Exchange 2013 Prerequisite Script Update (v1.8)

While Exchange 2013 is about 3 years old now, I still try to refresh my Prerequisite script every now and then. With this latest verison, I have added two Power Management related items. One is to turn off the Power Management on the Exchange Server’s NICs and the other option is to change the Power Plan from Balanced to High Performance. These are based off of Microsoft recommendations over the past months or years. Here is what the new menu looks like for the script on a Windows 2012 (R2) server (new options in red rectangle):

For a Windows 2008 R2 server, you will see this new menu (new options in red rectangle):

Power Plans
By default, the power plan for Windows 2012 (R2) and Windows 2008 R2 servers is Balanced. This can be verified in the GUI:

Windows 2008 R2:

And with PowerShell (2012 (R2)):

Windows 2008 R2 PowerShell

For an Exchange Server, Microsoft recommends that these options be changed to High Performance. I would question why a server would ever be in a Balanced mode. Servers are intended to serve multiple clients which requires more resources and less (if any) downtime. I would think that a ‘Balanced’ Power Option would be opposite to what a servers purpose is, which is fast service to data or programs or some other function. So use Option 30 of the PreReq script to make this change.

Running option 30 again shows the change has been made:

NIC Power Management
Another recommendation from Microsoft was to remove Power Management from the NICs on an Exchange Server. I added this option to my new Exchange Server 2016 Prerequisite Script. I have now added the same configuration options for Exchange 2013 with this new version 1.8 script. Your server may be configured as follows for NIC PowerManagement:
2012 (R2):

2008 R2:

The script will clear the values. When running the script, choose Option 31 for either Windows 2008 R2 or 2012 (R2):

When option ’31’ is run again, it shows that the setting is disabled.

If we check the NIC again, we will see something like this in 2012 (R2):

And in Windows 2008 R2:

Download Version 1.8 now
I have uploaded the update script to the TechNet Gallery, which can be found here: