See Also
Topic Last Modified: 2005-07-08
A command-line program version of the Microsoft® Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool is available. The executable for the command-line program is ExBPACmd.exe, and is installed in the <systemdrive>\Program Files\ExBPA directory when the graphical user interface (GUI) version is installed. In some instances, you might want to use the command-line program instead of the GUI version. For example, you can use the command-line program to create a script to run scheduled scans. As another example, Microsoft Product Support Services might instruct you to run the command-line program to help you solve a problem.
ExBPACmd.exe Syntax
Usage: ExBPACmd.exe [-cfg <config XML>] [-dat <data XML>] [-d <dc name>] [-n <name>] [-u <context> <[domain\]user> <password | *> ...] [-rs <scope> <sub1> ...] [-rc <cat>,...] [-rl <level>] [-th <max threads>] [-to <timeout>] [-a] [-c] [-e] [-?]
-cfg: Specifies the configuration XML file that determines what settings to retrieve. The default value is ExBPA.Config.xml.
-dat: Specifies the data XML file to use. If you specify a data XML file name that is not in the current directory, the tool will use the specified file name for the output file. If you specify an existing data XML file name and you are running an analyze scan, the tool will read the data gathered in the specified file, will analyze that data, and will overwrite the specified file with the output of the scan. If you specify an existing data XML file name and you are running a collection scan, the tool will overwrite the specified file with the output of the scan.
The default value if you are running an analyze scan is output.<ts>.xml, where <ts> is the most recent time stamp in the current directory. The default value if you are running a collection scan is output.<ts>.xml, where <ts> is a new time stamp.
-d: Specifies the domain controller to use to access the Active Directory® directory service. By default, the tool will use the nearest Active Directory server.
-n: Provides a descriptive name for the customer whose topology the tool is scanning.
-u: Provides separate credentials per context.
Valid user contexts: ADLOGON for credentials to log on to Active Directory, or EXLOGON for credentials to log on to Exchange servers.
-rs: Restricts the scan to include only objects within the specified scopes. The <sub> fields are values for the specified scope. If you do not use the -rs switch, the scan will include the whole Exchange organization. If you do use the -rs switch, you can restrict the scan by administrative groups or by servers. You can specify one or more administrative groups, or one or more servers.
Valid scopes: AdminGroup, Server
-rc: Restricts the scan to include only settings and objects that match the specified categories. The configuration XML file defines categories for settings and objects. If you use the -rc switch to restrict a scan to one category, the scan will include only the settings that have that category defined. You can include more than one category with this switch.
The valid categories that you can use with the -rc switch might vary with different versions of the configuration XML file. To determine the categories that are valid for your version of the configuration XML file, run ExBPACmd.exe -?.
-rl: Restricts the scan to include only settings and objects of the specified level of detail or less. The configuration XML file defines levels of detail for settings and objects. The default value is 4.
The valid levels that you can use with the -rl switch might vary with different versions of the configuration XML file. To determine the levels that are valid for your version of the configuration XML file, run ExBPACmd.exe -?.
-th: Sets the maximum number of threads to run at the same time. The default value is 25.
-to: Sets the default time (in seconds) that the tool will wait while gathering data from a server in the Exchange organization. The default value is 300 seconds.
-a: Analyzes the data XML file using the rules from the configuration XML file. You can use this option to analyze an existing output file that is a collection scan by specifying the data XML file to use. You can also use this option to collect and analyze data for a new scan either by specifying a data XML file that is not in the current directory, or by not specifying a data XML file.
-c: Collects the data from the Exchange organization that is specified in the configuration XML file. The tool does not analyze the data using the rules from the configuration XML file, it only collects the data. If neither analyze (-a) nor collect (-c) operation step is specified, this will be enabled by default.
-e: Indicates that the tool should remove the values of any settings that are marked NotForExport in the configuration XML file.
-? Displays syntax information.