Whenever I install a server, I run the Best Practice Analyzer (BPA) for all installed roles just to check if I haven’t messed up.
But when I did it this morning for a Hyper-V installation, I was actually wondering what the BPA checks for…
Since I wasn’t able to find a list in the GUI, I went to my favorite tool: PowerShell.
First, the BPA has to be run… else we’ll get an error since the list with the things it checks for hasn’t been generated yet and therefor PowerShell can’t get the information.
Then we import the module for the Best Practice Analyzer:
Import-Module BestPractices
Next, we need to select the proper BPA results:
Get-BpaResult Microsoft/Windows/Hyper-V
Now, this gives us a lot of information… most of which we don’t need in this case… we only want to get the names of the checks.
As you can see in the output of the previous command, there seems to be a property named ‘Title’. In my experience, the name given in the output is not always correct. Especially Active Directory is very good in confusing people that way… the name of a column in your output is not always the name of the actual property.
To get the available properties we can filter on, put ‘Get-Member’ behind the command in a pipe:
Get-BpaResult Microsoft/Windows/Hyper-V | Get-Member
Here you’ll see that there actually is a property called ‘Title’ which we can use.
So, to get a list of the names of all the checks the BPA performs for a Hyper-V installation:
Get-BpaResult Microsoft/Windows/Hyper-V | Format-Table Title
Note: You can simply replace ‘Hyper-V’ in ‘Microsoft/Windows/Hyper-V’ for whatever role you want to get the checks for…
The Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management Service should be configured to start automatically The Hyper-V Networking Management Service should be configured to start automatically The Hyper-V Image Management Service should be configured to start automatically Hyper-V should be the only enabled role The Server Core installation option is recommended for servers running Hyper-V Domain membership is recommended for servers running Hyper-V The number of logical processors in use must not exceed the supported maximum The number of virtual processors in use must not exceed the supported maximum More than one network adapter should be available Reserve one or more external virtual networks for exclusive use by virtual machines All virtual network adapters should be enabled The number of virtual machines must be within supported limits Use RAM that provides error correction Configure the server with a sufficient amount of dynamic MAC addresses Avoid pausing a virtual machine Offer all available integration services to virtual machines Enable all virtual network adapters configured for a virtual machine Storage controllers should be enabled in virtual machines to provide access to attached storage Display adapters should be enabled in virtual machines to provide video capabilities Run the current version of integration services in all guest operating systems Enable all integration services in virtual machines Avoid using legacy network adapters when the guest operating system supports network adapters Avoid using snapshots on a virtual machine that runs a server workload in a production environment Dynamic virtual hard disks are not recommended for virtual machines that run server workloads in a production environment Avoid using differencing disks on virtual machines that run server workloads in a production environment Configure a virtual machine with a SCSI controller to be able to hot plug and hot unplug storage Configure SCSI controllers only when supported by the guest operating system Avoid configuring virtual machines to allow unfiltered SCSI commands
