Technical Paper Project: Planning Group Policy Software Deployments and GPO’s, a

Imagine you are the junior network administrator for a technology firm
located in Silicon Valley, California. Strong network security is
instrumental for this company since much of its intellectual property
data travels on its network. Ensuring certain administrators have access
to files necessary to perform their duties even when the network goes
down, and limiting their network drive space used to save files are also
concerns.

You have created GPOs to help secure the
company’s network by configuring policies not only necessary for
tightened security but for the other concerns mentioned.

Section 1: PowerPoint Presentation
Create a 6-10 slide PowerPoint presentation for the affected users
that details the policies you’ve implemented through GPOs, and to help
them understand how these policies will help them.

1. Illustrate how the policies you’ve implemented helped:
   1. Propose a plan to prevent unauthorized access to client computers on the network and address other security concerns.
   2. Provide solutions to the potential issues of users not being able to access shared files if the network goes down.
   3. Create a plan that would limit disk space for “storage hogs”.

Section 2: Written Report
Write a 10-12 page paper in which you analyze and solve the following issues:

1. You
   need to perform new software installations for several hundred network
   users and this has the potential to take lots of time and dig deeply
   into the IT budget. Provide an action plan based on Group Policy that:
   1. Leverages
      efficient installation of software with reducing associated costs using
      each phase of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
   2. Highlights each phase of the SDLC and the associated aspect of Group Policy).
2. You
   have a GPO that prevents approximately 50 administrators from accessing
   a software tool required for them to do their job. Additionally, this
   software tool needs to be upgraded and its hardware requirements have
   significantly increased. Some of the administrators’ computers need to
   be upgraded before this tool can be installed; however, you need to
   immediately install the software for the 35 administrators whose
   computers meet the software specs. Describe and graphically depict how
   you can:
   1. Use the Group Policy Management tool to immediately help these employees access the software. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length.
   2. Upgrade to the latest version assuming their computers meet the hardware requirements. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length.
3. Lastly,
   you need to start documenting a disaster recovery plan for your Windows
   Server 2008 Active Directory network to prevent the loss of crucial
   data.
   1. Explain at least 3 maintenance and monitoring procedures you can follow to proactively manage the network before problems occur.
   2. Explain
      a procedure you would take to restore Active Directory for both a
      single domain controller and an object or container within Active
      Directory if disaster strikes.
4. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Create security plans for use in the Active Directory environment.
• Demonstrate the ability to describe, configure and administer Group Policy in the Active Directory environment.
• Create and configure User and Computer environments using Group Policy in the Active Directory environment.
• Demonstrate the ability to perform software installations using Group Policy.
• Demonstrate the ability to plan an implementation based on a Group Policy Management.
• Describe and plan for Active Directory maintenance, troubleshooting, and disaster recovery activities.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in directory service infrastructure environments.
• Write
  clearly and concisely about directory service infrastructure topics
  using proper writing mechanics and technical style conventions.