School help(Server+)

kinggeorge1987

Hey guys and gals,

Once again, I know this is not a homework help forum, and I'm sorry. But as it sits I have no where else to turn because my instructors are not available on the weekend normally. And until I done a quick review of the assigned reading did I realize I actually have no idea how to go about this assignment. I'm not looking for an answer here, just a little information from some experts such as yourselves. First of all, here is the question:

Imagine for a few moments that you are the IT manager for a very large corporation. You have 12,000 employees in six locations and another 800 that work from home. What are some dedicated servers you might need to keep everything running smoothly? What are some reasonable assumptions that you would make about the number and performance requirements of the servers. How would you implement a hardware backup server system for the applications servers and the network operating system server(s)? What network operating system vendors would you consider and why? How would you document your work order system?

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Now let me say what I know so everyone here doesn't think I'm trying to fumble through the class with help from experts, I have tried to figure this out, but honestly IMO this seems a bit too much for a 1st week server+ class assignment. Although i could just be slow . Anyway,


I am aware of the different between dedicated and distrubuted. A dedicated server is set to doing only one specific service, such as file & print, or maybe a database, which I believe both of those fall under the 'Application Server' category.



Now, more than likely considering I have 12,000 people at 6 locations, so Im going to guess that there is 2,000 people per location, and then the 800 at home are God knows where. So, I would assume that for a corporation that large, a location with 2000 people would need a a couple different dedicated communication servers, probably a dedicated fax and email server. The quality of those 2 servers would have a moderate speed CPU with high ram and I/O, with probably high hard disk if it stores the email messages on it. Secondly, each location would probably have a distrubuted, not dedicated, application server for strictly running applications. Because if you had a dedicated server for 2000 people it would fall too heavy of a load right ? (This is one of my confusion spots so dont be afraid to tell me that I am wayyyy off).


Now, of course with a corporation that size each location would a dedicated application server for the database, maybe customer database, or inventory, and all of these would be connected through WAN, but thats not in the assignment, and I might be wrong about that too, once again. These are assumptions I've put together through the assigned reading.



Ok, so for the web server, which I'm sure each location will have a dedicated one. I have no idea what for, if someone could help me understand what role a web server would play in a corporation that big. I'm guessing for their local intranet ?


Lastly, for our people at home we would have a dedicated remote access server at each location, this is assuming that each location is probably separated by states and not across the street.


So, I dont understand the different between an application server and a network operating system server. I thought they were the same thing. Secondly, when it says hardware backup system for the servers, would that mean like RAID arrays and multiple hard drives ?


The rest I can figure out, I will do some research on a couple of NOS and figure out which one I like best, and I asked a question about the work order system a couple of days ago.


Thanks for everyone's time and responses

phoeneous

kinggeorge1987 wrote: »

How would you document your work order system

Try to look at it like this:

Authentication
Email
File and Print
Application
Database
Networking (RRAS for remote users)

So at a minimum you will need 6 servers for each of the tasks above. Now factor in your multiple locations. Hint: not every location will need one server per task.

kinggeorge1987 wrote: »

such as file & print, or maybe a database, which I believe both of those fall under the 'Application Server' category.

Close. A file & print server allows users to access file shares and print. A database server maintains databases. An application server provides access to applications. Keep in mind this could all be one server or 4 seperate ones.

And when you think "distributed" try to think of "cluster" or "farm" instead, you will see those terms used more.