Getting Started In Your Environment

This is a guide on how to get the most out of the QA scripts to better configure your environment and tailor the checks to suit your needs. This can be a lengthy process, but well worth it.

The first part of the guide is also the Quick Start instructions.

Quick Start - Getting The Initial Report

1. Download all the files from this git repository and save them into a folder. We'll use C:\QA,

2. Open an elevated PowerShell window and change the current path to C:\QA,

3. Type .\Compiler.ps1 to compile the checks into one script. It will be called something like QA_v3_17.0929.ps1 where the last numbers are the current year, month and day,

4. Run that newly created script: .\QA_v3_17.0929.ps1 -ComputerName localhost,

5. Wait for the process to finish,

6. Open the generated HTML report for the check. By default it's located in _C:\QA\Reports_ and called the name of the machine you are running the script on with the current date and time: SERVER_2017.09.29-11.00.html

7. This report will contain a lot of failures. Don't worry, it's not been configured for your environment yet.!

Configure The Checks For Your Environment

Now that you have your report, you can use it to see what needs fixing in your environment and what needs tweaking in the scripts. For example. The very first check makes sure that no additional user accounts exist on a server. Almost all environments will have a custom AD group added in order to manage the server remotely. These are the types of tweaks that the script needs to know about and can be ignored for future checks.

Using The QA Settings Configuration Tool

The QA Settings Configuration Tool is a GUI tool that helps to create and customise your environment specific configuration settings.

Starting The Tool

8. From a PowerShell window, run .\QA-Settings-Configurator.ps1. After a few seconds the following window will appear...

9. Read the text and click the Set Check Location button,

10. Locate the scripts folder and click OK. The tool will try to automatically select the current folder,

11. Since this is a new "installation", there will only be one base settings file: default-settings,

12. If more than one language exists, select whichever one you want to use,
    Note: The tool is only in English at the moment, but the QA scripts will be language independent.

13. Click Import Settings. The tool will then scan the scripts folder and load the selected settings file.

Select Required Checks

There are about 100 checks to choose from, most of which are enabled by default. The next page of the tool allows you to enable or disable every check. You can enable or disable checks at any time, so there is no pressure to get it right the first time.

14. Using your HTML report from above, carefully choose which checks you believe are not relevant to your environment and remove the tick mark from them,

15. Once done, click Set Values > to move onto the next section,

Setting Values

This next tab is a little more complicated. It allows you to set your correct values for each of the selected checks.

Taking each section at a time and using your HTML report, change the current default values to ones that match your environment. Using the accounts example from above, your HTML report may have failed the first check (ACC-01) saying that one or more extra accounts exist. If you know that all of these accounts are acceptable for your environment and can be ignored for future checks, follow the steps below for that check..

16. Using the second row of tabs, select the correct section,

17. Location the correct check from the groups header names (not all checks will have an entry),

18. Double-click each of the entries in that group to edit its value,

• For the above example IgnoreTheseUsers is opened and contains a list of users that should be ignored.
• Add each of the users to ignore, clicking the Add button if required.

19. Click OK check done.

Repeat the above steps for all the remaining checks setting your values as required. This can be a time consuming process that may involve other teams in your organisation. You can return to this section as many times as is required.

20. Click Complete > once you have finished.

Completing Checks

Now that you have completed all the changes required, the last page is shown

21. Enter a short 10-character name for this configuration. It should be meaningful to you and could represent your company name (AMCE) or environment (DEV, TEST, LIVE),

22. Also enter a name to show at the top of the HTML report. The default is currently it's set to "ACME",

23. Click Save Settings to save your current configuration,

24. Click Generate QA Script to compile all the selected checks and your configuration file in to a single customised script. The script will be called QA_{shortname}_v3_17_0929.ps1 and will be located in the same folder as everything else: C:\QA.

25. Click Exit, then Yes to close the tool.

Run The Report Again

26. Using your newly created script, repeat the process starting at step 4 above and compare the new and old HTML reports.

27. Perform any additional tweaks as required.