Example Of Case Study On Four Dell Pentium 4 Servers

Darts is a sporting goods company that has most of its outlets in the western states. The company computers are connected to each other via network. A network has 273 computers and it consists of the following hardware systems.
8 Windows Server 2003 R2 Servers
2 Linux Servers running Red Hat Linux Enterprise
20 computers running MAC OS X version 10.4 Tiger
32 computers with Windows XP installed
126 computers with Windows Vista installed
95 computers with Windows 7 installed
With advancements in the growth of the company, the network requires upgrading and modifications. Therefore, the company is focusing on the upgrade of servers, computer systems, and software programs.
The Accounting department of the company has Windows XP installed in all of the computers. The accounting director of the department wants to upgrade the operating system Windows 7. The department would get certain benefits through an upgrade of the operating system that are discussed as follows.
First, the Windows 7 provides a great user-friendly interface for all the users to perform their desired tasks. The design of taskbar and system trays are much user-friendly compared to the Windows XP. However, anyone who was more comfortable with the Windows XP outlook can choose an option to change design of Windows 7 back to XP. Other interesting features that are most beneficial for the businesses are the desktop slideshow and screen savers. The accounting department users may activate the desktop slideshow to most recent financial statements and thus, keep a regular check. The bookkeeping and other accounting functions flourish with this feature of the Windows 7. Another big advantage of Windows 7 for not only the accounting department, but also all other departments is that, it runs smoothly with even 1GB memory. However, Windows 7 is available in two formats that is one for the 32-bit processor and the other with 64-bit processor. The 64-bit version of the Windows 7 requires 4GB RAM; however, the speed is quite higher; therefore, the accounting department can install various heavy accounting software programs and still work at a high speed processing with Windows 7 64-bit version. Windows 7 also provides better security features as compared to the Windows XP. Users can make different accounts with each one having high-level security permissions. The upgraded Windows Office and Open Office programs provide great features for the accounts users. Like, there are large number of financial formulas and functions, now available in the MS Excel. These programs assist the accounts users in bookkeeping, payroll processing, Balance Sheets, printing paychecks, and income statement.
At the Dart’s company, the accounting department may come across the problem of hardware, if it has small sized RAM, as Windows 7 requires at least 1 GB RAM. Moreover, it is bit difficult to upgrade the system installed with XP to Windows 7. Usually the professionals do not find any problem when they switch from Windows XP to Windows 7; however, it may difficult for the new users to get accustomed with Windows 7 easily. The accounting department may face compatibility issues with certain software programs as well.
Yes, the 16-bit billing program that was designed for the Windows XP can run on the Windows 7 OS 32-bit version. For this purpose, the user would have to choose the program and right click for the choice of compatibility under Windows XP or earlier versions. The program may not be able to run direct using the Windows 7 platform, but Windows 7 provides an interface to run the program. However, the users face major problems, when try to run the 16-bit billing software program on the Windows 7 OS 64-bit version.
Currently, the Darts Company’s marketing department is using MAC OS X version 10.4 Tiger Computers for its daily operations. The company is planning to upgrade the systems of the department; however, advance version of only MAC system can be deployed. It is because; the programs would only be compatible with Apple products. Several benefits can be achieved with an upgrade of MAC OS X 10.4 system to an advanced system like MAC OS X 10.6. For example, an upgraded version of the system provides better security, reliability, ease of use, and compatibility of MAC OS X version with Windows as well. With better reliability and security, Darts Company’s marketing department would ensure protection of the users’ data and other confidential information. As like, accounting department, the latest version of the system offers user-friendly medium and is compatible with most of the Windows programs. Thus, marketing department users of the Darts Company would easily be able to share information with the Windows 7 users and run windows 7 programs on the MAC OS X 10.6 .
The reason of processor overloading might be due to certain viruses like svchost.exe that consumes all of the power and can take the CPU usage up to 100% even if no heavier or simple is running on the system. Such behavior of the system shows that the processor is being affected by the viruses. The overloading or any other problem with the processor can be determined through task manager in Windows Vista. To resolve such kind of issues, the user must install an antivirus program that can identify and kill the viruses, malware, and spyware .
Although Windows 7 is too new as compared to Windows Vista, but still Windows 7 is much easier to manage and use than Windows Vista. Therefore, not to make choice of Windows 7 due to being latest in the operating systems can be exempted. Several new features have been added to the Windows 7 in comparison to the Windows Vista. Moreover, Windows 7 provides better interface for the users than Vista. Windows 7 is highly efficient, when requires running heavy-duty applications. It offers great speed and performance as compared to Vista. Furthermore, in view of financial terms, Windows 7 is still a better choice than Vista. It is because; the prices of Windows 7 is less than all other Windows operating systems. Only one issue with the Windows 7 is that, it requires time to upgrade from Windows XP. Still, upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 cost lesser than Windows Vista; therefore, it would be a better choice to upgrade all of the Windows XP systems in the organization to Windows 7 instead of Vista .
Rocky Mountain University is a higher education institution that is located in the mountains of Colorado. The university’s network of desktop computers and servers was installed in the year 2000. The hardware machines of the university consists of,

Two HP Servers with Alpha CPU
25 desktop computers with Intel Core Duo CPU
2 Power PCs of Macintosh
45 desktop computers with Pentium 4 CPU
The desktop computers running on the AMD Duron CPU would only require upgrading the processor of higher speed. To upgrade the desktop computer running on the Pentium 4 CPU, it would only need to upgrade the motherboard; however, if the processor seems powerful then there is no need to replace it in the Pentium 4 CPU. Finally, to upgrade the desktop computers running on Intel Core Duo CPU, it would require upgrading RAM, motherboard, and graphics card; however, the processors can be kept as it is, but this strategy would increase the cost. It is recommended to install the entire new systems in place of Intel Core Duo CPU.
It may happen either due to hardware problems, cabling, corrupted software program, or due to overheating of the system hardware. It is suggested to keep on checking the CPU temperature, and if high temperature were the issue, then the systems would require keeping them in the lower temperature area. Furthermore, it is recommended to replace certain hardware equipment in the system like cards, RAM, and motherboard. This would raise the price of the upgrade; therefore, it is recommended to replace the entire Intel Core Duo CPU. Intel has launched various new versions of the CPU with the same core duo series.

