Not knowing my audience, or even if I have one yet, I decided to post this, if for no other reason, so I’ll remember it.

Recently, a customer requested a Visio drawing detailing their ISA Server configuration and all relevant connections. That triggered a memory of an email sent to me months ago about the features of the ISA Server Best Practices Analyzer. I found the email, read it, and saw that ISA BPA would draw your ISA configuration for you. So, I thought I’d give it a shot.

The drawing created by the ISA BPA is based on data from the routing table and ISA Server configuration that is stored in an XML file when you run an ISA server health check.

To run BPA2Visio, you must install the following software on a computer:

Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 or above
ISA Server Best Practices Analyzer
Microsoft Office Visio 2003 or Visio 2007

Unless you want to install Visio on the ISA Server, which is not recommended, the basic process is as follows:

1. Install the ISA BPA on the ISA Server and execute a health-check scan

2. Copy the resulting XML file from the ISA Server to a workstation which has the required software components installed (see above)

3. Launch the ISA BPA on the workstation and click Start BPA2Visio

4. On the BPA2Visio Tool window, specify the path to the XML file and click Generate Diagram

In a few moments, Visio will launch and a the basic ISA Server Configuration will be drawn. Granted, you may need to spice it up a bit, but it’s a pretty good start. Enjoy!

The ISA Server Best Practices Analyzer can be found here