Windows Network Proposal - Case Study Example

Windows Network Proposal Windows Network Proposal Selecting domain While deciding uponthe domain it is important to take into account some factors such as including the name of the brand within the domain name. Including the brand name in the domain name would help users easily remember the domain name. Another major factor that needs to be taken into account is the extension that would be used for the domain name. Domain extensions tend to help obtaining the required domain name in case the first choice of domain is not available in a particular extension for example if the preferred domain name is shivllc and shivllc.com has already been registered then there is a chance the company may be able to obtain the domain name shivllc.net or shivllc.org (Lowery, 2013). Placement of Domain Controllers and use of RODC (Read Only Domain Controllers): The domain controllers need to be placed at the locations of Huston and Dallas. It however must be ensured that these domain controllers are placed in an office area where there is adequate physical security. Physical access gained by unauthorized individuals could lead to an attack on the system or could even lead to the loss of sensitive data such as passwords and usernames (Danseglio & Allen, 2006). In order to improve security and ensure efficient authentication of users it is recommended that RODC be used in the company’s Los Angeles. RODC would not only allow Shiv LLC to improve its security but would also ensure that the time taken for a user to access the network is significantly reduced within its Los Angeles office. Furthermore in case the network bandwidth is low at Los Angeles office the RODC would ensure that there is little or no trouble for users when they try to access the network (Microsoft, 2011). RODC cannot be used at the offices of Huston and Dallas because of the number of employees working there. The use of RODC is recommended at offices where the users are in small numbers (Microsoft, 2011). FSMO roles placement: There are basically five FSMO roles that are used in a system. Schema Master and Domain Naming occur once in a forest whereas Relative ID Master, PDC Emulator and Infrastructure Master all occur once in every domain. The functionality of each FSMO roles is stated below: Schema Master The Schema Master is basically responsible for ensuring that every schema present within a forest is consistent throughout all domains and trees. The Schema Master updates and controls the modifications that are made to a schema (Cambridge University). Domain Naming Master The presence of a domain-naming master is essential whenever there is an addition of a new domain to the forest or whenever there is a removal of an old domain from the forest. The domain-naming master ensures that the domain name of each domain within a forest is unique from the other (Cambridge University). Relative ID Master When an object is created within an active directory it is provided with an SID. The SID is basically made up of a RID and Domain SID. The SID is uniform within a particular domain whereas the domain RID is unique for every object (Cambridge University). PDC Emulator A PDC emulator in a manner can be considered as the password master of a particular domain. Changes that are made in a particular password are copied on to the PDC emulator. In case where authentication of a user fails in a domain the PDC emulator is checked by the Domain Controller to procure the latest password (Cambridge University). Infrastructure Master The infrastructure master is basically responsible for updating domain objects that are present within a domain. The infrastructure master obtains its information from the global catalog. The information obtained is used to regularly update objects that are present within a particular domain (Cambridge University). Backup and disaster recovery plan: In order to ensure that no data is lost to unforeseen circumstances it is vital that that proper data backup plan is implemented at Shiv LLC. The backup plan would include the activity that needs to be carried out and the frequency with which it needs to be carried out with. Disk backup is one of the most critical processes of forming a backup and disaster recovery plan. Disk backup must be carried out on a daily basis. Another process that needs to be done on a daily basis is verification of backup. Even though creating backups within the windows server is an easy task there is still a need for organizations to view backup logs of each file server on a daily basis. Offsite backups must be conducted at least once every week. It is recommended that offsite backups are managed on weekends and physically protected within a secure vault or a safe. Finally, measures used to restore backups must be tested each month. Creating backups is no good if the backup information cannot be made use of later on. The disaster and recovery plan can be subjected to amendments and it is recommended that the plan in itself should be reviewed after every year and should be altered in order to meet the demands of the organization and to meet the requirements of the situation that change with time. The need for group policy: In order to ensure the safety and integrity of data, it is important to implement group policy within the network of Shiv LLC. The implementation of group policy would ensure that basic levels of security can be enforced upon users of the network. An example can be the minimum length of password that can be provided by the user. Furthermore, group policy would also ensure that access to sensitive data is only provided to authentic users. This would allow the company to provide information to