Find all your servers

A new utility from Microsoft will non-invasively probe AD for all Windows Servers and SQL Servers. If you're worried about unpatched SQL Server installations, you should give it a try.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool (MAPT 3.2)  is an agentless toolkit that will find computers on a network and perform a detailed inventory of the computers using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), the Remote Registry Service, or the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

Microsoft's main aim in providing the toolkit is to simplify the planning process for migrating to Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Microsoft SQL Server 2008, and the assessments for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista include device driver availability and recommendations for hardware upgrades that may be required.

MAPT also includes features for gathering performance metrics from computers you are considering for consolidation using Hyper-V in addition to Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2. Using the performance metrics and a model virtual server host computer, you can generate reports that recommend placement of the physical servers in a virtual server environment.

However, the inclusion of a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 inventory report means you can see all the instances of SQL Server on your network, which means you can track down any instances that have been installed as part of another application. Such instances tend to be overlooked so don't get patched.

You can download MAPT from here.