1. Running head: UPGRADE BRIEF 1
Operating System Upgrade Brief
for ACME
Erik W. House
Date Submitted 2/21/2016
For Dr. Harry Jackson
2. UPGRADE BRIEF 2
Abstract
The plans for ACME’s upcoming Operating System (OS) upgrade have been implemented in
three different milestones as requested by the Help Desk Supervisor. These milestones consisted
of a review of programming, Network design and Access databases, Information Assurance and
web browser setup. To assist with a better understanding of these implementations they have
been compiled into this single document to be archived for future use by the Help Desk.
Keywords: Operating System, Operating System Upgrade, ACME, Information
Assurance, Access Database, Database, JavaScript, Programming, Web Tutorials, Archive, Brief.
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Table of Content
1. Opening Statement
2. Coding Review
3. Network Review
4. Access Database Review
5. Information Assurance Presentation
6. Web Tutorials
a. Homepage Setup
b. Enabling and Disabling Cookies
7. Glossary
8. References
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Operating System Upgrade Brief
for ACME
ACME has been growing in leaps and bounds. Since its last operating system upgrade it
has grown from fourteen employees to nineteen. To help create a smooth upgrade process to our
new operating system the following projects have been conducted. A review of computer
coding, its core components was conducted resulting in the implementation of a countdown to
allow users to know when their workstation will be unviable to do the upgrade. The current
network structure was examined, recommendations for changes to the network and updates to the
network map were made.
An Access Database was created to organize and sort the information regarding which
employee had which workstation and to allow the Help Desk a quick reference for contacting
employees, what additional software maybe installed on the employees system.
Recommendations were also made to update the requested data query to include advanced
software packets.
To help both Help Desk workers, as well as employees understand the importance of
Information Assurance a PowerPoint presentation was created and included in this document. It
is also available on ACME’s intranet for new employees to review when hired.
Finally two short tutorials were created to assist Help Desk workers in updating the web
browsers of employee workstations, to reflect the company policies. These included setting the
browser homepage to the company’s webpage, and also how to enable and disable cookies as
needed.
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Coding Review
All programming languages have five basic components in common. These are syntax,
variables, control structures, data structures, and tools (Page, 2012). One way to understand
these five components is to look at how they relate to natural or human language.
In human language, syntax are the rules that governor how a language is structured. “1.
a. The set of rules and principles in a language according to which words, phrases, and clauses
are arranged to create well-formed sentences; (also) the analysis or study of such principles; the
branch of grammar concerned with this” (Syntax Def 1a). In programming language the syntax
is the structure needed to allow the code to be executed properly (Syntax Def 4; Page, 2012).
Variables are the storage of data in a retrievable format that allows for easy access over
multiple occurrences (Page, 2012). The variables of programming language relate to the
function of words in natural language, just as values relate to the individual letters (Elkner,
Downey, & Meyers, n.d.).
Control structures are similar to the use of punctuation in written English, they allow the
programmer to tell the program when to execute the commands in the code flow (Page, 2012).
Data structure is the control system for the programming language, and can be considered
neurolinguistics level of the programming language. Neurolinguistics is the study inside of
linguistics and natural language that deals with how the brain stores and interprets language
(Menn, n.d.) and data structure deals with the meta-level of the programs data (Page, 2012),
“[d]ata structure is an arrangement of data in a computer's memory or even disk storage. An
example of several common data structures are arrays, linked lists, queues, stacks, binary trees,
and hash tables (…)” (Hunter, 2011).
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The final commonality between all programming languages are tools. The tools used for
programming languages are designed to help the programmer work quicker (Page, 2012). These
consist of code/text editors like NotePad++ and Sublime Text Editor (Notepad. n.d.; Sublime
text. n.d.), to Integrated Development Environment (IDE) (Furey & Pottjewjid, n.d.; Page, 2012).
IDEs in particular are helpful for allowing the programmer to write the code, as well as compile,
and test it, quickly to see the results (O'Dell, 2010). The tools of programming language can be
compared to both the invention of moveable type, and now the computer word processor,
allowing for quick replication and testing of the written world.
