Ok, so this post needs to start with an apology to the team that gave up their time to speak to me - namely Phil Neal, Graham Cooper and Cath Lane for excellent organising skills as always.
Back in the Summer, I was privileged to attend the Capita SIMS Annual Conference - where I was treated to the latest news and developments from the inside. This post serves both as a record of the event - and as a eye-opener to where Capita are taking SIMS. There's some really interesting things coming up,
Here's a first for me - a guest blog! Whilst Ive been busy writing new articles (there are about 5 part written at the moment...note to self, must finish those) - technology continues to move on. Xbox One, Google Glass and many more - and with BETT around the corner, that list of "new" will continue to grow! So, it was quite fitting that I was approached by Cath Lane and her team (http://www.catherinelane.co.uk) with an interesting post about how technology can be used to bring equality. Now, th
So, back at the end of January, I got the opportunity to sit down with a number of the key people behind SIMS, namely Jon Wood, Graham Cooper, Ben Jones and Phil Neal.
Above - Phil Neal (MD); Graham Cooper (Head of Product Strategy)
This follows my article on SLG; and the hints at what was to become the Spring 2013 SIMS.net release.
It was refreshing to get to speak so candidly with the team behind SIMS - arguably, these guys come in for a fair amount of grief from the community. Th
Some of you may have read from my previous Microsoft School Blog posts that I run a HyperV Clustered network. This consists of 3 HyperV Hosts, running Server 2008 R2 (considering when to upgrade to 2012)... with the VHD server data files located on a SAN.
This allows me to use the Failover Clustering feature to manage the resilience of the network.
This week; I came across an odd problem.
I was getting ready to do some maintenance across the system - and running a backup across the Host
A departure from my normal blog topics to something even more relevant to a lot of schools than my normal writings.
Introduction
SIMS is a School Management database, written and supported by Capita Education Services. 6 months has passed since I was invited to join Capita at their Annual Conference to see and write about forthcoming changes, as well as report back on the year (and ask the awkward questions from the community). In this post, Im going to pick up on SIMS Learning Gateway (SLG
This post is a continuation of my battle to compelte a cohesive intranet; and some more ramblings about Sharepoint. Its turned into a monster of a project this one. The external single sign on (SSO) was a breeze - thanks to Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) - but this presented an issue - internal or external, you would be faced with a logon screen. Not ideal - internally we wanted a double SSO which would use your Active Directory logon session to SSO with the TMG HTTP session.
Lets
Its been a long time since I last wrote about Sharepoint - the platform for our Intranet; but now with the rest of the ongoing projects nearing completion - I've been able to return to this monster of a project.
Introduction
So, lets go back to the start and show what the end goal was.
1. Intranet Portal - containing Departmental, Staff and Student Areas. Department areas would have staff and student storage as well as news, events, discussions, blogs and all the usual suspects
2. Book
Those who follow my blogs will know that I run a Thin Client section of my network - powered by Windows Thin PC (aka Windows 7 lite... it runs NT6.1) with Server 2008 R2.
This post follows http://www.edugeek.net/blogs/thescar...nt-part-2.html and
Introduction
Last time out on RDS, we set up Single Sign on, so that our users would log onto a Windows Thin PC as themselves, and changed the shell from "explorer.exe" so that instead a Remote Desktop session was triggered. This would automatic
Ok, so I think people who follow my work often will know that Im a bit of a fan of the whole System Centre thing (yes - I know ive spelt System Centre properly, not the American "Center" that gets used everywhere!).
You see, Configuration Manager - formerly Systems Management Server has always been a winner for me; but the real power now comes if you extend the stort by combining the elements of the suite together. System Centre is designed so that its components share information with eachot
Well, I know its been a long time since my last published blog post! The truth is Ive been working on a few for a while now - but just never got round to finishing any of them.
Heres the first of my next batch... a return to an earlier thread of posts, originally related to Printing on Remote Desktop.
First, a bit of background... traditionally, most systems will be set up to map printers via a logon script. The script typically checks a machine name and adds the appropriate printers based
Another diversion from my usual blog posts - but this one came out of necessity, when I had issues with my SQL databases for SIMS and FMS. Many of you may know that FMS has its own "SQL" logins, as does SIMS - but at least with that, you can set it to use Windows Authentication.
Anyway, my problem - I was greeted by FMS with the lovely "Cannot rollback atomic" error whenever logging in. It turns out this error (after some digging) has lots of causes - none of them really to do with SIMS or FM
On Wednesday 11th July, I was pleased to be able to welcome collegues from the Plymouth area to a “pilot” meeting – where we could discuss and collaborate on the various challenges we faced. We were also fortunate to be joined by a number of industry specialists to offer their advice and details of emerging trends.
