Exchange 2013 Service Pack 1 – Best Practices Analyzer (Updated)

Previous to Service Pack 1 for Exchange Server 2013, the only way to get to the Best Practices Analyzer for Exchange was to log into an Office 365 Tenant and download it from the Tools tab. Now we have this option directly in the Exchange Admin Console (EAC). After your servers are upgraded, you will see a new tab, at the bottom of the menu on the left, called ‘Tools’.

At one point this tool was only available for those who had credentials for an Office 365 Tenant. This requirement has been removed. The only credentials you will need is if you have an Office 365 tenant. Now, on to the tool itself. If you click on the ‘Prerequisites’ link you will get a list of software that is needed on the computer that the tool is run on:


After making sure your machine meets the minimum requirements, go ahead and click the download link and run/save the file.

Installation
Once you begin the installtion, we start with the usual software agreement. Click ‘Accept’:

Another license agreement. Click ‘Accept’:

Another license agreement. Click ‘Accept’:

Now the installation begins with any prereq’s you might have missed:

One prereq that cannot be installed automatically is .NET Framework 3.5.

To install this, just add the feature to Windows 2008/2012:

Click ‘Next’:

Click ‘Next’:

Click ‘Next’:

Select ‘.NET Framework 3.5 Features’ and click ‘Next’

Click ‘Next’:

Wait for the installation to complete:

Click ‘Close’ to finish the installation of prereq’s:

Now the ExBPA installer will launch:

Click ‘Install’:

Wait for the installation to download:

ExBPA also has the usual software agreement. Click ‘Accept’:

Click ‘Next’:

Now we have the tool installed and can run a scan of your Exchange environment.
Click ‘Start Scan’:

Here is where we need to enter credentials in order to scan your Office 365 environment. If you only want to scan on-premises servers, make sure to click cancel:

Now we wait for the scan to complete:

Once completed we get a list of Errors:

Warning messages:

Informational items:

… and anything that passed the checks:

Many Exchange Admins/Engineers will be grateful for the tool being released for Exchange Server 2013. There are a few things to note.

• Every time you click on the link “Check your on-premises Exchange Server with Office 365 Best Practices Analyzer” it will ask to download or run the setup.exe file.
• If you’ve previously accepted the licensing and installed the prereq’s, those steps no longer occur.
• Also, the current version as of the writing of this blog article still shows as BETA 1.0.

More Information
Best Practices Analyzer Home Page