JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND

TECHNOLOGYInformation Technology Department

P O Box 62000, Nairobi, KENYA. Telephone: 067-52252/3/4, 067-52711

Ext: 2240

Fax: 067-52254

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND

INFORTMATION TECHNOLOGY

INDUSTRIAL ATTACHMENT REPORT

AUTHOR: MARVIN NJUGUNA WARUIRU

REG. NO: DIT-D1-0007/2014

COURSE: DIPLOMA IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

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INSTITUTION ATTACHED: RISINGSTAR COMMODITIES LTD.

DATE ATTACHED: 21-MAY-2015 – 10-JULY-2015

ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR: FRANCIS THIONG’O

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 19-AUGUST-2015

This report has been submitted to Jomo Kenyatta University of

Agriculture and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements

of Diploma in Information Technology Course.

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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT....................................................41.0. Introduction..................................................52.0. Background information on Risingstar Commodities Ltd..........53.0. Attachment Details............................................53.1. Activities undertaken in the organization.....................5a) General I.T administration...................................5b) End-user desktop support.....................................6

3.2. Specific activities undertaken during attachment..............6a) Software Installation........................................6b) Schedule, make and restore backups...........................6c) Data recovery tasks............................................6d) Hardware installation, maintenance and troubleshooting.......6e) Wi-Fi access management........................................6f) Server management, maintenance and upgrade.....................7g) Internet access control and bandwidth management.............7

4.0. Profile of competencies and skills acquired...................74.1. Problems encountered..........................................85. Summary and conclusions.........................................8

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My gratitude goes to both Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture

and Risingstar Commodities Ltd. for providing me with this

opportunity to do this internship where I have gained several hands

on skills and knowledge working with live computer systems. A very

special thanks to my lecturer, Mr. Francis Thiong’o for being

considerate, supportive and understanding all through my training

and attachment period. I would also like to thank the General

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Manager and staff of Risingstar Commodities Ltd. for their

invaluable guidance, patience and encouragement despite their busy

schedules have allowed me to gain a better understanding and

appreciation in the Information Technology Field. Not forgetting my

fellow classmates and family members for their constant

encouragements and advice for which I am grateful. To crown it all,

immense gratitude goes to the Almighty Father for making it all

possible.

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1.0. Introduction

This attachment report outlines the skills and experiences acquired while on an Industrial attachment as part-time I.T Administrator andsupport staff for the award of a Diploma in Information Technology at Risingstar Commodities Ltd. between the 21st of May 2015 and 10th July 2015. The report outlines various duties performed, a profile of skills and expertise gained, strategy for utilization of the contacts established during this period, a critique of the status ofthe firm and finally, a summary and conclusion section.

2.0. Background information on Risingstar Commodities Ltd.

Risingstar Commodities Ltd. is an imports and distribution company established in 2002 with the sole aim of meeting the demands of meeting the demand of Kenyans for household commodities, mainly fooditems (rice and sugar).

The company boasts extensive purchase power, an extensive countrywide distribution network, and a customer base of over 1,200 clients countrywide. Risingstar is headquartered in Mombasa, with branch offices in Nairobi, Nakuru, Nyeri, Eldoret and Kisumu. They are the largest official agents of locally manufactured sugar as well as the largest distributors of imported rice from Pakistan and Vietnam.

Vision of Risingstar Commodities

To be the leading distribution company offering high quality goods in East and Central Africa.

3.0. Attachment Details

This section discusses the general and specifi activities that I undertook while on attachment as I.T administrator as Risingstar Commodities.

3.1. Activities undertaken in the organization

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They included the following:

a) General I.T administration

Risingstar operates daily from 8.30 AM to 5.30 PM. Based on their nature of business, it was my duty to ensure that all computers, telephone extensions, network equipment, servers, internet connection, printers and any hardware or software related to the I.Tdepartment were in optimal operating condition.

b) End-user desktop support

I would respond to user requests to assist in any difficulties experienced with their desktop computers, network and server access,document scanning, printing, hardware/software upgrades, hardware/software troubleshooting and internet downtimes.

