restructuring network, need input

[alyster4k]

Our current computer/network layout is in need of a renovation. It was originally designed 4 years ago to save costs but the old adage “You get what you pay for” is shining through more and more as of late.

In the home office there are three servers. A provider-managed Linux server handles accounting, one BDC W2K server handles a document imaging setup, and the other PDC W2K server handles everything else (DHCP/DNS/F&PS/

http://WWW/Exchange2K).

These two servers run the entire company of 90 computer users. Half of the users are in the home office while the others are spread out between a few offices over the country. All the offices are connected over T1’s and are transparently talking to one another using the 10.0.x.x network, albeit slower at the remote offices coming back to the home office. Each remote office has a local computer that holds shared files for that location to share. Every user is a Power User (allows small program changes but major maint/installs must initiate via the “runas” command and an admin) and logs on to the home office server each morning. Most users use a local .PST file for email storage although some traveling users use mailboxes on the Exchange server in order to be able to remotely check mail using Outlook Web Access. Access to each remote PC is through VNC.

Our primary weakness is everything is centrally located. It was easier for maintenance but the obvious flaw in massive load is now apparent. When the T1 between a remote office is down, all users lose authentication and cannot print to shared printer or use shared files on the network. Email is also down for some people and can even lock the PC up trying to get Outlook working with a downed Exchange connection. When the server goes down, every PC is affected as well.

I am looking for suggestions for improving connectivity and authentication across the network. My initial feeling is to finally add a remote (real, W2K3) server at each location (new domain? BDC?) to act as a permissions backup, official file server, and also a depot for add’l instances of Exchange as failovers so that the local users see everything as we do, however may experience missing items until connections come back up if they go down. This would help against Outlook going berserk when the direct connection dies and also offload the work to be handled at that tree. Is this too far off base with new technologies or can you offer up some better ideas/comments? Thanks for your input.

 

[alyster4k]

Beuhler? Beahler? Any comments at all?

 

[pweegar]

At past companies, we've done most of what you are thinking, mainly setting up BDC's at the remote site. That way if the home office goes down, employees can still log into a server, and retrieve files they need to do their work. How often does your T1 go down? Who is your provider and how comfortable do you feel with their service/support. I used to work for the state of AZ. Our main office was in Phoenix and we had an office in Tucson. Our T1 provider, AT&T (I believe it was) usually notified us when we were down. Makes it nice to know your T1 is being monitored.

Also, in the remote office do you have at least one employee that is capable and willing to at least reboot the server when necc.?

How is your overall performance? You might want to add an additional server to offload the web traffic. What about your databases? Where are they housed? You might also want to consider a seperate exchange server, again to aleviate any performance issues with the PDC (and you can do load balancing with your excahnge server).

Hate to say it, but were I currently work, we had a linux server that was nothing but trouble. We used SAMBA and found that SAMBA failed to do any record locking when we had 2 or more users attempt to save data at the same time. Not good.

 

[TravisM]

How are you handling internet access for the remote sites? Something you could look at, if the costs aren't too high is to add an internet connection at each site. First that will cut down on web traffic, and free the link up for work, and second you can set up a VPN for failovers. If the Point-to-point goes down, you can have it cut over to the VPN tunnel on the fly and the users won't even know.

It could be as easy as adding a cable modem or DSL connection at each site.