POS 221 Week 5 Individual

Wadley, Inc., Windows Installation, Configuration, and Support Plan

Pos/221

Wadley, Inc., Windows Installation, Configuration, and Support Plan

When it comes small business technology needs deciding what is now and for future growth is critical to Wadley incorporated. Wadley Inc. is an emerging leader in gift basket sales employing 50 full-time employees broke down into five executives, ten office workers, ten call center, and twenty-five gift wrappers employing up to thirty-five seasonal employees during the holidays. Wadley has three retail stores in the city each with five to ten employees working year round. Wadley needs an innovative solution to tie software and hardware together to better manage their network.

Wadley needs a new server to accomplish this network upgrade to minimize downtime and lost revenue costing small business’s a fortune. The deployment of a new server with the specs of 2GHZ, 2GB of ram, 40GB of available hard drive space, a DVD drive and Monitor. This will allow for the installation of Windows Server 2012 standard this will allow Active directory to be installed as well. When Active directory software and controller are setups we will migrate over settings and applications crucial to Wadley’s business. Many of Wadley servers already met the requirements and will simply need to be upgraded and added to the new server and active directory.

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Active Directory

Active Directory will simplify the administration of Wadley’s network for that end we need to go in depth on how it works. Active Directory is a directory developed by Microsoft for domain networks and is included in most versions of Windows server. The Active Directory controller authenticates and authorizes all users and devices on the domain. This allows Active Directory to manage security policies and updates with ease on all authorized devices connected to the network. When deploying Active Direct in any business environment it is important to implement it accurately and proper without cutting any corners. One major issue that can be encountered when using Active Directory is trying to have domain controllers do too much this is usually an attempt to save money but is often more costly due to downtime the issue that arises can cause. We will mitigate this in Wadley with multiple servers handling the load one for email exchange, one for application and file sharings, one for DHCP, Active Directory and print serving at the headquarters. And one server at each office. This will reduce any issue that may arise from overloading servers and allow the company plenty of room to grow. The company already has well-defined policies in place which we will migrate over. We will also be creating different user groups and organizational units. The groups we form will be centered around each activity in Wadley one group for execs one for office staff one for call center, and one for gift wrappers each of these groups will be placed in organizational units of the same sections. The security level of the groups will all be set up as security groups if a function such as executives needs a distribution list for emails a separate list will be established for that. Each security group will have varying levels of permission such as executives will have a folder that will only be viewable by the executives added. According to “Microsoft” (2007), ” click admin tools and active directory users and computers in the detail pane. Click the folder point to new and then click user enter the first name in initials enter initial in the last name, type the last name, modify full name if initials are needed in user login name, type out the username. Click next, new object – user, in the password and confirm password type the user’s password and then select the appropriate options, click next, review the new user account settings, and then click Finish. The way to create the new Organizational units we need to open Active Directory Users and Computers, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Active Directory Users and Computers. The way to add the groups is similar open Active Directory Users and Computers click Start, then type dsa.msc. In the console tree, right-click the domain name. Point to New, and then click Organizational Unit.Enter the name of the organizational unit. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools and then click Active Directory Users andComputers. In Active Directory Users and Computers window, expand domain name.com. In the console tree, right-click the folder in which you want to add a new group. Click New, and then click Group. Type the name of the new group. Use a name that you can easily associate with the role or service for which you are creating. In the New Object – Group dialog box, do the following in Group scope, click Global scope, In Group type, click Security. Click Finish”. These simple procedures will help keep the database consistent in the form of adding users, organizational units, and security groups.

DNS and DHCP

Wadley will also need DNS set up along with DHCP these two programs will help with expansion during the holiday seasons and work hand in hand with Active Directory. First, we will set up DNS or Domain Naming Service this will let Wadley label computers and services. For the install to happen, we first need to open the server manager window on Windows 2012 once this is done we select add roles and features within the window we need to select DNS this will allow us to choose the server. Once these steps are complete, we need to select the DNS configuration. In this, we will need to define the forward lookup zone this function changes a name into an IP address. Reverse zone look up is next this lets you an IP address to find the name. Next is root hints this lets DNS store IP addresses such as Wadley.com. For Wadley we will configure all three of these options after we configure the forward lookup zone, the reverse look up and root hints a few options pop up for us to select. Out of these choices, Wadley will select to allow only secure dynamic updates as it is the best solution for their purpose. Now that we have DNS setup the next item to benefit Wadley is DHCP also known as dynamic host configuration protocol. We need to reopen server manager as we just did with DNS and select the server to install it on now we choose DHCP from the options. This opens the installation window of the wizard. After we walk through the wizard we need to take particular note of the authorize window because of the use the following credentials section this is what will allow for changes to DHCP. Now we need to configure DHCP to do this we first need to authorize it in Active Directory to eliminate any problems that may arise such as not issuing IP addresses. First, we need to set a static IP address on the server before we proceed. Then we need a domain admin group to authorize DHCP this is done by opening DHCP, and in action, select manage authorized server it brings up a manage authorized server box and then in the box we need to click authorize and enter the static IP address of the select server then just simply click ok. Now that this is out of the way open DHCP and select IPV4 from the tree then right click to select Scope options, New Scope. This opens the new scope wizard which allows use to name the scope such as Wadleyscope 01, and a description of the scope say call center computers. Next in the wizard is we need to select the starting and ending IP address such as 192.168.10.1 and ending of 192.168.10. 56 after that is the length field and the subnet mask once we have set these field click next. This brings us to the exclusion screen so if our range houses our default gateway we could exclude that IP address. Next, we come to lease time which is the amount of time a device has its lease for before it renews such as 24hrs. The next screen is the configure these options screen which we say yes. The router default gateway appears next which is where we enter the IP address we want the clients of the scope to use. On the next screen, we enter out DNS name IP address all customers are to use. Next is the WINS screen we can skip this screen as we are not using any legacy equipment that requires it. Lastly is our activate scope we select yes then next, and we click finish. Now we can create reservations for things like printers, new servers, routers and such.

