John K. Winiger: Implementation of an upgraded server for Saint Luke’s Parish

Week [2]: Organization Phase 11/20/2005

Tasks

1) Audit and standardize user accounts. [Completed]

 

Major accomplishments associated with this task are:

Unused accounts have been disabled and will be deleted during the migration phase to ensure they are safe to delete. User names have all been corrected to reflect user's proper first and last name. User ids have been identified to be changed but because of other issues these changes will be made next week when domain membership issues can be addressed as well.

 

2) Restructure file system. [Complete]

 

Major accomplishments associated with this task are:

Removed unneeded files, directories, and shares that were identified in phase one. Created proper user and profiles directories and configured proper security. User directories will be moved to the proper locations next week when the user ids are changed.

 

3) Reconfigure base server services. [Compete]

 

Major accomplishments associated with this task are:

The DHCP service was moved from the Netgear router to the Windows 2003 Server. The DNS server was moved from the external ISP to the Windows 2003 Server. It was found that the name space was disjointed which required a complete reconfiguration of the domain. WINS has been installed. Windows Shadow Copy Service has been installed. 

Decisions

What came up that needed to be addressed?

The stakeholder requested a meeting to discuss some issues that were thought to be unclear. During this meeting it was discovered that not all machines in the office were members of the domain. It was also discovered that some of the machines that were members of the domain were being logged into the local machine account instead of the domain account. This created a problem with the migration. In order to utilize some of the advantages benefits of Windows 2003 Server all machines would need to be members of and logged into domain accounts. In correcting this problem the issue arises where user profiles will become lost and/or disjointed.

 

How did you solve it?

The problems of user profiles can be adverted by converting all user profiles to roaming profiles. In preparing for the use of roaming profiles the issues that were discovered disappear since a user's profile would be available on any machine that is used.

 

What important decisions did you make this week that impacted your project?

This incident made me realize that although I may have a clear understanding of the principles that are being utilized that others may not and this can cause break downs in communication. In order to deal with this it must be assumed that people have not knowledge of what will be happening. By explaining and helping users more then needed will be more beneficial then not enough. 

Learning

1) What helpful feedback did you get in the class (instructor, classmates) and outside the class (user, stakeholder, beneficiary, mentor, expert advisor, others)? What did you gain from this feedback?

 

The stakeholders agreed on the value that standardization would bring and agreed that the inconsistencies in the current infrastructure were confusing. This reinforced my confidence that I was going in the right direction to meet their needs.

 

2) What resources did you use this week (e.g., people, money, equipment, systems, or software)? Did you add new resources? What was your learning?

 

The resources that where utilized this week were; myself, the old server, and the key stakeholders. Moving forward it is believe that a few more resources may be added but this is still being considered.

 

3) What research did you perform this week that was assisting and/or literature based? What was your learning?

 

What is the best approach to resolve the issue of preserving profiles when converting everyone to proper domain accounts?

 

It was suggested that this could be accomplished through the use of roaming profiles. Unfortunately I had never implemented roaming profiles so I had little to go on. I found a site that explained roaming profiles and the proper way to implement them. This was exact what was needed to resolve the profile issues.

 

Posey, Brien M.: Windows Networking.Com (2005). Articles and Tutorials: Profile and Folder Redirection In Windows 2003

Retrieved November 19, 2005, from:

http://www.wown.com/articles_tutorials/Profile-Folder-Redirection-Windows-Server-2003.html 

Indicators

1) How well did you stick to your project schedule?

There where some issues that came up which increased the scope of the project to include some workstation configuring. Since these are items that will be added into the project they did not greatly impact what had been planned. The overall goals have been completed, so we are on schedule.

 

2) How prepared are you to conclude your project in Unit 10 as required in this course?

Projections based on this week's performance support that proper preparation was taken and the project should conclude on schedule in Unit 10.

 

3) How likely is it that you will need to resort to your contingency plan?
At this point in time it would appear that the contingency plan will not be resorted to and the project will complete successfully.

Other

 

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