What to do next? Newbie needs help in server and networking

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camera123

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Sep 16, 2015
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I am from Indonesia. Please mind my poor English. I've recently inherited my in-law's school business and discovered how badly the school is managed. One of them is the IT department. The IT guy had resigned early this year. The school bought him and the IT department a server hoping he could set up the networking and manage all the computers in the school. We were told that he did not set up anything and the school had been paying him doing nothing.

Now it is my dilemma to set up the networking at the school. I have little-outdated knowledge of networking, but since the computer has evolved so quickly I have completely lost touch of it. At our current state, we are limited in budget and unable to hire a new IT guy to help set up the server and all the computers. Thus, I am writing to the community to help me out and give me input how to setup the server and the networking from zero. If the community is all willing, I am forever grateful.

Our plan for now is to get the financial and HR departments connected to the server. We have 6 standalone computers (4 PC and 2 Mac) and 2 printers in the departments. These computers are between 3 to 6 years old and still running in Windows XP and Vista. Technically, I would say the computers are very slow and lots of junks.

I have thought to run these computers under vitualization. The purpose to control the users' ability to download any junks and any personal use.

The server the school bought is an i5 processor, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD and Windows Server 2012 r2.

I have formatted the server and reinstalled the Windows Server. Now I am completely got stuck not knowing what to do next.

Any help?

How to create virtual computers? I read and watched transforming old pc to be thin client, any good? How to go about it?

What is the best solution for now for the financial and HR department?

In near future, we plan to expand the network the entire school. We do have a computer lab with 28 standalone computers and 24 standalone computers used by the teachers (all badly managed and exploited). Virtualize all the computers would be great.

Thanks for your help.
 
Solution
McHenryB
Setting up a Windows Server network correctly is not something that can be described in a few forum posts. If you are unwilling to employ someone who can do this then at the very least you need to do a good deal of self education, starting with a good book about Windows Server. Ideally you should find a suitable course to teach you the necessary knowledge.

Don't even think about connecting HR and Finance departments to your network until you have learnt how to administer and support it. You could end up with severe problems and possible legal liabilities if you do something wrong. I would strongly recommend that you reconsider your decision to muddle through without employing someone who is trained in this field. Either that or forget...
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Alabalcho

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Jan 13, 2011
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In order to get your desktop virtualized you need additional (expensive) software, called "Terminal Server Licenses", or third-party virtualization software (eg Citrix), and fast network. It works along these lines:
- you create a "generic" workstation software, and upload it to the server
- each computer connects to the server, and uses the server' CPU, Disk, etc to do all of the work. The only think local computer does is to show the screen and transmit keyboard / mouse events

For now, I would suggest using your server as file-and-print server only, to store critical business data from HR / Acc shareable between computers. Create user account for every user, connect that user' workstation to the server, map a drive letter and let the user use this additional drive letter as backup / storage/

Don't forget that with a user, you have to think about adequate backup (both against loss and theft) of the data.

As for expanding to the whole school: You will need a lot of (financial and knowledge) resources to do that. Talk to your management about hiring a consultant with appropriate knowledge in the field.
 
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camera123

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Sep 16, 2015
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Thank you for replying. The school management has expressed their interest to virtualization. The purpose is to stop illegal downloading and personal use. Anyhow, we will discuss this later.

For now, as you mentioned to get the basic file-and print server set up. Also connect to the internet.

The question is I am completely lost with the Windows Server 2012. I don't know why the management bought the IT guy the expensive software (was told Rp14m just for the software, about USD1000)

Since we have, instead throwing it away, I have reinstalled the software. Am starring at the Windows Server 2012 main Server Manager screen not know what to do next.

Could you guide me step by step how to set up the server, ip address, join domain/workgroup, etc.

Thanks
 
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Alabalcho

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Jan 13, 2011
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Setting up a Windows server is not that different from setting up a Windows workstation. Regarding IP configuration: Give it static IP address, with gateway address the address of your Internet router. As for DNS, DHCP servers - that's up to you to decide whether and how to implement.

Head off to Microsoft web site, and start reading about Active Directory. If you want proper client management, you will need that. Then, start reading about DNS and DHCP servers - what they do and how to configure them. These are serious topics, which need time and efforts to learn. If you will learn as you go, make sure you have a spare workstation with Professional Windows version (not Home, not Basic) you can play with.

Virtualization won't help against "illegal" activities - these are better handled at "perimeter" level, with proper access control etc. Windows Server alone cannot do that for you, and you better keep things separated. You will need specialized device (or dedicated computer) running firewall / router functions. Again - this is not as easy as "Install X, configure Y, done", especially in a school environment.
 
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McHenryB

McHenryB

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Jan 31, 2015
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Setting up a Windows Server network correctly is not something that can be described in a few forum posts. If you are unwilling to employ someone who can do this then at the very least you need to do a good deal of self education, starting with a good book about Windows Server. Ideally you should find a suitable course to teach you the necessary knowledge.

Don't even think about connecting HR and Finance departments to your network until you have learnt how to administer and support it. You could end up with severe problems and possible legal liabilities if you do something wrong. I would strongly recommend that you reconsider your decision to muddle through without employing someone who is trained in this field. Either that or forget the idea of setting up a server network.
 
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