BPAEngine Wiki & Documentation Rss Feed

UPDATED WIKI: Home

joemorel — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 21:12:59 GMT

Welcome to the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer Home Page!

The Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer is an general-purpose engine that allows for a user to analyze settings in their systems to quickly identify problematic or sub-optimal configurations. The Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) uses a plug-in architecture that allows users to easily install and extend the functionality of the tool by downloading a best practices analyzer "plug-in" and accompanying "rules" document.

The BPA tool comes preinstalled with an example plug-in for analyzes an ASP.Net 2.0 server and website's system.web configuration settings for problematic configurations. The source code for this analyzer plugin will be avaiable as a Shared Source project, and can serve as an example of how you could write your own best practices plug-in that extends the tool.

[image:BPATool1.jpg]

[image:BPATool2.jpg]

Current Project Status

Version 1.0 has been released, and can be downloaded here.

View the Requirements for running the Best Practices Analyzer

Download the Final 1.0 Release

The final 1.0 release of the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer, which includes an automatic updater for rules and plugins, is now available to download! Download it and let us know what you think!

Join the Development Team

Contributing to the Best Practices Analyzer

The best way to contribute to this community project is to contribute more rules for released analyzers (especially ASP.Net 2.0 configuration rules), or to try your hand at writing a best practices plug-in of your own. Please submit your suggestions for new rules in the Discussion boards for this project.

How to Write a Rule for the Best Practices Analyzer
How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

In addition, the source code for the ASP.NET 2.0 configuration analyzer plug-in that was released with the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer is available for download to help you get started writing your own plug-ins. Download it here!

Note that by posting your submission to the Issue Tracker, you agree to do so under the CodePlex TOU

Join the Community

There are numerous ways you can participate in the TFS Admin Tool community

Blog about the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer
Ask and answer questions on the Discussion boards
Submit issues or feature suggestions

TestDocs

UPDATED WIKI: Home

joemorel — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 21:00:13 GMT

Welcome to the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer Home Page!

Current Project Status

Version 1.0 has been released, and can be downloaded here.

View the Requirements for running the Best Practices Analyzer

Download the Final 1.0 Release

The final 1.0 release of the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer, which includes an automatic updater for rules and plugins, is now available to download! Download it and let us know what you think!

Join the Development Team

Contributing to the Best Practices Analyzer

How to Write a Rule for the Best Practices Analyzer
How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

Note that by posting your submission to the Issue Tracker, you agree to do so under the CodePlex TOU

Join the Community

There are numerous ways you can participate in the TFS Admin Tool community

Blog about Best Practices Analyzer
Ask and answer questions on the Discussion boards
Submit issues or feature suggestions

TestDocs

UPDATED WIKI: Home

joemorel — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:57:21 GMT

Welcome to the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer Home Page!

Current Status

Version 1.0 has been released, and can be downloaded here.

View the Requirements for running the Best Practices Analyzer

Download the Final 1.0 Release

The final 1.0 release of the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer, which includes an automatic updater for rules and plugins, is now available to download! Download it and let us know what you think!

Join the Development Team

Contributing to the Best Practices Analyzer

How to Write a Rule for the Best Practices Analyzer
How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

Note that by posting your submission to the Issue Tracker, you agree to do so under the CodePlex TOU

Join the Community

There are numerous ways you can participate in the TFS Admin Tool community

Blog about Best Practices Analyzer
Ask and answer questions on the Discussion boards
Submit issues or feature suggestions

TestDocs

UPDATED WIKI: How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

joemorel — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 21:02:34 GMT

How to Write a Plug-in For the Best Practices Analyzer

Version: Beta 1
Date: September 11, 2006

Introduction

The best practices analyzer (BPA) code base supports a plug-in architecture that allows users to add a new analyzer as a plug-in using the existing broader framework for similar BPA tools. In this document we will walk you through the creation of a new ASP.NET analyzer plug-in.

Note: To create a plug-in for the Best Practices Analyzer (BPA), you must have a version of Visual Studio 2005 installed on your machine. If you do not have Visual Studio 2005, you can download a free version of Visual C# Express from Microsoft.

