I am currently working as a Senior Field Consultant. I started my professional career in 1999 in India. In the year 1999 I decided to transition from the Retail Industry to hard core Information Technology, which was always my strength and desire. I realised my strengths and keen interest when I worked on Dbase III Plus a few years back but due to various constraints I could not pursue my career at that point in time. I have worked in various capacities in the fields of Software Technology, as Systems administrator, Systems Support Engineer, Implementations Engineer and Senior Implementation Engineer. Currently, I am based as Senior Field Consultant for a Microsoft Gold Partner in Oxford, U.K.
I am certified in various disciplines
CCIE # 23368
CCNP
CCNA
CCA
MCSE NT, 2k & 2k3
MCSA 2k & 2k3
MCSE 2k & 2k3 (Messaging & Security)
MCSA 2k & 2k3 (Messaging & Security)
I devote my free time to the technology communities. I believe knowledge grows by sharing and I love to share my knowledge. I believe it is important to be passionate and really enjoy whatever you do. I am also the founder and maintain Ahmedgroup (http://www.ahmedgroup.co.uk)
In this article I will walk you through the process of creating a Visio diagram with the help of Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool. Creating this diagram will require minimum user interaction and save valueable time.
The ISA Server Best Practices Analyzer is supplied with two supplemental tools.
a) The ISA Data Packager.
b) BPA2Visio.
I will only cover the "BPA2VISIO" in this article.
In this article I will walk you through the process of creating a Visio diagram with the help of Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool. Creating this diagram will require minimum user interaction and save valueable time.
The ISA Server Best Practices Analyzer is supplied with two supplemental tools.
a) The ISA Data Packager.
b) BPA2Visio.
I will only cover the "BPA2VISIO" in this article.
This is an extremely handy tool and I use it for a couple of reasons regularly.
a) To either use it part of my documentation once the Implementation work is complete.
b) If I have been sent on a customer's site where there is no documentation onsite & I am not sure how there system has been setup. With the help of this tool I can get a quick insight of the key components.
Before we start off any further you need to download and install Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool on the ISA server & a pc with Visio installed.
Now I will not cover the entire tool but only a subset of this tool the focus will be on i.e. "BPA2Visio".
The above screen shot is from the client pc which will be used to generate the actual "Visio Diagram".
Note: Ensure the version of the Visio installation is "Professional Edt" with a bare minimum "Typical installation". It also works with Visio 2003 & 2007.
Step 1: Install MS ISA BPA on the ISA server.
Step 2: Run the scan on the ISA server. "Default / Health Check"
Step 3: Import / Copy the logs to the "Visio Computer".
Step 4: Run BPA2Visio and import the logs copied in Step 2 and generate the diagram.
Location of the saved logs files once the scan has been run
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\IsaBPA
On the pc where Visio is installed
Click Start > Programs > MS ISA server > BPA2Visio >
Click browse and point it to the report file we have copied to this pc.
Click Generate diagram and away it goes in 2 minutes your diagram is ready to be viewed.
A sample of this has been displayed below. I had to edit this picture a little by moving objects around to ensure it fits in the web page.
But believe me it looks much better, see for yourself when you give this is a try.