Windows server deployment proposal

Running Head: WINDOWS SERVER DEPLOYMENT PROPOSAL 1

WINDOWS SERVER DEPLOYMENT PROPOSAL 9

Windows Server Deployment Proposal

CMIT 369 7981 Installing

and Configuring Windows Server

Lester Brent

Introduction

The business infrastructure that a business invests in is critical in its success and management in today’s world. Information technology is at the core of all business activities in the advertising industry and the success of WAI is hinged on its ability to deploy and manage the correct windows that will help in streaming the activities of the business. The correct configuration and management of the server can be determined through counter checking on the security, reliability and efficiency of the accompanying infrastructure of the business. The strength of the IT department at WAI can only be as good as the infrastructure that it will run and manage. The various requirements and needs for WAI demand that the chosen server and its deployment be in tandem with its business activities and enable seamless communication and synchronization between the New York and Los Angeles offices. This proposal has been prepared with the intent to deliver the best results for the firm in respect to the infrastructure.

This proposal looks at the features of Windows Server 2012 and how the firm can utilize these features to drive growth and productivity at both the New York and Los Angeles offices. The proposal also presents the deployment plan of the server and the edition to be used, active directory, DHCP and DNS and sharing services such as printing and sharing. The various features analyzed in the proposal are based on the available infrastructure of the company.

The proposal presented here is specific to the requirements and the business scenario of the company. The proposal has been developed with the objective of enabling efficiency, reducing business costs and giving the firm a platform through which it can take advantage of the latest applications and technology in the industry.

Windows Server 2012 New Features

There are several features in Windows Server 2012 that are now available and didn’t exist in earlier version of Windows Server (Morimoto et al., 2012). The firm in various ways as described below can use these features of functions.

Data de-duplication: One of the most precious aspects of the server is the disk space, which is difficult to get in most scenarios. In some instances the difference between efficiency and lack of the same is based on how well the disk space is managed. Through this feature the firm can save only one copy of a file, as the server will help it to flag and delete duplicate copies that reduce disk space.

Server Management: The system administrator’s role is to ensure that the health of all the servers is at requisite levels. The server management tool enables the system administrator to view the entire server and manage them from one place thereby increasing the speed at which conflict in the system are resolved.

Server Core: The server core is what allows the installation of the server without going through many steps and procedures and uses a command line. Windows Server 2012 allows the administrator the opportunity to easily move between the GUI and server core installation. The feature to easily switch between these two installation protocols protects the network by reducing the number of avenues through which an attack can take place.

Server Editions and Deployment

The number of services and employees in a firm dictate the number of servers that the firm should have ("Windows Setup Scenarios and Best Practices", 2016). The functions that a firm expects to execute on its network are what mainly dictate the editions of the server deployed with the number of users dictating the number of servers. In the best case and for efficiency it is ideal to have about ten users or employees per server, which means that the company will require about ten servers to cater for its 90 employees. The need for ten servers instead of nine is to cater for future growth in the projected period of two to three years. Given that there are two locations the one with the most employees needs to get the most of the servers and the other one needs to have some functions combined. In the proposed set up there will be six servers at the Los Angeles office with the remaining four being put at New York. To run the ten servers it is required that each of them does get a license meaning that ten licenses will be purchased for this installation. For efficiency some functions that have to be combined include file sharing and DHCP/DNS for the servers in New York. The servers will run Windows Server 2012 that will give the company an east way to administrate all of them.

The ten servers that will be deployed in the two offices will be dependent on the roles that they are to perform. The installation and designation of roles for the servers is done with a view of ensuring minimum faults and to increase the availability of the services hosted for different site requirements.

New York Servers: Application and Web services, DHCP & DNS secondary, Print & File services, AD RODC.

Los Angeles Servers: AD primary, AD secondary, WDS & Application services, DHCP primary & DNS primary, Web and DHCP secondary, DNS primary & DHCP primary.

The installation will be done using Windows Deployment Services for efficient installation and to facilitate correct configuration. The stand-alone server that has a WDS installation will be used with help of an answer file configured with Windows System Image Manager. This would require a period of about three days when the task is done by personnel of two.

