Overview

Better utilization of server capacity.

More efficient systems administration and management.

Faster and more complete recovery of data in the event of a disaster.

Higher degree of standardization and automation.

Streamline. To design and construct an efficient and effective infrastructure. For the branch office infrastructure, this means simplifying the design in a way that makes the most efficient and effective use of the resources of an organization, reduces TCO and management overhead, and facilitates future growth and management of branch offices.

Branch office. A site that provides specific support for one or more business functions of an organization and uses an IT infrastructure that is partly or completely provided by and managed from a hub site. Also known as a branch site, remote site, or remote office.

Hub site. A central site of an organization that provides the primary IT infrastructure for a specific geographic region or an entire organization, including IT management and support for the branch offices that use this IT infrastructure. Also known as a central site.

Branch office infrastructure. All core business applications and services required to provide the specific business functionality for which the branch office is responsible. These applications and services typically provide directory services, name resolution, and messaging and collaboration support, as well as support for centralization and consolidation applications and services.

Branch office server. A server in the branch office that runs one or more branch office infrastructure applications and services.

Consolidation. The process of reducing the number of servers in an organization. This is generally accomplished in one of the following ways:

Co-location. Installing and running multiple services and applications on a single instance of an operating system in a way that enables them to co-exist with each other on a single server.

Isolation. Running a service or application in a separate partition of the server or co-hosting the service or application in a virtual machine, which runs on the host operating system either with one or more other virtual machines or one or more services or applications running natively (not in a virtual machine) on the host operating system.

Virtualization. The process of running a virtual machine on a physical server. This process can include capturing an image of the physical computer and transferring it intact to a virtual machine, or creating a virtual machine and rebuilding the application server in a separate, clean build. Although the operating system running on the physical computer (known as the host operating system) is Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003, each virtual machine runs its own operating system (known as the guest operating system), such as Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server, or for short-term solutions, Windows NT® 4.0.

Assumptions about the organization, its requirements, and its capabilities.

The knowledge and skills required in the IT organization.

The most appropriate software for the branch office infrastructure.

The organization is investigating the potential for streamlining the branch office infrastructure, but has not yet decided how to accomplish this.

Network connectivity improvements and other upgrades that might be required to streamline branch offices are possible.

The cross-site and cross-team efforts required to streamline a branch office infrastructure can be coordinated and carried out in a way that meets the requirements of each site and team.

Branch office infrastructure services, as covered in this guide, are limited to those provided in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server System™ products, including the following:

Network architecture and design, including the firewall or other perimeter security devices.

Design and development of a complete hub site infrastructure. This solution builds instead on the infrastructure design and development covered in Microsoft Windows Server System Reference Architecture (WSSRA), previously known as Microsoft Solution Architecture (MSA) 2.0. For more information about WSSRA, see Windows Server System Reference Architecture at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47216.

Migration of servers. The streamlining process generally requires deploying new or reconfigured branch servers, and migration is not common in this situation.

Deploying any servers except those using Windows Server 2003-based and Windows XP technologies, as covered later in this chapter.

Building the platforms (the underlying hardware and software) for the branch servers, although design and deployment of services on branch servers is covered. Platforms are out of scope for this solution because other documentation provides detailed guidance about deploying server platforms, including the WSSRA guidance referenced previously in this section and the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Deployment Kit at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=46594.

Decommissioning or repurposing existing branch servers. This is because organizations typically have their own decommissioning procedures.

Consolidating databases or storage devices, including storage area networks (SANs), potentially used in branch offices. This is because such devices are generally vendor-specific or already addressed by other consolidation efforts.

Implementation and use of client-side components, including the user interface (UI) and client-side logic, except where it affects the design, deployment, or management of server-side components.

Windows Server 2003 operating system.

Windows XP operating system.

N-Tier client/server architecture.

Networking and connectivity.

Service operations.

Reliability, availability, security, performance, compatibility, and other hardware and software management concepts.

The infrastructure services and technologies covered in this solution (as specified in the following section).

Deployment concepts and processes.

Software distribution.

Update management.

Backup and recovery.

Automation tools.

Virtual machine concepts and processes.