How to add a new analyzer plug-in

Add a new analyzer project

First step creating a new project that references the correct assemblies from the BPA engine. You should create a new project in the language of your choice (we will be using C# in all example code in this document.) Once the project has been created, you'll need to add reference to the following framework projects that we will depend on:

Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.Common;
Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface;
System.Windows.Forms

Add a new analyzer class

Add a new class for your analyzer (YourNewAnalyzer) by inheriting from the Analyzer class in
Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface namespace:

class MyAnalyzer : Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface.Analyzer

Setup your new analyzer properties

In the constructor of your new Analyzer class set the configurationFileName (this XML file defines the rules and other parameters specific to your new analyzer.) The name of the file can be anything, just remember what it is. Specify the name of your tool by setting the following field names:

ToolShortName = YourNewAnalyzerLoc.ToolFullName;
ToolLongNameStart = YourNewAnalyzerLoc.ToolLongNameStart;
ToolLongNameEnd = YourNewAnalyzerLoc.ToolLongNameEnd;
LabelWDesc = YourNewAnalyzerLoc.LabelWDesc;
ButtonStartScan = YourNewAnalyzerLoc.ButtonStartScan;

where "YourNewAnalyzerLoc" is a resource file where you will be storing the strings necessary for your plug-in.

Methods that need to be overridden.

Fill in the run time options for the scan by setting the scanInfo.Options properties. For example:

protected override void GetBPAScanInfo(BPAScanInfo scanInfo, string[] argsIn)
{
scanInfo.Options.Restrictions.DisableAll();
foreach (string option in scanOptions.RestrictionOptions)
scanInfo.Options.Restrictions.Enable(option);

scanInfo.Options.Substitutions.Clear();
for (int s = 0; s < scanOptions.Substitutions.Count; s++)
scanInfo.Options.Substitutions.Add(scanOptions.Substitutions.GetKey(s), scanOptions.Substitutions.GetByIndex(s));
}

public override void InitializeAnalyzerCustomizations()
{
customizations = new BPACustomizations("BPA", new BPACustomizations.GetBPAScanInfoCallback(GetBPAScanInfo));
customizations.RegistrySettings = new BPARegistrySettings();
…..
scanOptions = new ScanOptions(this);
…..
}

Then, implement any additional configuration necessary:

protected override void ProcessConfiguration(Document doc)
{
if (scanOptions != null && mainGUI != null)
scanOptions.Initialize(mainGUI);
}

public override string ToString()
{
return LongNameStart + " " + LongNameEnd;
}

UPDATED WIKI: How to Write a Rule for the Best Practices Analyzer

joemorel — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 18:37:27 GMT

How to Add a Rule to a Best Practice Analyzer Rules File

Version: 1.0
Date: October 20, 2006

Introduction

The Microsoft Best Practice Analyzer Engine (MSBPA) is a general-purpose framework that enables the programmatic scanning of particular values inside of objects (e.g., the Windows Registry, XML Files, etc.) and evaluates those values against predefined rules. If a given rule is evaluated as “true”, engine will display a warning and text as defined in the rules file, notifying the user of the violation of that particular rule.
The one of the biggest strengths of the MSBPA is the ability to quickly and easily add additional rules to a given rule document. A rule is described in a simple XML file that can be located in the “\plugins” directory under the BPA engine directory. The name of the file will be in the format “<name of analysis plugin>.config.xml”. In the document below, the process for adding a new rule to a preexisting rules document will be described.

Understanding the Rules File Structure

Before we start writing a new rule, it is useful to familiarize yourself with the structure of an XML rules file. To view an example rules file, please download and install the Best Practices Analyzer tool, and open the AspDotNetAnalyzer.config.xml file, which will be found in the \plugins folder of the main installation directory for the BPA tool (usually %Program Files%\Power Toys for Visual Studio\Best Practices Analyzer\)

Configuration

The first section in the XML that you will encounter is the configuration section. In the configuration section, the main properties about the rules file are defined, such as what kinds of files or data the analyzer needs to be able to read, the different restrictions that will be available in the UI, and the definition of all of the inputs that the user must submit to run a scan. For the purpose of just adding a new rule, it is unlikely that you will need to make any changes to this section.

Substitution Rules – What Property are you Trying to Read?

