gatherer:~#

//Post 5: Revisiting Windows Server Administration//

Ahoy!

So having spent some time working with Windows Server whilst on placement and seeing it mentioned in so many job listings, I figured I'd upload my final submission for the Windows Server Administration Module I sat in college. You can view the pdf for that at the other end of the link.

Heads up, this is a long post. Good luck.

In this post I'll go through my submission and analyse it with all the maturity and wisdom I've cultivated over the whole... uh... year and a half since submission. I'm sure it will prove a useful exercise, or at the very least it will refresh the knowledge covered.

The introduction and prep (section 0) was actually one of the last parts written. I remember reading the assignment brief and blasting through the parts I was most familiar with first. This way I'd have more time to spend on the things I needed to revise. As such, the list of roles & features added to the server was incomplete until I'd finished each section. There were a couple of times I thought I had it all sorted until something else popped up and I had to add yet another role/feature. Just goes to show you can't write a report in the order it's written!

Setting up the networking stuff for the prep and DHCP server was a breeze. We'd covered plenty of networking in class so the theory was solid. Implementing it in Windows Server took a few Google searches, but there was nothing I was unable to achieve. In retrospect, my DHCP lease time of 7 days seems a tad excessive.

Since learning a little more about password policies, my opinions have changed. At the time of writing the assignment I was following what seemed to be standard practice. These days I'm more in favour of using passphrases with longer expiration periods (up to a year), as I've found convincing arguments against mandatory password expiration. I'd still have them expire just for my own peace of mind, and I think employers with less radical opinions on password expiration may find it a tad more palatable.

Windows Deployment Services didn't really make much sense to me whilst I was learning it. Looking back, it seems like an invaluable part of the Windows Server ecosphere. I've even worked with it a few times now, though not creating my own image. Yet. The deployment of Firefox as the default browser was also straightforward enough, though my experience through work and work placements has shown me that SCCM is the go-to for issuing software to users.

Ahh... Organisational Units and Security Groups. The meat of Active Directory for this project. I quite liked this part of the project. The setup here is similar to what I've seen in the world of work, with different departments being different OUs. The trend seems to be different OUs for different office locations and groups for departments, however. This makes sense, as different departments may be split up over multiple offices. Making a little Powershell script to create dummy user accounts was a lot of fun, I should have known then I'd enjoy scripting so much I'd wind up doing it in my spare time.

I haven't seen much in the way of Bitlocker, shared drives, quotas for storage etc, in the world of work. That said, they pop up on the fringes of the work I've done so being familiar with the terms and concepts has been useful. The same can be said for backups and updates. This seems to be the nature of college work; a lot of what I've learned I haven't seen directly whilst working, but that passing familiarity with it has been invaluable. You're sort of building up an overall picture of tech, one fuzzy piece at a time.

The last few sections, setting up SSH and RDP access, were much the same as before. Whilst I haven't added SSH access to a Windows Server since then, I have added other capabilities and packages via Powershell. It's at least a little familiar. Building up that fuzzy picture, getting it clearer day by day.

All in all, stressful as it was Googling GPOs furiously in the middle of the night, this was a really fun project to work on. I like having something to build. It's very satisfying to work towards objectives, to meet criteria and then see how it all fits together. The consolidation of the various weeks' lessons into a single piece of work was very satisfying, and it definitely helped me with the graded unit project at the end of my time studying at college. It's been interesting seeing where the topics covered pop up in the world of work, but I think my heart still lies with Linux. How can you say no to that loveable penguin, eh?

- Adam