Best Practice Analyzers are free tools available for most Microsoft Enterprise products and they are used to determine the overall health of your platform. The tools perform read only scans against your environment’s servers and identify items that do not conform to Microsoft best practices. They should be run on a regular basis as part of your standard operations maintenance plan. Here are some tools for the Windows Server platform which includes PAL, DHCP, Hyper-V, WSUS, Active Directory, Remote Desktop, File Services, and DNS.

• Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool – Ever have a performance problem, but don’t know what performance counters to collect or how to analyze them? The PAL (Performance Analysis of Logs) tool is a powerful tool that reads in a performance monitor counter log and analyzes it using known thresholds.

• Best Practices Analyzer for Network Policy and Access Services for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition (NPAS) – You can use the Network Policy and Access Services update for Best Practices Analyzer to scan a server that is running one or more of following the role services: Network Policy Server, Health Registration Authority, and Routing and Remote Access Service.

• Best Practices Analyzer for DHCP Server for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition – You can use DHCP Best Practices Analyzer to scan a server that is running the DHCP role and help identify configurations that do not comply with the best practices from Microsoft for this role.

• Best Practices Analyzer for HYPER-V for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition – You can use Hyper-V Best Practices Analyzer to scan a server that is running the Hyper-V role, and help identify configurations that do not comply with the best practices of Microsoft for this role.

• Best Practices Analyzer for Application Server for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition – You can use the Application Server update for Best Practices Analyzer to scan a server that is running the Application Server role.

• Best Practices Analyzer for Windows Server Update Services for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition -You can use the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) update for Best Practices Analyzer to scan a server that is running WSUS.

• Best Practices Analyzer for Active Directory Rights Management Services for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition – You can use Active Directory Rights Management Services Best Practices Analyzer to scan a server that is running the AD RMS role and help identify configurations that do not comply with the best practices of Microsoft for this role.

• Remote Desktop Services Best Practice Analyzer for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition – Install this update to revise the rules of Best Practice Analyzer (BPA) for Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2008 R2.

• Best Practices Analyzer for File Services for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition – You can use File Services Best Practices Analyzer to scan a server that is running the File Services role and one or more of following role services: DFS Namespaces, DFS Replication, File Server, File Server Resource Manager, Services for Network File System.

• Microsoft DNS (Domain Name System) Model for Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 – The DNS Model for the MBCA 2.0 provides feedback to an Administrator to enable him to bring DNS running on Windows Server 2008 into compliance with best practices.

Also read –

• Download Best Practices Analyzers – Exchange & Unified Communications
• Download Best Practices Analyzers – Forefront, ISA and Security
• Download Guides – SBS, Mobile Device Manager, Commerce Server, Biztalk