DHCP Best Practices Analyzer is now available for Windows Server 2008 R2

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Introduction

In Windows management, best practices are guidelines to configure a server as defined by experts. For example, it is considered a best practice for most server technologies to keep open ports that are required for the technologies to communicate with other networked computers and block unused ports. Whereas best practice violations, even very important best practice violations, 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.

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What is Best Practices Analyzer?

Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) is a server management tool that is available in Windows Server 2008 R2. BPA reports best practice violations to the administrator after BPA scans the roles that are installed on Windows Server 2008 R2. Administrators can filter out unnecessary information or exclude results from BPA reports. . Administrators can also perform BPA tasks with either the Server Manager GUI, or Windows PowerShell cmdlets. For more information about Best Practices Analyzer and scans, see the Best Practices Analyzer Help.

About the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Server BPA Update

The update described in this article contains best practice benchmarks against which DHCP Server running on Windows Server� 2008 R2 can be evaluated. After this update is installed on a server that is running Windows Server 2008 R2, you can run Best Practices Analyzer scans on DHCP Server that will help you bring the role into compliance with best practices.

A BPA scan of DHCP Server analyzes DHCP Server configuration and identifies potential problems, such as incomplete or incorrect configuration of DHCP scopes. Identifying and resolving these issues can help you improve the reliability and performance of DHCP Server, and avoid potential network problems. You can sort scan results by severity, and open Web pages that contain instructions about how to resolve or work around problems with your DHCP Server configuration. No configuration changes are made by running BPA scans.

For more information about DHCP Server, see the DHCP Server page on the Windows Server 2008 TechCenter:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/bb643151.aspx.