Windows Network Proposal - Literature review Example

Windows Network Proposal Windows Network Proposal Introduction This document aims at outlining a possible organized, unified, and detailed technical solution for Worldwide Advertising, Inc. with regards to its current scenario. Worldwide Advertising, Inc. (WAI), is a new advertising company that have hired staff in two of its locations. WAI needs to configure its internal IT services to cater for its business needs. Its in-house IT team cannot adequately address their current infrastructure requirements. The solution described in this proposal address the configuration and integration of WAI’s Active Directory updates while because WAI has just acquired a new company. Worldwide Advertising, Inc. is now headquartered in Houston, Texas, where they have a Windows Server 12 domain. This is operating at the technical level, on a Windows Server 2008. The company that they currently purchased is the Media Guru Group, which is located in Richmond, Virginia. Media Guru Group has a domain that runs on Windows Server 2008 controllers and at an operational level, operates on the Windows Server 2003. The focus of this paper is on windows network services recommended for the smooth exchange of information between existing sites as well as the newly acquired location. The intention is to cover specific areas of windows server architecture, which are vital for immediate and future business operations. Servers are the cornerstone of information exchange and storage in any organization that has embraced information technology systems. The integration, configuration and implementation of a server network is critical in determining the success or failure of a business in terms of information management. Based on the current scenario of Worldwide Advertising, Inc., the plan considers solutions related to DNS and DHCP, which run behind the scenes, and application servers that enable access to and manipulation of the firm’s information (Palmer, 2011). An active directory schema, which will require minimal management effort has been proposed. A file management and sharing application with a state-of-the-art data storage capacity and capabilities that is ideal for a growing business, and a business that looks forward to expand across a myriad of locations has been prescribed, too. Further, this proposal also notes some preliminary manpower and scheduling estimates that will be essential for the solution. Server Edition and Deployment The most advanced server operating system in the whole infrastructure, Windows Server 12, is recommended for use. On all the servers, the enterprise edition will be leveraged. The enterprise edition has four virtual licenses for each operating system. In order to guarantee and increase security and reliability, Server Core will be deployed on all the servers. There will be a total of 12 servers for the WAI internal network. Most of these servers will be administered and managed from WAI headquarters in Houston, Texas. Only five of the servers will be located in the newly acquired firm in Richmond, VA. All the 80 desktop computers and ten laptop computers will run Windows 8.1, which is operable with the network, particularly, Terminal Services Webs Access (TSWA). In order to satisfy the current needs of all the employees, 90 terminals will be used. There will be 15 desktops dedicated for backup. All the operating systems and servers will be installed remotely from a master computer using image files through WDS-Windows Deployment Services. The role of WDS will make the installation of 105 operating systems faster and efficient as opposed to doing it on each desktop one at a time. In order to install the system image for answer files, the Windows Automated Installation Kit will be used; this can easily be downloaded from Microsoft’s website. Using windows SIM, answer files will be created from a master computer and will also express install. Roles on the server will be set and distributed in such a way that resource allocation, fault tolerance, security, and availability are taken advantage of, see Table 1. Server Edition Location Roles Virtual Server 1 Enterprise Houston, TX WDS Print Services File and Sharing services Server 2 Enterprise Houston, TX Main Active Directory (DC) Main DHCP Primary DNS Virtual Server 3 Enterprise Houston, TX Application Service Webserver IIS 7.0 Split Scope DHCP Terminal Services Server 4 Enterprise Houston, TX iSCSI Fail-over SAN Virtual Server 5 Enterprise Houston, TX iSCSI Fail-over SAN Virtual Server 6 Enterprise Houston, TX File and Sharing Backup AD Application services Print Services Virtual Server 7 Enterprise Houston, TX File and Sharing Backup AD Application services Virtual Server 8 Enterprise Richmond, VA Print Services DHCP Relay agent Active Directory (RODC) Virtual Server 9 Enterprise Richmond, VA Primary DNS DHCP Relay agent Active Directory (RODC) Server 10 Enterprise Richmond, VA DHCP Relay agent Application Services Webserver IIS 7.0 Terminal Services Virtual Server 11 Enterprise Richmond, VA DHCP Relay agent File and sharing Print Services Virtual Server 12 Enterprise Richmond, VA iSCSI local SAN Applications File and sharing Table 1: Proposed Server Roles and Distributions Setting up servers and workstations, as well as deploying operating system image files is projected to be completed within a day with involvement of at least two system administrators. DHCP and DNS This proposal recommends the use of hybrid DHCP infrastructure with relay agents in order to save both on time as well as on expense. The best and most preferred solution will entail setting up both the main and the backup DHCP at the main Houston office and setting up several relay agents at the Richmond, VA site. Doing this will make sure that there will be no traffic on the Wan link between the two sites. In order to further free traffic on the internal local network at each site, it is recommended that automatic IP addresses allocation is implemented. This must be coupled with a solid network layout with large enough subnets to be able to accommodate future growth of each department. To accomplish fault tolerance for the DHCP network, 80/20 scope splitting configuration will be used. The range of the address is 162.0.0.1 to 162.0.0.200 on the main DHCP with the split scope DHCP exclusion being between 162.0.0.91 to 162.0.0.200 while the primary exclusion being between 162.0.0.1 and 162.0.0.90. All the relay agents at the Richmond, VA site, will be setup to use boot threshold; this is aimed at ensuring that DHCP clients are