3.2. Specific activities undertaken during attachment

In addition to the general routine duties highlighted above, the main tasks I performed are as outlined below:

a) Software Installation

This was a part of regular maintenance exercise whereby I was charged with reviewing software licenses and carry out installations. Most computers were running Windows XP and had to be upgraded to Windows 7. Other software related tasks, repairs and upgrades were also done.

b) Schedule, make and restore backups

This was precaution to ensure the company would not be adversely affected by loss or corruption of data. This is a measure I took up since it is critical and was not being performed properly. It is

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important to note that Risingstar has a total of 32 computers almostall of which are operated by regular users with very little I.T knowledge limited to the use of application packages and accounting applications. Backups were being performed only on the server omitting the user files stored on individual computers. I managed tointroduce a centrally managed backup solution (Acronis Backup and Recovery)that performs a backup of all document files in the individual PCs and the file & email servers, and store’s them on Network Access Storage drives. Backup were configured to run automatically according to the full weekly backup and daily incremental backup plans. The backup and recovery operations are handled by the server.

c) Data recovery tasks

Data recovery was necessary whenever a user performed an accidental deletion of files, accidental formatting, virus outbreak and hard drive failure. Accidental formatting of hard drives was resolved by denying administrative rights to staff using Windows Server Active Directory.

d) Hardware installation, maintenance and troubleshooting

This involved replacing old hard drives since Risingstar started offwith computers purchased in 2002. DVD drives and RAM upgrades were also installed in older computers to boost operations. Regular disk operations like partitioning and defragmenting were also carried out.

e) Wi-Fi access management

With the sudden access to affordable smart phones with Wi-Fi capability came along the high risk of mobile phone users gaining access to the corporate Wi-Fi network. The Wi-Fi password system in place was not effective enough to deny unauthorised access since users would gladly share the passwords with others in range of the company’s Wi-Fi for internet access regardless of whether these individuals were staff Risingstar or not. This posed a major security threat to the confidentiality of information stored in the system not forgetting slow internet speeds caused by unauthorised downloads. A solution to grant Wi-Fi access only to authorised devices was set in place by creating access lists that perform Mac

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Address filtering. This was secured further by the introduction of aRADIUS server for user account control.

f) Server management, maintenance and upgrade

The company has a two servers, one running Windows 2008 Server Standard, that acted as a file server and primary domain controller,and the other running Fedora Linux that operated as an email server on Zimbra Collaboration suite. Both these servers were operating on old hardware which had a great impact on operations since they were slow and inefficient. These servers were not running on actual server hardware rather they were just a regular desktop PCs with server operating systems installed.

I recommended the purchase of fully fledged server hardware to upgrade the current servers and delegate all operations to it. I installed Windows Server 2012 Datacenter as the primary operating system and promoted it to primary domain controller. I then transferred all server duties to it including DNS and DHCP, and decommissioned the old server.

I later Installed Hyper-V services which I used to create two virtual machines one of which I set up to replace the older email server running the same software platform as its predecessor. I later installed Mikrotik Router OS on the second server to provide RADIUS authentication and access over Wi-Fi thus eliminating the previous Wi-Fi security concerns.

DNS, MX Records and all server services were monitored on a daily basis and maintained accordingly.

g) Internet access control and bandwidth management

Another major problem was the abuse of internet access by the users.Due to the availability of free online media content, users would browse through sites such as Youtube that provided free viewing of online videos, and would at times download huge movie torrents. These activities would sometimes cripple the internet connection to the extent where core business applications such as email and ERP would fail since they depend on the internet for normal operation.

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This led me to add the role of proxy server to the current email server by installing and configuring Linux based IPtables and Squid proxy server to limit the size of downloads and deny access to torrents and adult sites altogether. This stabilised the internet connection drastically.

4.0. Profile of competencies and skills acquired

a) Effective and prompt two way communication process with necessary guidelines as to how it should be carried out and within which formal channels is necessary to ensure any commercial organization prospers.

b) Adoption of performance driven goals is necessary to boost employee morale and productivity.

c) Planning and organization of work schedules especially when dealing with online/active systems.

d) To interact with users with no technical I.T knowledge in a manner that they can relate with the activities being performedon and by the system.

4.1. Problems encountered

a) The university training program was rather more theoretical hence when confronted with these tasks, it was quite difficult to explain the expected outcomes. Most concepts were exhaustively discussed in the study material provided but not experimented.

b) Operating Systems. Only windows XP was covered whereas there are various operating systems out there such as Windows 7, Linux and Windows Server operating systems in the market.

c) Server administration is not covered in the course. These operating systems are already operational in today’s organizations.

d) Network management. It was rather difficult to administer and manage a network of more than 30 users on both desktop PCs and

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wireless devices. User access control on Wi-Fi was especially challenging.

e) Migration of online and working systems to new server hardware was extremely difficult since the company could not afford any downtime yet the changes had to be implemented.

5. Summary and conclusions

Risingstar Commodities has progressed extremely well since it was founded in 2002 and exhibits great signs of growing into a multinational organization. As the company continues to grow, so does its data, operations and demand for newer technologies.

In conclusion, there is a foreseen need for Risingstar Commodities to invest in an I.T department and employ knowledgeable and competent staff who shall maintain and manage the existing systems as well as perform system upgrades and implement new technologies asneed arises.

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