ICTNWK401: Detailed Server Installation and Management Plan Report

This report details the development of a comprehensive installation plan for a Windows Server 2012 environment, tailored for abc.net, an advertising firm with two locations and 90 employees. The plan outlines the current IT infrastructure, which includes an Active Directory domain, secured IPSec links, and a firewall. It addresses the organization's need for a centralized server to manage users, improve data security, and enhance network interoperability. The report specifies the preferred installation options, including the GUI for Windows Server 2012, and details the configuration of Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, and other essential services. It also covers the scale of installation, including the use of Hyper-V for virtualization, and provides guidance on data migration, backup strategies using Windows Backup, and recovery requirements to mitigate potential failures. The report concludes by outlining the resources needed, including physical servers, virtual machines, and training requirements, and presents a deployment plan utilizing WDS for efficient server installation.

Running head: ICTNWK401 INSTALL AND MANAGE A SERVER
ICTNWK401 Install and Manage a Server
Assignment 1
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1ICTNWK401 INSTALL AND MANAGE A SERVER
Part A: Development of a detailed installation plan
Overview of deployed environment
The organization abc.net has the requirement of deploying windows network
infrastructure for their advertising firm located in two different location. A right solution is
selected for fitting the organizational needs and configuring the core IT service needs for the
management of current needs of the organization. Currently there are 90 employees working
in the organization that works in the five departments such as executives with 9 employees,
accounts and sales with 15 employees, creative media and production department with 49
employees, human resource and finance with 12 employees and IT with 5 employees. The
executives are responsible for the management and running the company, accounts and sales
department is responsible for performing market research and maintaining accounts, creative
media and production department is responsible for advertising, human resource and finance
department perform hr and financial duties, the IT department is responsible for the
management of server and the company. There are two branches of the organization and most
of the staffs are located in the headquarters and the connection between each of the
department is placed using a secured IPSec link. A firewall and an intrusion detection system
is installed for securing the network from eternal threats and protecting the private
information of each of the department.
The windows server 2012 is used for management of the different service and
operation of the departments of the organization. The server is configured with an active
director domain and it is divided into multiple domain depending on the branches of the
origination. Forest architecture is used for dividing domain and the hierarchy of the domain is
needed to be synchronized with time. Active directory configuration with group policy is
used for maintaining the users to access the server and other network resources. The server is

2ICTNWK401 INSTALL AND MANAGE A SERVER
also configured with DNS and DHCP configuration for automatically assigning IP address to
the user groups connected in the network. The server is also configured for creating a
distribution point for the publishing of computer programs and assigning them to the hosts.
File and print sharing is needed to be enabled in the server for allowing the multiple user
connected in then network to access the resources for improving their productivity and reduce
the cost of operation of the network.
Details of current system capacity, Interdependency and Interoperability
Currently there are no servers installed in the organizational network and thus the
management of the users is a problem for the organization. The files and information are
shared between the user of the department using email and pen drives and thus it makes the
system vulnerable to infection with virus and unauthorized installation of third party software
in the system. The current system is compatible for handling increased loads for transmitting
data packets from different sources in the network. The users are free to send and receive data
packets since they do not needs authorisation, authentical and accounting for accessing the
resources of the organization. The interoperability of the network is needed to be improved
because the users are needed to have good communication with the employees of the other
department for increasing the performance and resolving the different issues in the network.
The social, political and the organizational factors are needed to be managed such that its
impact on the performance can be minimized and the system can serve the different needs of
the users. The information is needed to be automatically interpreted and ranges of product
and future revision is needed to be implemented for adaption of the system.
Details of preferred installation Options
Windows server 2012 is installed with the GUI options for improving the experience
of the user and providing support that is used for improving the production of the employees.

3ICTNWK401 INSTALL AND MANAGE A SERVER
The installation of windows server with graphical user interface helps in using the Microsoft
management console and controlling the different options from the control panel. The server
manager, windows PowerShell and server core is installed for managing the performance
capabilities, authentication and registry. The GUI is installed since .NET framework is
missing from the Server Core and other tools such as notepad, internet explorer, Microsoft
management console is also missing from the server core.
The windows server 2012 is needed to be configured with active directory, DHCP,
DNS, files and storage services, Web server IIS, Windows Updates service and print and
document services.
The single active directory is needed to be used and divided into multiple domain for
meeting the organizational growth. The forest architecture is used for domain division and
controlling the controllers for management of intercommunication between the different
groups of users. The configuration of the group policy helps in management of server access
to the specific group of users and improve the network security.
A shared folder is needed to be created in the server for storing the installer packages
of the application program after creating an distribution point in the server. The configuration
of the application service and management of the permission to the specific group of users
helps in increasing the security.
Details of the scale of installation
For the installation of the windows server 2012 the known issues with the installation
is needed to be identified and the problems are needed to be troubleshooted. The critical
issues with the windows server operating system is needed to be identified and the deign
changes, new features and release fixes is also needed to be identified for the management of
specific features. The installation options such as installing server core and full server