Below the configuration section, a list of substitutions can be defined. The easiest way to think of a substitution is like a variable—you’re defining a shorter, convenient name for something so you can reference it later. Below is an example of a substitution for a given node in an XML document:

Let’s step through the elements in the substitution above step-by-step. A “Setting” node shows that you want to define a substitution. “Key1” and “Key2” elements’ meanings are defined by the object processor associated with the parent “object” of the substitutions. There are several different object processors, but quite likely the easiest way to determine how to add a new substitution is to look at the rules around it and emulate their style. The “substitution” element defines the name of your substitution—basically, how do you want to reference this setting later on in the rules file? Finally, the “Rule Name” defines both a name for the substitution rule (all substitution rule names must start with a lower-case “s”) and an XPath “query” that will be evaluated against the data defined earlier in the substitution. In the example above, the query “$.” will return the value of the property in the XML at the path “configuration/system.web/pages/@autoEventWireup”.

Rules – What Value Should Trigger a Warning?

Now that we have defined a substitution, we need to create an actual BPA rule that will trigger when a scan occurs. To do this, we need to define another rule. Once again, the best way to add an additional rule to the rules document is to emulate a preexisting rule that exists to evaluate a similar element. Below is a rule that uses the substitution defined above:

The rule name corresponds with the substitution rule above, but instead of an “s” rule, you can see that we are defining an “f” rule. The most important part of a rule is the query. The query is an XPath expression. Whenever the evaluation of the query returns a Boolean value of “true”, the rule will be triggered. The “error” property defines the severity of your rule—it can be an “error”, a “warning”, or a “best practice”. The “title” is the heading that will be displayed in the error message in the BPA tool, along with the “text” that describes what the error is and why the rule was triggered.

Save and Contribute!

Once you have made your changes, go ahead and save the XML rules file, run the BPA tool, and see if your changes worked. It is suggested that you save the original XML rules file in a safe location first, in case you need to revert to it in the future. If your rule isn’t working, the first thing to check is to go back into the XML that you wrote and study both the form (make sure you have all of your carrots and quotation marks closed) and the XPath function that you are using. Does it evaluate to true? If not, you shouldn’t see the rule.
If you successfully made the change, and you think that your rule is a good one, share it back to the community and have everybody check out and benefit from your work. Currently, while the application is in beta, the best place to share your new rules is on the CodePlex discussions for the Best Practices Analyzer (just click on the Discussions tab above and go to the "New Rule Suggestions" discussion board.)

More Resources

Want to know more? Read up on these more advanced documents, which will give you more detailed guidance on writing rules for the Best Practices Analyzer:

BPA Rules XML Schema and Reference Help File
BPA Advanced Rules Tutorial

UPDATED WIKI: TestDocs

joemorel — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:30:47 GMT

Placeholder page for files.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

joemorel — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:07:47 GMT

Welcome to the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer Home Page!

The BPA tool is currently in public beta.

View the Requirements for running the Best Practices Analyzer

Download the Preview Release

The preview release of the Best Practices Analyzer, which includes an automatic updater for rules and plugins, is now available! Download it and let us know what you think!

Join the Development Team

Contributing to the Best Practices Analyzer

How to Write a Rule for the Best Practices Analyzer
How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

Note that by posting your submission to the Issue Tracker, you agree to do so under the CodePlex TOU

Join the Community

There are numerous ways you can participate in the TFS Admin Tool community

Blog about Best Practices Analyzer
Ask and answer questions on the Discussion boards
Submit issues or feature suggestions

TestDocs

UPDATED WIKI: Home

joemorel — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 18:54:09 GMT

Welcome to the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer Home Page!

The BPA tool is currently in public beta.

View the Requirements for running the TFS Admin Tool

Download the Preview Release

The preview release of the Best Practices Analyzer, which includes an automatic updater for rules and plugins, is now available! Download it and let us know what you think!

Join the Development Team

Contributing to the Best Practices Analyzer

How to Write a Rule for the Best Practices Analyzer
How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

Note that by posting your submission to the Issue Tracker, you agree to do so under the CodePlex TOU

Join the Community

There are numerous ways you can participate in the TFS Admin Tool community

Blog about Best Practices Analyzer
Ask and answer questions on the Discussion boards
Submit issues or feature suggestions

TestDocs

UPDATED WIKI: TestDocs

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:30:26 GMT

Placeholder page for files.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:29:38 GMT

Welcome to the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer Home Page!

