NetAdminChallenge: Help Andy fix his mistake

by Jim Wells MBA | Jul 31, 2000 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Jim Wells MBA

Takeaway: Andy must develop a group planning strategy using Active Directory. He has several groups that need the same permissions to resources. Check out his strategy and see if you can figure out what he's done wrong. You could win a TechRepublic T-shirt!

Every other week, NetAdmin Republic poses a systems or network problem requiring a solution. Some challenges are routine, while others may be more difficult. We then conduct a random drawing from the correct responses received and send two lucky winners a fancy new TechRepublic T-shirt. You'll be the envy of the office! Let's start with the solution to our previous challenge.
Jack forgot
As you may remember, Jack had to convert over 300 end-user PCs to Windows 2000. Since the machines in the office were all the same make and model, he used the disk duplication process for the conversion. He felt he knew all the steps required to complete the process, since he performed this operation when his company went to Windows 98.

However, Jack forgot one critical step: He neglected to run the System Preparation Tool (Sysprep.exe) file on his test computer. The Sysprep.exe file prepares the test computer’s hard disk for duplication. After you run Sysprep.exe on the test computer, you can use a third-party tool to capture the image and copy it to the destination computers.
Congratulations go to Scott Owens and Rob Willis, whose winning entries were randomly selected from all the correct submissions received.
Andy’s Active Directory mistake
Andy is a network administrator for a large number of users at a multinational company. The company is contemplating implementing Windows 2000 and asked Andy to prepare a group planning strategy for its user accounts using Active Directory.

Andy’s network scope has several global groups that all require the same access permissions to network resources in a particular domain. Given limited time to complete the project, Andy makes a mistake that will cause major headaches in the administering of accounts. Andy’s recommended group planning strategy consists of the following steps:

1. Put user accounts into global groups.
2. Grant resource permissions to the global groups.
3. Put global groups into domain local groups.

What has Andy done wrong?
What strategy should Andy use instead? Send your answer to TechRepublic by Sunday, August 6, 2000. We'll send a TechRepublic T-shirt to two individuals whose names we select randomly from all the correct answers received.
By submitting your answer, you agree to let TechRepublic publish your solution on its Web site. You also agree that TechRepublic may adapt and edit and authorize the adaptation and editing of each submission as it deems necessary. TechRepublic may or may not publish a submission at its sole discretion.If you'd like to share an opinion, please e-mail the editor or post a comment below.

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