Backing up staff laptop data

[User3204]

Okay, someone will have asked this before, but I can't seem to find anything.

 

I'm pretty sure that we're supposed to be backing up staff data from their laptops, but I'm not sure how to do this.

 

The staff all save their files on their laptops, but I want to be able to back this up onto a central server. The offline files won't work, as it's the wrong way round.

 

 

How do other people backup staff data ?

Avoiding (if possible), saving all their "personal" music files.

 

 

 

We don't back this up as frequently as we should, currently we just copy everythig across to a fileserver, when (and if) we bring it in for a service. :oops:

 

I'd like to avoid something that hogs the bandwith, as we use a wireless network, and I don't really want 100 staff all logging on, on a Monday and having something attempting to copy across 1gb of data each.

[Oops_my_bad]

When you say offline files dont work because they're the wrong way round - what exactly do you mean?

 

With us it's a case of user education. We set up a certain folder to synchronise with offline files and they are told to put important stuff into that folder. Large music/video files are prohibited

[Geoff]

This is a policy issue for us. Just stick something in your AUP that summarises the following.

 

We wash our hands of it and it's up to staff to sort themselves out. Of course we'll explain/demonstrate how to do it if asked. But the bottom line is that if staff don't practice good backup procedures and lose data, tough.

 

This is also applicable to usb pen drives/floppy disks/cds as well.

 

Oh, and you might want to cover data protection issues too while your at it.

[MkII]

Same here. We tell staff that they have home folders on the network to save files to that we back up 9 times (mon to thur, 4 fridays and termly).

 

If they chhose not to save files there, the risk of data loss becomes their responsibilty.

 

I do mention data protection about taking potentially sensitive content off site.

 

I also make it clear that USB drives will eventually corrupt and everything will be lost when they do.

 

Strangely that firstly applies to all of our SMT. They think it's not so secure to keep files on the network than a single copy loose on an unprotected USB Drive. Unbelievable but true.

[User3204]

@TeddyKGB

 

Well I _thought_ offline files only worked for shares from the server.

Our users save their documents into the local "My Documents" folder. I didn;t think there was anyway I could tell Windows to upload this folder to a server...

 

I get annoyed sometimes with the offline files, as we get it trying to synchronise with the Application Shares.... So I switched it all off..

 

@Geoff and Mark.

 

Oh, yeah, I tell them to copy their docs up to the server, but this doesn't mean they do it...

And we're running low on space on the staff user file server...

 

 

If they save their docs onto the server, then they can't access them from home.. it's the usual problem.

 

 

 

I was hoping someone had a good piece of software that auto-synchronised the data with a server. Ah well.

 

One of our retailers is trying to sell me ArcServer to do this, but I was afraid it would use all the wireless bandwidth.

[robknowles]

I use a product called Smartsync (http://www.smsync.com/) to synchronise files between laptops and the user's home network folders. Allows you to allow/deny certain files (great for mp3's, avi's etc). I've set it so it synchronises at startup and logoff and also every 30 minutes during the day (each laptop is offset, so there's only 3 laptops syncing at anyone time). I have a wireless network here with about 100 staff laptops with this setup and it all seems to work great,

 

Rob

[bishopsgarthstockton]

This is a policy issue for us. Just stick something in your AUP that summarises the following.

 

We wash our hands of it and it's up to staff to sort themselves out. Of course we'll explain/demonstrate how to do it if asked. But the bottom line is that if staff don't practice good backup procedures and lose data, tough.

 

This is also applicable to usb pen drives/floppy disks/cds as well.

 

Oh, and you might want to cover data protection issues too while your at it.

 

This is what i have done here. They soon learn when they bring the laptop to me in a sorry state. I simply dont have time to fanny around trying to rescure the work, there for i just re image them. It eventually sinks in

[Grommit]

We give the staff a Laptop and a 256mb Flash drive... thats all...

 

If they do work on the laptop they use the Flash drive to transfer the files to the school servers..

 

The reason it's only 256 is that we find that the staff will fill a 512 or 1gb flash drive and copy it all to the server.. than they will do it again repeating most of the stuff they have copied before... so we give them small Flash drive.

The backing up of their laptops os thier problem...

 

We also do not allow the staff laptops onto the Domain.. they are kept as stand alones..

