Question

Please advise to restructure my network

Asked by: Basheerpt

Hi
I would like to have some expert advice for my proposed Network infrastructure change.
My corporate network consists:
- Head office: Below 150 users and growing. 3 Dsl lines are there for branch office connection with Cisco 28xx router. Branch office connection made through VPN and all business applications are published among 2 Citrix MF PS4.0. All of the servers are Win2000, clients mixed XP and 2K
- Branch office: All the branch offices are in the same country. Each BO includes upto average 10~15 users. Conccection methodes are DSL or Satelite. No server at all in the branch offices, all r thin clients.
- Internet connection: Currently Internet connection is thru separate DSL line with ISA Server 2000. Exchange server 2000 also running in this ISA Server. This connection has publis IP. Exchange Server MX record is in the provider.

From the above current setup I want to restructure the setup in the light of the belowed expectations:
- We will add one more branch office outside the country, what setup need to give access them to our business applications and Email?
- Planning to upgrade to Exchange 2003 with all the employees home/road access to their mailbox, whats the best way to acheive it?
- I want to isolate the ISA server, any advise on secure internet access?
- Would like to add a webserver for the proposed Oracle Ebusiness suite. what setup needed?

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Asked On
2007-09-23 at 04:39:07ID22846877
Tags

network

,

corporate

,

exchange

Topics

Miscellaneous Networking

,

Exchange Email Server

,

Citrix

Participating Experts
1
Points
125
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: tlamoniaPosted on 2007-09-29 at 18:54:54ID: 19985929

Need more specific information.  Send us a diagram of current and proposed.  Also, what's your overall goal?
-Todd

 

by: BasheerptPosted on 2007-09-30 at 00:44:04ID: 19986483

Thanks tlamonia,
I will provide more information today.

 

by: tlamoniaPosted on 2007-10-01 at 16:16:45ID: 19995027

While you're doing that, I'll try to answer your questions based on the info I have:

- We will add one more branch office outside the country, what setup need to give access them to our business applications and Email?
If Citrix is your standard and there are no issues, then stick with the current architecture.  Using Citrix, you can save a lot money on international circuits by reducing your bandwidth consumption.  Also, Citrix is a great tool for standardizing desktops which reduces your LAN admin tasks by centralizing management of applications and policies.

- Planning to upgrade to Exchange 2003 with all the employees home/road access to their mailbox, whats the best way to acheive it?
You may want to make the jump to 2007.  But you can't lose with 2003, it's very stable.  For remote access, you have some choiices.  RPC over HTTP/S is a great protocol that enables remote users to securely access their mail using the full Outlook client from the Internet.  Also, with Exchange 2003/7, the OWA interface is greatly enhanced and you may want ot consider it as a standard.

- I want to isolate the ISA server, any advise on secure internet access?
If I understood you correctly, your Exchange server is running on your ISA server; not good.  You should separate the two on two physical servers- one Exchnage, one ISA.  Personally, I recommend using a PIX or Cisco router as a firewall, instead of ISA, but everyone has their preference.

- Would like to add a webserver for the proposed Oracle Ebusiness suite. what setup needed?
You should check with either your Oracle rep/engineer or read the manual.  You should be able to find the best practice for the number of users you will need to support.  Remember to slightly over-spec the server to make room for future needs.  Since you're a Microsoft shop, I'd recommend a 2 tier design- a Windows 2003 IIS server and a Windows 2003 server running the Oracle DB.
-Todd

 

by: BasheerptPosted on 2007-10-01 at 20:36:50ID: 19996072

Thanks for the detailed response
>>- We will add one more branch office outside the country, what setup need to give access them to our business applications and Email?

I was mentioning on networking side. We will go for citrix. I like to know what network setup is needed to do it.

>I want to isolate the ISA server, any advise on secure internet access?
If I understood you correctly, your Exchange server is running on your ISA server; not good.  You should separate the two on two physical servers- one Exchnage, one ISA.  Personally, I recommend using a PIX or Cisco router as a firewall, instead of ISA, but everyone has their preference.

I would go for the PIX as firewall. Does it support policy based / Actrive directory authenticated internet access for the users? From somewhere, i knew that it doesnt and thats the reason i sticked on ISA

Thanks again

 

by: tlamoniaPosted on 2007-10-02 at 05:29:22ID: 19997884

>I was mentioning on networking side. We will go for citrix. I like to know what network setup is needed to do it.
Contact the ISPs and/or local phone company in that country to see what they offer.  It varies widely from country to country.  That will dictate the type of equipment you will need.  If you're looking for a router recommendation, go with the same vendor your using in your other BOs in order to connect to your corporate VPN.

>I would go for the PIX as firewall. Does it support policy based / Actrive directory authenticated internet access for the users? From somewhere, i knew that it doesnt and thats the reason i sticked on ISA.
Stick with the ISA server, but make sure it's running on a separate physical system.
-Todd
 

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