File Systems

Wadley will need a shared file system to promote interoffice communication between departments and within departments. We will use the call center as an example of creating a shared folder for a department. When we create the shared folder, there are many ways to achieve this for out example we will use server manager. The first thing we will need to do is open Server Manager and then click Files and Storage. The next step we will perform is to click Task and Click New Share. This allows the wizard to open enabling us to set up shared folders. The wizard will open with Select Profile SMB Share quick will be the best. The next tab is Share Location where we will select out server and choose a custom path then type a custom path name of C:Call Center. Next up is the tab for Share Name in this we will type Call Center in the description field we will state This folder is shared with Call Center only. The local path to share and remote path should allow autofill. Now we come to the configuration in the Other Settings tab. We will check Enable access-based enumeration and Allow caching to share. On the next step, we will set up permissions by clicking customize permission. Then we will click Disable inheritance, so the Convert inherited permissions into explicit permissions on an object pops up for us to click We will remove the two user groups from the list as we do not everyone to have access to the folder. Now we will click Add to add the Call Center group. Then we select a principle of Call Center and select Read, List folder contents and, Read execute from the options. Now we can return to the wizard by clicking ok and continue next is review the permissions for accuracy then we just click Create to finish. Now that we have covered creating a shared folder we will be adding specific groups for security reasons. We will now outline how to network a printer. Wadley will need shared printers for use by all employees and to accomplish this we will set up shared network printers. The first thing we need to do is go to the vendor’s site and download the appropriate drivers and make sure we install the printer to get its IP address. Now we will go to control panel and view devices and printers this will bring up the window for us to add a printer on the server. We will click add a printer it will scan for a printer unless we have similar printers installed chances are it will not find anything. This will allow us to Add a printer by TCP/IP. On the next screen, we just need to enter that printers IP address. The wizard will most likely list the driver as a generic network port so confirm the IP address and click next. When the scan finishes, we can select our printer from the list and the driver. We will unclick share for now and hit finish to have the printer added now we could install the updated correct driver. Reopen devices and printers if closed it or just simply right-click the printer and select Print server properties. Now we can click on the drivers’ tab and then select change driver settings. Now we use the wizard to update the driver so just click x64 or x86 based on the driver then click have disk and find the driver that was downloaded from the vendor. Repeat above for the x86 driver install then just right click the printer and click advanced and change the driver to the one just installed. While you are in the advanced tab go ahead and click the sharing tab to turn sharing the printer on this will allow it to be located. Now that we have shared folders installed and printers we will cover disk management for Wadley. Disk management will be a big part of Wadley’s day to day operations with shared folders. We can right click on windows icon and just click disk management to open the window for disk manager. Disk manager will show all active drivers from hardware internal or external HDD’s and allow us to perform multiple different actions such as expanding, shrinking, adding new drives, and mapping drives to folders. We will create a new drive for use by hot installing a 1 TB drive. This drive will show up as offline in disk manager, so we will need to click right and turn it on once the drive status says online we will need to initialize it. Now that the drive is ready we can use it to perform some operations. We will be using the three free drives out of four to set up a raid five array for the fault tolerance and recoverability. So right-click on a free disk and select set up a raid 5 volume. Select at least three available disks and set the space required for each disk will use whatever is selected. We have now set up our disk management. Our disk backup plan will be in house raid five mirror and off site back up to give Wadley the best possible results for data recovery.

Physical Security

The policies for Physical security are an important part of any networks security to detour malicious actions. All server and network equipment should be locked in a room or closet, and Server rack with locking door. Servers rooms containing Sensitive, Restrictive, or Operational Material shall be secured using an auditable and monitorable lock. The issuing of keys, cards, and/or codes for the room shall have a verifiable process. The process of using keys shall all keys stamped do not duplicate. The method of using codes will have codes changed every three months. The room the server is located in should have no windows. The monitors or any display device should not be viewable from outside the room. A log for guest and 3rd party technicians to sign in shall be used and keep by the door. All guests and 3rd party technicians shall be escorted at all times. The server should have a lockable server blade to limit access to the CD drive and USB drive, so data is not removed from the server. The Server should also have a webcam preferably with a long cord so it is out of view to watch techs and 3rd party firms who may need to work on the server if the escort gets called away. These steps will help keep Wadley’s servers and data they contained secure from most threats.

System Monitoring and Manager Expectations

System Monitoring for a server is not that should be done haphazard as you would on a personal home computer. You need a clear set plan or goal to strive for and achieve. The best way to do this is to take baseline metrics at different times and under different loads. This allows you to compare those baseline stats with other performance stats to determine if repairs or optimization are needed. The tool Performance Manager will enable us to track various stats on the server such as DNS. This will allow use to set up counters, trace logs and alerts to know when something is wrong in any number of programs. These tools within performance manager will allow for ongoing support from repairs to adding drives or equipment ensuring the health of the server is keep well into the device’s lifecycle.

References

Technical references from

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/aa545347(v=cs.70)

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc700835.aspx

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee941131(v=ws.10).aspx

Willam Panek. (2014). MCSA Windows Server 2012 Complete Study Guide: Exams 70-410, 70-411, 70-412, and 70-417. Retrieved from Willam Panek, pos/221 website.

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