JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND

TECHNOLOGY
Information 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

INSTITUTION ATTACHED:

RISINGSTAR COMMODITIES LTD.

DATE ATTACHED:

21-MAY-2015 10-JULY-2015

ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR:

FRANCIS THIONGO

DATE OF SUBMISSION:

19-AUGUST-2015
1

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.

Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................................................................4
1.0. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................5
2.0. Background information on Risingstar Commodities Ltd................................................................5
3.0. Attachment Details............................................................................................................................5
3.1. Activities undertaken in the organization..........................................................................................5
a)
General I.T administration.....................................................................................................5
b)
End-user desktop support.......................................................................................................6
3.2. Specific activities undertaken during attachment..............................................................................6
a)
Software Installation................................................................................................................6
b)
Schedule, make and restore backups.....................................................................................6
c) Data recovery tasks......................................................................................................................6
d)
Hardware installation, maintenance and troubleshooting...................................................6
e) Wi-Fi access management...........................................................................................................6
f) Server management, maintenance and upgrade.......................................................................7
g)
Internet access control and bandwidth management...........................................................7
4.0. Profile of competencies and skills acquired......................................................................................7
4.1. Problems encountered........................................................................................................................8
5. Summary and conclusions....................................................................................................................8

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 Thiongo for being considerate, supportive and understanding all through my training and
attachment period. I would also like to thank the General 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.

1.0. Introduction
This attachment report outlines the skills and experiences acquired while on an Industrial attachment
as part-time I.T Administrator and support 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 of the 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
food items (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

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.T department 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
important to note that Risingstar has a total of 32 computers almost all 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 to introduce 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 stores 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 off with 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
6

passwords with others in range of the companys 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 Address filtering. This was secured further by the introduction of a
RADIUS 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.
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.
7

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