You have been hired as an IT expert by a small software development firm to develop a technology project proposal that outlines a technology plan to develop a Server infrastructure that will provide enterprise level centralized management of user identity, resources, and information that the firm relies on for its day-to-day business operations.
The firm has a single location with 20 employees and is currently running a small Windows Server 2012 network that includes a single domain controller. The firm is interested in upgrading to Windows Server 2016. The firm is also concerned about high availability. For example, there is currently only one domain controller. This means that when they perform updates or must reboot the server, Active Directory services are interrupted.
To avoid this, the firm is interested in adding a second domain controller to the current environment as soon as possible. Once the second domain controller is added, all other Servers must be upgraded to Windows Server 2016. This includes a DHCP, DNS, and file resource server. Redundancy, high availability, and disaster recovery have become a top concern for the firm.
They are looking to you to provide solutions to these concerns in your proposal. The firm is also in the process of opening a second office location. This office will include approximately 15 to 20 additional employees. This location must also be included in the plan.
Requirements
Address each of the following topics in your plan:
Deployment and Server Editions
How many total servers are needed? Which roles will be combined?
What edition of Windows will be used for each server (e.g., Standard, Datacenter)?
Will Server Core be used on any servers?
Where are each of the servers located (which of the two sites)?
Active Directory
Number of AD domains? Include domain name design.
Will there be any Read-Only Domain Controllers?
How will the second office 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)?
Discuss requirements for deploying Active Directory.
Containers
Discuss the role that containers play and how they can benefit the firm.
High Availability
How will clustering be utilized?
What role with load balancing play?
Hyper-V
Discuss the role of Hyper-V and benefits.
How will Hyper-V high availability be achieved?
Disaster Recovery
What role will Windows Backup Server play?
Discuss backup strategies.
Is a third-party backup and recovery solution required?
Maintenance
How will Windows Server Update Services be utilized?
Discuss a plan to keep Servers updated and patched with minimal interruption to servers and services. Keep in mind, Microsoft issues patch and updates to its operating systems and software the second Tuesday (Links to an external site.) of each month. Your plan should take this into account.
Monitoring
Discuss the purpose of system monitoring.
Describe tools available for monitoring Windows Servers.
Include one Windows Server 2016 tool that is not included in the readings or the text. This may require additional research.
Your paper should be 6-8 pages in length (not including diagrams) and conform to the standards in the CSU Global Writing Center (Links to an external site.). Include at least one diagram illustrating your chosen Active Director design with DNS namespace hierarchy. Include no fewer than three scholarly references in addition to the course textbook, readings, and media. The CSU Global Library is a good place to find these references.
