Calcanas 1 Edgar Calcanas Dr. Narayanan CST 412 17 March 2010 CST 412 Mid-Term Workstations 1) Every employee must have its own workstation, for our potential client NOPI. We must provide a workstation for 4 different employees, each of which, have different responsibilities. For our HR, Accounting, and Payroll departments, we will have a load set of a basic desktop computer. The IT employer will probably have special needs in order to do his/her job. We recommend the company buy from Costco. Costco will not only provide a great product warranty, they will also not charge NOPI any tax fee for this product, being is how it will be for commercial use. The HP Pavilion p6370t Desktop has the potential for any task needed to be executed, with a 64-bit OS, 4 Giga-bytes of RAM and a 750 Giga-byte hard drive there is no reason why this desktop is the bad choice for the employer to use. HR, Accounting, and Payroll departments should be set with the standard Desktop operation. For the IT employer we recommend a stronger computer. The HP e9300z has the right potential for an IT personal, with a 64-bit OS, 8 Giga-bytes of RAM, 1 TB hard drive and an AMD phenom quad core processor. 2) These desktops already come with the latest version of Windows 7 but we will need additional specific software. The HR, Accounting, and Payroll we will provide the following: Microsoft Office Anti-virus software Logmein software/account HR o Secure file system (Storing important documents) Payroll o Managing software for each employer s time keeping Accounting o Managing software for company budgeting
Calcanas 2 The IT employer we will provide: Microsoft Office Anti-virus software Logmein software/account Testing software such as VMware 3) The only people allowed on these platforms are the employers themselves. Each workstation contains important information, it is crucial to only have authorized personal. HR, Payroll and Accounting may be able to share their workstations with each other; however, the IT technician s workstation can only be accessed by the IT technician. The reason being is because the IT workstation will at time be dependent on the other workstations. Therefore it is crucial to have the IT technician s workspace available to only IT. The IT technician will have access to all workstations, if an employer from a department is having issues, with the use of Logmein, the technician can remotely log in to that workstation and troubleshoot the machine. 4) I would much rather purchase software rather than take time in developing my own. I feel that purchasing software is a much better idea because the time someone takes to build, test, and deploy software can cause more of a headache. You can easily take the same amount of time, if not, less, to research, tests, and deploy an already existing software that meets your company s needs. There is also the possibility of there being open software that you may find very useful, this can save the company money. Of course the key important thing when choosing this approach is doing extensive researching and testing before deployment. 5) For all our software and applications we will make sure it is patched and updated when needed to. Also the updates shall be automated and controlled by the IT technician. The IT technician will inform the other employers when new updates will occur by setting up a group policy. A great approach for updating platforms is by using the One, Some, Many method. Though we only have 4 platforms, it still is a good method to use. First the IT technician will begin updating his/her machine. Once everything is finished and all goes well, he/she will move on to update another machine. Finally, move on until every machine is finally updated. Before deploying this method, it is important to test and make sure this concept works for one machine and then begin updating the others. Update will at times need to be
Calcanas 3 done during operation hours, it is important to notify employers about the updates. Servers 1) It is recommended for large sites or a large company to have several severs not only for back-up but also simplicity. Having different servers perform different functions will increase performance. For our purposes here we will only need one server, one back-up server and hot spare parts per store. The hot spare parts will come in handy if there is something that needs to be quickly fixed on the server. If that fails then we can execute the back-up server. The server will be for data storage purposes for all departments. The reason why we only need a data storage server is because our only concern is to have data storage for HR, Accounting, Payroll, and IT. 2) Having one vendor can sometimes be a good thing or a bad thing. The reason as to why having only one vendor is bad is some vendors have little experience with servers. If you buy a server from a company that has no experience, chances are that when you have a problem they might not be able to help you need. If you were to go to a vendor that has much experience with servers, they can provide better help with CPU performance, Upgrading options, Maintenance, Management, etc. A good thing about having one vendor is that it might have what is called a Homogenous environment, where it sells products of the same line. This is a good thing because it s easier to maintain by reducing the amount of training, maintenance and repairs are much easier. Having more than one vendor can be good because you are not locked into one vendor, and the competition among the vendors will result in better service for you. 3) The reason why we would want and prefer having N+1 redundancy over hot spare parts is because there might be a situation where the hot spare parts are meaningless. If a server goes down it might need more than just a hot spare part or it might need something else to get it working again. Our text book, The Practice of System Administration, provides a good analogy on this matter. A car with extra tires isn t useful if its engine is dead p.87. N+1 redundancy will provide full redundancy just in case a server were to go down, another back-up server can immediately be ready for use and the company can continue to function.
