John Wollaston Anglican Community School (JWACS) engaged BizQuip Solution’s services to upgrade the server hardware and software, and a number of networking devices in the school.
The entire scope of these projects was required to be completed within the time constraints of the Christmas holiday period at the end of 2010/beginning of 2011. In addition to achieving completion within this timeframe, work was required to cause a limited amount of downtime, enabling school staff that were still present in the school to continue working.
All school requirements relating to this project were met or exceeded.
Work Summary
- Migrate services from old hardware to virtual environment on new hardware
- Build Wifi network capable of supporting increasing demand in terms of capacity and speed
Work Scope (overview)
1. Migrating Services:
Old hardware and software was at end of life, and required upgrading to reflect currently supported technologies and service expectations. Included in this upgrade and migration was the installation of fourteen Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machines, taking on domain, SQL, management, file, print, web, email and unified messaging services. School specific requirements such as Clickview and Maze (School Management System) were also installed.
The solution consisted of 1 backup server, 1 VMware vCenter server, and 3 VMware hosts running shared storage on a fibre channel SAN. Uninterruptable power supply (UPS) units were also installed along with updated networking infrastructure to more adequately handle core network traffic.
- Install and configure fibre channel SAN
- Install and configure 3x Acer AR380 servers (VMware hosts)
- Install and configure VMware vCenter software
- Install and configure Brocade fibre switch
- Install and configure Cisco C3750X switch
- Install required PDU and UPS units
- Install and configure backup solution (Shadow Protect onsite / Symantec Backup Exec offsite)
- Migrate existing services to new hardware (Domain Services, Exchange, Web, Storage, Print, School Management System)
- Decommission old hardware and services
Outcomes Achieved:
- Expected availability and reliability targets were met.
- High availability for crucial school services
- Highly configurable and very granular backup and disaster recovery system configured to support the school’s requirements
- Simplified/centralized and remotely manageable services
2. Wifi Network:
Existing wireless infrastructure didn’t provide the required degree of reliability, throughput or centralized management. A commercial-grade D-Link controller and 52 access points were installed that addressed all of these criteria.
The Wifi controller was configured to support 4 different networks over unique VLANs, providing additional security by isolating student and staff networks.
- Configure existing network infrastructure to support additional VLANs and power over ethernet requirements.
- Install and configure D-Link DWS-4026 wireless access point controller
- Install and configure 52x D-Link DWL-8600AP access points throughout the school
Outcomes Achieved:
- Permanent wireless network providing superior bandwidth
- Centralized management enabling existing IT staff to more easily control and isolate faults
- Updated system provided a much easier rollout of services due to VLAN isolation.