 

Much better this way

[User3204]

@Grommit

Does SIMS work like this ?

Or do you use something else, we have wireless network and laptops for each staff to _make_ them do the register every lesson (No, it doesn't work).

 

@robknowles

I will have a look at that, the only thing I wanted to do, that I have been told Arcserve will do, is make it centrally controlled... although not sure how much.

 

 

I want to take the onus of backups away from the staff, as they're not doing it. I could probably get away with a weekly/ monthly backup rota, and leave anything else up to them.

 

I also wanted them to be able to backup over the wireless (if they're in school), or the internet (if they're not).

[robknowles]

Smartsync isn't centrally controlled, however, you can export a profile (all the settings for the sync) and then import it into each user/machine and then just modify, in my case, the UNC Path for user's my documents.

 

You may be able to do this programmaticly via a script (AutoScript?), but I've never investigated this.

 

The program does allow the backup to a zip file which can be set to upload to an FTP Server - so useful for the last point you made about the internet.

 

Rob

[omeydog]

All our staff laptops (except the head's and child protection officer's - both for confidentiality reasons) are on the school domain so 'My Documents' gets backed up as part of the user's profile. When staff go away from the school network (we do let them out of the building occasionally!) they get a little warning from Windows that their profile is not available but they know how to live with that.......

 

All of the user profiles are also copied to a backup server on a daily basis - the backup server is physically located at the opposite end of the school building to protect against fire etc. Each weekend the entire contents of the backup server are automatically uploaded to a remote FTP server.

[Osprey]

We set up staff laptops as stand alone, i.e. not on the domain so we use Microsoft's SyncToy. It's free and it does the job. Strangely it can be found in the digital photography section of Microsoft's website. It has some limitations but it seems good enough for the staff, they end up with a synchronised copy of their work in a folder in their user area which is then backed to tape each night.

[Ric_]

What I do: Staff laptops are part of the domain and the re-directed MyDocuments synchronises at logon/logoff using offline files. This seems to work fine over wireless... I get the user to do the initial synchronisation plugged in though. We handle large files through policy... it is technically illegal to have any music files that are not royalty-free or owned by the school and I know for a fact that the school doesn't have an iTunes account

 

An alternative that I thought about: Retrospect Multi-Server (which I use for backups) has an unlimited client license which could in theory do a proactive backup of the user areas whenever the backup server sees the laptop. You can set exceptions in this too.

[Grommit]

@Grommit

Does SIMS work like this ?

Or do you use something else, we have wireless network and laptops for each staff to _make_ them do the register every lesson (No, it doesn't work).

 

.

 

They do not use SIMS on the Laptops as every classroom has a Teacher PC, the satffroom has 4 PC's and Ecah Departmental Office has 4 PC's for the staff to use...

 

The Staff use Bromcom Winfolder on the Staff PC's for Registers..

 

If every room on the site has a PC in whats the use of Laptops on site ? nothing reallly so they take them home..

[seanmh]

Our staff can logon to the network or locally on their laptop. In school they are supposed to logon to the network side of things where their My documents folder is redirected to their network home folder.

 

If they logon locally (e.g. at home) then My Documents is on the C drive. I have shown them how to copy from My documents on C to their network folder and usually create a shortcut in their network folder that points to my docs on the C drive to allow they to do this easily.

 

However ANY work that they keep in the my docs folder on the C drive is THEIR responsibility and our laptop agreement that they sign when they are first issued a laptop makes this clear and our SMT fully support this policy.

 

Teachers want to count themselves lucky, I have a friend who works for Disney in America on the IT side of things who told me that any equipment that leaves their site e.g. laptops taken home by staff is not supported in any shape or form, I wonder how they would like this? :twisted:

[omeydog]

Teachers want to count themselves lucky

 

NO - NO - NO

 

The IT equipment in schools exists to serve the education of children - whether by assisting teachers to do their job or to help with directly educating children in the classroom or as a means to provide students with core ICT skills.......

 

For far too long, staff and students have been the slave of the IT setup - it must be the other way round because the minute that IT makes life more difficult rather than easier, is the minute we need to order a skip to dump all those computers into so we can use the space and resources they take up for better purposes.

