Supporting Operating System Assignment

Introduction

Virtual desktop infrastructure is the approach of using a virtual machine as a way of hosting a different operating system in a machine other than the original or installed operating system in the machine. It is also possible to run a specific OS on many systems using networking solution technique while the OS is originally running on a centralized server system only. The networking technologies  of this fashion is a variant of the basic client-server model of computing and is generally adapted by the organizations to enable virtual OS systems in the organizational IT infrastructure without the client-server model in its original form.

Supporting operating system focuses on the implementation of networking solution of computer systems in the London’s Private Healthcare Provider organization. The organizations operates through three different offices, which includes an office that is open for public viewing couple of times every year,  A London’s Private Healthcare Provider’s Office which operates as a seller of medicines, and London’s Private Healthcare Provider Planners, which is a healthcare consultation firm operating for the organization and provides consultation about healthcare to the general public. The managerial board at London’s Private Healthcare Providers is seeking the option of adapting the networking solution technique as a way of allowing its old computers to run relatively new OS, and is also planning to adapt to a networking solution technique to ease the pressure on its data centre which is costing a lot in cooling mechanisms. The report will analyse the implementation plan of networking solution for the organization as well as assessing the advantages and disadvantages of it.

Task 1

P1.1 A hardware specification for the servers and clients

Networking solution in the field of computing technology refers to the ability of a machine to run a virtual machine on it even though the machine is not installed on the system. Networking solution can be performed not just for the applications, but for Operating Systems, run time environment and hardware components as well. Over time, most of the functions that computers perform have in some way benefited from networking solution (Kusnetzky 2011).

Desktop networking solution is the technique of providing a different desktop environment in an already running desktop environment without installing the virtualized environment physically on the system. On the physical device that is hosting the networking solution, this technique provides an in-between layer for the desktop environment and the application software programs running on it by providing a virtual desktop environment to run the applications. With the desktop environment networking solution, it is also possible to use virtual applications on the virtual desktop environment using virtualized applications. It is also possible to run the virtual OS in all the systems of an organization with the use of a centralized OS installed on the server, which makes it very easy to keep the backup of all the information as virtually all the employees are making use of the systems through a OS that is physically present on one device only which is well protected. In such a situation, if one virtualized system is lost or broken, it will be very easy to restore a new system with the same information as it had stored on it before, since all the information is actually stored on virtual data centre and a virtual desktop environment that are hosted somewhere else physically.

P1.2 A planning and design report to install and configure the Server and Clients

Networking solution technique can be used with different variations of it such as by installing a virtual OS maker on the system itself or by a centralized networking solution model that works using remote systems. London’s Private Healthcare Provider organization has a staff of 150 people under its payroll with its operations spawned across three different offices and locations. As the company is wishing to make use of a networking solution for its data centre as well as for the old specification systems installed in company’s IT infrastructure, the company should rely on the services of remote desktop networking solution technique to provide the relatively new OS programs to its fleet of old computers. Hardware networking solution offers several benefits, including consolidation of the infrastructure, ease of replication and relocation, normalization of systems and isolation of resources (Wolf & Halter 2005).

The remote networking solution technique for the computer systems of London’s Private Healthcare Provider will function as a client server model between the server hosting the OS originally and the computers systems which are relatively old in the organizational structure and are in need of networking solution to make use of new OS systems. In this infrastructure, the execution of different applications and OS features will take place on an OS system that is not installed on the individual systems, but will be installed physically on just the server system which is connected to the local clients using a remote connection mechanism. The interaction of the user with the applications running on the server system takes place through a remote virtual display that replicates the display of the server system on the local system of employees. In the environment of remote functioning, the data stored on the systems in only stored on the physically installed OS device which is the server and only the local hardware information are stored on the local machines. Due to this special properly, the IT infrastructure of the organization will get robustness and high reliability as the data stored is much more secure in this environment. The most common approach of implementing this kind of system architecture is by installing the OS on a server machine that is running hypervisor, and then host a number of different OS instances on the same server system to make use of them by local systems of employees working for London’s Private Healthcare Provider. This approach is known as the virtual desktop infrastructure technique and is generally abbreviated as VDI.

