Summary
In today’s business environment, servers are viewed as the backbone of many companies. Because businesses rely on robust information technology infrastructures, the designing, implementation and even deployment of servers determine whether an organization will succeed or fail. There are new and important features in Windows Server 2016 that are imperative to the success of any business. Good planning is often associated with successful deployment. Therefore, this proposal discusses recommendations for an organized, detailed and unified solution that fits the requirements of “We Make Windows” Inc.
Introduction
This paper describes the process of implementing and configuring the core IT services solutions of Windows Server 2016 to “We Make Windows” Inc. (WMW). Windows Server 2016 incorporates a range of new enhanced features to its support base. Therefore, it includes identity management and improved security functionality to guarantee end-to-end information and database access, whether hosted remotely or in the cloud.
The proposed Windows Server 16 solutions are projected to supply the organization’s needs in a period of between 2-3 years. To ensure this proposal is fully detailed, six topics will be analyzed, and the choice for each item would be reasoned from both the business and technical perspectives. The issues addressed in this proposal that the company can take advantage of include the New Features of Windows Server 2016, Deployment and Server Editions, Active Directory, DNS and DHCP, Application Services, and File and Printer Sharing.
New Features of Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2016 provides integrated portability for businesses through datacenter, private and public cloud settings via multiple virtual, and new container configurations, which can be installed efficiently anywhere the company needs to. Windows Server 2016 also allows technology-defined connectivity and supports the duplicate and routing of the flow of businesses to existing or new virtual devices (Curtis, 2016). WMW Inc. can utilize two main new features of Windows Server 2016: the Nano server and the containers.
The Nano Server
The Nano server feature is one of the Windows Server 2016 new features that can be utilized by WMW Inc. Windows Server 2016 Nano Server is a fantastic new configuration choice with a straightforward interface of the operating system that is rather stable, quite responsive, and powerful and still has a restricted number of features. Ferrill (2015) points out that a Nano server is used to refactor a window server’s core pieces and turn them into their minimal functioning condition. When the refactoring aspect is expounded further, it is essential to note that refactoring, as a process, entails the analysis of a specific code. In this context, the windows server’s core pieces are to make it simple. Now that a description of the Nano server has been provided, the technical and business aspect can also be described.
The main technical reasoning for the Nano server is that it can be run on a bare-metal operating system. A bare-metal operating system is a hard disc where most computer operating system is installed. Thus, there is an advantage in terms of the capacity, when the Nano server runs on a bare-metal operating system because only a few updates are required. As such, the rebooting of the system is minimized since it can only be done when installing updates.
From a business perspective, minimized updates and rebooting are advantageous because it ensures the operations of a business are not interrupted every now and again. WMW Inc. should take advantage of the Nano server to ensure few downtimes while it remains online and functional throughout the whole working process. In any business, downtimes encompass huge costs; therefore, the Nano server will address the cost element.
In terms of portability, the Nano server is small in size; hence it can be easily ported from one place to another, such as data centers, physical locations, and other servers. When a comparison is made between the Nano serve and other installations, this new feature has a 92% of installations with small sizes (Caldwell, 2019). Therefore, this implies that it is easy to connect the Nano server across data centers, physical sites, and other servers.
Another advantage of the Nano server, technical-wise, it does not attack the surface due to its small size. This aspect is advantageous to an organization utilizing it because if there is an attack, it must inject any server roles based outside the Nano server. Therefore, from a business angle, the Nano server is the best new feature of the windows server 2016 because it would enable a business to prevent frequent cyber-attacks, most of which tend to interrupt business operations.
Last but not least, the Nano server can host common workload window servers. Moreover, due to its ability to sustain a few updates and reboots, it implies that a majority of the common workloads in the business would face no or few disruptions at all times. From a business angle, WMW should take advantage of this new feature because it would ensure minimal business interruptions, more so during the initial configuration since it can be remotely be operated.
The Containers
WMW Company can utilize the containers, Windows Server 2016’s best new features. The containers are some sort of abstract data types that have server instances and entail a collection of other objects. In simple terms, the containers can store objects by following specific rules and in an organized manner. Windows Server 2016 provides both hype-V container instance and windows server container instance. Technically, in these features, WMW Company would manage to run both super isolated container instances and shared container instance servers, but that would depend on the workload’s trustworthiness being handled in a given duration of time. For example, WMW can utilize the Hyper-V container instance in the finance and human resources departments (Ferrill, 2015).
