CMIT368: Windows Server Administration 2008

Project Description

 

Overview

Each student will create a detailed, organized, unified technical solution given the scenario described below. The submission will be in a written format, with at least one diagram, and may include additional diagrams, charts or tables. The assignment is meant for students to enhance their mastery of the material and to provide a creative and realistic way in which to apply knowledge from this course.

Scenario

Worldwide Advertising, Inc. (referred to as “WAI”) has hired you as an IT consultant. WAI is a new advertising firm, and they are currently hiring staff, establishing two locations, and have a need to get their internal IT services configured. They do not yet have an IT staff, but when they do, the IT staff will take over all aspects of IT administration. You are required to supply WAI with a solution which describes the implementation and configuration of their core IT services. Cost is not a significant concern – WAI wishes to implement the “right” solution to fit their needs now and for the next 2-3 years.

 

 There are several details about WAI which will have an impact on your choices:

WAI will start with 30 employees, in the following departments:

o Executives (3 employees) – manage and run the company

o Accounts and Sales Department (5 employees) – perform market research and maintain accounts

o Creative, Media and Production Department (15 employees) – advertising

o Human Resources and Finances (4 employees) – perform HR and financial duties

o IT (3 employees) – manage IT for the company

WAI will have two sites, one in Los Angeles and one in New York. Most staff will be located in LA, with at least 1 person from each of the departments above located in NY.

Networking equipment is already in place for both sites. A secure tunnel (using IPSec) will be established between the two sites so that inter-site traffic will be securely tunneled over the Internet. You may make whatever other assumptions you wish about intra-and inter-site connectivity.

Security mechanisms (e.g., firewalls, intrusion detection) will be handled separately, and there is no need to describe them.

Some departments will want their data to remain private from other departments (e.g., Finances personnel will not want Production staff to see the company’s financial details). Your team may make assumptions about how data should be shared or kept private.

Assumptions can be made regarding any information not included here; all assumptions should be identified, however.

 

 

 

 

Topics to Cover

Your document should cover the content presented in the course. The outline below contains recommended points to cover. You are free to add other related information.

 

Describe the technical and business reasons for each choice, citing other resources as appropriate.

 

Provide rough estimates of scheduling and manpower required for deploying your solution. You may summarize the schedule and manpower at the end of the document or individually for each section.

 

The Windows Server 2008/2008R2 operating system should be used for all aspects of the solution.

The topics include:

Deployment and Server Editions

How many servers total are needed? Which roles will be combined?

What edition of Windows Server will be used for each server (e.g., Standard, Enterprise, Web)?

Will Server Core be used on any servers?

How many desktops are needed and what OS will they run?

Where are each of the servers located (which of the two sites)?

How will the servers be deployed?

If using answer files, what settings will be configured with the System Image Manager?

 

DNS and DHCP

DHCP scope design (e.g., lease times, number of scopes, address range)

Will a form of DHCP fault tolerance be implemented?

Will DHCP reservations be used for servers?

DNS namespace design (e.g., domain name(s) chosen, split DNS for Internet/intranet, zones)

How will DNS be handled for the second site?

 

Active Directory

Number of AD domains (see p. 103 in textbook) and names of domains

Will there be any Read-Only Domain Controllers?

How will the second site factor into domain controller placement? How will AD sites be configured?

How will AD organizational units be organized (considering how group policy will be used and users will be organized)?

What groups will likely be needed at first (including group scope and type, p. 96 of textbook)?

 

Application Services

How will applications be deployed? If using Group Policy, what are the details on how Group Policy will be used to deploy the software? Which software applications will likely be needed?

How will an Internet-facing web site be possible?

 

 

File and Printer Sharing

What shares might be needed? (Consider some of the reasoning supplied on p. 161 of the textbook)

How will quotas/FSRM be configured? (Consider all aspects, such as thresholds, alerting, file screens, and reporting.)

Will a DFS namespace be implemented?

 

Storage

On most of the servers, how will local disks be configured? (Consider Windows volume types, RAID levels, disk types, and partition table formats on p.216-222 of the textbook.)

How will bulk storage (such as for file shares) be handled? (Consider the use of direct-attached storage, a SAN or NAS, as described on p.214-216 of the textbook.)

What are rough estimates for the amount of storage required?

 If using a SAN, will iSCSI or Fibre Channel be used? What software is required for running/managing the SAN (from the Windows Server side)? How will the SAN be configured?

 

Assignment Requirements

There are specific requirements for the assignment: The final submission should contain at least 6 pages’ worth of text written by the student (not counting title page, images, diagrams, tables, or quotations), but may be longer, not to exceed approximately 10 pages’ worth of student-supplied text. (With the required diagram, and other images, title page, etc., the final submission may end up being more than 10 pages in length.) It must be double-spaced, have 1-inch margins, and use 12-point Times New Roman or 10-point Arial/Helvetica font. A title page is required; APA format for the title page is optional.

At least one diagram must be included (not counted towards the minimum length described above); this could be a diagram describing Active Directory components, storage layout, DHCP/DNS design, file share hierarchy, or anything else that is worth displaying graphically to enhance the reader’s understanding of the proposal. Additional diagrams, images, or tables are welcome.

The submission must cover all of the 6 major topics outlined above. Each choice should be explained with technical and business reasoning. The solution should be reasonably detailed. The Windows Server 2008/2008R2 OS must be leveraged for the solution. Rough manpower and scheduling requirements for each topic (or a summary of manpower and schedule at the end of the document) must be included. Additional topics may be covered as desired.

The structure of the final submission is flexible. There is no specific format required, although it should be organized logically and represent a single, unified solution. It is likely that the format will include separate sections for each of the 6 topics required, as well as a summary.

At least one non-textbook, non-LabSim, non-Wikipedia reference is required; preferably, this would be a “best practice” guide or similar content from Microsoft or an experienced provider of Microsoft solutions.

Be sure to properly quote or cite any sources used. APA format is required for in-text citations and the list of works cited at the end. It is expected that you are already familiar with UMUC's "Policy on Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism." It is available in the Academic Policies section of the Syllabus; there are also links in the Webliography. In its simplest form, if you are using text from a source, you must cite and/or quote it. If plagiarism is found, then there will be a penalty to the grade.

 

 

Grading Criteria

 

The assignment is 15% of your grade, following this point distribution:

 

Points Possible	Criteria	How to earn full points
15	Design and Accuracy	- Design choices are explained and are reasonable - Technical information is reasonably accurate - Any specific technical information is based on research/textbook as appropriate - Assumptions are identified/described - The overall design is “unified” (limited inconsistencies) - Explanation of business/technical reasons for decisions provided
10	Topic Coverage, Level of Detail	- All of the topics are addressed to a reasonable depth - The paper includes a sufficient level of technical detail - Paper provides manpower/scheduling estimates
10	Organization, Quality of Writing, Grammar and Spelling	- Submission is organized logically - Ideas are presented coherently - Writing style is appropriate - There are very few errors in grammar or spelling
8	Paper Requirements	- Formatting requirements met - Paper length requirements met - At least one diagram used - Title page provided
7	Citations and Quatations	- Any external sources were cited/quoted - Citations and quotations used appropriately - APA format followed properly for citations - At least one non-textbook, non-LabSim, non-Wikipedia resource referenced