its employees, working at lower levels of the organizational structure, that they require rather than divulging with them information that has little to do with their work. This feature would help the organization with the integrity of its data (Danseglio & Allen, 2006). Namespace for Shiv LLC: It is recommended that Shiv LLC makes use of domain based namespace instead of standalone namespace. One of the main reasons for making use of domain based namespace is that it allows the creation of a number of root targets which in turn allows connection to more than one file folders. For synchronization the domain based namespace makes use of a DFS Replication engine. The formation of multiple root targets helps domain based namespaces increase a great level of fault tolerance as compared to stand alone namespaces. In addition domain based namespaces also provide a great deal of load balancing as compared to stand-alone namespaces (Russel & Crawford, 2011). Types of zones needed: It is recommended that Shiv LLC makes use of primary zone and secondary zones within its networks to ensure that the network operates at optimum efficiency. Primary zone can be created at the Dallas office of the company whereas secondary zones can be created at Huston and Los Angeles offices of the company. The primary zone would contain the DNS server that would act as the primary source of information from where information would be drawn by secondary zones created at the company’s offices in Huston and Los Angeles (Morimoto, Noel, Droubi, Mistry, & Amaris, 2008). Implementing disk quotas and DFS: The implementation of disk quotas would greatly help the company in efficiently managing its resources. Using quotas would limit the space a particular employee can use on a particular volume. Quotas for disk space are usually not set for disk space by default and need to be set by the system administrator. Quotas regarding directory set limit the amount of disk space that a user can access in a given folder or a subfolder. The feature of directory quotas was originally introduced by Microsoft in Windows 2003 (Morimoto, Noel, Droubi, Mistry, & Amaris, 2008). The company would have to make use of DFS as well in order to ensure that shared folders are placed within a logically created namespaces. These namespaces would seem like a single folder to the user from which users would be able to access the required information. Such structures also tend to increase the availability of files and allow users to access information from the same AD DS instead of rerouting the user’s request over different networks. DFS also provides the feature of DFS replication. Replication would allow the company to be able to manage changes that occur in a file. Any files that are altered by users are synchronized by DFS replication in order to ensure that up to date file is available to each user at all times (Russel & Crawford, 2011). Technology to ensure security: In order to ensure the security of the network a number of measures need to be taken. The first measure would be the use of a firewall. Firewall would help strengthen the network’s defenses against any attacks from foreign entities. The firewall would also ensure that no malicious piece of software enter the company’s network at any given time (Russel & Crawford, 2011). It is also recommended that the company makes use of switches and routers instead of a hub. Switches and routers transmit messages to a particular destination or to the user that the messages are meant for whereas hubs tend to transmit message to all the users present on a network (Russel & Crawford, 2011). Remote access should be provided to employees who are present at all three locations. This would not only help coordination amongst employees but would also help the organization in managing data more efficiently. Remote access would also help the office that is dealing with the customers or the company’s clients (Danseglio & Allen, 2006). Updates: In order to update server within the company’s network it is recommended that regular updates should be obtained from WSUS (Windows Server Update Services). WSUS provides any updates that are available for the server being used by the company. Various features can be incorporated into the server using WSUS. WSUS would automatically download updates based on the category and could also enable the company to provide update to certain computers or a group of computers that are present on the network instead of all the computers present on the network. In addition WSUS also allows the company to be able to manage its bandwidth with greater efficiency than it would be able to otherwise. This in turn allows the company to manage its network resources with much more ease (Russel & Crawford, 2011). Reference List Cambridge University. (n.d.). Active Directory FSMO Roles. Retrieved from http://www.ucs.cam.ac.uk/support/windows-support/winsuptech/activedir/fsmoroles Danseglio, M., & Allen, R. (2006). Windows Server 2003 Security Cookbook: Security Solutions and Scripts for system administrators. Sebastapol: OReilly Media Inc. Lowery, T. (2013, March 9). 5 Tips for Choosing the Best Domain Name. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-lowery/5-tips-for-choosing-a-the_b_3859497.html Microsoft. (2011, January 13). AD DS: Read-Only Domain Controllers. Retrieved from http://technet.microsoft.com/: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732801(v=ws.10).aspx Morimoto, R., Noel, M., Droubi, O., Mistry, R., & Amaris, C. (2008). Windows Server 2008 Unleashed. New York: Sams Publishing. Russel, C., & Crawford, S. (2011). Windows Small Business Server 2011: Administrators Companion. Sebastopol: Microsoft Press. Read More