Local Area Network Design, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Network Requirements - Lab Report Example

TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Page number Introduction 2 Current System 2 Proposed System 2 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 4 Network requirements 4 Proposed Network Diagram 6 Equipment used 9 References 10 LOCAL AREA NETWORK DESIGN. 1.0 Introduction Kudos has won a tender for the design of a computer network belonging to a computer distribution company known as Yellow Computers. Yellow computers has been on the PC and printer distribution business for a while and due to the ever growing business challenges they decided to acquire a software distribution company known as Tulip Software Distribution which is located in Nottingham. However, these two companies have been using different systems which are incompatible and since they are now one entity the systems have to be merged and function as one. 2.0 Current System. To begin with, there are quite a number of challenges with the current system, most of the network cabling has been done with a Cat5 cabling system, this is not the latest and the best in the market, there are a number of ageing communications cabinet which are holding the patch panels and internet access is via an ADSL router operating at just only 4Mbps which is well below what most modern organizations have deployed. In addition to the obsolete physical infrastructure, the documents used by some of the sales staff are loosely stored and completely disorganized and the technology used for file restriction/access is not the best that you can get in the market which means most of the organizations documents are very vulnerable to intruders or hackers who might pass them on to third parties or fiercest business rivals. The accounts department from the two organizations are using two different incompatible systems, the sales team are using manual catalogue in retrieving product information, whereas the stock level also is reported using an outdated database system. 2.1 Proposed System After a careful analysis and understanding of the two organizations business model and future vision, it was clear that the organization had very solid plan to become market leader not only regionally but to have a piece of the pie in the international limelight, this required a very robust information system that was very reliable and scalable 2.2Internet & Email Access: All the employees within the organization should be in a position of getting in touch with clients. Email client software will be installed within the organizations, we are going to use Microsoft outlook as our organization email client due to its security features, user friendliness and it’s after sales technical support. We are also going to aid our email client using Microsoft exchange for the efficient sending and delivery of email messages. The reason we have chosen an email client rather than the free web based version is due to the security that it comes bundled with it, security in an organization is of paramount importance. 2.3 Sales Product System: Here we are going to deploy the Landslides Sales P3 systems, it is a leader in its niche and very cost effective, it has the ability to combine the sales process consistency with the performance and it also comes with an inbuilt database marketing mechanism not mentioning the customer relationship technology (Landslide). 2.4 Stock Control: There is going to be a new stock control system, this will utilize the bar-coding technique, it is going to be available to the warehouse staff so that they may be able to feed the incoming stock into the system. Here we are going to deploy the Accord Stock Control Software, it comes with the capability of providing tight integration with the sales order management in such a way that the stock replenishments are in line with the forecasted demands and the stock outs are completely eliminated and eventually maximizing warehouse efficiency (BCP). 2.5 Groupware Applications: The sales team will be allocated individual space by using a share ware application, this will aid the sales manager in disseminating critical information to his sales people. There will be real time collaboration amongst employees since it is possible to analyze and act on real time data. Here we are going to deploy Microsoft Exchange which is an email server software and since we are also going to use it on our emailing system we are going to save on the cost of multiple licensing instead of using a product from a different vendor. (wise geek). 2.6 Home Folder: Each member of staff will be allocated an area of the drive space which is only accessible to them, this will make it easier for the computer administrators to back up the user files and easily manage the user accounts by collecting the user files in one location regardless of the system used because it has been centrally stored on the server. 2.7 Accounts Database: This will be holding all the information pertaining to the organizations credit and invoicing. It will only be accessible by members of the accounting department and the CEO.. 2.8Intranet site: this is an internal organization website, it is very necessary since it will assist in intra-organizational communication such as training, organizational functions, new product information e.t.c. Apart from the above technologies the new network should also be in able to support online video conferencing, VOIP technologies, an automated client ordering system and a client server based payroll system. 