4ICTNWK401 INSTALL AND MANAGE A SERVER
integration is needed to be managed for increasing the flexibility form changing from server
core to GUI based needs of installation. The selection of windows server hyper V can be used
for improving the scalability, new components and different options for the small or medium
scale business. For the installation of hyper v at least 6 Gb of virtual memory is needed to eb
allocated along with hard drive space of 90 Gb. VMware workstation can be used as a
platform for the installation of hyper v from the add role and features the hyper v option is
needed to be installed virtual switches are needed to be installed. The hyper v manager can be
used for the installation of the virtual machines.
Data migration requirement
The migration documentation and tools are used for easing the migrating the server
roles settings and data from the existing server to the new server deployed in the network
running windows server 2012. The server migration tool is readily available in windows
server 2012 and it allows the administrator for migrating the roles and features of the server,
shares, setting of operating system and other data available in the computer running different
edition of Windows server. Specific instruction for using Windows server migration tool can
be identified from guides for migration and the features is needed to be installed in the source
and the destination server. The migration process can be simplified and the time of migration
can eb reduced for improving the migration process accuracy and eliminating the conflicts
arising during migration of the server. The guide that is used for the migration contains the
server identity information, local group and users, shared and data folders, shadow copies of
shared folders, duplication data, DFS namespace, DFS replication, file server resource
manager. Setting of group policy specific to SMB, Offline files group policy settings and
iSCSI software target. The old server is needed to be replaced with high configuration

5ICTNWK401 INSTALL AND MANAGE A SERVER
physical server and thus the migration of the data and the configuration is required such that
the time needed for configuring the new server is reduced.
Backup requirement
The windows backup feature is needed to be used that helps in providing different
program set for performing basic backup and recovery. The windows server backup option
can be used for performing a full backup of all the volumes, selected volumes, current state of
the system, or specific folders or files. The bare metal recovery can be used in case of disaster
such as failure of hard disk or corruption of the system files. The bare metal recovery uses the
full server backup or the volumes that contain the operating system files and recovery
environment of windows. The backup can be configured manually or automatically and it is
intended for each of the user who needs basic backup. For the optimization of server
performance and optimize backup performance dialog box can be used for the improvement
of backup of full volume for improving the performance of the server. The dialog box is
available in the homepage of windows server backup snap in and the settings are applied for
including the entire volume backup. If a specific file or folder is selected for backup and the
performance settings cannot be applied.
Recovery requirement
The recovery requirement is needed for devising a strategy for the identification of
failure and protecting the assets against the different types of attacks and recovery from
failure of event. VMware ESX hypervisor runs on a physical server and if the physical server
fails the other virtual machine running on the server would also stop working. It is needed to
isolate the faulty machine such that its failure does not affect the network widely and ESX
clustering is needed to be used for mitigating the problem. If the data center goes down all the
information stored in the data center and storage gets lost and thus the data is needed to be

6ICTNWK401 INSTALL AND MANAGE A SERVER
backed up and the organization faces a huge loss. The essential data and information is
needed to be identified and backed up for recovering it and ensuring that no data is lost.
Resources required
The main resources required for the deployment of Windows Server 2012 and
management of different service and operation essential for running the organization are
given below:
 Physical server installed with windows server 2012 R2
 VmWare workstation is used for virtualizing the server
 Quad core processor for running 64 bit CPU @3 Ghz
 6 cores in case of using Cross Data Center Replication
 16 Gb Ram
 Network filesystem e.g. NFS or CIFS
 Block based storage
The machine should have enough memory for running the operating system and the
virtual server. For example if 8 Gb of RAM is dedicated for the virtual machine then 8 GB is
also needed to be available to the physical machine.
Training required
It is essential for providing training to the employees of the organization regarding the
usage of the network and service configured in the windows server. The users should be
informed about installation of server and management of the group policy such that the
normal users are restricted to install unauthorised software in the host machine. The use of
usb flash drives and visiting the malware websites are needed to be eliminated such that the
risk of spyware attacks and malwares are reduced.

7ICTNWK401 INSTALL AND MANAGE A SERVER
Deployment plan
For the deployment of the network an analysis is made on the requirement of the
organization and the number of servers that can meet the demand of the users working in the
organization. The physical server configuration is needed to be evaluated according to the
requirement of the organization and the number of users that are needed to be served. A
planning checklist is needed to be created and following the scenario of deployment of the
server. The tools and methods needed for deployment is also needed to be identified. Here
WDS is used as a guide for the deployment since it can reduce the complexity of deployment
and costs that are associated with the inefficient installation of the server. It can also help in
network based installation and windows image is used for deployment without the operating
system. It also supports the mixed environment containing Windows XP, windows 10 and
other windows operating system. Multicast technology is used for enabling deployment of
multiple system concurrently.