The BPA tool is currently in public beta.

View the Requirements for running the TFS Admin Tool

Join the Development Team

Contributing to the Best Practices Analyzer

How to Write a Rule for the Best Practices Analyzer
How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

Note that by posting your submission to the Issue Tracker, you agree to do so under the CodePlex TOU

Join the Community

There are numerous ways you can participate in the TFS Admin Tool community

Blog about Best Practices Analyzer
Ask and answer questions on the Discussion boards
Submit issues or feature suggestions

TestDocs

UPDATED WIKI: How to Write a Rule for the Best Practices Analyzer

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:04:54 GMT

How to Add a Rule to a Best Practice Analyzer Rules File

Version: Beta 1
Date: September 11, 2006

Introduction

Understanding the Rules File Structure

Configuration

Substitution Rules – What Property are you Trying to Read?

Rules – What Value Should Trigger a Warning?

Save and Contribute!

More Resources

Want to know more? Read up on these more advanced documents, which will give you more detailed guidance on writing rules for the Best Practices Analyzer:

BPA Rules XML Schema and Reference Help File
BPA Advanced Rules Tutorial

UPDATED WIKI: How to Write a Rule for the Best Practices Analyzer

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:03:09 GMT

How to Add a Rule to a Best Practice Analyzer Rules File

Version: Beta 1
Date: September 11, 2006

!!!!Introduction
The Microsoft Best Practice Analyzer Engine (MSBPA) is a general-purpose framework that enables the programmatic scanning of particular values inside of

objects (e.g., the Windows Registry, XML Files, etc.) and evaluates those values against predefined rules. If a given rule is evaluated as “true”, engine

will display a warning and text as defined in the rules file, notifying the user of the violation of that particular rule.
The one of the biggest strengths of the MSBPA is the ability to quickly and easily add additional rules to a given rule document. A rule is described in a

simple XML file that can be located in the “\plugins” directory under the BPA engine directory. The name of the file will be in the format “<name of

analysis plugin>.config.xml”. In the document below, the process for adding a new rule to a preexisting rules document will be described.

!!!!Understanding the Rules File Structure
Before we start writing a new rule, it is useful to familiarize yourself with the structure of an XML rules file. To view an example rules file, please

download and install the Best Practices Analyzer tool, and open the AspDotNetAnalyzer.config.xml file, which will be found in the \plugins folder of the main

installation directory for the BPA tool (usually %Program Files%\Power Toys for Visual Studio\Best Practices Analyzer\)

!!!!Configuration
The first section in the XML that you will encounter is the configuration section. In the configuration section, the main properties about the rules file

are defined, such as what kinds of files or data the analyzer needs to be able to read, the different restrictions that will be available in the UI, and the

definition of all of the inputs that the user must submit to run a scan. For the purpose of just adding a new rule, it is unlikely that you will need to

make any changes to this section.

!!!!Substitution Rules – What Property are you Trying to Read?
Below the configuration section, a list of substitutions can be defined. The easiest way to think of a substitution is like a variable—you’re defining a

shorter, convenient name for something so you can reference it later. Below is an example of a substitution for a given node in an XML document:

Let’s step through the elements in the substitution above step-by-step. A “Setting” node shows that you want to define a substitution. “Key1” and “Key2”

elements’ meanings are defined by the object processor associated with the parent “object” of the substitutions. There are several different object

processors, but quite likely the easiest way to determine how to add a new substitution is to look at the rules around it and emulate their style. The

“substitution” element defines the name of your substitution—basically, how do you want to reference this setting later on in the rules file? Finally, the

“Rule Name” defines both a name for the substitution rule (all substitution rule names must start with a lower-case “s”) and an XPath “query” that will be

evaluated against the data defined earlier in the substitution. In the example above, the query “$.” will return the value of the property in the XML at the

path “configuration/system.web/pages/@autoEventWireup”.

!!!!Rules – What Value Should Trigger a Warning?
Now that we have defined a substitution, we need to create an actual BPA rule that will trigger when a scan occurs. To do this, we need to define another

rule. Once again, the best way to add an additional rule to the rules document is to emulate a preexisting rule that exists to evaluate a similar element.

