Standard Operations for Habibi's Restaurant

Standardized Operations for Habibi's Restaurant

By

Myrna Arnold

ITN410 - 01

Group Project Unit 4

May 28, 2005

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to supply a document that supports the requirements and address the issues of transitional technical structure for a large restaurant called Habibi's, in which Group 2 has been hired. Habibi's is a restaurant that has grown into a national chain with hundreds of locations. Each location has one Windows Server 2003 and many Windows XP desktop computers. This report will describe how Group 2 will set up the Windows Server 2003 for each location to standardize operations so that software can be automatically deployed and servers can be remotely administered. The desktop computers that use Windows XP will also be remotely supported.

Introduction

As Habibi's has existing infrastructure that supports the Enterprise, this network will need to be configured to support some specific requirements to maximize uptime - and minimize exposures, in a centrally controlled approach. Automatic software deployment and self healing of application corruptions is requested to minimize administrative overhead and maintenance in enterprise wide application deployments. Remote administration and support is required to allow for remote access and repairs to networked systems. Disaster recovery strategies are also critical to resolve startup issues, enable quick recovery, protection, backups, and automatic recovery. Monitoring tools are also important to any networked enterprise infrastructure to help prevent outages, as well as to help troubleshoot in the event an outage occurs. This document will support these concerns and explain deployment strategies to support these requirements.

The Windows Server 2003 and XP environments support a robust set of tools that allow for easy centralized and remote support functionalities. Automated Deployment Services 1.0 is a Microsoft application that makes it easier for administrators to build and administer very large, scaled-out Windows server environments. "Automated Deployment Services also offer a reliable, remote script execution framework that enables administrators to perform script-based administration with security on hundreds of servers as easily as they once did on a single server." (Microsoft, 2003) Another useful administrative applications administrative tool is Microsoft Software Update Services (SUS.) This application is utilized for automated update deployments. It is a new tool for managing and distributing critical Windows patches that resolve known security vulnerabilities and other stability issues in Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. (Microsoft, 2004) Utilizing Group policy configurations can also support software deployment and maintain installations throughout the network. (DiNicolo, p.367) Ms Office is one such application that supports this model. The steps required to support this approach involve:

* Software Preparation - in which a special installation file called Microsoft Windows installer Package (MSI), is used.

* Deployment

 Assign applications - When you create a policy to assign an application to a particular group, a shortcut is placed on the start menu, so when clicked for the first time - the application installs, or when a file is launched that is associated with that application - the installation is kicked off. This process also supports resiliency, in that if an application file was to become corrupted, the application would automatically re-install itself. (DiNicolo, p. 368)

 Publish applications - are installed by the user accessing the add/remove application applet in the Control panel, or by attempting to launch a file that is associated with that application. With this approach - application can only be published to users, and not computers (DiNicolo, p. 369)

* Software Maintenance - Once the application has been installed, there is an upgrade tab in the Windows Support Tools Properties window. Here you can also set packages for upgrades. (DiNicolo, p. 372)

* Software Removal - Group Policy can also allow you to configure the removal of applications. There 2 options for this process:

 Forced Removal - automatically uninstalls the application from all computers and does not allow the application to be reinstalled. (DiNicolo, p. 373)

 Optional Removal - it doesn't remove an installations - but prevents future installations. If the users manually uninstall the application, the app cannot be reinstalled. (DiNicolo, p. 373)

Microsoft Server networks support many options regarding system installations - and application installations. This functionality allows for easier, more efficient, less costly management and maintenance of Enterprise infrastructure.

So many new features are that both Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP use and have in common. All of these features would work well with the restaurant chain Habibi's, it has computers based all over the nation and these are some of the methods on how to reach some of your location from a remote site.

Windows Server 2003:

* Remote Console -

* Active Directory - To access certain folders for either user or computer to give or remove certain rights

* Remote Assistance - If a problem occurs on any given computer, the administrator can log into a certain computer and access the problem to their computer

* Remote installation - The administrator can install software to any given computer from the administrator's computer

* Management Saved console (MSC) - This enable you to manage both the local and remote computer (MCSE, Pg 386)

Windows XP:

* Remote Access - Administrator or anyone with the rights can access a computer from their own

* Remote