Topic 4, Proseware Inc.
Case Study Overview General Overview
Proseware Inc., is a manufacturing company that has 3,000 employees. The company has a sales department a marketing department, a research department, a customer service department, and a human resources department.
Physical Locations
Proseware has two main offices and five branch offices. The main offices are located in New York City and Paris. The branch offices are located throughout North America.
All offices have a high-speed connection to the Internet. The offices connect to each other through the Internet by using VPN appliances.
Existing Environment
Active Directory
The network contains two Active Directory forests named na.proseware.com and fr.proseware.com. Each forest contains a single domain. All domain controllers run Windows Server 2012 R2.
The main office in New York City and all the branch offices each contain a domain controller for the na.proseware.com forest. The main office in Paris contains domain controllers for the fr.proseware.com forest only.
Due to legal requirements, the na.proseware.com and fr.proseware.com forests must remain separate. Administrators from each forest are allowed to manage the resources in their respective forest only.
Users from all of the departments are located in each office. Users in the research department store their research data in local folders on their computer. The data can be up to 100 GB on each computer.
Each office is configured as an Active Directory site. All of the domain controllers are configured as DNS servers. All of the client computers are configured to connect to the DNS servers in their respective office only. All of the domain controllers are configured as DHCP servers.
New York Office
The computers in the New York City office are managed by using Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager. The New York City office has the following servers and client computers:
A Key Management Service (KMS) server host
Client computers that run Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010
Five file servers that host multiple shared folders and run Windows Server 2012 R2
A server that runs Windows Server 2012 R2 and is configured as a Configuration Manager site server
Branch Offices
Each branch office has the following servers and client computers:
Client computers that run Windows 7 and Office 2010
A file server that hosts multiple shared folders and runs Windows Server 2012 R2
Currently, the branch offices are not managed by using the Configuration Manager deployment in the New York City office.
Paris Offices
The Pans office has the following servers and client computers:
Client computers that run Windows 7 and Office 2010
Five file servers that host multiple shared folders and run Windows Server 2012 R2 Currently, the activation of the client computers in the Pans office is performed manually.
Deployments
Currently, all new client computers are shipped initially to and imaged in the New York City office, and then shipped to the other offices. There are multiple images for both 32-bit and 64-bitcomputers. The images contain specific drivers for each type of computer. All of the computers are PXE-compatible.
If a client computer must be reimaged, the reimaging is performed locally at each office by using a boot disk and a USB hard drive that contains multiple images. USB hard drives storing updated images are sent to each office every six months.
Applications
A third-party desktop application named App1 is used by the sales department.
All of the users in the human resources department use an application named HR1. HR1 is installed by using a Windows Installer (MSI) package. HR1 is compatible with Windows 7 only.
Problem Statements
Proseware identifies the following issues:
Users in the branch offices report that it can take up to four weeks to receive a requested new client computer, which is too long.
If a client computer must be reimaged, it can take several hours before the computer is ready for use again due to the updates that must be applied.
Currently, the hardware used for the client computers in the Paris office is undocumented. All of the computers in the customer service department and the research department were replaced during the past year.
Requirements
Business Goals
As much as possible, Proseware plans to minimize the costs associated with purchasing hardware and software.
Planned Changes
Proseware plans to deploy a new version of its standard operating environment (SOE). The new SOE will contain the following:
A volume license edition of Windows 8.1 Enterprise (64-bit)
A volume license edition of Office 2013 (32-bit)
A new line-of-business Windows Store app named App2 will be deployed. App2 will be used by all users.
New client computers will be delivered directly from the hardware vendor to each office. As a result, Proseware plans to change the imaging process.
Technical Requirements
Proseware identifies the following technical requirements:
Minimize the size of desktop images.
Centralize the activation of all the client computers.
Minimize the amount of network traffic over the VPN.
Minimize the number of desktop images that must be maintained.
Ensure that only the users in the human resources department can access HR1.
Ensure that the data of the research department users is retained while deploying the new image.
Minimize the amount of time it takes to upgrade the research department computers in the Paris office.
Ensure that a branch office administrator can deploy a new image to new client computers with minimal delay.
Ensure that the French language is configured as the default language for the client computers in the Paris office.
A network technician will visit each client computer in the Paris office to start the operating system deployments.
Gather a detailed hardware inventory of all the client computers in the Paris office without installing any additional software on the computers.
Users in the research and customer service departments in the Paris office will have the new image deployed to their current computer. The current Windows installation will not be preserved during the upgrade.
All of the other client computers in the Paris office will be replaced with new computers during the next two years. During this time, some computers may need to be reimaged by using the current Windows image.