Calcanas 4 Case 1 Situation 1) Yes, I would dedicate a separate server for task such as employee s time card information. This might seem to be a method of overdoing something but we also want to keep in mind that we are a company that will potentially grow more and more. So, having another server will be a good investment. Having another server will also prevent server overload. This service is quite important and we must keep this service reliable. We also want to think about security measurements. Having this service and information apart from one single server will be better protected. 2) I would have the employers send their time cards every 15 th and 30 th of the month. Simply because it can be more efficient, less mundane task, the employer will have more time and the opportunity to make any corrections on his/her timecard. If you were to have each employer send their timecard daily, there might come a day where an employer made a mistake and his/her timecard will need to be corrected. This will cause more work and for both the SA and the employer. 3) No, setting up the server to send time information to every store at the same time is a bad idea. First of all, you will decrease the performance of the network and cause high traffic by sending the information all at the same time. There is also a possibility that one or more stores will not receive the information. The best way to handle this task is to send each particular store s timecard information separately. This can be done by sending the information every hour, half-hour, 15 minutes, etc. until each store has received their information. Services 1) We will provide the typical service environment for NOPI. This will include DNS, email, authentication services, network connectivity, and printing. DNS This service will run in each store s server to direct name request to the internet, the other NOPI stores, or to NOPI Head Quarters. Email One of the most important services for any company to have. Much of business critical information and communication is handled by email. Authentication Services This will be useful for distinguishing one person from another, especially for employers that have different levels of access.
Calcanas 5 VOIP Voice over IP protocol will be great communication service to provide. Many businesses today use VOIP because of the bandwidth efficiency and low costs VOIP can provide. Network connectivity This is an important element for all businesses today. Most of the services that have been mentioned will depend on the company s network connectivity. It will provide outside communication to the other NOPI stores, NOPI HQ and the world. Printing Printing is still widely used and there will always be a need for a physical copy of a document. One printer per store should be fine enough. 2) There are hardly any advantages to proprietary protocols. The only ones who benefit from proprietary protocol are the vendors who use proprietary protocols. Vendors make money by selling licenses to proprietary protocols to companies. It is also good for vendor when they are covering a new territory or are attempting to maintain a market share. Disadvantages are that the companies that go with this method are locked into using these protocols. Companies can also find themselves in a bad situation when a new version of a proprietary protocol is released and there are no versions that are compatible with the new protocol. The authors state that they have found great success through the use of open protocols, when possible go with open protocols. 3) A Roll out plan is a well documented, well detailed, clear, understandable executable plan. It specifies what will be deployed, who will be responsible for what, when and how. A roll out plan can range from deploying a new service system to developing and deploying a new product. All Roll out plans should be well developed, well planned, must have a time frame, extensive research and testing is crucial, post analysis is required and any maintenance. Case 2 Situation 1) Our roll out plan for this particular situation we are given the needs from NOPI. First we will begin by considering the right Hardware and Software. Hardware Since this will only be for customer use, we can purchase the most basic PC desktop Costco offers. Again, we d like to purchase from Costco because of
Calcanas 6 their tax free discount for commercial purchases. We will go ahead and purchase the HP p6310t, Duo processor, 4Gb of RAM, and 320Gb hard drive, more than enough potential for what we need. We will also integrate POS system with both electronic payment and cash option. Software The desktop will already have Windows 7 built in, but we will have Cash Register Express (CRE) software that will let customers order their merchandise needs. All other applications and programs will be restricted to the customer. The reason why we want to use CRE is because it is a single user & multi-user software with built-in redundancy. This means that in a network environment, if the server goes down, the individual stations will continue to function independently. When the server comes back on-line, the work stations will automatically synchronize with the server. This software is ideal and we can easily include more desktops. At HQ, we will be setting up a new server that will handle all the transactions, making it the third server at HQ. Any of the other two will also be set to take over the transactions, just in case the transaction server goes down for whatever reason. This service will also be monitored for security and reliability purposes. We will also include authorization access to our database for each customer who wishes to purchase from us, via online. 2) The first thing needed thing that needs to be done is researching and deciding what is needed. Then will begin the planning of the deployment plan. Much thought, consideration, and feedback will be involved in this step. In this step things that will involve are how, when, and what is the time frame for this new deployment. Communication to all employers is mandatory. Every employer should be informed of the new product or service; the way we achieve this is by announcing the deployment plan to all employers. This can be done in several ways such as email, phone calls, or simply by announcing it personally. It is recommended that this be announced periodically before actual deployment. After announcing the deployment plan we will start by doing a 1 system test. This will require us to first begin the deployment at one particular store and using that store as our tester. We will deploy, use the service and collect data. While deploying this new service we will be documenting every step of the way. We will also have one other person present during a setup and
