Case Study: Gloucestershire College - Computing Floor
About Gloucestershire College A college based in Cheltenham and Gloucester. During my studies in IT User Support I managed the network for my final year of my course, providing support and solutions for students and staff.
Aims and Objectives of Computing Network a. Provide access to computing resources and the Internet for computing and media courses. b. Provide hardware with Administrator access for classes. c. Segregate the computing floor from the main network, ensuring practicals requiring Administrator access can be taught. During my final year studying at Gloucestershire College obtaining a merit in IT User Support, I was given the opportunity to manage the computing departments Microsoft速 Active Directory network. Made up of over 4 servers, over 150 clients and 6 classrooms. Existing Network Solution The network had 1 gigabyte pipe to the switching for the six classrooms, with four servers consisting of a primary domain controller, backup domain controller and a un-configured Dual Xeon all running Microsoft速 Windows Server 2003. It was connected to the main college network by a Smoothwall Linux firewall. New Network Solution As part of the new solution I ensured the following were in place: a. Installed a second gigabit pipe to the switching room. b. Assigned the Dual Xeon spare server as a file server. c. Revised the network policy improving performance on the older hardware and security. d. Provisioned a web based imaging solution with printer and other controls built in. e. Enforced a network policy, improving computer security whilst allowing practical classes to be taught. f. Decommissioned an old Intel Pentium 3 backup controller, migrating its data to the new file server.
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