Section 4.1. Introduction

4.1. Introduction

Business continues to go well for Abmas. Mr. Meany is driving your success and the network continues to grow thanks to the hard work Christine has done. You recently hired Stanley Soroka as manager of information systems. Christine recommended Stan to the role. She told you Stan is so good at handling Samba that he can make a cast iron rocking horse that is embedded in concrete kick like a horse at a rodeo. You need skills like his. Christine and Stan get along just fine. Let's see what you can get out of this pair as they plot the next-generation networks.

Ten months ago Abmas closed an acquisition of a property insurance business. The founder lost interest in the business and decided to sell it to Mr. Meany. Because they were former university classmates, the purchase was concluded with mutual assent. The acquired business is located at the other end of town in much larger facilities. The old Abmas building has become too small. Located on the same campus as the newly acquired business are two empty buildings that are ideal to provide Abmas with opportunity for growth.

Abmas has now completed the purchase of the two empty buildings, and you are to install a new network and relocate staff in nicely furnished new facilities. The new network is to be used to fully integrate company operations. You have decided to locate the new network operations control center in the larger building in which the insurance group is located to take advantage of an ideal floor space and to allow Stan and Christine to fully stage the new network and test it before it is rolled out. Your strategy is to complete the new network so that it is ready for operation when the old office moves into the new premises.

4.1.1. Assignment Tasks

The acquired business had 280 network users. The old Abmas building housed 220 network users in unbelievably cramped conditions. The network that initially served 130 users now handles 220 users quite well.

The two businesses will be fully merged to create a single campus company. The Property Insurance Group (PIG) houses 300 employees, the new Accounting Services Group (ASG) will be in a small building (BLDG1) that houses 50 employees, and the Financial Services Group (FSG) will be housed in a large building that has capacity for growth (BLDG2). Building 2 houses 150 network users.

You have decided to connect the building using fiber optic links between new routers. As a backup, the buildings are interconnected using line-of-sight high-speed infrared facilities. The infrared connection provides a secondary route to be used during periods of high demand for network bandwidth.

The Internet gateway is upgraded to 15 Mb/sec service. Your ISP provides on your premises a fully managed Cisco PIX firewall. You no longer need to worry about firewall facilities on your network.

Stanley and Christine have purchased new server hardware. Christine wants to roll out a network that has whistles and bells. Stan wants to start off with a simple to manage, nottoo-complex network. He believes that network users need to be gradually introduced to new features and capabilities and not rushed into an environment that may cause disorientation and loss of productivity.

Your intrepid network team has decided to implement a network configuration that closely mirrors the successful system you installed in the old Abmas building. The new network infrastructure is owned by Abmas, but all desktop systems are being procured through a new out-source services and leasing company. Under the terms of a deal with Mr. M. Proper (CEO), DirectPointe, Inc., provides all desktop systems and includes full level-one help desk support for a flat per-machine monthly fee. The deal allows you to add workstations on demand. This frees Stan and Christine to deal with deeper issues as they emerge and permits Stan to work on creating new future value-added services.

DirectPointe Inc. receives from you a new standard desktop configuration every four months. They automatically roll that out to each desktop system. You must keep DirectPointe informed of all changes.

The new network has a single Samba Primary Domain Controller (PDC) located in the Network Operation Center (NOC). Buildings 1 and 2 each have a local server for local application servicing. It is a domain member. The new system uses the TDbsam passdb backend.

Printing is based on raw pass-through facilities just as it has been used so far. All printer drivers are installed on the desktop and notebook computers.