In particular, these departments require that their data be as private as possible. In other departments such as the sales and production department, the company would be at liberty to utilize the container instance server in running their capacities. The information category in these departments is projected for low trust workload since the company would not worry about the container instance server running or sharing shared resources. Reasoning from the business stand view, WMW Company may uphold the privacy of precise information by stabilizing isolated servers where private information can be run.
Deployment and Server Editions
WMW Company will require a total of two servers. The first server would be the super isolated containerized instance server, and the second one would be a shared containerized windows server. These servers will be centered on the company’s business perceptive regarding some of its departments are requiring their information to be kept as private as possible from the rest of the other departments. The human resources and the finance departments, for instance, would require that the company adopts a server that keeps their information private from other divisions such as production, creative, and even the IT department.
When it comes to reasoning, the business can utilize the benefits associated with a server that combines data from the executive with other sections including the creative, accounts, IT, and production because their data can be run on a shared windows server. On the other hand, departments whose operations are sensitive, such as the HR and finance departments, would be kept private by running the isolated hype-V container instance servers.
While the utilization of the two servers would be important, the company would have to use the windows server 2016 data center edition. The two servers require high virtualization of the cloud environments and data center. Similarly, in both servers, the company would need to use the server core. That is because the organization would take advantage of window server 2016’s new feature, the Nano Server. Apart from that, the ability to port the Nano server across the Windows server’s data center edition would be utilized in the two servers (Dauti, 2017). In terms of the server’s location, the two servers would be situated in Atlanta and one in Minneapolis.
However, the majority of the employees will be positioned in Atlanta, with a minimum of one employee coming from each of the departments above situated in Minnesota. Since networking tools will be available for both sites, a safe tunnel (through the use of IPSec) will be formed between the two locations; thus, that inter-site circulation will be steadily channeled over the Internet. As such, some departments will require their data to continue remaining private from other departments (for instance, personnel from the finance department will not want the production department employees to see the business’s financial information).
Therefore, the company must locate each of the two servers in allocation, where there are much staff deployed. Having that in mind, the deployment of the servers will be done automatically. The main explanation for this is that the company will take advantage of the Nano servers. Therefore, this implies that it is easy to port installation across data centers. Moreover, using the Nano servers will confirm that the management of the deployment will be done remotely.
Active Directory Domains
Active Directory (AD) is a system used by Microsoft to handle a network of computers as well as other tools. It is indeed the key feature of Windows Server, an operating system that operates servers both within a locality and on the Internet.
Concerning the number of AD domains, WMW would require a total of 5 active directory domains, with each department installing one directory domain. In the case of the isolated containerized instance server, one Read-Only Controller will be available while the shared windows containerized instance server will also have one Read-Only Domain controller. For any security authentication requests, each of the two Read-Only Domain controllers would respond. However, the domain placement would be factored by the other site because it is only in the shared windows containerized instance server that it can be included in the Read-Only Domain Controller.
In a location where there are few users, it is recommended that the Read-Only Domain Controller is deployed because that is where it has been designed to be implemented. In the first site, Atlanta, there will be more staff, whereas, in Minneapolis, there will be few employees. And as such, the Read-Only Domain controllers will be useful and convenient. Another reason for this is that the Read-Only Domain Controller components cannot be easily changed. In these databases, AD sites that require change are only transformed through a writable domain controller before their replication back into the Read-Only Controllers. Organizing the active directories at WMW Company will be based on the implemented group policy. Therefore, users will arrange according to their respective departments.
DNS and DHCP
In a hyper-connected world, the ability to interact with systems easily and quickly is crucial and, while it has been there for years, DHCP remains a significant approach for ensuring systems access networks and are appropriately designed (Kerravala, 2018). DHCP is an abbreviation for dynamic host configuration protocol. The company will utilize DHCP because it is a networking configuration used in IP connections in which each server on the system is dynamically assigned an IP address and other details by a DHCP server so that they can interact effectively with other datasets.
When it comes to the scope and design of the DHCP, the organization will take advantage of the design that will allow many scopes to the DHCP. That way, the company’s wireless devices, as well as those of the employees, will be easily allocated to the scope. But for instances where the selected choice is low regarding IPS, the design will allow other ranges to be developed to put up with other wireless devices. One subnet may have a single DHCP scope with one continuous series of IP addresses (Fund, 2017). Therefore, there will be a need for the company to ensure it implements a procedure for DHCP lenience to enable the employees to get connected or else the operations of the company will stall and fail.