With our upcoming Operating System upgrade, an announcement was needed to alert our
fellow workers when their computers would be upgrade. A provided JavaScript code was
provided to be modify to make this announcement. The variable of Upgrade Day was modified,
var UpgradeDay = new Date (“March 5, 2016”);, allowing the initial group to know when there
upgrade would be occurring, and then was additionally modified for the additional upgrade
groups. The following screenshots provide documentation of these changes.
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Figure 3. Five days after initial date, Group 3. (Please note that Group 2, and 3 show the
same number of days until upgrade due to an error in saving the original screen shot for Group
3.)
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Network Review
The upcoming Operating System upgrade presents an opportune time to review and make
possible changes to ACME’s Local Area Network (LAN)
ACME currently uses the following LAN diagram:
Figure 6. Current ACME network map.
It uses six icons to represent fourteen nodes. These consist of the router-firewall,
department server, printers (one for each department) and nine IP addresses for nine computers
split evenly between three departments.
The router-firewall functions to encrypt and filter incoming traffic to prevent
unauthorized access from sources outside of the LAN (Smith, 2015c). There is a department
server which allows for each department to access information that is too large to store on a
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single workstation or that multiple users need to access (Smith, 2015b). Each department has its
own printer which permits them to print without interfering with other departments’ printing
needs. There are nine workstations listed in the Network. The final component is the Ethernet:
Ethernet defines two units of transmission, packet and frame. The frame includes not just
the "payload" of data being transmitted but also addressing information identifying the
physical "Media Access Control" (MAC) addresses of both sender and receiver, VLAN
tagging and quality of service information, and error-correction information to detect
problems in transmission. (Rouse, n.d.b)
The structure of this Network currently follows a bus configuration, meaning that all the
data travels over a single communication line (Rouse, n.d.a; Smith, 2015a). This allows for each
node to function independently, so that if a single node goes down, the others are still able to
function (Rouse, n.d.a; Smith, 2015a). However, with the growth that ACME has experienced,
the bus configuration will not be sufficient much longer. Since the last update to the Network
diagram, ACME now has fourteen workstations compared to the nine shown on the diagram.
This information can be found in the Access database for the operating system and in the report
on said database when looking at the screenshot of the query results. Any additional growth will
mean that the Network configuration will most likely need to be changed.
Recommendations
The Network diagram needs to be updated to show the IP addresses of the additional five
workstations that ACME has recently added. It is also recommended that in addition to IP
addresses, location information should be available in the Access database regarding the
upcoming Operating System upgrade (Galler, 2013). A backup server for the department server
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should also be added to the Network in case there is any disruption or damage to the primary
server (Wilson, n.d.).
A star network would be the best solution for any additional growth. It would allow for
additional nodes to be added, and it would present nearly the same level of stability to the bus
configuration (Rouse, n.d.c; Smith, 2015a).
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Access Database Review
For the Operating System upgrade, the Help Desk needs to have quick access to when
specific computers will be unavailable during the upgrade. To that end an Access Database has
been created so that any Help Desk worker can quickly find this information. Additional
information regarding the data types, and modifications have been included below, along with
recommendations.
Review of Database Tables
Microsoft Access Database Data Type Terms.
To assist Help Desk workers who many not be as familiar with Access as others, the non-
text Data Types that have been used for this database that are explained briefly in a glossary that
is hyperlinked at the end of this document.
Database Tables
For this section the information presented in regular view is listed, as are the Data Types
in the Design View that are not Text. There is not a one to one correspondence between the
views.
Computer Information Table
Regular View:
Shows the Computer ID, its location, the employee ID, and which computers/users have
the Advanced Software Packet.
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Design View
Here we see that the Computer ID Data Type is Number, Employee ID is Number, and
the Advanced Software Packet is Yes/No.
Employee Information Table
Regular View
Here we have Employee IDs, Last Name, First Name, Job Title, Office Phone (note that
this is just the employees’ extensions. If any Help Desk workers are offsite you will need to call
the office number (555)-555-5555, then the extension), and the employees’ mobile phones.
Design View
Both Employee ID and Office Phone are the Data Type of Number.
Job Titles Table
Regular View
The Job Titles at ACME are Administrative Assistant, CEO, Chairman, Director, Finance
Officer, Marketing Officer, Sales Associate, and Vice President.
Design View
The only Data Type for Job Title table is Short Text.
Upgrade Information Table
Regular View
This table shows the Computer ID, the Current OS Version a user/computer has, the
version of the OS that the Computer will be upgraded to, the Upgrade Group, and the Upgrade
Date.
