Introduction
The current paper presents the proposal for the deployment of windows server in Contoso. The plan for the effective implementation and configuration for Windows Infrastructure is also enlightened. It is implied that the company possesses adequate capital for the effective deployment of the Windows network infrastructure due to which the proposal is focused to present the effective plan rather than incorporating the extreme cost efficient measures.
Features of Windows Server 2012
The features of Windows Server 2012, as inferred by Carvalho (2012), are discussed below:
Multi-server Support
A new and redesigned server is introduced in which cloud concept is incorporated so that server manager can manage multiple servers at a time. It also supports the new dashboard which helps in the deployment and utility of local and remote servers. The company will be operating at two sites due to which multi-server will be developed to increase the efficiency.
Default Server Core
The minimalistic server core is used due to which the dependency on the graphical user interchange has been decreased in order to manage and configure the system. The graphical user interface is independent due to which the uninstallation of the operating system is not required to set up the GUI and hence, the company requires the restricted use of data by specific departments and this feature will address the restriction need of the company by means of reducing the dependency.
Power-Shell Management
Windows Server 2012 offers more than 200 cmdlets to manage the server and windows server applications and is considered more effective in managing Hyper-V. The company will be operating at two sites and will develop the virtual management system due to which Hyper-V will be considered highly effective.
NIC Teaming
The system offers the built-in NIC teaming and supports heterogeneous NIC vendors. The support for balancing the load and the prevalence of failover NICs incorporated from vendors is also minimized. The intranet of the company will be integrated at both the sited due to which the effective balancing of load will be required.
SMB 2.2
It also offers the enhanced Windows Server Message Block (SMB) due to which the file sharing protocol has been improved. The file server has been made more resilient and requires no additional configuration. The file sharing will ensure the work processes more effective because the data files will be shared more effectively between the employees.
Data Deduplication
It also offers the built-in mechanism for the data deduplication due to which the prevalence of data duplication is detected in an automatic manner. It also saves the data that is being duplicated in a separate storage and helps in the effective replacement of the original data effectively. The company will be sharing the heavy media files due to its advertising business and hence, data duplication will reduce the WAN traffic.
Cluster Scalability
It supports the clusters up to 63 nodes and 4,000 virtual machines per cluster and hence, it has leap-frogged its competitors. It will support the virtual management mechanism of the company.
Multiple Migrations
It supports multiple migrations at the same time due to the prevalence of an effective Hype-V Server and hence, the effective file sharing will be ensured.
Storage Migration
It also helps in moving the virtual disk of the virtual machines and also supports their configuration by means of moving files via snapshot files so that the prevalence of interruption in end-user connectivity to the virtual machines can be eradicated in an effective manner.
Migration without Shared Storage
It supports the live migration without the prevalence of back-end shared storage. It has enhanced the concept of virtualization for the businesses and has reduced the cost of SAN that is required to maintain the back-end storage due to which the migration of data between the departments of both sites will be made effective.
Features of Windows Server 2012 R2
The features of Windows Server 2012 R2, as inferred by Tulloch & Team (2013), are discussed below:
Dropbox
The prevalence of Dropbox ensures the effective functionality of the work folders and helps in storing the data files on server and client’s domain. It will help in syncing the operations at the different locations of the company due to which the client can connect with the server in an effective manner.
Desired Configuration
It helps in the development of baseline of roles and features and supports the update mechanism of the system in accordance with the configuration that is considered as a desired state. The roles and features will be determined and shared accordingly due to the number of servers and hence, it will support the update mechanism incorporated by the head office of the company.
Tiered Storage
It helps in moving the chunks of data among the differentiated classes of storage. It determines which data chunks are the most active and hence, moves the data automatically to the fastest tier. The data is required to be shared effectively among the departments at both sites and tiered storage will help in the efficient transfer of data.
Pinned Storage
It helps in pinning the selected files to the specific client or tier. It ensures that the pinned files are saved at the fastest storage and are not saved at the slower storage tier and hence, the transfer of important data will be more effective between the two sites.
