Proposal for Campus Area Network

Goshen Valley Boys Ranch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Requested by Name Removed for Privacy

Written by Dwayne Sherland

May 27, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 


Executive Summary

This proposal is for the express purpose of offering services, a range of solutions and commentary to Goshen Valley Boys Ranch.  The proposal is focused on addressing the following needs:

 

1)     Design an architecture for a Campus/Metropolitan Area Network (C/MAN)

2)     Cost savings strategy for entire IT infrastructure.

3)     Outstanding and future IT maintenance requirements

4)     Office and operational IT requirements.

5)     Security, availability and reliability issues.

 

The CAN should incorporate 7 stand alone buildings (see Appendix A) for full duplex internet and intranet connectivity. Internal data transfer requirements should be no greater than standard IEEE 802.3 10/100 Megabit switching.

 

The cost savings strategy will be a parallel focus of this document.  In serving this purpose this proposal will be presented in three different price levels. There will obviously be a trade-off with cost, reliability security, and availability (in that order).

           

All maintenance discussion will address the current needs of the ranch as well as proposed strategies in three different cost levels. General maintenance discussion revolves around the security, availability, and reliability of hardware, software, connectivity and mandatory upgrade requirements. E-mail. virus protection, spam and pop- up protection issues are all interdependent on maintenance level.

 

            Office requirements and operational procedures (accounting, state and legal information etc.) will inherently receive higher level attention by nature of their use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact Numbers

                                                           

Dwayne Sherland

SureLAN Solutions    

 

Frontier Telephone

 

Removed

Kelly Lacy 

Tech Support

for

Sheila            

Tech Support

privacy

Steve Brit      

Account Manager 

 

Marlin             

Goshen Valley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design Overview

The design detailed here has three different level approaches to connecting all seven buildings at the Goshen Valley Boys Ranch.

The first tier solution is the most reliable, the most available, and the most secure design and appropriately has the dearest cost of implementation. It calls for the investment of a fiber optic backbone connected to each building. This backbone would then be connected using either FDDI or ATM protocol standards and equipment. The coast of this level

Network Architecture

Tier 1 Fiber Optic Cable FDDI / ATM Switching

 

The most reliable and long term value would be the considerable investment of installing a campus backbone. The backbone would need to connect all buildings together and be configured for network use with hardware inside each building. Details for fiber specifications and connectivity material requirements can be found in index B.

For long term use this option is superior in every aspect to the other tier options in  this proposal.

 

The need to bury the fiber optic cable does make it the more expensive option of the three tiers as for wiring plant however, the long term value can not be overstated. With the type of bandwidth possible by using the multi-mode 62.5 / 125 PVC plenum rated fiber many options are left open.

BULK CABLE, 4 FIBER 62.5/125 DISTRIBUTION PVC

 

For example it would be possible to broadcast a full length motion picture from a single location to all other buildings (in either direction). Also there is enough bandwidth to support  a video feed for morning announcements or training sessions for the whole campus.  As for any other future uses a data backbone can be shared by a number of data systems. Security and alarm systems, intelligent home features, resource control planning, watering systems etc… basically the fiber optic backbone tier is an investment that “future proofs” your data requirements for many years to come.

 

 

 

 

Tier 2 Lease line High Speed Modem

 





Tier 3 Dialup connectivity to Communication Server

 

Hardware Requirements 

 

The minimum requirements for the software being installed is listed in Appendix A. The older computers currently being used at KidCare are not sufficient to operate in the new environment  efficiently. There will be three PC’s replaced at the College Park office and 2 replaced in the Cascade Road facility.

 The specifications for the new computers are listed in Appendix A.

 

The PC’s will be purchased from Ginstar. A high value reseller of technology in the Atlanta area. The detail and specifications for the PC’s is included in appendix A. The server has been selected from Dell. This is a reputable company with an excellent reputation for service. The server from Dell is also thousands of dollars less expensive than the nearest competitor. Server specifications are listed in Appendix B. There is also a comparison chart that  has other competitors products in near the same feature range.