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Design View
Here we see Computer ID with a Data Type of Number. The Data Type for Upgrade Date
was Short Text and has been changed to Date/Time per supervisor’s instructions.
Review of Database Modifications
The Upgrade Dates for Operating System have been entered into the Access Database, for
this process the Upgrade Group Field was filtered by group to make sure that the dates for each
group were entered properly, and no date would be given to the wrong group. Instead of entering
the date by hand, the calendar form was utilized to take advantage of shifting the Data Type from
Short Text to Date/Time.
Review of Database Query
For the query for the database OS Upgrade, the tables are structured to pull first from the
Employee Information, then the Computer Information, and then the Upgrade Information. The
Primary Key for Employee Information is the Employee ID. For Computer Information and
Upgrade Information the Primary Key is the Computer ID.
The tables connect the Employee ID in Employee Information to the Employee ID in the
Computer Information table. The Computer Information table’s Computer ID is connected to the
Upgrade Information table’s Computer ID. These are connected to allow for easily recognizable
information across the tables, so that when the query is run it is easy for the Help Desk worker to
quickly see which user is associated with which computer.
The query pulls the Last Name, First Name and Job Title from the Employee Information
Table, the Location from Computer Information, and the Upgrade Group from the Upgrade
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Recommendation
Upon review, it is my recommendation that the query be updated to also show which users have
the Advanced Software Pack. This could be helpful for the Help Desk workers if complications
arise because of the Advanced Software Pack during the OS upgrade. Screen shots of design
view and run for this query change have also been included here.
Figure 8: Design view of recommended change, showing the inclusion of Advance Software
Packet.
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Figure 9: Query ran with Advance Software Pack recommendation, showing the addition of the
Advanced Software Packet column.
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Information Assurance
In preparation for the Operating System Upgrade the following presentation on
information assurance was created.
WHYTAKETHE
RISK?
The importance of information assurance
at ACME.
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Web Tutorials
Help Desk workers will need to update the company’s work station to reflect ACME’s
web policies. Google Chrome should be the only installed web browser, ACME’s website
should be set as the homepage, and that unless approved by a supervisor cookies should not be
turned on. The following tutorials are to assist Help Desk workers in completing the last two
processes.
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Web Tutorial: Setting Company Homepage
Per company policy Google Chrome is the only browser that should be installed on
workstations, and the company’s website should be the default home page. To that end the
following tutorial has been provide to assist Help Desk workers in setting the default homepage.
Once Google Chrome is open navigate to the icon of three horizontal lines, this is the
Menu icon.
Move down to Settings:
Once the Setting screen comes up you will see Appearance, and you will need checkmark the
box Show Home Page:
Next click on the Change link and the following dialog will appear:
In the Open this Page section type http://www.acme.com and click Ok:
You have now successfully changed the default homepage on Google Chrome to the
ACME website per policy.
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Web Tutorial: Enabling and Disabling Cookies
Cookies small text files that websites download to a user’s computer to keep track of the
websites they visit. This allows for easy information gathering, and advertisement track
(Allaboutcookies.org. n.d.). This tutorial will explain how to turn cookies on and off.
First you will neet to navigate to the three hortizonal bars, which in Chrome is the
Menu: . Next you’ll need to go to Settings:
and at the bottom you will see Show Advanced Settings:
Once this has been clicked go to the Privacy section, and click on Content Settings:
Inside of Content settings you will see:
This will need to be change to Block sites from setting any data:
You have now finished turning off cookies in Google Chrome.
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Glossary
Data Type Number: Is specifically for numeric input, this does not include currency
which should be done with the Data Type Currency ("Introduction to data types properties,"
n.d.).
Data Type Yes/No: Is a simple Boolean value input, for those unfamiliar with Boolean
inputs are a simple True or False ("Introduction to data types and field properties," n.d.; Groh,
Alexander, & Kusleika, 2013).
Data Type Date/Time: Are meant to be used for both Date and Time, instead of using the
Short Text Data Type:
When working with dates, you’re almost always better off storing the data in a Date/Time
field than as a Short Text field. Text values sort differently from dates (dates are stored
internally as numeric values), which can upset reports and other output that rely on
chronological order. (Groh et al., 2013)
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