2.4 Develop a High-Level Design

After you gather the data that is required to build the design of the infrastructure, you can develop a high-level design. It is important at this point to understand what the infrastructure is going to look like, so documenting your high-level thoughts and plans is critical to the success of the project.

Developing a high-level design consists of building two main outputs:

  • Assessment Document: A high-level design document that outlines the general placement of services across the company's infrastructure. This document does not need to identify servers to be utilized or deployed to host the specific ZENworks services. The document should simply outline the services themselves and where they will reside across the network. Your high-level design should include the following information:

    • Number of ZENworks Management Zones needed

    • Interconnection for ZENworks Management Zones

    • Number and placement of Primary Servers

    • Number and placement of Satellite Servers

    • Placement of the Database Server

    • Services that run at each location based on the requirements gathered during the business assessment.

    • Configuration of network services

    • Utilization of network infrastructure such as L4 switches to front the Primary Servers if required

    • Remote access capabilities through the demilitarized zone (DMZ) or Join Proxy.

  • High-level Graphic Design Diagram: As a supplement to the assessment document, you should also develop a graphical representation of the infrastructure. This diagram should reflect exactly what you have described in the document. It should be at a high level so that everyone can see what the infrastructure is going to look like after the ZENworks deployment is complete.

For detailed information about the design process, see Section 3.0, Design.