The event started with Paul Harris, from the Micrsosoft Schools Business Team. Paul opened with the advert for Microsoft Surface – and that is the new Microsoft Surface, the table
Post 3 in this mini-series giving you the information from the Capita LA Event... and up this time; a bit of history of the SIMS Learning Gateway product with where it's headed. Incidentally at this point - this is probably the worst product name! It is NOT - never has been, never will be, was never supposed to be - a Learning Gateway. Nor was it ever going to be a replacement for SIMS.net! I did have some great discussions with Phil Neal and new product manager Ben Jones about this.
Now we h
This post continues from my last - discussing the themes and news from the Capita LA Conference. I know this will come as a surprise to some, who will have been expecting more "geeky" System Centre or HyperV stuff - but my community work will also form my blogs too!
The Key Note speech at the event was made by Tony Travers. Tony Travers is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, a research centre at the London School of Economics. He is also a Visiting Professor in t
A departure from some of my more recent posts about System Centre - now time to concentrate on more of the Consultancy and Technology Evangelism Im also involved with.
This time, I was very fortunate to be invited to the Capita SIMS LA Conference, held at Alton Towers. Thanks must go to Cath Lane and her team, as well as Phil Neal and the Product Managers who spared their time to talk to me. This is the first of a selection of posts which will appear this week discussing the themes of the eve
Welcome to Part 5 of my now EPIC System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM) series! Heres the 2nd of your "two for you money" weekend deal :-p. So - this time round we are going introduce a new dark art - Task Sequences. These are the power of SCCM; and will actually get your deployment off the ground. After anything specific Ive not covered, or that you think Ive missed, please comment or send me a PM. Alternatively, you can find me on Twitter @TheScarfedOne.
Introduction to a dark art
sequ
Welcome to Part 4c of my System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM) series! Yes.... this one has been a while coming - so Im going to give you two for you money today! So - this time round we are going to finish off the building your first Windows 7 image. After anything specific Ive not covered, or that you think Ive missed, please comment or send me a PM. Alternatively, you can find me on Twitter @TheScarfedOne.
Drivers - aka the HELL!
One of the issues you'll probably face sooner or later
Those who follow my blogs will remember that last Summer, I set about building a single platform system - based around Windows 7/Server 2008 R2. This post deals with the final part of the jigsaw relating to the Thin Client section - powered by Windows Thin PC (aka Windows 7 lite... it runs NT6.1)
This post follows http://www.edugeek.net/blogs/thescarfedone/1108-remote-desktop-thin-client-part-2.html
Introduction
So – if you are using Terminal Server, or to give it its new name – Remote De
This article was originally posted on the Microsoft Schools blog on 20th Jan 2012
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ukschools/archive/2012/01/19/building-school-networks-for-the-future-with-system-centre-and-hyper-v.aspx
Building School Networks for the Future - with System Centre and HyperV
One of our (many) friends over at EduGeek has recently done some work with Marine Academy Plymouth taking over their systems in May 2011. We have now a series which charts the process of systems modernisation fr
Ok - so from Outlook, you've been able to share your calendar with another user for ages. The problem is there haven't really been many options around automating this. Well - enter some handy new features in Exchange 2010.
The calendar sharing feature introduced in Outlook Web App 2010 (OWA) allows a user to grant access to their calendar to another user. To access the option, click on the Share option when in the Calendar and then on Share This Calendar. You’ll then be able to select the use
Welcome to Part 4b of my System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM) series! So - on with Part b of getting SCCM ready for building your first Windows 7 image - how to deploy that (with a load of extra options and fancy stuff!) to your estate. In the mean time, if there is something specific you need, or that you think Ive missed, please comment or send me a PM. Alternatively, you can find me on Twitter @TheScarfedOne.
Add New operating system image
Remember Ive been saying you are going to n
Welcome to Part 4a of my System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM) series! So - here is probably the most anticipated post - how to get started with OS Imaging! Im going to show you how to get SCCM ready for building your first Windows 7 image - and then in 4b, how to deploy that (with a load of extra options and fancy stuff!) to your estate. In the mean time, if there is something specific you need, or that you think Ive missed, please comment or send me a PM. Alternatively, you can find me on
Welcome to Part 3 of my System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM) series! I know its taken me a bit longer to get this lot sorted, and I hope that Im covering the mailbag of questions Ive had - but if there is something specific you need, please comment or send me a PM. Alternatively, you can find me on Twitter @TheScarfedOne.
Part 3 is going to deal with your initial configuration. Im going to take you on a whistle-stop tour to get your basic SCCM system ready to do a Build and Capture in P
Welcome to Part 2 of my System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM) series – desigined to show you how to get a basic setup up and running in a day not a week!
So, Im guessing you’ve gone through Part 1 – and are now ready to get on with the actual install.
You will be needing those two AD accounts - SCCMAdmin and SCCMClient – so make sure you have them ready.
Starting the Install
STOP – SCCM needs to extend the AD Schema. If you have not installed SCCM before, you will need to do t
