Date of A rchive
[ 06/10/2000 ]
Category
[ Information Technologies ]
sub-Categoy
[ Microsoft ]
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| Deploying Windows 2000 Professional |  |
Posted: Wednesday, December 15, 1999
The process for deploying the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Professional operating system involves careful planning and a little common sense. You can develop your deployment plan by determining how the capabilities and features of Windows 2000 Professional best meet the requirements and needs of your enterprise. A simple method for developing a successful deployment plan includes the following stages:
- Define the project scope and objectives.
- Evaluate the current network and desktop environments.
- Design the Windows 2000 Professional desktop configuration.
- Conduct a Windows 2000 Professional pilot deployment.
- Conduct the full-scale deployment.
| Defining the Project Scope and Objectives | |
The first step in the deployment process is to define your project goals and objectives, ensuring that they are consistent with the:
- Long-term vision of your organization.
- Needs of your company’s employees (types of features and applications they require, connectivity to the Internet, multimedia applications, and so forth).
A project plan can clearly identify specific phases of your deployment process and provide a clear and functional outline, clarifying the scope of the project, the people or groups affected, and the time frame involved. When you document your project scope, you will define which features of Windows 2000 that you will deploy in order to meet your business objectives and overall goals.
Some of the things to consider when determining a project scope are:
- Deployment numbers (computers, departments, networks, locations).
- Deployment scope (operating system upgrade only, application upgrades, server upgrades, hardware upgrades).
- Existing or expanded functionality.
- Desktop standardization, administration, and security initiatives.
| Assessing the Current Network and Desktop Environment | |
Before you design your Windows 2000-based desktop environment, you need to thoroughly understand your current network operating systems, infrastructure, and conventions.
During the assessment process, you will gather and analyze information about your current desktop and network environments. At a minimum, you should assess and document the following information:
- Business organization and geographical requirements
- Application requirements (includes inventory of software and hardware)
- Technology architecture
- Interoperability
- Network and application standards--current and future
- User Types (Roaming, Mobile, Remote, Task-based, Knowledge-based, and so on.)
- Software standards
- Hardware standards
- Support issues
- Naming conventions
For more information regarding hardware compatibility, click here.
| Designing the Windows 2000 Professional Desktop | |
The objective of this phase is to design, build, test, and approve a Windows 2000 Professional desktop configuration. The design phase typically consists of the following stages:
During the design phase, one of the key components of your deployment plan is the selection of an appropriate implementation method. Windows 2000 Professional includes a host of tools that can accommodate any of your specific business and technical objectives, and meet the requirements of your network and its users.
| Conducting a Windows 2000 Professional Pilot Deployment | |
For pilot deployment, it is recommended that you conduct your testing in two stages. In the first stage, you should test your Windows 2000 Professional deployment design in a laboratory or controlled environment. After you verify that your Windows 2000 Professional design works in your test environment, you can conduct a pilot deployment in your production environment with a select number of users.
The pilot provides an opportunity for feedback to determine how features work and the level of support you are likely to need after full deployment. It also gives the installation team a chance to rehearse and refine the deployment process and test that your design meets your company’s business requirements.
| Conducting the Full-Scale Deployment | |
When deploying Windows 2000 Professional across a company-wide network, you will want to consider using the automated installation methods that are supported by Windows 2000 Professional. For more information regarding automated deployment, click here.
For the final deployment, the steps involved are very similar to the pilot deployment. To ensure a smooth migration of all your users during full-scale deployment, you must:
- Set up the distribution servers.
- Notify the users of the upcoming installation.
- Train the users on Windows 2000 Professional.
- Customize the user installation scripts.
- If needed, upgrade the hardware on the client computers, and remove any software that doesn't comply with company policy.
- If required as part of the plan, back up critical data and configuration files on the client computers.
- Conduct virus scan, disk scan, and hard disks defragmentation as required by the project plan.
- Temporarily reset the user password and ID for each computer. This allows technicians easy access to the client computer so they can make sure that the login scripts and environment operate correctly.
- Make sure that the client computers are fully operational and the network is running.
For complete planning and deployment information, please refer to the Microsoft Resource Kit Deployment Planning Guide and "Automating the Windows 2000 Upgrade."
Last Updated: Tuesday, March 07, 2000
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