always able to get their addresses from the local server. Therefore, it should take one system administrator approximately two hours to design, configure, and test WAI’s hybrid DHCP. Active Directory According to Microsoft Official Academic Course, (2009), recommended usage of domain controllers requires that at least two are for each active directory. With the acquisition of Media Guru in Richmond, VA, Worldwide Advertisement, Inc. has in its active directory forest being controlled by tow domain controllers. In this proposal, we recommend three domain controllers; the primary domain controller as well as a backup be located at the headquarters in Houston, TX and two RODC, Read-Only Domain Controllers be placed at the new site in Richmond, VA in order to ensure reliability and efficiency. Putting the read-only domain controllers at the Richmond site will free unnecessary traffic from the WAN link. Using Active Directory Integrated Zones will ensure that DNS replication traffic is processed through the Active Directory. James (Palmer, 2011)argues that domain controllers have a universal scope and are vital in managing and controlling traffic flow. The recommended parent domain for Worldwide Advertising, Inc., is WAI.local, while its child domains for each of its sites are TX.WAI.local and VA.WAI.local. WIA’s departments have been set up as organizational units with their respective employees at the two sites. For instance, the administrative department has nine executives in total with five in Houston and four in Richmond; they are responsible for managing and running the firm. Sales and Accounts department has 30 employees in total with 15 employees in each site who are in charge of marketing and maintaining accounts. Media, Production, and Creative department on the hand, has a total of 49 employees in Houston. The Finance and HR department, which are responsible for financial and HR functions has 12 employees in the Houston office. The IT section, which is located in Houston and is responsible for the company’s IT infrastructure, has ten employees in total with 5 in Richmond and 5 in Houston. The group scope of these units, which are considered as organizational units is global since they encompass all the employees in both sites. In order to ensure that financial data are only accessed by departments that directly work with them, share permissions and NTFS will be configured. The overall network administrator will be granted full control over permission changes for the various roles that users play. In fact, he/she will be responsible for making access changes on a case by case basis as deemed fit. The configuration of WAI’s Active Directory schema is expected to take a couple of hours and will be done by at least one system administrator. File and Printer Sharing Users will each be given a private home folder for storage according the File Services recommendations from Microsoft. They will also be given a shared folder through which they will share files and a collaborative workspace via SharePoint. File sharing will be split between two servers each at both the sites; this means that there will be four servers dedicated for file services. Putting a local file services at each site enables toleration in the event that WAN link fails; it also reduces WAN traffic. The file system must also be synchronized in order to ensure that the data in the sites is up-to-date. Synchronization will be achieved through DFS-Distributed File Services replication, which works with RDC-Remote Differential compression and DFS namespace. Apparently, RDC reduces the required bandwidth by only transmitting the changes that file need. DFS will be configured to appear as one unified directory in order to offer consistent backups and for the convenience of the users (Tucker, Nerove, Tomsho, Tomsho, & Hogue, 2011). It will be a domain-based namespace because the implementation is done on multiple servers and also to increase and ensure availability. The convention mentioned above is what the namespace root will use; shared folders will be marked shared, while private files with the user’s account name. Applications This proposal recommends that all applications be server-based and be made available using client terminal services architecture via MS System Management Services. It is because remote desktop services has several advantages as opposed to group policy deployment. For instance, remote desktop services guarantee low consumption of bandwidth. It is easy to setup and update, enables conservation of licenses, reduces the client’s hardware reliance, and does not require client power savings or backup. All the applications will be distributed via Web Access for intranet using port 3389. From the two sites, clients will use Internet Explorer or any other preferred browsers on their client desktops to access the applications that they need. The applications that will be available via the web access include Microsoft SharePoint 2013 which include PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Access, Outlook, Adobe CS 7, and Intuit QuickBooks pro 2013. For this to work as expected, IIS 7.0 will be installed and configured. Conclusion A reliable and an efficient server implementation is crucial for the success or failure of any business that has fully embraced information technology. The server network must be aimed at reduce unnecessary traffic on the network, guarantee and ensure reliability and availability, and increase efficiency and productivity. Network server infrastructure are also essential to the organizations, so are application servers. The active directory schema is necessary for managing network security and distribute group policy to the users. A logical collaborative file system and a reliable and adequate storage solution increases efficiency since users will be able to access files by just searching for space for their files. The proposed windows network solution will bring a lot of success to Worldwide Advertising Inc. References Microsoft Official Academic Course. (2009). Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Configuration with Virtual Lab, Package. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Palmer, M. (2011). Hands-On Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Administration (pp. 320–324). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Tucker, J., Nerove, D., Tomsho, G., Tomsho, M., & Hogue, J. (2011). MCTS Guide to Configuring Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure Configuration. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Read More