Below is a rule that uses the substitution defined above:

<Rule Name="fWebConfigAutoEventWireup" Query="matches('true',lower-case('%auto%'))" Error="Warning" Title="Auto Event Wireup is enabled" Text="It is

suggested that Auto Event Wireup be disabled to enhance performance and increase security."/>

The rule name corresponds with the substitution rule above, but instead of an “s” rule, you can see that we are defining an “f” rule. The most important

part of a rule is the query. The query is an XPath expression. Whenever the evaluation of the query returns a Boolean value of “true”, the rule will be

triggered. The “error” property defines the severity of your rule—it can be an “error”, a “warning”, or a “best practice”. The “title” is the heading that

will be displayed in the error message in the BPA tool, along with the “text” that describes what the error is and why the rule was triggered.

!!!!Save and Contribute!
Once you have made your changes, go ahead and save the XML rules file, run the BPA tool, and see if your changes worked. It is suggested that you save the

original XML rules file in a safe location first, in case you need to revert to it in the future. If your rule isn’t working, the first thing to check is to

go back into the XML that you wrote and study both the form (make sure you have all of your carrots and quotation marks closed) and the XPath function that

you are using. Does it evaluate to true? If not, you shouldn’t see the rule.
If you successfully made the change, and you think that your rule is a good one, share it back to the community and have everybody check out and benefit from

your work. Currently, while the application is in beta, the best place to share your new rules is on the CodePlex discussions for the Best Practices

Analyzer (just click on the Discussions tab above and go to the "New Rule Suggestions" discussion board.)

!!!!More Resources
Want to know more? Read up on these more advanced documents, which will give you more detailed guidance on writing rules for the Best Practices Analyzer:

BPA Rules XML Schema and Reference Help File
BPA Advanced Rules Tutorial

UPDATED WIKI: How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:42:04 GMT

How to Write a Plug-in For the Best Practices Analyzer

Version: Beta 1
Date: September 11, 2006

Introduction

How to add a new analyzer plug-in

Add a new analyzer project

First step creating a new project that references the correct assemblies from the BPA engine. You should create a new project in the language of your choice (we will be using C# in all example code in this document.) Once the project has been create, you'll need to add reference to the following framework projects that we will depend on:

Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.Common;
Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface;

Add a new analyzer class

Add a new class for your analyzer (YourNewAnalyzer) by inheriting from the Analyzer class in
Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface namespace:

class MyAnalyzer : Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface.Analyzer

Setup your new analyzer properties

where "YourNewAnalyzerLoc" is a resource file where you will be storing the strings necessary for your plug-in.

Methods that need to be overridden.

Fill in the run time options for the scan by setting the scanInfo.Options properties. For example:

Then, implement any additional configuration necessary:

protected override void ProcessConfiguration(Document doc)
{
if (scanOptions != null && mainGUI != null)
scanOptions.Initialize(mainGUI);
}

public override string ToString()
{
return LongNameStart + " " + LongNameEnd;
}

UPDATED WIKI: How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:41:44 GMT

How to Write a Plug-in For the Best Practices Analyzer

Version: Beta 1
_Date: September 11, 2006

Introduction

How to add a new analyzer plug-in

Add a new analyzer project

First step creating a new project that references the correct assemblies from the BPA engine. You should create a new project in the language of your choice (we will be using C# in all example code in this document.) Once the project has been create, you'll need to add reference to the following framework projects that we will depend on:

Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.Common;
Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface;

Add a new analyzer class

Add a new class for your analyzer (YourNewAnalyzer) by inheriting from the Analyzer class in
Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface namespace:

class MyAnalyzer : Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface.Analyzer

Setup your new analyzer properties

where "YourNewAnalyzerLoc" is a resource file where you will be storing the strings necessary for your plug-in.

Methods that need to be overridden.

Fill in the run time options for the scan by setting the scanInfo.Options properties. For example:

Then, implement any additional configuration necessary:

protected override void ProcessConfiguration(Document doc)
{
if (scanOptions != null && mainGUI != null)
scanOptions.Initialize(mainGUI);
}

public override string ToString()
{
return LongNameStart + " " + LongNameEnd;
}

UPDATED WIKI: How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:41:11 GMT

How to Write a Plug-in For the Best Practices Analyzer

Version: Beta 1
_Date: September 11, 2006

Introduction

How to add a new analyzer plug-in

Add a new analyzer project

First step creating a new project that references the correct assemblies from the BPA engine. You should create a new project in the language of your choice (we will be using C# in all example code in this document.) Once the project has been create, you'll need to add reference to the following framework projects that we will depend on:

Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.Common;
Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface;

Add a new analyzer class

Add a new class for your analyzer (YourNewAnalyzer) by inheriting from the Analyzer class in
Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface namespace:

class MyAnalyzer : Microsoft.VSPowerToys.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface.Analyzer

Setup your new analyzer properties

where "YourNewAnalyzerLoc" is a resource file where you will be storing the strings necessary for your plug-in.