P1.3 a planning and design report to implement print servers

The remote networking solution technique to provide OS instances on the local computers using an OS instance installed on server side system is generally preferred in the following situations:

• The networking solution technology is highly efficient in the organizations where the availability requirements for the OS systems are very high and the technical support is not readily available every time. This is true in cases of retail companies and the branch office environment. This is also true in case of London’s Private Healthcare Provider, and having the OS system installed on the server system only helps the company infrastructure reducing the cost of maintenance and fixing technical errors in individual systems.
• The networking solution technique is also very helpful in situations where the high latency of the network reduces the performance and productivity of the general client-server module. In such cases, the remote desktop networking solution technique helps reducing the latency by using centralized system based on a variant of client-server model.
• In the organizations, where the data must entertain the need of remote access as well as data security issues. Both aspects conflict with each other, but with the remote networking solution technique, the remote nature of services is retained while keeping all files stored on the centralized system only that ensures the high level of security.
• As some devices in the London’s Private Healthcare Provider are running on operating systems other than windows, the networking solution technique will allow running a windows OS in such systems without having to install the OS in these systems physically. With the proper implementation of the virtualized technique, the employees can also work on the windows OS through their non-Windows tablets and Smartphones.
• The remote networking solution technique for the OS networking solution is also a great way of sharing different kinds of resources in the organization. It will be difficult for the organization to provide every employee with a dedicated high-end specification computer or to replace the old computers with expensive modern technology computers. 

In the organizational structure of London’s Private Healthcare Provider, the networking solution technique will help the company with the accommodation of legacy systems as well as enhancing the security of the entire system architecture.

P1.4 to install and configure the Server and Clients

The London’s Private Healthcare Provider has a data centre where all the data information related to the organization and its three different offices is stored. The organization is currently facing the issue of high costing for the cooling of the data centre. The objective is to get the cost low for the data centre maintenance and cooling by using the networking solution techniques. For this purpose, the data centre can make use of the a virtual data centre which appears to be present physically within the organization, but is actually stored in a cloud and is replicated on the London’s Private Healthcare Provider systems through the use of networking solution. The systems need to be connected to the network in order to use this data centre technique. As the data is basically stored in the cloud networks and there is no physical data stored on the industry systems, the maintenance and cooling expenses can be saved. For security and restore purposes, a continuous backup of the data centre can be produced by the IT department of the organization which will keep a latest copy of the database design.  

Given the state of virtual and cloud-based infrastructure, it’s almost impossible not to think about end-to-end data environments residing in abstract software layers atop physical infrastructure (Cole 2014). Introducing cloud computing involves moving computing outside this firewall, in effect dismantling the firewall and enabling much richer collaboration with various stakeholders (Willcocks, Venters & Whitley 2013).

Task 2

P2.1 A report to implement RAID system

In this digital age of networking systems, a large pool of business entities are looking forward to the cloud networks as the ideal solution of handling the responsibility of a network system. There is a big trend of implementing the cloud based networks in the business organizations and a large number of organizations have already implemented such a system. Most of the businesses adapting to the cloud networks are the once which are in need of upgrading their outdated network systems. The cost-effectiveness and flexibility present in the cloud networks is making such networks the ideal solutions to the problem of implementing a new network system. Cloud Computing is the paradigm where computing resources are available when needed, and you pay for their use in much the same way as for household utilities (Harding 2011). The character of the internet forces cloud providers and application builders to compromise, often in the form of eventual consistency (Waschke 2012).

Cloud technology in networking helps the organizations in keeping the infrastructure for the future changes in the network as well as keeps the development and maintenance of the system cost-effective for the company. The planning of infrastructure is very simply in this technology and it is also a dynamic approach that makes it very easy to make scalable to develop the cloud applications, for data storage, etc. There are various type of could networks that can be implemented and these types include clouds like Public, private, hybrid network or the latest technology in this field, Community cloud.

All of the different networking technologies in the cloud services are significantly different from one another and have own advantages and disadvantages. Based on the advantages of each cloud technology, the London’s Private Healthcare Provider can decide which kind of cloud solution to implement on the network. As the organization is having a network of 150 employees and only these employees have the access to the system, a private cloud network networking solution will be suitable for the needs of London’s Private Healthcare Provider.

In the business organizations where privacy is a big concern, private cloud networks are mostly used to keep the access to the network limited to the staff members. Such a private cloud allows a business entity to host a specialized application on the cloud and it is also possible for the organization to focus on security concerns with this approach which is component missing in the public kind of networks. This kind of network is not shared among a large pool of people or with other organizations. Such kind of a network can be hosted internally or externally.

There are two different types of private network based on the configuration

On-premise private cloud: This is a cost effective method of developing a private cloud network for the organization. The cost for this and the operational costs of such a model will then be attached with the IT department of the company as the network will essentially become responsibility of the IT department. On premise private cloud networks are highly suitable for the applications that are hosted within organizations and offer high level of control or configuration ability to the quality management as well as high security to the whole network.