 

As IT professionals it is our responsibility to make technology as accessible as possible and to ensure that the teachers in the front line of delivering education have the confidence and skills to use IT in appropiate means - that also means that we need to ensure that what we are delivering meets the actual need and not some hyperthetical need that we percieve........

[Grommit]

Teachers want to count themselves lucky

 

NO - NO - NO

 

The IT equipment in schools exists to serve the education of children - whether by assisting teachers to do their job or to help with directly educating children in the classroom or as a means to provide students with core ICT skills.......

 

For far too long, staff and students have been the slave of the IT setup - it must be the other way round because the minute that IT makes life more difficult rather than easier, is the minute we need to order a skip to dump all those computers into so we can use the space and resources they take up for better purposes.

 

As IT professionals it is our responsibility to make technology as accessible as possible and to ensure that the teachers in the front line of delivering education have the confidence and skills to use IT in appropiate means - that also means that we need to ensure that what we are delivering meets the actual need and not some hyperthetical need that we percieve........

 

Hello .... What planet are you living on ???? La la land ?

 

Listen mate.. how long have you been in ICT is schools for ? beacuse we try to give the best but then we hit a big snag... It's called Teachers who find it difficult to log on let alone using up to date technology....

 

So please don't preach to me.. untill you've been on the front line

[_Bat_]

Teachers want to count themselves lucky

For far too long, staff and students have been the slave of the IT setup - it must be the other way round because the minute that IT makes life more difficult rather than easier, is the minute we need to order a skip to dump all those computers into so we can use the space and resources they take up for better purposes.

 

I'd say in places where this happens in schools, it is not due to the technician or technical team, but more likely due to a lack of budget.

[User3204]

I'm all for making life easier for the staff (to an extent), but the students should have to muddle through things, as otherwise they'll never learn (in My opinion, our management have different ideas, and I do as I'm asked/told).

 

IT is difficult, sometimes, if they get a job they might need to work out how the corporate IT systems work, and they'll only be able to do this well, if they have been able to figure out how the educational IT systems work.

 

 

BUt, this is off topic, and I'm sure we could discuss this elsewhere, as I'm sure it has been already...

 

We're supposed to be telling me the best way I can backup the staff laptop data..... hey....

 

I have downloaded the trial for smsync, as someone (whos' name is on the previous page, and so I can't see at the moment), suggested. It looks quite good, I have set it to sync up my laptop docs to the student file server (the one with several 100 gigs of space free). I like the way it keeps advising me that it is synchronising automatically, but I suspect other people get annoyed with this sort of pop-ups.

 

I think if I can work out some sort of remote access system (webdav or FTP) for the staff accounts, then I can get it to sync up across the 'net too.

 

-yay one more thing I need to sort out.... preferably before September.

[chrbb]

I don't do offline files in case we end up with hol snaps, videos,mp3s etc on the server. I have set up a folder called backup in the laptop user's 'my docs' with a batch file that they click on to copy everything from this folder to a similarly named folder in their drive on the server. Some teacher's save all their work in this folder, some just put work in they don't want to loose.

I also have made it clear that having set up, provided them with instructions and a demo that the responsibility for backing up is theirs. most ot them just click on the batch file icon before they log off.

[broc]

I am looking at automating the backup of certain file types (mainly MS Office data) on staff laptops to a server. I don't want to use syncronise files/offline files.

 

In the past staff have been asked (even told) to take more care/responsibility for backing up their data but it clearly doesn't always happen & from time to time we lose data. (Right now I don't want to engage in fruitless debates about responsibility etc etc )

 

I have seen earlier references to SmartSync, we use Secondcopy for a small number of systems already, has anyone come across anything else that will do the job?

 

I want staff to have little involvement in the process (preferably none). My goal is to automatically scan their machines for new/changed files either in real time or on a scheduled basis & copy them to a server, maintaining multiple copies of the files would be a bonus.

 

I realise that this will not be a 100% catch all solution, ideally I could do with something robust enough to cope with staff slamming the laptop lid shut, yanking out the network cable and walking off with the system in mid-backup!

[witch]

The staff here can work on the network (in which case their stuff is saved on the server) or off it in which case they can either save to their C drive or drop stuff into a folder called 'laptop' which is a shared drive on the server.

It is entirely their responsibility and I don't want to copy their C drive as I know they are filled with all sorts of tosh!