COIT13146 System and Network Administration
Final Project, Term 1 2017 vt117 [1]
COIT13146 - System and Network Administration
Final Project Requirements – Period of Study 1,2017
Introduction:
The final project tests your ability to put together the skills
learned in previous weeks and present it as an application of your
knowledge and skills to a small business network. So as you read
through the requirements, consciously relate it to relevant work
you’ve already completed.
The small business network represents the capstone of this course
– it is what all the previous assignments have led to, and is the
reason that it takes the bulk of the assessment weighting. Some
additional research and reading may still be required.
Any questions of clarification or requests for help for the Final
Project should be raised on the Course Forum under the topic
'Final Project'.
The Scenario
You are required to setup and install a small
network and set of servers to support a small
company, which operates a tomato packing plant. The
plant has 10 permanent employees and around 25 parttime and casual employees. Of the 10 permanent
employees, 5 work full-time in the office and
already have a fully configured networked
workstation computer each. On high-capacity networked laser
printer serves the entire plant.
The company requires a forward facing (connected to the Internet)
Web Server that is located onsite in the main office. The
National Broadband Network has just been enabled in the area so a
high speed Internet connection is now available.
An existing computer, Wally, used by permanent employees to store
various documents (spreadsheets, databases, etc), will need to beCOIT13146 System and Network Administration
Final Project, Term 1 2017 vt117 [2]
integrated as the File Server into the new network. Wally runs
Microsoft Windows or MacOS* as the operating system and is backed
up daily via physically attached high-speed tape drive with
proprietary driver software. All new servers should mount a
shared space on Wally to save backups to. These will then form
part of the backup process already operating on the Wally server.
*if you are not using windows or mac as your host OS (hosting
VirtualBox with your VM’s) you can use whichever you do have, e.g.
Linux.
The Network
Summary
A single internal network is to be created, using DHCP to
configure all networked devices. All internal servers should be
allocated a fixed IP address by the DHCP server and have a fixed
server name as specified below.
All other client hosts (e.g. workstations, printer) should be
allocated an IP address from a range of IP addresses.
You do not need to configure the workstations and printer – assume
they have already been setup. However you should include them in
your network diagram as they are part of the network.
What you need to setup (configure) are the internal servers and
their connection to the file server. These internal servers are
described below.
The Servers and their names
General
To provide simple, robust and secure systems throughout the
company the following standards and recommendations have been
agreed to and must be adhered to, for all systems:
* all servers will be Ubuntu based (excluding Wally). You are to
use the given server names (shown bracketed) – do not invent
your own.COIT13146 System and Network Administration
Final Project, Term 1 2017 vt117 [3]
* lighttpd will be used for web servers
* Samba client is used for all internal file sharing requirements
(ie Ubuntu servers accessing the Windows file server should have
Samba client installed).
* all new systems must be hardened and scanned for security issues
prior to being made available for use
* intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) must be
running at all times
* appropriate password aging must be implemented on all servers
DHCP Server [Hiccups]
A small, secure, dedicated server named Hiccups should be created
that provides automatic server and client network configuration
using DHCP. Only support staff will have access to this server.
DHCP configuration must be backed up regularly and a simple
recovery procedure must be developed in the event of DHCP primary
server failure.
It is required that one of the other servers (chosen by you) be
setup as a manual failover time-synced DHCP server with changeover
procedures detailed in the recovery procedure.
All internal servers should have fixed IP addresses assigned to
them from the DHCP server, based on their MAC addresses.
The internal network IP address range to be used is
192.168.35.0/24.
Web Server [Spiderman]
The Web Server (Spiderman) offers outsiders an overview of the
organisation and provides potential casual staff with forms and
facilities to apply for any available position within the company.
The Server also hosts general information for the public such as
press releases and promotional content. The Webpages and content
is designed and maintained by an external web developer on
contract.
Key requirements for Spiderman are that lighttpd and php5 must be
available on the server and that the server be very secure.COIT13146 System and Network Administration
Final Project, Term 1 2017 vt117 [4]
Only support staff and the web developer should have access to the
Web Server itself.
File Server [Wally]
The existing Microsoft Windows or Mac computer hosting your VB
will act as the “external file server.” Wally is the only
external server in the network: all other servers are internal.
Company IT policy is that all Client machines on the internal
network, whether Windows, MacOS or Linux machines, will all access
the Windows File Server using Samba shares.
All of the organisations servers and data should be backed up to
Wally over the network. All backup procedures must be scripted,
well documented and operations limited to a backup group
consisting of staff members.
The File Server will hold the most recent backups of all systems,
data and files, on disk, to allow for fast retrieval/restore of
data, files and systems. All long term backups will be removed
from the server once they have been written to tape by third party
backup software and stored offsite.
Server backup scripts must generate a text file, listing all files
that were backed up, with details including timestamp and
ownership details, which should be stored with the backup file
(use the same name but with a different extension).
All backups must be named appropriately and placed into a single
directory named \\Wally\backup, on the Ubuntu Server. We can
assume that third party backup software is installed on the File
Server, which automatically writes the backups to a tape backup
system. The tape backup system itself is outside our scope here.