Open Safari Browser

Go to address link ftp://mydocuments.canterbury.ac.nz/ by entering in the browser’s address bar and press enter key
The login prompt will appear on the screen. Enter the username and password of the system account and click on the ok button

The home folder will appear after few seconds

The documents would be stored in the My Documents folder
Double click on the “My Documents” folder and access the documents
Since, the vice president and the predecessor are using the same account; therefore, they need to separate their files by themselves. For such a case, the user may create two folders in the home folder and save these two folders, each with different name or the initials of the VP and predecessor so that files remains in order. To separate locations of the documents as per their functions, the user may create new folders for each function in his/her folder save previously.
df command – shows the disk space usage of the file system
mount command – shows all of the mounted file systems
/proc/mounts or /proc/self/mounts file – shows all of the mounted file systems
df –h and /proc/mounts commands can be used to determine if the CD/DVD file system is mounted or not.
For accounting manager’s PC, the NTFS file system of the Windows 7 will be installed; since, it is more secure and provides option of encryption and permissions to restrict access to confidential or other specific files from certain users. It also provides support for large sized hard disks. In order to set up preliminary folder structure, four partitions will be created at the point of installing Windows 7 operating system. After creating the partitions, they will be named with the accounting reports, word-processed documents, department memos, and personnel evaluations .
Windows Server 2008 has a distributed file systems namespaces and replication makes it much simplified that provides load sharing, high availability to access the windows files, and offer WAN friendly replication. These two main features of the Windows Server 2008 are highly advantageous for the administrators. They helps them in organizing and increasing the shared folders availability by creation of the namespace. Furthermore, if you want to keep the folders in synchronization between servers then Distributed File System Replication is the best option that can do so in an efficient manner. To manage DFS replication and DFS Namespace running on a desktop PC of Windows Server 2008, DFS management snap-in that is hosted by Server manager can be used .
There might be different reasons to this problem like the file may be corrupted, the user do not have appropriate permissions, files are encrypted, or the user profile may be corrupted. In case, if the file is corrupted, then the system software program may be used to repair the file or by deleting and restoring the file from the backup. In case of the profile is corrupted then the new account may be required. However, if the security settings were being applied on the file system, then the user would have to take the administrator permissions.

For installing laser printers by add a printer wizard, the following steps will be taken;

Choose Control Panel from the Start options, go to Hardware and Sound and then click on the Printers
Choose the option Add a Printer
When the wizard starts, choose Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer
Keep the computer connected to the network and so the printer
Choose from the list of available printers and click on Next
The administrator might be asked to install the printer driver. Click on install driver
Complete other steps and click on Finish
Since, both touchpad and track ball are active; therefore, it is recommended to disable one or touchpad to efficiently use the trackball. To disable the touchpad in Windows Vista, following steps will be performed;

Go to Start > Choose Control Panel option

Click on the Hardware and Sound option > Choose Mouse
Choose an option to enable/disable the touchpad
There is another way to disable the touchpad that is by device manager. For this procedure, go to device manager through search box. Expand the list of Mice and other Pointing Devices. Right-click on the touchpad entry and disable it.

Type in su –c ‘yum install system-config-printer’

Start Print Setting application, or it can be started through the command line by typing in system-config-printer
Printing troubleshooter application collects information from the printer that can also be carried out through command su –c “lpinfor –l -v”. This command will select the laser printer and attempts to troubleshoot the issues .

Double-Click on the Print & Fax or Print & Scan from the Hardware available icons

The Print & Scan Window will popup
Click on the plus sign to add a printer
Another window will pop up Print Browser Window for adding the printer
Click on the tab IP
Choose HP Jetdirect – Socket in the Protocol tab
Add the IP address of the printer in the Address tab. IP addresses of the available printers are given in the printer list

Do not type anything in the Queue tab

Type in Name and Location as per your reference
Choose any option from the Use tab as per the requirements
Click on Add to install the printer

References

Carson, A. (2011, 5 24). What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of MAC OS? Retrieved from Bright Hub: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/mac-platform/articles/73326.aspx
Fedora. (n.d.). How to Debug Printing Problems. Retrieved from Fedora Project: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_debug_printing_problems
Har-Even, B. (2009, Nov 4). Head to Head: Windows 7 vs Windows Vista. Retrieved from IT Pro: http://www.itpro.co.uk/617176/head-to-head-windows-7-vs-windows-vista
Microsoft. (2014). Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform. Retrieved from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/africa/server-cloud/2008-r2-benefits.aspx
Posey, B. (2009, Oct 22). 10 reasons to consider upgrading to Windows Server 2008 R2. Retrieved from Tech Republic: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-reasons-to-consider-upgrading-to-windows-server-2008-r2/
Tedster. (2006, Jul 28). Slow Computer and High CPU Usage? A Possible Solution. Retrieved from TechSpot: http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/slow-computer-and-high-cpu-usage-a-possible-solution.55152/
Windows. (2014). Comparing NTFS and FAT32 file systems. Retrieved from Microsoft: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/comparing-ntfs-and-fat32-file-systems
Windows Server. (2007, Sept 11). Distributed File System. Retrieved from Microsoft: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753479%28v=ws.10%29.aspx