Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Infrastructure Remediation

Understanding the network environment is critical with any project that introduces changes. To plan and prepare to incorporate these changes, first understand the current status of the organization's environment, identify other sources of change that may affect this project, perform a risk-mitigation approach to the changes, and then incorporate the proposed changes. Organizations can solve and possibly avoid most networking problems by creating and maintaining adequate network documentation. Using a networking tool, the team can do the following:

• Gather information necessary to help understand a network as it exists today.
• Plan for growth.
• Diagnose problems when they occur.
• Update the information with network changes.
• Work with the information to manage network assets. (Often, an apparently simple configuration change can result in an unexpected outage.)
• Present information visually so that the network structure appears in as much detail as necessary for each task.

The project team must have access to SQL Server. The team uses SQL Server to create hardware inventory reports against the application compatibility database. This could be the same installation that the team uses for application management. The team must also have access to current network topology diagrams and network device inventory information.

Operations Readiness

The project team is responsible for a smooth and successful handoff of the deployed solution to the operations staff. This aspect of the overall project is important, because the success of the handoff directly reflects the success of the deployment project. To ensure success, the activities of the team must be integrated with the ongoing management and operating functions of the operations staff. The project team can facilitate deployment by completing the following tasks:

• Confirm that the workstation roles identified in the functional specification are valid.
• Analyze and evaluate the management tools currently in use.
• Assess the maturity of the operations environment in key operational areas.
• Establish effective management processes and tools in deficient key areas.
• Develop a training program for operations and support staff.
• Prepare the operations staff for the pilot.

The project team does not initially have any additional lab requirements for operations readiness.

Security

Security is important to the overall success of the deployment project. Security is a primary concern in all organizations, and a goal of the project team is to secure the organization's data. Inadequate security in an organization can result in lost or corrupted data, network downtime, lost productivity, frustrated employees, overworked IT employees, and possibly stolen proprietary information that results in lost revenue. Additionally, many organizations are subject to compliance regulations that carry significant penalties for security breaches, such as exposing customer data. To ensure that adequate security measures are in place, the project team should do the following:

• Analyze and determine the existing security level of the organization.
• Identify vulnerabilities caused by software upgrades and update network security specifications accordingly.
• Ensure that security measures are current.

The project team does not initially have any additional lab requirements for security.

Migration

One of the most tedious and time-consuming tasks during deployment is identifying data files and settings on users' current computers (known as the user state), saving them, and then restoring them. Users spend significant time restoring items such as wallpaper, screen savers, and other customizable features. And most users don't remember how to restore these settings. Migrating user state can increase user productivity and satisfaction. The project team can perform the following steps to plan for user state migration:

• Inventory existing production client computer applications.
• Identify applications with data or preference migration requirements.
• Prioritize the application list to be addressed.
• Identify SMEs for each application.
• Identify data file requirements for each application.

The following list describes actions that you can take in the Project Planning SMF to begin building the lab environment for migration. Team members working on migration can share resources with team members working on application management.

• Installation media For each application containing settings to migrate, you must have a copy of the application's installation media, any configuration documentation, and product keys. If your IT department doesn't have the media or other information, check with the SME for each application.
• Destination computers The project team requires computers in the lab on which to test user state migration solutions. Destination computers should be running the versions of Windows found in the production environment with applications and user data loaded. These computers are used for the unit-test user state migration.
• Host computer You must have a computer on which to host application source files and migration solutions. It's useful to store images of the destination computers on the host computer to restore them quickly and easily after each test pass.
• Data store The data store is a network share on which you can put user state data during testing. You can create the data store on the host computer, or you can optionally create the data store on each destination computer.
• USMT MDT 2010 uses the USMT to migrate the user state. The functionality is already built into the MDT 2010 framework. The team must download and prepare the distribution share with the USMT executables, however.