Third party private cloud: These are also known as the externally hosted private cloud networks. Such cloud networks are designed by a specialist firm functioning in the networking industry for the exclusive use of one company only. In such a case, the cloud services are organized by the help of a third party network solution which also hosts the service. The service provider then develops a network that is managed for the purpose of that specific organization only and it is also ensured that the network developed is highly secure for use in organizational scenario.

For London’s Private Healthcare Provider, as the organization is not having an IT department, hiring services of a third party cloud company will be highly beneficial and recommended to keep the cloud secure and functional. Implementation of a cloud based virtual data centre will reduce the cost of maintaining a physical data centre.

The advantages of RAID for London’s Private Healthcare Provider

In the IT infrastructure of the London’s Private Healthcare Provider, the RAID technique will provide great benefits. Some of these advantages are listed below:

Consolidation: The technique of RAID in the organization will reduce the workload on the non-efficient systems or the legacy systems by means of consolidation. The approach combines the workload of a number of machines on a single computer. Through the use of this technique, the employees can run more application on fewer hardware components. This is a cost-effective feature of RAID in London’s Private Healthcare Provider as it does not require all systems to be of top-notch specification.

A full data centre: In the present infrastructure of the organization’s data centre, the data centre is almost full and cannot handle more workload or adding more computers. Additionally, the cooling and maintenance of data centres are also running on their full limits and are costing a lot as well. RAID makes it easy on the datacentre by allowing adding as many computers as required to the datacentre without physically combining them. RAID of cloud based data centre is the perfect solution for the datacentres. In this manner, the data is stored on a cloud network and the maintenance and cooling cost is significantly reduced.

Hardware isolation: There are new hardware components coming out every other month with faster and better performance than the previously available components. However, shifting from one server hardware to another is a tough task and requires long configuration. There is also a risk that the new hardware component architecture may not work for the existing applications. In case of virtualized systems, this issue is not present as the systems are virtual and not physically present. Every machine in the network is actually replicating the server machine only hence, this issue is minimized heavily. 

Legacy operating systems: London’s Private Healthcare Provider is also facing issue of the legacy systems in its IT infrastructure. The organization wants these legacy systems to run the modern operating system just like the rest of the computers in the company structure. However, it is not natively possible as the hardware specifications of legacy systems are not adequate to hold the modern OS. Using the RAID, such legacy systems can make use of virtually installed modern OS which are actually physically installed on the server system. This process will allow London’s Private Healthcare Provider to make use of its legacy systems.

P2.2 Prepare a report describing disaster recovery plan and techniques

In the virtualized technique of data centre and the company systems, the computers run an OS that is physically installed on the server machine only. All the information that is stored on any of the computers in the organization is actually stored on the server system only. This approach reduces the risk of losing data or information through the individual device or computer damage. However, at the same time, it increases the dependability of the organizational behavior on a single server machine which is actually virtually providing its own OS instances to different computers in the network as all the data is stored on this machine only.

As the data is stored on the server only, the organization becomes prone to disastrous situations if the server machine is compromised or damaged. To overcome from this issue and to perform a disaster recovery in the virtualized infrastructure, the organization must take out backups of the data stored in the server machine in a periodic manner. For maximum security and protection of data against a disaster situation, multiple instances of recovery backup files should be stored in locations which are not close in proximity. Storing one of the backup instances in a cloud network is also a good option for the organization.

By using the method of periodic backups, the organization can protect its virtualized systems against any kind of disaster. In case of a disaster, if the server loses all of its information stored, then the latest backup file can be used to restore information in the server system which will be replicated to all the other computers in the system as well. As the network is virtualized, there is no need to restore the backup for individual computers and only restoring it on the server system would be enough to gain back the same functionality.

Task 3

P3.1 Present your expert advice to the marketing-director with possible use of terminal services

Use of a virtual network where all the employees of the company who are working on different computes are actually working on the same server machine system, the security issues are to be entertained differently. In this system all the employees of the company are making use of the same server therefore there needs to be some security constraints regarding the information stored on the server. Some security changes required are listed below:

• Using different OS instances: Instead of providing same OS instances to all the employees, the virtual server should run different OS instances for different computers.
• Using employee user-accounts with set privileges: Every employee of the London’s Private Healthcare Provider should be given a separate OS account to login to the computer and each account should have its own access privileges based on the position of the employee relation in company.
• Restricted access to stored files: The server system should have logics applies to restrict the access to the files created by other users. This approach will ensure that the information confidentiality is maintained even in the shared resource and storage scenario.
• Encrypting the system: For added protection, the files stored on the system should be kept encrypted.