Parallel Rebuild
The issue related to the time-consuming scanning and repairing of disks has been addressed and hence, parallel rebuild of failed drive has been incorporated by means of reducing the total time of scan and repair of the disk. It will reduce the risk of time consumption if the disks are damaged at any site of the company.
Workplace Join
It helps its users to sync and register their personal devices to access the system applications and data in an effective manner. The employees will be located at two sites and will be able to work in a more integrated way due to the enhanced synchronization of personal devices.
Hyper-V
It supports the faster live migration of data and offers the online export and duplication of data that is considered more efficient than Windows Server 2012. The company will be using the virtual system to integrate with the departments located at different sites and hence, Hyper-V will ensure the effective remote integration.
Deployment and Server Editions
The company is objectified towards enhancing its work processes and due to the availability of the adequate capital, Windows Server 2012 R2 will be implemented. The Standard edition will be used because it can maintain the cost and can increase the number of servers in order to improve the efficiency (Minasi et al., 2013). There will be a total of 10 system servers that will be operating the systems in Contoso. Considering the fact that most of the staff will be located in Pensacola due to which most of the servers will be managed from Pensacola. In this manner, Casper will be operating with 3 servers whereas, 7 servers will be incorporated for the site in Pensacola.
Server Core will be used to increase the reliability and security for all the servers so that the departments that possess the critical information can restrict the access from the other departments. The automatic deployment of these servers will take place by means of using the image files remotely via Windows Deployment Services (WDS). Considering the fact that there are 90 employees and hence, all these employees will be provided with the operating system due to which the remote installation will reduce the time duration and will be more efficient. In this manner, Windows Automatic Installation Kit (AIK) will be installed to incorporated the answer files i.e. Windows System Image Manage (SIM) via the windows website and hence, the efficient deployment of the system will take place from a master computer (Minasi et al., 2013). The server roles that will be combined are illustrated below:
Active Directory
There will be two domain controllers for each site, in which the main domain controller will be placed at the site in Pensacola, whereas the Read Only Domain Controller (RODC) will be placed at the site in Casper. In this manner, the unnecessary traffic at the WAN link will be reduced due to the prevalence of RODC. Active Directory – Integrated Zones will be implemented for the DNS replication traffic via the Active Directory. The parent domain will be known as CONT.local, whereas the child domains will be known as PS.CONT.local and CP.CONT.local and hence, both child domains will represent the sites located at Pensacola and Casper (Desmond et al., 2008).
The departments will be developed into the organizational units which will also incorporate all employees from the both sites. The organizational units will be comprised of Executives, Accounts and Sales, Creative, Media and Production, Human Resources and Finances, IT and Users. The company’s group scope is global because it will be operating at two sites / locations i.e. Casper and Pensacola. In order to prevent the access of financial data form the departments that are not integrated with the use of financial data, the strict configuration of NTFS and Share Permission will take place. The Admin or Head Administrator will be provided with the Full Control over the permission changes for users in order to ensure the sharing of relevant data with the users and departments (Desmond et al., 2008).
DNS and DHCP
The Hybrid DHCP infrastructure will be implemented along with the relay agents in order to make the system cost and time efficient. It is suggested that one main and one backup DCHP will be maintained at the Pensacola site whereas, relay agents will be maintained at the Casper site so that the traffic via the WAN link will be reduced. The automatic allocation of IP addresses will be incorporated and IPv4 will be used due to its reliable security, automated flexibility and large routing capability. However, IPv4 may incorporate limited IP addresses due to which automation in the IP addresses is selected to be incorporated in the system (Komori & Saito, 2002).
The prevalence of fault toleration for DHCP will be incorporated by means of using the 80/20 configuration in the scope splitting. The address range will be incorporated from 10.0.0.1 to 10.0.1.200, whereas the exclusion will be incorporated from 10.0.0.1 to 10.0.0.90 on the main DHCP. The relay agents available at the Casper site will be configured in order to boot threshold so that the DHCP clients will be able to acquire their addresses from the local servers. The hybrid DHCP at the Contoso will require a couple hours in the configuration and test, whereas the process will be completed by one system administrator due to the time efficiency of the system (Komori & Saito, 2002).