3.0 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 On top of all that we will deploy Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 which utilizes the active domain directory services, it will be our core network operating system. The active directory mechanism consists of certificates and right management services, it easily enables computer administrators to centrally manage the computers, set policies for group users and centrally deploy applications to multiple computer systems. Its inbuilt identity certificates that will allow network administrators to properly manage the user accounts and only allow them in accessing certain services and systems, there is also the federation management system that will enable the organization to share some of its credentials with some of their trusted partners, this will eventually allow an external consultant to use his given username with the password in logging into a clients network. 4.0 Network requirements. 4.1 Functionality: All staff within the organization should be in a position to perform their duties uninterrupted. Information within the network should be accessed in a timely fashion without bottlenecks, this will be ensured by installing state of the art networking devices such as the switches, routers, proper structured cabling such as the siemon cables, reliable network operating system, and above all proper training of the existing employees on using the new computer system. 4.2 Scalability: Since the company is anticipating a heavy growth over the next few years it is very important that they provide provision for expanding the network. The performance of the network should improve in commensurate with the network hardware added into the system, there should be a solid routing protocol in place. We are also going to support our standard workstations with special purpose acquisition cards. This workable solution will grant the organization versatility of software architectures while also bringing excellent performance by offloading traffic acquisition to a customized hardware. Here we may use the Endace Dags capture cards. We will implement parallelism within the network, this will force the organization to have multiple C.P.Us or rather logical processing units. In addition to that we must optimize filtering techniques, there must be shared buffers within the capture engine and applications and an interrupt delaying & device polling in order to reduce the number of interrupts per packet (Deggioani & Varreni). The server must also adapt techniques to become scalable it should have a send file with zero copy, checksum offload, interrupt coalescing, large send/segmentation offload, efficient connection management and asynchronous interfaces (Dm frein et al). 4.3 Availability: The network should always be operational under extreme circumstances such as surges and spikes. Most of the common network failures are human errors a factor that is usually overlooked while most network administrators concentrating on the hardware’s, links and software’s. Here we are going to deploy flexible scripting technologies software’s that has the capability to avert configuration errors and can also accelerate problem identification together with a resolution automatically 4.4 Adaptability: New technologies are constantly being released into the market, there should be a provision for new technologies to be added into the existing network with minimal effort. When organizations invest in new technological products they eventually are faced with the need of adding extended functionality, this new functionality should be easily integrated or secured within the existing computer network and one of the options available involve coding the existing applications or installing a point network device. There must be a complete application intelligence, this will inspect all the applications flows, it should be in a position of handling the internet protocols. There must be total control over traffic, the system should be located at a central point to carefully target organizations functions and adjust to its unforeseen needs. It should be unified and flexible, it should integrate set of functions within a system that could be easily extended because network and application demands are constantly changing. Finally the systems should be of high performance and manageable, they should be able to support multiple functions. The proposed system should inspect and control the multidirectional TCP/IP traffic flows within the server and the clients for unprecedented adaptability of corporate applications. This will enable a control access mechanism that is capable of reacting based on the servers conditions, information being exchanged and even the error messages. In addition there should be an independent client and server control mechanism, a support for the legacy applications with Internet protocol capability with session aware traffic management tool, the network administrator should have the ability to see and modify all the existing contents (F5 networks). 4.5 Security: the network should be completely protected from external threats and it should only be accessible to those who use them for their prescribed roles. We are going to implement cloaking within the network, this will ensure that all the web server signatures are cleaned and the unwanted information is not transmitted to hackers who can fingerprint the applications which run on the organizations website. We will also implement selective encryption, by encrypting all the existing cookies the organization will ensure that security lapse such as the session hijacking and cookie tampering are eliminated. Content protection, here all the sensitive information from the server responses will be protected and completely cleansed before leaving the organizational networks (F5 networks). Finally on the security front we are going to implement an organizational firewall, it will be both on the hardware and software level. When properly configured it either permit or deny traffic within, to and fro the network between different security domains. 