As you know, I moved from the Ministry of Education (MoE) to the Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago. However, during my final months, I was on the verge of getting approval and funding for a networking infrastructure upgrade at my assigned school.
Though my departure removed any obligation I had to the project, I felt I was leaving things unfinished . . . abandoning all the progress made. So, I offered to return in my spare time and spearhead the project if the items were purchased. Now, considering I have been championing this request, post my departure, I didn’t think that it would happen. I was wrong.
The MoE had a replacement technician assigned to the school during my final week and he reached out to smoothen the transition. I ensured he had network documentation, device layouts, configuration information and the unofficial politics of the place. I also provided the details of the networking project in hopes he picked up where I left off and iterated my offer to return should he need any assistance.
For 3 months, he occasionally called for clarification on some aspects of the school systems. Then, the big surprise came! He sent a picture of the purchased equipment and said the school agreed to fund all the items I initially requested.
To clarify, this project’s purpose was to prepare the network for future upgrades, simplify troubleshooting of the cabling infrastructure, and provide robust wireless connectivity to the staff room. The list of items included:
- 18U Network Rack
- 3 24 port patch panels
- Network shelves
- Unifi Access Point
- Patch Cables
Part of the design used a rack-mounted UPS for another project. Now that we had the equipment, the next step was to get everything installed. A date was set, and we estimated that installation and move over of all equipment would take 2 days.
Full disclosure, I never led a project like this before despite working on similar projects at other organizations. My biggest fear was knowing if anything went wrong, I would be leaving someone else to deal with the aftermath. I had to make sure we got it right the first time.
Day One
Mostly demolition. We had to remove a built-in desk from the space we intended to mount the rack. We secured all the switches, servers, routers, and cabling that would be installed. With our progress, we were able to mount the frame to the wall before the day was over.
Day Two
Cabling and equipment installation. Things went as well as one could hope. Punching down the ethernet cables was much more time-consuming than I thought it would be. About over 60 individual “drops.”
We were able to finish the project within the allotted time and ensure all the connections throughout the school were operational. With the completion of this project, the school can now easily make upgrades to the network work with minimal downtime or disruption.
Final Thoughts
This project ends the list of improvements I have made at the school including:
- Simplifying wireless network connection through unifying under a single SSID
- Configuring Windows Server
- Setting up Active DirectorySetting up a Windows Deployment ServicesSetting up Windows Deployment ToolkitSetting up of DNS ServerSetting up Network Shares
- Deploying various Group Policies via OUs
- Installing and configuring pfSense router
- Reconfiguring of network topology
- Setting up WAN failover and load balancing
- Reconfiguring network subnetting and IP Addressing scheme
- Supervising of Ministry networking Wi-Fi upgrade project
- Executed purchase of various replacement hardware
- Improve the general health of the ICT infrastructure
- Generate documentation on configuration, topology, user accounts and key devices
- and Finally, install the network rack
- Mount rack to the wall
- Punch down patch panels
- Rewire cabling for switches
- Testing cabling
I can now close this chapter of my career passing the baton to the new ICT Technical Officer knowing that I have left a positive legacy at the school in my short time there.
Jemuel|Griffith 