 2012, and Windows Server® 2012 R2. BPA can help administrators reduce best practice violations by scanning one or more roles that are installed on those three Windows Server operating systems, and reporting best practice violations to the administrator. Administrators can filter or exclude results from BPA reports that they don’t need to see. Administrators can also perform BPA tasks by using either the Server Manager GUI, or Windows PowerShell cmdlets.

For more information about Best Practices Analyzer and scans, see Run Best Practices Analyzer Scans and Manage Scan Results.

About content in this section

Topics in this section can help you bring server roles that are running on Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012 into compliance with best practices. Content in this section is most valuable to administrators who have completed a Best Practices Analyzer scan of one or more roles, and who want information about how to interpret and resolve scan results that identify areas of those roles that are noncompliant with best practices.