 

 

Software installation

Removed for privacy

 

Operational Integration

 

 The following is a brief description of the steps required and equipment and materials necessary to facilitate a smooth transition project. There is also included appendices that explain technical details, and information that led to the resulting proposal.

 

The following telephone numbers and names have been helpful in collecting necessary information for this proposal.

 

Maintenance Considerations

Install PC’s

Upon arrival to site the PC’s will be unpacked and plugged in. Tests will be conducted to ensure equipment quality. Once satisfied they are operating properly a data check will need to be made with the old computers to ensure data will not be lost or programs that are useful to KidCare will be able to be transferred to the new computers. Once the OK is given to remove the old computers the new ones will be installed in their place. All existing network wiring can be reused. However if there are signs of wear or other instances that a portion of the network wiring plant must be replaced a MACD (change order)  may have to be approved beyond what is budgeted in this proposal.

 

Install Server

 

 The server has a 6 day (not including shipping) build time and must be here as early as possible to make the October 31 cut off  time it is recommended that all haste be urged to procure this piece of equipment before anything else is done.

 Once the server arrives it is supposed to have the operating system, all SCSI and Ultra320 configurations mapped to the appropriate drives and the initial system utility partition installed. If all this is done properly the server should be ready to test out of the box. Once we are satisfied the server right the initial software load and configuration information can begin to be loaded. A UPS has been included from Dell that will allow a 5 minute grace period for any power outages or interruptions. The shutdown task can be scheduled to proceed immediately after power is loss. This automated procedure takes less than 2 minutes so there is plenty of time to recover any file system markers and shut down gracefully with out damage or loss to data. The details of the UPS are found on Appendix C.

 On the contingency that there is a major issue with the server and the onsite support is unable to repair it there is an alternate plan.  It is possible to remove one of the hard drives and install it in one of the PC’s. This can be used to load the software and proceed as planned. After the server is returned and all is well the hard drive could be re-installed in the server and the RAID level one process should be able to mirror the hard drive with all the data on it onto the other drive. Even if that fails the data backup will ensure a successful system migration onto the server in this contingency event.

 The server comes with an internal tape backup drive. The strategy is to automate as much as possible the data backup routine and send an alarm flag when a tape is  full. That way there is minimal user intervention. After a tape is full it goes to the back of the rotation so that there will always be a series of current and dated material for the restore strategy

Network Architecture Changes

Since Kid Care does not have a server currently, nor a reasonably secure location to place it in a modification of the existing network plant has been designed into this project. A small wall hanging equipment cabinet could be installed near the existing circuits to house the new server and ensure it’s security. While this step has not been discussed at length, most other options inside the office has severe limitations for this function. Details of the cabinet can be found in Appendix D.

 

 To install the network the Mag Mutual IP convention needs to be considered. The Mag Mutual installation provided a class A address for the frame relay cloud to the Kid Care location. These 254 static IP addresses now will be the property of Mag Mutual.  There are three options :

 

·        Install new IP convention

·        Install MS network client only

·        Obtain IP addresses from existing DSL or ISP convention

Software Installation

When the MedWare software package is installed there are a number of configuration steps required. Configuration for Providers, and  Administration Lists. Kay Walters reports that this configuration step is no longer than an hour. These steps can be performed while the network is being configured at the same time.

 A test for the appropriate configuration and Installation steps will be wise to ensure the fidelity of the data. After the high degree of confidence comes that all is right the procedure goes to loading the KidCare Client and demographic data.

Operational Integration

Once all of the PC’s are networked properly the network drive mapping is all that is left to put them on line with the MedWare software package. There needs to be a certainty that no data will be lost or programs that are useful to KidCare will not be transferred to the new computers. A check list would be helpful to ensure this does not occur. If provided ahead of time the checklist could be a valuable resource for all of the current PC users. There are other methods of ensuring data is not lost. As long as the understanding is in place that  once the PC leaves the building or even the spot it was in there is no guarantee the data can be recovered.

 Another valuable activity is to do a backup of all necessary files on the old systems before the new systems are installed.

 

 

This concludes the steps for phase one of the project. The information provided in appendix E was technical data used for decision support: and future considerations.

The final Appendix F is a project summary