The BPA for Hyper-V was released a while ago but I’ve not had any reason to use it up to now. I put it onto a lab server yesterday to see what it would do for me. The results were expected.
As those you will attend my “Best Practices” session on Hyper-V will learn, everything in Hyper-V comes down to the consultant’s favourite line: “it depends”. Some things are great in some scenarios, some are not. The advice I give is to understand the scenario, understand the architecture in Hyper-V and make decisions based on organizational goals with an understanding of the trade-offs. A lot of understanding – and a great reason to pre-order my book or attend one of my presentations ;-) This does not mean the BPA for Hyper-V is worthless. Far from it. You should install it. You just need to understand what it might report.
The BPA for Hyper-V is a free download for Windows Server 2008 R2. It takes advantage of the extensibility of Server Manager. You browse to the Hyper-V role, scroll down and run the scan. It only takes a few seconds. A dialog will list a bunch of warnings and (hopefully no) errors. Each one lists a “best practice” that is not met. This is where the interpretation is necessary.
This be a powerful learning tool for those new to Hyper-V. Install a pilot or test machine and run the tool to see what it advises. From there, you can do a bunch of research to figure out what is right for your organization and infrastructure.
I also think this will be a good place to start troubleshooting non-obvious issues with hosts or virtual machines. For example, it’ll warn you about integration components not being installed or up to date. It might give you a starting point for a certain VM acting up.
My advice? Install it on every Hyper-V host (once your testing ensures it is fine for your network) and use it as required. Just be sure to understand what it is telling you.