5.0 NETWORK DIAGRAM 3g Main server 1 main server 2 LAN 1 LAN 2 Router 3 3G wireless Router 4 Switches 2 Switches 3 Server 3 Server 4 server 5 server 6 Firewall 2 Firewall 3 Switches 4 Switches 5 Server7 server8 server9 server10 server11 server12 server13 server14 Switches 6 switches 10 Switches 7 switches 11 Switches8 switches 12 Switches 9 switches 13 Switches 6 LAN workstations NB: switches 7-13 will have a similar set-up like switches 6 which is above with multiple workstations, the number of workstations will be determined by the number of users available within those particular departments. Yellow computer distribution Derby will use LAN 1 while the Nottingham branch will be using LAN 2. Each department will have its own server and a switch underneath to connect all the workstations within that particular department. SERVER NAME DEPARTMENT Server 7 PC & Printer sales Server 8 Human Resources Server 9 Accounting Server 10 Senior Management Server 11 Network & software sales Server 12 Technical Server 13 Accounting Server 14 Management Server 3& 4 belong to LAN 1 which serves the Derby division, we are going the two servers even thought they perform a replica of the functions but this is to guard in-case one server goes down, the other will offer the required functions. This has also been replicated in LAN 2 whereby there is server 5&6 present. 6.0 Equipment used Servers: we are going to use 8 Quad core processors Intel 3.6 GHz system in Main server 1 & 2. They will come bundled with 32 GB of main memory, DVD Rom, and at least 2 terabytes of storage capacity. All the other servers will also have similar specifications, the only notable difference will be they will come bundled with a 4 quad core processors Intel 3.0 GHz which is quite fast. Switches: A switch is the device that will connect the different network segments together, we will require a 3X 4 port Cisco switches which are the best in the market, these will assume the responsibility of switches 1,2 &3. We will also need 2X 8port Cisco switches for switch 4& 5 and finally we will require 10X 48 ports Cisco switches for switches no 7-14, this is mainly because some departments require more than 48 ports and they need more than one switch. Routers: It is a device that will enable access to a network or an internet connection. Here we will require 2X 3G routers for 3G internet access for the two remote branches, an additional 4X 8 port router for the LAN, it is 8 port due to future expansion otherwise a 4 port would be ideal preferably from Cisco system. We will also require 3X firewalls to guard against unnecessary intrusion since all the business secrets have to remain confidential. The LAN workstations will be ordinary computers with an operating system and the other required applications, they will come with at least 2GB of main memory, Intel Core 2 Duo processors 3.0 GHz and above, at least 160 GB hard drive space with network interface cards, expansion slots to allow future upgrading, optical drives preferably DVD, and a 17” TFT display for clarity. And finally in the cabling we are going to use the siemon structured cabling system within the two LANs however to connect the different LANs we will use wireless technology. References 1. Landslides P3 Systems. Retrieved November 10th 2009 from www.landslide.com/.../dealer_product_services_selects_landslides_sales_p3_system_as_its_corporate_sales_system/ 2. Business computer Projects. Retrieved November 10th 2009 from http://www.bcpsoftware.com/solutions/stock_control.php 3. Wise geek. What is group ware? Retrieved November 10th 2009 from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-groupware.htm 4. University of sterling. (5th May 2009) Home folders. Retrieved November 10th 2009 from http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/itsupport/HomeFolders.php 5. Quanto Payroll System. Retrieved November 10th 2009 From http://www.quantopayroll.com/ 6. Polycom conference room solutions. Retrieved November 10th 2009 from http://www.fvc.com/fvc/fvcweb/Technology.aspx?id=13&_kk=video%20conferencing&_kt=6d991dea-84fd-4fe4-afd3-cad8dbd72864&gclid=CK7Mvc2Mgp4CFeZr4wodQRNAqw 7. Wikipedia. Microsoft windows server 2008. Retrieved November 11th 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Server_2008 8. Loris Deggioani & Gianlucca Varreni.(2004) Introducing scalability in network measurement: towards 10Gps with commodity hardware. Retrieved November 11th 2009 from http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:nQyTFIdhZSYJ:www.imconf.net/imc-2004/papers/p233-degioanni.pdf+what+is+network+scalability&hl=en&gl=ke&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESg4B3OeXbWrmaWxir_qlzXg8llRucE4dJ9sIpmYvKdFCXrqCxSfrMl0kUDkCvDh4jmmyyNdKlNieqLIDJsx9VsFq0QS0q7ghDvvjpanTCso3JPVxD39MR_2SKtdwZY6JGR5IV-P&sig=AFQjCNHCLuxw8T7QMP9yVqkfLZaY1M1MnQ 9. Doug freimuth, Elbert Hu, Jason La Voie, Ronald Mraz, Erich Nahum, Prashant Pradhan, John Tracey. Server network scalability and TCP offload. Retrieved November 11th 2009 from http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:Kf_h693hKgwJ:www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~brecht/servers/readings-new2/usenix05-scalability.pdf+what+is+network+scalability&hl=en&gl=ke&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj075qtnqCXlsuesErRJnHdi0ALMQ8exyJW1qpo3hbWYGSnjxeOKiC_TYGdO_eVESG3eSVFX5Jvy1nPD8JzReoPd2Dz_0jY1JbiJj_7rFOxmw8U45oWQbDKaC_ZNJBHhmKbUz9J&sig=AFQjCNHFu4rWaFHdIIPABKRB00IA6fSMbg 10. F5 Networks. (2007) Achieving a higher level of network and business availability. Retrieved November 10th 2009 from http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:-x5dQzccU7UJ:www.f5.com/pdf/white-papers/uais-wp.pdf+network+adaptability&hl=en&gl=ke&sig=AFQjCNG401bNyJqwYUQb6F280__lEidtbA Read More