The clients will be provided with a home folder to encompass the private storage, whereas a shared folder for sharing and collaboration will be used via SharePoint. The files that are required to be shared will be split between two servers at the respective sites and hence, a total of four servers will be developed. The prevalence of local file services at the respective sites will ensure the tolerance under any WAN link fails. It will also reduce the WAN traffic and the synchronization of the file system will be required in order to ensure the availability of the updated data at the respective sites. The data synchronization will be incorporated by using the DFS replication and Remote Differential Compression (RDC), which will also restrict the transmittal of data by means of transmitting the specific modifications in the system files (Suralkar et al., 2013).
The implementation of Distributed File Services (DFS) will ensure the prevalence of a unified directory and consistent backup, whereas a domain-based namespace DFS will be used in order to enhance the availability of data at the multiple servers. The conventional method will be used for the namespace root in accordance with the shared folders and private files that will be named shared and usernames, respectively. The account names will begin from the first initial of the name followed by the four letter from the last names, which will ensure the restriction in duplication and will ease the identification process among different users (Suralkar et al., 2013).
The file storage mechanism will be monitored and regulated via the File Server Resource Manager, whereas each client will be provided with the 1 GB limit. The quotas will be administered by means of using the automatic notifications from the file settings in order to notify the users / clients about the possible shortage in the storage if they consume the 90% of the total storage. The configuration of the File Screens will take place at the private and shared folders in order to save the executable files and hence, the security will be increased in the sharing mechanism. Similarly, print services will be made available via Remote Desktop so that network-attached printer will be incorporated within the respective sites.
Group policy
The server based applications will be incorporated by using the terminal services architecture via Microsoft Systems Management Services (SMS). The Remote Desktop Services will be used because it work effectively due to its low bandwidth consumption, reduced hardware requirements, easy licensing, easy updates and configuration processes and power savings. The distribution of the applications will take place by Intranet Web Access by using the port 3389. The IIS 7.0 component will be installed to facilitate the installation process via remote access. The clients will be provided with the applications that mainly comprise of MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Access, MS Excel, MS Outlook, Inuit Quick Books and Adobe Creative Suite. The windows firewall system will be incorporated because these applications will be updated and modified for licensure and verification via the internet and hence the system will be prone to possible spams and trojans (Coronel & Morris, 2016; Minasi et al., 2013).
Hyper-V
The VMs will be used in order to manage a virtual computer environment because it will help in sharing the virtual hard disk due to which the shared data will be available remotely at the both sites. It will also help in resizing the hard disk and hence, the administrators will be able to enhance their storage capacity in accordance with their functional needs. It will ensure the integration services and the departments located at the different sites will be able to work closely and the inter-communication between the both sites will be strengthened. It will also ensure the effective export and migration of data which will be considered time and cost efficient due to the prevalence of large data, mainly comprising of media files due to the advertising business of the company (Minasi et al., 2013).
References
Carvalho, L. (2012). Windows server 2012 Hyper-V cookbook. Packt Publishing Ltd.
Coronel, C., & Morris, S. (2016). Database systems: design, implementation, & management. Cengage Learning.
Desmond, B., Richards, J., Allen, R., & Lowe-Norris, A. G. (2008). Active Directory: Designing, Deploying, and Running Active Directory. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".
Komori, T., & Saito, T. (2002, November). The secure DHCP system with user authentication. In Local Computer Networks, 2002. Proceedings. LCN 2002. 27th Annual IEEE Conference on (pp. 123-131). IEEE.
Minasi, M., Greene, K., Booth, C., Butler, R., McCabe, J., Panek, R., & Roth, S. (2013). Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2. John Wiley & Sons.
Suralkar, S., Mujumdar, A., Masiwal, G., & Kulkarni, M. (2013). Review of Distributed File Systems: Case Studies. International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications(IJERA).
Tulloch, M., & Team, W. S. (2013). Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2. Microsoft press.