Active Directory

Disruptions in the business can be costly especially in the event that an active directory does crash. Domain controllers are used as fault tolerance and the set up dictated here takes of it. In the infrastructure three active directories and two domain controllers are required. The best scenario would be two have the domain controllers at the less busy site, which is New York with the LA hosting RODC. This ensures security as the RODC is read only. To ensure that that all active directories perform at their optimum they will be assigned dedicated servers. The configuration will be such that each site for AD domains is created and subnets to link them created. WAN link will connect the two LANs as configured in the AD sites (Finn, 2013).

The figure below shows AD organization that is dictated by the number of sites and departments based on organizational structure. The permissions or level access that each user will have will be based on their departments and the level of access that they should have to control the servers (Morimoto et al., 2012). The IT administrators have access to all folders and services. This configuration and set up is expected to take approximately four days when done by a single administrator.

DNS and DHCP

DHCP is responsible for assigning IP addresses to the users in the network to enable them access to the Internet. The site with a lower number of users i.e. New York will have one DHCP server with LA getting two. To ensure smooth operations and efficiency the servers will be configured to address failover load to ensure that where one server is unable to provide services the other one takes over its functions. This means that when the servers are working at optimum capacity they will balance the load between them. DHCP reservation will be used to facilitate their IP addresses and to ensure that users can locate them easily ("Split-Brain DNS Deployment Using Windows DNS Server Policies", 2015). The DNS server is responsible for mapping IP addresses and domain names. Each site will have one DNS server to provide tolerance for clients trying to access the sites. The scope of the DNS will be configured in such a manner that they will evaluate the name resolution request is always checked against the DNS server policies. The deployment and configuration of the DNS server should take four hours when two administrators are on site.

Application Services

Group policy will be used in the deployment of all applications as this has a better chance for fewer errors. This is to be done by creating a shared folder, create a GPO and have computer and applications added to it, then the applications will be assigned to clients on the network and the GPO is then updated to complete the set up. In the initial set up just a few applications are needed to run, as the firm doesn’t have many tasks. Applications are added with time and the recommended basic one include an antivirus, preferably Kaspersky, a browser e.g. chrome and accounting software e.g. Quick Books and Microsoft Office. Applications don’t take ling to install with about seven hours being sufficient to install and configure them all.

File and Printer Sharing

File sharing and printing is one of the most essential services in the set up. A total of four servers are to be deployed between the two services. This means that it is easier to provide the services to all users taking into account the possibility of faults that could cripple the services. The installation will be done by having the different departments allocated shares and taking into consideration the privacy level of various departments such as Finance (Shinder, Diogenes, & Shinder, 2013). The privacy will be ensured by the creation of the NTFS file system permissions. This ensures that various users have access to what they are authorized to even though they are all on a shared server. DFS is exploited in the organization of the shared functions or resources, which will facilitate sharing of folders between users. FSRM will be used to manage the departmental quotas and manage the space allocated to various departments ("What's New in DFS Replication and DFS Namespaces in Windows Server", 2016). The amount of space allocated to users will be based on their needs. The other function that will be used is the management console for print services. This could be deployed in approximately six to seven hours.

Conclusion

Windows Server 2012 is one of the most versatile server management software available for businesses that is easy to configure and ensures a great deal of control to the system administrators. The new features available also guarantee that there is less likely chance of the servers being compromised with various controls for both the services within the LAN and over the WAN. The deployment procedures provided here ensure that WAI can take full advantage of the servers and be able to grow as the business grows and the number of functions increases.

References

Finn, A. (2013). Windows server 2012 hyper-v installation and configuration guide. Indianapolis, Ind.: Sybex.

Morimoto, R., Noel, M., Droubi, O., Abbate, A., Yardeni, G., & Amaris, C. (2012). Windows Server 2012 unleashed. Indianapolis, IN: Sams.

Shinder, T., Diogenes, Y., & Shinder, D. (2013). Windows server 2012 security from end to edge and beyond. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Split-Brain DNS Deployment Using Windows DNS Server Policies. (2015). Blogs.technet.microsoft.com. Retrieved 16 April 2016, from https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/networking/2015/05/12/split-brain-dns-deployment-using-windows-dns-server-policies/

What's New in DFS Replication and DFS Namespaces in Windows Server. (2016).Technet.microsoft.com. Retrieved 16 April 2016, from https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn281957.aspx

Windows Setup Scenarios and Best Practices. (2016). Technet.microsoft.com. Retrieved 16 April 2016, from https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825163