Assume that retrieval of long term backup file sets is simply a
matter of typing the backup file set name into the third party
software and it will prompt for the required tape to be inserted
and then restore the file set to the \\Wally\restore directory on
the File Server. From there, you supply the script to access the
restored files via Samba client and restore them to the
appropriate server or client.COIT13146 System and Network Administration
Final Project, Term 1 2017 vt117 [5]
Gateway/Firewall [Lockwood]
A hardened Gateway/Firewall server (Lockwood) should be placed
between the internal network and the Internet. At this time there
are no restrictions on inside staff accessing external networks.
However, access to the Web Server from outside should be limited
to the organisations Web Server and support staff, who must use
SSH to access systems from outside.
You are expected to use the iptables/SSH techniques previously
learned, for limiting or allowing access as required.
IDPS [Sentinel]
A server (Sentinel) with suitable software for detecting,
reporting and preventing all suspicious activity on the network,
should be installed and configured. Email alerts should be sent
to your own email.
Email – no separate server required
The organisation finds it much easier to use Gmail for all of its
email requirements. So no internal Email server is required.
However, all server security 'alerts' should be sent to a generic
support email address (use your own for this).
Submission
The following items make up the Final Project submission.
1. A single Word document named TomatoPlant.docx, with table of
contents, containing all installation, configuration, processes
and procedures used to develop the system.
The document must include the following in the order listed:
a) Installation and configuration details of the servers DHCP,
WEB, GATEWAY and IDPS.COIT13146 System and Network Administration
Final Project, Term 1 2017 vt117 [6]
b) Backup and recovery procedures that would allow any IT staff,
even those not familiar with backup/recovery methods, to perform
backup and recovery of all servers if needed.
c) Details of Failover arrangements and procedures in the event of
failure of the primary DHCP server.
d) Details of the network configuration. This should consist of:
i. a table of servers with MAC addresses, allocated IP
addresses, client IP address ranges and;
ii. a well labelled diagram of the entire network showing
all network members. The diagram must be embedded and
viewable in the Word document, do not attach as a
separate file.
e) Details of general procedures and actions required to be taken
in the event of an attempted attack/security breach. Assume that
the attempt has been detected.
f) Details of general procedures and actions to be taken in the
event of a significant security breach actually occurring e.g.
unauthorised access to the Web Server. Assume that the breach has
just occurred.
Hint: e) and f) differences: Your answers should reflect
essential differences in response to attempted breaches and actual
breaches.
g) Details of how support staff gain access to internal systems
from outside of the network. This should be detailed enough to
give a new support staff member a good idea of how they are
supposed to access the internal systems from their home.
h) Details outlining how all servers have been hardened against
security attacks.
i) Details of system/security alerts - what/where alerts are
generated and where they are sent. Write this so that your boss,
who is not a systems administrator and in your absence, could read
it and understand exactly how alerts are generated and where they
are sent.
j) Details of the password aging policy and implementation. The
policy should be appropriate to the organisation, and detail
exactly how it is implemented in the system.COIT13146 System and Network Administration
Final Project, Term 1 2017 vt117 [7]
Tips:
i. Keep notes on each server as you progress. You can use these
to provide the required details listed above.
ii. Backup your servers, clients, notes and configuration files
regularly - loss of these due to hardware or software failure will
not be accepted as a reason for problems with submitting the
project.
iii. Do not repeat yourself e.g. if you list details for a base
server installation, which is used by most/all servers, only do
that once. Do not include details about VirtualBox installation
or configuration - we are only interested in the servers and
network details.
2. Submit the following configuration files and scripts:
a) All backup scripts which must be well documented and
clearly referred to in the TommatoPlant.docx document.
Sample backup script output for each server named as
$SN.BackupOutput.txt, where $SN is the server name. Include
a backup.readme.txt file that summarises the files you have
submitted.
b) iptables rules used on the gateway/firewall - submit as a
well-documented and executable script. Ensure it is named
appropriately.
c) /etc/passwd, /etc/group and /etc/sudoers (or sudoers.d)
files for all servers. Name them as follows, substituting
the server name for $SN:
$SN.passwd e.g. Lockwood.passwd
$SN.group e.g. Spiderman.group
$SN.sudoers e.g. Hiccups.sudoers or Hiccups.sudoers.d.xxx
3. Summarise results of security scans performed on each server.
Submit as a single Word document named SecurityScans.docx.
4. Assume that the hard disk on the Web Server has failed.
Rebuild the entire server using your recovery procedures in 1b).
Provide full details of the process including details of where
your recovery procedures failed or can be improved.COIT13146 System and Network Administration
Final Project, Term 1 2017 vt117 [8]
You must provide 'proof' that you have rebuilt your Web Server by
providing screen shots of the recovery process where appropriate.
Include relevant sections of the /var/log/auth.log file showing
the relevant commands being performed using sudo. These must be
full entries including date/time stamps etc.
Submit as a single word document named WebServerRestore.docx.
How to submit:
Include all your documents and files as outlined above in a single
zip file named FinalProject.zip.
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