On the server, reservations for DCHP will be utilized since this will allow certain IP addresses to be allocated to specific customers. That way, it will be easy to track the particular IP addresses allocated to a customer in case of attacks. However, concerning the design of the DNS namespace, the company will follow what Microsoft support (2018) refers to as a “continuous namespace.” The continuous namespace allows the active directory domains to share a common namespace. In the second location, the appropriate DNS design will be determined by the clients because they are regarded as the second DNS.
Application Services
One of the main things managers have to perform is the lifecycle management of software. The concept of moving from device to device with an updated CD whenever a new type of application is introduced is inconvenient. Therefore, there will be applications designed to assist operators in handling applications over a server. In these cases, the deployment of the applications will be done through the use of a group-up policy. Windows Server 16 contains technologies that can be used to deploy applications throughout a company without purchasing any software from third parties. Therefore, the company’s management should be aware of the fact that application deployment techniques that have been designed are not as good as what is found in a third-party program.
Group policies are the principal component of network protection in the Active Directory environment. Group policy structures will apply to users or programs. Applications are often deployed via the Active Directory using group policies (Ferrill, 2015). The deployment of these applications is done either per user or per server. There will be two ways that WMW will take advantage of to deploy an application via the Active Directory.
They will moreover print the application or initiate the allocation of the application. The company will only assign applications to users; on the other hand, they can delegate applications either to clients or to servers. Based on which of these approaches the company will take, the application will be implemented differently. Once the computer reboots, the program will be activated if the application is assigned to a computer. Thus, users can access this once they sign in. However, the installation will be launched once the program runs for the first time.
Printer and File-Sharing Permissions
In this case, the shares that may be required are the file shares and the printers. File sharing may be a critical distribution point for shared user files that are too large to be submitted as attachments. Apart from the benefit of easier user access, such shares generally exist on a database with robust storage systems that reduces the risk for loss of data via server failure, because one can centrally back up data instead of trying to back up the client Computer for each user (Krause, 2016). Windows Server utilizes the file-sharing procedure Server Message Block (SMB), and the Microsoft Networks feature File and Printer Sharing (often defined as the Server service) for sharing files. Shared folder permissions can govern network access either to a disk volume or to a folder.
For WMW Company to be able to share printers and files, two types of permissions have to be allowed: the shared files permissions and NTFS permissions. Share permissions are the restrictions set while sharing your folder with a client. The sharing permissions decide what form of access users have to the network-wide shared folder. There will be three kinds of permissions to share: Complete Access, Modify, and Read.
On the other hand, NTFS permissions decide what actions users can undertake for either a file or folder and across the network. Except for share permissions, NTFS permissions give several other permissions that can be configured for groups or individually, besides Full Control, Change, and Read. The most restrictive permission applies when sharing and NTFS permissions clash. WMW Company will have to do the following to help the organization evaluate its existing shared-folder climate and maybe pick up a few new best practices.
Developing Standard Permission. Knowledge of How to Set Effective Permit
Firstly, the organization would need to build a collective group of permissions when they form them to place all shared folders. Each collection of permissions would usually be administrators and full system access. They may also suggest using a Global Deny party, which defines Deny for all permission environments. However, it can be difficult to build successful share-level, NTFS, and overall permissions, which can manifest in overly weak access or, from the other extreme, the infamous Access Denied notification for users needing the above-mentioned sharing permission.
References
Caldwell, E. M. C. (2019). (Part 1) Windows Server 2016 Nano Server: Overview. Web.
Curtis, M. (2016). What new features are in windows server 2016? Technology Solutions That Drive Business.
Dauti, B. (2017). Windows Server 2016 administration fundamentals. Birmingham: Packt Publishing.
Ferrill, P. (2015). The best new features in Windows Server 2016.
Fund, F. (2017). Basic home gateway services: DHCP, DNS, NAT. Run my experiment on GENI. Web.
Kerravala, Z. (2018). DHCP is defined and how it works.
Krause, J. (2016). Mastering Windows Server 2016: A comprehensive and practical guide to Windows Server 2016. Packt Publishing.