Networking and deployment question?

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Hi Guys,

Long time no post for me!

I was wondering if anyone could help with some Networking questions that I have. I have my N+ and some hands on knowledge but am interested in how I would design and deploy a network. I have been googling for a few hours but havent really found answers im looking for.

If I was going to deploy a number of desktops (say 500) into an office environment of 50 per room for example, what would be the major considerations?

My plan would be to physically connect the 50 hosts from each room into their own switch, and then those 10 switches to a central switch, and then that switch to a router. And then take into consideration a few servers for file storage, a server to run DHCP, DNS, Email, Firewall/Security.

Also I would use image deployment software to image the desktops once they have been installed.

Would you say Im on the right track, or waaay off?

Thanks

 

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There are so many things to consider.

IP Addressing, VLAN's, Subnets, Wireless networking?? Structured Cabling, managed, unmanaged or semi switches. As far as a 'server' to run DHCP, DNS, Email, Firewall/Security goes, you would probably want to seriously think about segmenting roles, you wouldn't really want all of those roles on 1 server (especially if you're planning on say 500 users).

When you say image deployment, are you talking MDT, WDS, SCCM, Altiris? What about Patch Management, software deployment? Anti-Virus?

It's not simply a case of saying I want to deploy 500 desktops what should I do, it's more a case of looking at what the requirements are, how much money you have, how long you have to do this, who will be managing it, who will be supporting it, who will be building it?

I am somewhat of an SCCM and Virtualisation expert, I have been doing this kind of work for a number of years now and I can tell you that this is not something you can knock out over a weekend. You need to have a certain amount of Enterprise experience, with various Microsoft products (Windows, SCCM, SCOM?, TMG\UAG, Exchange) as well as your networking vendor of choice (Cisco, Arista, Juniper etc), also some hardware experience with the Server\Desktop and or Laptop vendor.

Not something that one person can take on with the foot print you're talking about.

 

Thanks for the reply Simon! I was just thinking of how to go about the installation and imaging of the desktops and how to network them all together mainly. I was imagining that structured cabling from host positions to the server room would all be there and I was just managing the HW being put in. And then was also thinking of what other HW/SW would be needed to get it up and running. Then the maintenance of the network/software etc could be performed by the company using it.

The main questions for me would be could I network all the hosts the way I thought (using the number of switches) and then just use some image deployment SW to image batches of them with WIN7 (thats what I meant by deployment)?

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Re the IP addressing I do need to have a read over my study books again for a refresher but I was going to split the LAN into 10 subnets, 50 per subnet. Like I said I need to look over it all again.