Running A Sound IT Shop
Best Practices From
The Spiceworks IT Network
October 2008

Allow rogue laptops How do I justify a raise? Best Wireless
on my network? Testing Tools
How long
should I retain
What’s the optimum backup tapes?
staff to user ratio? How do I stop user
account lock-outs?
How do you handle
Should I start my own employee terminations?
IT business?
What do you do with
old computers?
What’s the best way to do IT?
2

Who’s Asking These Questions?
and 500,000 other SMB IT Pros like you...

Common Questions
 What do others like me do?
 How can I learn from others’ mistakes?
 Will it work in my industry?
 How do I convince my boss?
 What if I don’t have the budget?

Best Practices For SMB IT
 Options not prescriptions
 Distilled from:
 Discussions
 Ratings and Reviews
 SpiceLists
 See for yourself and join the conversation
community.spiceworks.com/education/projects/Best_Practices

Best Practices For SMB IT
 Network Access
 Internet, Wireless, VPN, Remote Offices
 Computing
 Workstations, Servers, Printers, Virtualization, Security
 Communication
 Email, Mobile, Telephony
 User Services
 Setup, Training, Compliance, Support
 General
 Purchasing, Budgets, Strategy, IT Career

Sound SMB IT Shop
I. Setting Up Your Network
II. Setting Up Messaging
III. Maintaining Your Shop
IV. Supporting Your Users
V. Documentation

Part I: Setting Up Your Network
 Design Your Network
 Select a topology
 Select an addressing scheme
 Select a machine naming convention
 Server Rooms and Closets
 Power / HVAC / Fire Suppression / Running Cable
 Connecting To The Internet
 Security
Firewalls / VPN / User Access Control

Part I: Naming Your PCs
 Department-port number
 Roomname-number
 Asset Number
 Username + model
 Site-Device-OS-asset tag
 Airport Code - OS Type
 School type-teacher-room-id
 User Initials
 Department - Job Title

Part I: Setting Up Your Network
 Design Your Network
 Select a topology
 Select an addressing scheme
 Select a machine naming convention
 Server Rooms and Closets
 Power / HVAC / Fire Suppression / Running Cable
 Connecting To The Internet
 Security
 Firewalls / VPN / User Access Control

Part I: Network Closets
How does your
network closet look?

Part I: Network Closets
We asked....

Part I: Running Cable
 Label both ends
 Number (jack #)
 Purpose (WAN / Router / AD Server, etc)
 Color code cables
 (Servers - blue, etc)
 Label Voice and Data separately

Part I: Designing A Server Room
 Raised Floor
 Proper Grounding
 Fire suppression
 Physical Security
 Check door size
 Cooling
 Temperature
 Monitoring

Part I: Setting Up Your Network
 Design Your Network
 Select a topology
 Select an addressing scheme
 Select a machine naming convention
 Server Rooms and Closets
 Power / HVAC / Fire Supression / Running Cable
 Connecting To The Internet
 Security
 Firewalls / VPN / User Access Control

Part I: Connecting To The Internet
 Determining Capacity Needs
 Selecting an ISP
 Price / Performance / Reputation
 Service Level Agreements
 Document outages

Part I: Setting Up Your Network
 Design Your Network
 Select a topology
 Select an addressing scheme
 Select a machine naming convention
 Server Rooms and Closets
 Power / HVAC / Fire Supression / Running Cable
 Connecting To The Internet
 Security
 Firewalls / VPN / User Access Control

Part I: User Access Control
 Authentication
 Active Directory
 OpenLDAP
 User Name / Password schemes
 Policies

Part I: User Name Schemes
Plan For Growth. Avoid Problems Later
First Initial Last Name jsmith
First Initial, Middle Initial, First 5 characters of last
jhsmith
name
First 5 chars of last name, 2 chars of first name smithjo
First Name.Last Name John.Smith
First char of First Name First 2 chars of Last Name JSM / JS2 / JS3
Department, machine type, initials, computer # DeLaJS01

Sound SMB IT Shop
I. Setting Up Your Network
II. Setting Up Email
III. Maintaining Your Shop
IV. Supporting Your Users
V. Documentation

Part II: Setting Up Email
 Hosted vs Internal
 Email Server Software
 Anti-Spam
 Hosted vs Internal

Part II: Hosted vs Internal
 Why?
 Features
 Cost
 Why Not?
 Privacy
 Bandwidth
Buying Guide / Reviews

Part II: Setting Up Email
 Hosted vs Internal
 Email Server Software
 Anti-Spam
 Hosted vs Internal

Part II: Email Server Software
Popular Email Servers
 Exchange Other
26%
 MDaemon
 Lotus Notes Exchange
52%
Kerio
5%
 Zimbra Zimbra
5%
 Kerio Lotus Notes
5%
MDaemon
 and 25 others... 8%

Part II: Setting Up Email
 Hosted vs Internal
 Email Server Software
 Anti-Spam
 Hosted vs Internal

Part II: Anti-Spam Solutions
SpiceList
Buying Guide / Reviews

Sound SMB IT Shop
I. Setting Up Your Network
II. Setting Up Messaging
III. Maintaining Your Shop
IV. Supporting Your Users
V. Documentation

Part III: Maintaining Your Shop
 Backup
 Hosted vs internal backup
 Backup software
 Monitoring your network

Part II: Online Storage
Cable Contest Submission
Product Pages / Comparisons

Part III: Maintaining Your Shop
 Hosted vs internal backup
 Backup software
 Monitoring your network

Part II: Backup Software
Favorite Backup Software
Acronis True Image
Enterprise Server
Others
28%
“Best investment we ever made, easiest and
most reliable way to backup and restore BackupExec
44%
servers or even migrate to VMware... “
JB
SyncBack SE
7%
“Awesome for recovery and can be used for Mozy
incrementals to mount image to pull just one 3%
file.Easier than ghost! “ Acronis NT Backup
13% 5%
adamroof

Sound SMB IT Shop
I. Setting Up Your Network
II. Setting Up Messaging
III. Maintaining Your Shop
IV. Supporting Your Users
V. Documentation

Part IV: Supporting Your Users
 Why Use A Help Desk?
 Centralized
 Communication
 Reporting
 How Do You Get Your Users To Use A Help Desk!

Part IV: Help Desk Adoption
 Create shortcuts and bookmarks
 Priority for help desk tickets
 New user orientation
 Management support
 Tough Love

User Avoidance Techniques

Sound SMB IT Shop
I. Setting Up Your Network
II. Setting Up Messaging
III. Maintaining Your Shop
IV. Supporting Your Users
V. Documentation

Part V: Documentation
 Developing a Runbook
 How everything works on your network
 Keep it up to date
 Version control
 Keep it secure

Join The Conversation
community.spiceworks.com