Winter – Fall 2022

Technical Assistance for the Win Upgrade

Windows 10, Windows 7, Microsoft

250 devices

The Higher Institute of Arts and Technology

The Higher Institute of Arts and Technology (HIAT) utilizes a strong researched-based educational curriculum that connects their students with the arts, computer technology and STEM while also working to equip them with the skills such as honesty, service to others, a superior work ethic, and a strong vision for and belief in their futures.

Before the network upgrade, the issues identified are as follows:-

• All network Traffic passes through one switch.
• Layer 2 Infrastructure with a Class A subnet causing a higher range of IP addresses available which wasn’t needed.
• Firewall not being utilized due to partial configurations
• Access Points are not configured to the wireless controller so that it could not be managed by the cloud.
• Server Rack wasn’t setup properly due to no cable management which means Ethernet cables were not tagged so tracking down the cables was becoming difficult.

The following steps were done to mitigate the issues and also comply with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library(ITIL):-

Ensure network traffic flow is not channelized through one direction:

There was one switch setup with 48 ports so all the network requests/traffic such as from the camera system, VoIP’s, printers, workstations, access points and other network flow was passing through it and making it congested. So a solution was bought in place, wherein new and reliable HPE Aruba switches were bought. Now there are three new switches of which one is a 24 port switch and the other two are 48 port switches which distributes traffic.

7 VLAN(Virtual LAN)’s were configured on the Network such as:

1. Management (1): All network gear will get IP assigned from this subnet including servers.
2. Wired (1): All wired Desktops & Printers will get IP assigned from this subnet.
3. Wireless (2): All wireless devices associated with “STAFF” & “STUDENT” SSID will get IP assigned from this subnet.
4. Services (1): All cameras and other services will be assigned on this subnet.
5. VoIP (1): All phones will provision on this subnet.
6. Vendor (1): Any vendor need access to Intranet/Internet will be assigned on this subnet (Policy Based)

Switching to a subnet with only the IP address range needed:

Following steps were done for switching to a Class C subnet:-

1. Layer 2 VLANs were created.
2. Higher Bandwidth Uplinks were created providing resilience and high availability. Also provided redundant uplink to Dell Hypervisor just in case.

Specific configurations were done on the firewall as follows:

1. A subnet hierarchy model was bought in place to set up the routing for the network traffic.
2. New web interface configurations were done to access the firewall and perform necessary tasks efficiently.
3. Trunks were configured and pruning was completed for the specific VLANs for the firewall to direct the network traffic in the correct route.

Configuration of Access Points:

1. Wireless Controller status was checked and Access Points were connected to it.
2. This enabled the Access Points to be configured to the Cloud controller and can be managed remotely.
3. Access Points ports were provided across all switches so as to not have everything on one switch.

Configuration of DHCP:

Having the DHCP on the Server was putting a lot of load onto it as there was a domain controller also setup on the Server. So it was set up on the firewall.

Setup of Server Rack to efficiently troubleshoot any future issues:

Cable optimization was completed and all the ethernet cables were tagged. Network Diagram was prepared to ensure everything is setup correctly and there is a track of everything.

1. The goal of this project was to comply with the ITIL framework and make sure that the IT Infrastructure should match with customer’s needs and make it more efficient.
2. Separate SSID’s were created for staff and students to better manage the requests on the network.
3. The current IT infrastructure will now allow better flow of network traffic across different subnets created which will effectively help in troubleshooting any issue in the future if it arises.