Assessing Your Current Setup

It's a rare company that has a complete inventory of its hardware and software. It's an even rarer company that knows the rate at which its hardware and software infrastructure changes. Grand goals for the future can't be met without knowing the facts about the present. After all, even if you're sure you want to go to Chicago, you have little hope of getting there unless you know whether you're currently in Savannah or Seattle. The sections that follow detail the steps for analyzing what you have, so you can determine what you need and how to implement changes.

Documenting the Network

Knowing what hardware and software you have deployed and how that equipment is being used is vital when designing your Windows 2000 network and determining the best way to implement it. After all, you're not tearing out the entire current network and replacing it with brand new, state-of-the-art equipment. (And if you are, that's not as easy as it sounds either.)

Instead, you'll be phasing out legacy hardware and software over a period of weeks or months—perhaps even longer. During this time, the existing hardware and software still have to be supported. A careful and thorough audit of your existing network can be of great use in determining where potential problems (and opportunities) lie.

The Organizational and Physical Infrastructure

Make a drawing of the physical network, including workstations, servers, routers, wiring closets, and hubs. This picture will clarify where the network can be expanded (and where it cannot), the best traffic routing, and whether servers and other hardware are optimally placed. At the same time, an organizational chart showing all members of the IT staff and the responsibilities assigned to each one can help clarify lines of communication and show where they might be lacking. Make sure that all critical tasks are assigned at every site, organizational unit, or location. You don't want to establish a server at a remote location and have no one there who can manage anything beyond a reboot.

Traffic Patterns

Gather network traffic reports to determine the optimum placement of routers, hubs, and switches; bandwidth requirements for workstations and workgroups; and future needs for network management software. Network analysis utilities are available to help you determine your overhead (or background) network traffic. Traffic patterns are also important in determining appropriate wide area network (WAN) connectivity speeds or the speed to be used on risers connecting floors in a building.

Network Addresses

As you upgrade the network using Active Directory, you'll probably be assigning new network names to most of the nodes on the network. Add the node addresses to the hardware drawing you made earlier so that you can analyze what addresses to assign and what steps are necessary to make the transition from the old naming system to the new one.

Operating System Connectivity

Many systems already have Windows NT connected to other operating systems such as UNIX and NetWare. You'll need to determine what tools are necessary to maintain the connectivity you want. In addition, hardware placement—routers, switches, and gateways—can all be critical to optimum connectivity.

External Connectivity

Just as most companies don't know what hardware they have, many networks have undocumented external connectivity. Most know about their Internet, WAN, and fax services, but often there are completely undocumented telephone lines used for dial-up networking or remote network management. Document all connections.

Existing Network Operating Systems

Documenting the operating system on each server and workstation on the network, including the service pack level, is an essential ingredient to a successful operating system upgrade or migration. You'll need to determine what the upgrade or migration must support and what preparatory upgrades are needed.

Existing Applications and Services

You will need an inventory of all of the software running on servers and workstations. Once you have this list, further analysis is needed to determine what resources the applications require most of the time as well as under extraordinary circumstances. For example, a particular program might generate a modest amount of traffic most of the time except for weekly downloads of 200 MB from a WAN server, and the accounting department's requirements are vastly different at year end than they are in midquarter.

In addition, the inventory of applications and services should be subdivided and classified into categories:

  • Strategic Software and services that are essential to business operations and have the most relevance to current and future goals. This will include most infrastructure and security applications, such as firewalls, antivirus programs, and so on, assuming they are behaving optimally.
  • Tactical Applications and services that are valuable to the business but are not providing optimal benefit.
  • Legacy Software and services that are still used by some groups or departments but are nearing the end of their useful life. Your plan should call for removing these components before they fall into the obsolete category.
  • Obsolete Applications and services that are not only not beneficial to the business but are a hindrance. The goal of IT should be to remove these elements as soon as possible.

Every component belongs in one of these categories, and making the assignments can clarify your thinking and help give shape to your plan.



Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Administrator's Companion
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Administrators Companion
ISBN: 0735617856
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 320

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