Calcanas 7 configuration. This is important because the one person extra will be observing and will keep in mind things that the other person forgot to do. Or, if the person who did the set up is for some reason not there, the person that observed can take initiative. Once everything is successful, deployment for every store will commence. After all the deployment is finally finished, the next task needed to be done is Post event analysis. Post event analysis will help determine if this service is good or bad for the company. Obviously if the new service does well, then there is no need for a roll back plan. However, if this service does not meet its expectations or something troubling occurs than we will need to seriously consider a roll back plan. NOPI Online Month 1 Month 2 Month 3-4 Planning Research Announcing 1st Test System Document Analyze Announcing Finish deployment for all stores Document Post Analysis ½ Month 4 Roll- Back- Plan Data Centers 1) Being is how we are based in California, we know the possibility of an earthquake taking place and causing damage. We also want to be are aware of a possible fire or power outage in our data center. These two are the main disaster events we are worried about. The most important thing to have in good hands is all the data that is stored at the data center location. We will make regular and complete back-ups that will be maintained at one of our stores. If disaster strikes at our data center than we would not have to worry so much for our data being lost. In the event of a fire, we will implement a FM 200 fire suppression system. In this particular system we have sensors that can trigger a fire inside our data center. The action taken when triggering the alarm can put out a fairly large fire and not have it cause so much damage. When dealing with power outage, we can have a back-up generator that runs on fuel and have it set up to take action if we were to lose city power. The worst case scenario is an earthquake causing catastrophic damage to our data center. In this situation our data center team will send someone to recover the data. We will also
Calcanas 8 need to execute a quick and expensive recover plan. This will involve purchasing new equipment, setting up, and give everyone an individual role. 2) Power and cooling are directly related. Equipment that is running will put out some level of heat and it is important to have a cooling system that will keep all of the equipment running in an operating temperature. The book mentions that for every watt of power consumed by the equipment, it will need to spend at least 1 watt of cooling. We might even consider more power on the cooling side to improve efficiency of our equipment. Our overall electric power capacity will come not only from the equipment running but also from the cooling system. We will be running three servers, some desktops, and network devices, such as routers and switches. These tend to put out a good significant amount of heat. Maintaining the center at a good operational level will be at a good cost of power capacity. 3) 4) People who will have access to the data center will be: Senior Operation Manager This person is in charge of managing the data center employees and should have access to the entire data center. Network Engineer This person is responsible for networking components, such as setting up firewall, router and switch configuration, and cabling. Network Operations This person aids the Network Engineer and helps out with the configuration and monitoring of the network. Hardware Technician This person s responsibilities are hardware managing. Making sure things are working properly. Safety personal Having safety personal is important just in case an employer gets hurt inside the data center. People that are allowed in data centers will always be typically people who will need required to have physical access. 5) Securing data center can be achieved by allowing certain authorized personal. Restricting data center access increases the reliability and availability of the equipment. Every employer that has access will be provided with a proximity badge. This is better than putting locks and handing out keys because with keys, people can just easily make copies.
Calcanas 9 Always have two people in a data center so that no one is left unsupervised. We can also implement biometrics using a PIN, voice recognition, or RFID. Network 1) I would use the typical network protocols such as, HTTP (2616), TCP/IP (1180), SMTP (2821), FTP (959), DNS (1035), UDP (768), and VOIP (3265). Avoiding proprietary protocols will involve using open protocols. Any service with an open architecture can be more easily integrated with other services that follow the same open standard. 2) Some of the activity we will be monitoring is transactions, logging, email, servers, and network traffic. The reason why we would want to monitor transactions is we would like to know if and when a suspicious transaction has occurred. Working in retail there might come a situation where an employer or customer maybe stealing. Knowing who, where and what time someone logs in to the system is important information for the company. By knowing who is logged in you can ensure that the person is authorized and is an employer. Knowing the location of that person can provide you with a better knowledge of that person being the correct authorized personal. You would also want to know the time the person logged in because say that person logs into the system at an unusual time you might be suspicious of it and there might be the possibility of something bad taking place. Email is an important service to monitor because you would want to know if email is functioning right. If you decide to not monitor email, there might come a day that the emails you think are being sent, actually are not being delivered and chances are that, that might be the most important email(s) you ever sent. Servers are important to monitor, the reason why is because you will want to know how the status of the disk space. Knowing the amount of disk space on your server will prevent server overload. Network traffic monitoring is crucial. The last thing you want on your network is viruses getting into your system. By monitoring your network you can avoid unwanted packets that can potentially harm your system. 3) It is an important source of security information. Logs can help security team trace when, where, and what happened in an attack. It provides security information about the logger, if the SA realizes that the logger is a threat to the network he/she can deny him/her service by knowing the IP address of the person.