SCENARIO

A person has 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 the IT personnel to provide solutions to these concerns in the 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.

 

Discussion

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.

 

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)?