Methods that need to be overridden.

Fill in the run time options for the scan by setting the scanInfo.Options properties. For example:

Then, implement any additional configuration necessary:

protected override void ProcessConfiguration(Document doc)
{
if (scanOptions != null && mainGUI != null)
scanOptions.Initialize(mainGUI);
}

public override string ToString()
{
return LongNameStart + " " + LongNameEnd;
}

CREATED WIKI:

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:41:11 GMT

UPDATED WIKI: Requirements

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:18:11 GMT

Requirements to Run the Best Practices Analyzer

Version: Beta 1
Date: September 11, 2006

To run the Best Practices Analyzer, the following requirements must be fulfilled:

Windows XP or 2003 (Windows 2000 or Vista may work, but have not been tested)
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
Administrator privileges on your machine

To run the ASP.NET 2.0 configuration analyzer, you additionally will need access to:

Machine.config file of your server
System-wide web.config file of your server
Site-specific web.config file of your web application you wish to scan

UPDATED WIKI: Requirements

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:12:23 GMT

Requirements to Run the Best Practices Analyzer

Version: Beta 1
Date: September 11, 2006

To run the Best Practices Analyzer, the following requirements must be fulfilled:

Windows XP or 2003 (Windows 2000 or Vista may work, but have not been tested)
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
Administrator privileges on your machine

To run the ASP.NET 2.0 configuration analyzer, you additionally will need access to:

Machine.config file of your server
System-wide web.config file of your server
Site-specific web.config file of your web application you wish to scan

UPDATED WIKI: Home

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 18:59:37 GMT

Welcome to the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer Home Page!

The BPA tool is currently in public beta.

View the Requirements for running the TFS Admin Tool

Join the Development Team

Contributing to the Best Practices Analyzer

How to Write a Rule for the Best Practices Analyzer
How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

Note that by posting your submission to the Issue Tracker, you agree to do so under the CodePlex TOU

Join the Community

There are numerous ways you can participate in the TFS Admin Tool community

Blog about Best Practices Analyzer
Ask and answer questions on the Discussion boards
Submit issues or feature suggestions

TestDocs

UPDATED WIKI: Home

joemorel — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 18:59:11 GMT

Welcome to the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer Home Page!

The Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer is an general-purpose engine that allows for a user to analyze settings in

their systems to quickly identify problematic or sub-optimal configurations. The Best Practices Analyzer (BPA)

uses a plug-in architecture that allows users to easily install and extend the functionality of the tool by

downloading a best practices analyzer "plug-in" and accompanying "rules" document.

The BPA tool comes preinstalled with an example plug-in for analyzes an ASP.Net 2.0 server and website's system.web

configuration settings for problematic configurations. The source code for this analyzer plugin will be avaiable

as a Shared Source project, and can serve as an example of how you could write your own best practices plug-in that

extends the tool.

The BPA tool is currently in public beta.

View the Requirements for running the TFS Admin Tool

Join the Development Team

Contributing to the Best Practices Analyzer

The best way to contribute to this community project is to contribute more rules for released analyzers (especially

ASP.Net 2.0 configuration rules), or to try your hand at writing a best practices plug-in of your own. Please

submit your suggestions for new rules in the Discussion boards for this project.

How to Write a Rule for the Best Practices Analyzer
How to Write a Plugin for the Best Practices Analyzer

Note that by posting your submission to the Issue Tracker, you agree to do so under the [url:CodePlex

TOU|http://www.codeplex.com/Legal/terms.aspx]

Join the Community

There are numerous ways you can participate in the TFS Admin Tool community

Blog about Best Practices Analyzer
Ask and answer questions on the Discussion boards
Submit issues or feature suggestions

TestDocs