All right; if you peeps can get away from the turkey table for one bloody minute

[Huge]

Our prof from school a couple weeks ago asked us this problem. Basically it's our Netware 5 course and we pretty much have learned everything so we had some extra time. He posed us this question. Company Acme HQ'ed in Chicago has 2,000 users (on one network) and has affiliate offices in Milwaukee, New York and London. NY has 150 users, Milwaukee has 250 users and London has 50. There are dedicated T1 lines going from all domestic locations to Chicago and a 384 frame relay going from London to Chicago. The network in Chicago is running NW3 and 10baseT with no internet access at all and running, let's say cc:Mail. What upgrades would you make? This is a list we have come up with so far (ripped shamelessly from one of my partners email cause I have a hangover):

• Upgrade to NW5 from NW3 because NW5 is more efficient: hierachacal not bindery.
• Be sure to purchase NW5 licenses to avoid hefty fines.
• Upgrade from 10 base T to 100 base for speed & future expansion.
• Replicate so that each location has it's partition locally as well as replicas of the other locations.
• Impliment enteprise level ISP: Worldcom frame relay internet gateway adds connectivity without additional circuits.
• Break down Chicago into 4 networks with the purchase of 3 routers to make traffice more managable.

Because no one from our group except for me (slackers) was there for last class, we get to do our presentation on the 30th. I'm sure I'm leaving things out so I'll forward it to my group as well so they can check in and hopefully join our little Xi family.

 

[Q]

Oooh ooh, I know something very important to do if you have access to that many computers! You must install the genome @home client on all of them. The team number is :567443298, the account name is: susie. Any furthur directions will be cheerfully provided.

Ok, so that prolly wasn't as helpful of a suggestion as you were looking for....

 

[Huge]

 

[s4]

Best be careful about installing Genome on the school computers. Remember what happened to that one guy.

 

[Neo]

Huge,

Drop cc.mail and use groupwise

next in NW5 you will be using total tcp/ip This is a good thing.
Also set up a proxy server at the main location Set up the router to handle all locations, and then all will have internet access.

Im curious about the amount of replication for all, would seem to slow down the network over the T1.

 

[Q]

s'ok, s4 they're virtual computers.

 

[Brewmeister]

1. Lose CC:Mail-it's not supported any more and Lotus just laughs histerically if you ever call them about it. If it's an all Netware network go with Groupwise 5.whatever rev they're up to now. If you have 2000 servers in the soup go to (forgive me) Exchange 2000-it has greater functionality
2. Netware 5 server in every location. Run a GW post office at each site-accessing mail over the frame sucks (right Neo?).
Make each site its own OU. This makes management a little more straight forward. Also, if you have any network admin wannabees at a site you can give them any amount of control over that OU that you want.
3. Make the HQ server the master replica and single reference time server (the rest should be secondaries and read/write replicas). Replication over the WANs shouldn't be a problem. Novell handles this much better than Microsoft does.
4. Proxy servers suck and give you little to no protection. Go with a corporate firewall with it's own router out to the internet. If you're not doing anything other than wide open outbound access and maybe a few webservers, go with a Cisco PIX. If you want to play God with the firewall and have more control on a per site or per user basis, go with a Checkpoint running on a Nokia box. All WANs should be run through a separate router. Use a reserved IP addressing scheme (probably subnet a 10. address using a class B mask (255.255.0.0). This will give you a ton of subnets.
5.If you want to play, think about Novell Zenworks.
6. Don't forget backups-tape drive at each site. Use Arcserve or Backup Exec. Don't forget the Groupwise agents.
7. ANTI-VIRUS-Computer Associates Etrust InoculateIT is awesome as far as client management goes. You can lock down policies on the desktops and control real-time scanning, signature updates, etc. from the management console. You want virus protection on the servers too. I don't know if anybody supports Groupwise anymore.
8. You might want to think about Groupwise Web Access for email. It's nice to have, but you should have a separate server for the web server. It's rather processor intensive.

 

[Huge]

You bring up some good points Brewmeister; basically this was just an exercise in where we had extra time in between the last 'official' class and the final next week. cc:mail is a joke and we were thinking of going with Lotus Notes or another groupware package. He really just wanted to look at a particular set up and say "What's wrong with this?" or "How can you make things better/more efficient". But I will bring this entire list to class so we can discuss some of the points you bring up. My next question is, will dedicated T1's be fast enough (for the amount of users) or maybe upgrade to getting T3's or faster? How about the frame relay in between Chicago & London? The prof says money is not an object, but not to go hog wild, etc.

 

[Neo]

ABSOLUTELY Brewmeister! local postoffice is the only way to go!!!!!

See brewmeister We need You instead of that damn "mailboy" helping us out.
I must really learn all my termination, proxy/router at least i knew what i meant.

Huge, are you gonna split the T1's with data and voice or strictly data? If combining i would recomend T3's, otherwise you will end up with what we have T1 with the speed of dsl

 

[Brewmeister]

Unless this is a company where everybody is on the web at the same time, I don't think you are going to have a problem between sites. Even the 384k to London should work. I had a similar situation where a remote site was connected to HQ by 56k. The site had its own Groupwise PO and went back to HQ for internet access. It really wasn't that bad for all 30 users because you can really throttle back the way NW5 and Groupwise replicate (i.e messages flowing back and forth every 15 minutes rather than 90 sec.). You might run into bottlenecks on the HQ line out to the internet. You might want to go with a T3, but I think multiple load balanced T-1s would be better. This would give you more aggregate bandwidth, fault tolerance, and make you look like a genius in class. Remember, a little bandwidth goes a long way as long as you stay away from streaming video, etc. This is also assuming that the entire bandwidth id for data-no voice or voip.

In rattling off that list I went under the assumption that you are learning how to design a network. Many times the client doesn't think of things like antivirus or backups. They may even think it's included. I've seen this happen many times. You really look like you're on the ball if you go in with an all-encompassing solution.

 

[Brewmeister]

And Neo, you're T-1 is so slow because that pirate ftp site is hogging up all the bandwidth. I'm gonna tell mailboy on you!

 

[Q]

Originally posted by Neo

See brewmeister We need You instead of that damn "mailboy" helping us out.

Who is mailboy? Is this somebody new I need to start picking on? Does he need a haircut?

 

[Gonzo]

NO. NO. NO. Haircuts are in the screensaver, not xibase. *damnedable wimins*

 

[Brewmeister]

Originally posted by Q
Who is mailboy? Is this somebody new I need to start picking on? Does he need a haircut?

Mailboy's one of those network admin wannabee types I was talkin' about. And he's not worth picking on-there's no challenge

 

[Neo]

Shit if i only had FTP access...Heaven

HMMMMM, i wonder who that 30 user remote site was???? So did they ever get over the trauma after you left?
Speaking of webservers, i heard a rumor that i might be getting one at work. Think i can run this site off it before they catch me. HEHE

Q mailboy prolly has a butch, after all he was a marine.

 

[Brewmeister]

Originally posted by Neo
Speaking of webservers, i heard a rumor that i might be getting one at work. Think i can run this site off it before they catch me. HEHE

[/B]

Doubtful. They'd have to locate the webserver at the Corporate HQ. Mailboy ain't smart enough to nat it through the firewall so you could have it there. And no, I don't think they got over the trauma yet.

 

[Huge]

Thanks guys; really appreciate the input!

 

[Brewmeister]

Let us know what the final outcome is!