P3.2 Prepare a brief plan with justification to incorporate various dedicated services

While the client-server model of the communication is still securely placed, it is also worth noting that the company that the company’s internal network is a private network based on cloud services. This network is highly secure. Hence, the security is not compromised with the establishment of the new system which is public on the customer end.

For a system that is using both windows security and IIS security module, the security features are implemented in two layers. The IIS security module keeps the network safe from the anti-malware and intrusion attacks while the Microsoft login mechanism prevents unauthorized access to the computer systems of the SPT sports. The dual layer of security enhances the safety of the sensitive information stored on the network as well as protecting any theft of credit card details of customers.

P3.3 Prepare a plan to install, configure and manage terminal services and network installation

For the London’s Private Healthcare Provider organization, the white box testing method to test the software and hardware components will be an ideal method of testing. As the aim of the organization is to increase use of technology in the company as well as, to gain higher speed of service providing, the company should test the transmission speed of the product.

The Transmission speed measure test:               

• Test to check the bandwidth and speed of the WLAN network installed
• The per-minute printing speed of the printer using a cloud instruction system.
• Minimum requirements for good system:
• Every CPU that is installed in the company should have speed of 10MIPS
• The RAM installed in individual computers should be at least 1.5 GB
• The connection speed of the WLAN should be more than 50 kbps all the time       

Printers:

• Should provide LAN connectivity
• The speed of prints per page must be average as per the needs
• Desktops PCs:
• High speed Processor with multi-core
• RAM Memory should be at least 1.5GB per system
• NIC Ethernet 10/10
• Wi-Fi enabled
• UPS:
• for battery backup
• Checks the main hardware and software components

Before installation:

• After receiving the delivery of the hardware components, the manager of the IT department should make sure that no hardware component is in damaged condition.
• When receiving the products, it should be checked that all the components arrive in a sealed condition else the delivery should be cancelled and replacement request needs to be made.
• Installing a hardware component requires use of various tools and all such tools need to remain available before the installation is started.
• Before installing the different components, they need to be tested by different kind of testers for their fine working condition.

After installation:

Once the installation of the system is done, there needs to be some tests performed in order to check the functionality of the system hardware and software. To ensure that all the hardware components are installed properly, the BIOS details of the system need to be checked for the system specification. There it will show the working system specification. A utility software and office software test needs to be performed manually by opening and working on each application to check the functionality. 

Task 4

P4.1 Illustrate the monitoring tools provided in Windows

Microsoft Windows consist of several monitoring tools pre-installed in the system for assistance of the system administrators in monitoring various aspects of a system or a network. The common Windows monitoring tools include the following:

• Event Viewer: Event viewer tool in a windows system keeps record of all the events that take place in the system. It further provides additional categories to identify failed events and successful events. The event log can be sorted out using parameters (Technet, n.d.).
• Network monitor: The network monitor in a windows system provides details of the network status the system is connected to. It also provides additional details like security measures in the network, number of members and the speed.
• Monitoring Performance: This windows tool is used to check the performance of various aspects of a system such as processing speed, data transfer speed, network configuration, graphics performance among others.
• Disk Defragmenter: This monitoring tool comes pre-installed in windows and allows the users to manually perform fragmentation on the Hard Disk Drive space.

P4.2 Justify that the use of Event Logs are very important to the System Administrator

Just like the hardware component logs, even the software event log technique makes it easier for the administrators to manage the resources and software instances. For the software compatibility and other performance issues, the administrators do not need to keep track of operations on every system. Instead, they can simply track the performance of the central system which is responsible for providing the software instances to other systems in the virtualization network.

Conclusion

The London’s Private Health and social care Provider is facing issues like legacy systems in the organization and high cost of maintaining the datacentres which are getting used up to their highest limits. The idea suggested by the management to make use of networking solution technique in order to reduce the cost of cooling the datacentre as well as making use of legacy systems has been analysed through different perspectives. The implementation of virtual systems in the company infrastructure will assist the origination in better managing its resources and legacy systems as well as reducing the cost of maintenance for datacentre. The issues of information security and recovery processes are also discussed in the report and it is found that the mentioned approaches will not create an overhead on the organization. 

References

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