Birmingham Schools - Office 365

[jamin100]

We're planning to move to Office 365 with an external supplier very soon ad have had the financing etc signed off.

 

Ive now just read the Migration to an external email provider document that Lnink2ICT need signing off by the governors before they will release the MX records for the domain.

Its quite blunt and to the point that if you move away from Link2ICT then you (the school) are responsible for complying with the DPA and all the filtering etc..

Which is fine as you are then not using their service . .

 

Have any Birmingham schools moved away from Link2ICT's offering of O365 and gone with an external supplier??

[foofighterjim]

I moved just over a year ago (just before the Zimbra debacle), what would you like to know?

@Michael also has plenty of experience in this area.

[Trojan]

We moved to O365 last October, did all the migration and setup myself. Were previously using the Link2ict zimbra solution. Migration went well and haven't looked back since. Regarding MX records, all I did was submit a ticket to the helpdesk that on a certain date and time I wanted the mx records changing and I provided them with the details of the new mx records. (I had made my extreme displeasure with zimbra and their service and handing of the migration to zimbra 8 known before hand).

 

I didn't have to provide governor sign off at all... I don't see why they would require this. Surely the schools email solution is an operational issue and rests in the hands of the HT and not the governors.

[jamin100]

does your mail still get routed through the BGFL though?

[foofighterjim]

does your mail still get routed through the BGFL though?

 

Only because we are currently using a BGFL line, we use their SMTP relays (as it is the only way of getting mail in or out to on site clients (to my understanding)).

[Michael]

You need to fill out a Network Change Request form detailing changes to your MX records, a date and time for when Service Birmingham are to do the changes, but also detailing your existing Zimbra domain is to be renamed @old-school.bham.sch.uk. This only needs to be signed by the Head and not Governors.

 

All I will advise is use an MX Lookup tool such as here when the changes are complete. I've had problems that either the MX record wasn't changed on time, or indeed both existing Zimbra and Office 365 records were left in place, which in itself can create mail routing problems.

 

As for the Data Protection Act, this is a European law, so every organisation (in this case Microsoft), adheres to these laws as you'd expect. So you are covered, but they (in their defence) sometimes have to spell out the obvious.

 

The only other thing I'd say is put a request in to Service Birmingham to add Office 365 ACLs to your local Cisco 3550. This allows you to manage Powershell within school, but last I heard no further rules can be applied due to the CheckPoint firewall reaching its rule limit. I think it's fair to say it was/is underspeced and it's unclear how they're going to resolve this issue.

[Michael]

If you setup mail routing on a photocopier or MFP whatever you like to call it, still specify smtp.bgfl.org

 

It does work, but unfortunately Link2ICT are very vague about what schools should be using, despite the fact outlook.office365.com is more than likely going to be more robust than the smtp.bgfl.org offering.

 

I suspect at some time the BGfL mail relay will be dropped, once a large percentage of schools are using Office 365 or Google, but I've no idea how the current ratio stands in terms of schools in Birmingham using Zimbra, Office 365 or something else.

[Trojan]

The only other thing I'd say is put a request in to Service Birmingham to add Office 365 ACLs to your local Cisco 3550. This allows you to manage Powershell within school, but last I heard no further rules can be applied due to the CheckPoint firewall reaching its rule limit. I think it's fair to say it was/is underspeced and it's unclear how they're going to resolve this issue.

 

Is this the all singing and dancing firewall that was supposed to resolve all our issues? The one that "came on the back of a lorry". The one I am still to see any benefit from at all and now needs an upgrade to handle HTTPS inspection..

[Trojan]

Sorry, still bitter about that one...

 

@jamin100 do what @Michael says, it's what I did and worked perfectly.

[jamin100]

With O365 does your email still get filtered?

[Michael]

Is this the all singing and dancing firewall that was supposed to resolve all our issues? The one that "came on the back of a lorry". The one I am still to see any benefit from at all and now needs an upgrade to handle HTTPS inspection..

 

Indeed, but I'm still questioning the purpose of HTTPS inspection for the likes of Google searches. How are the likes of the FBI getting round Google's new enforced policies? They're not forcing Jo Public to install a certificate, plus once other websites adopt the same/similar policies I do think you're going to try and win a losing battle. You could also say encryption algorithms are going to become forever stronger which will equal even more processing power required.

[Michael]

With O365 does your email still get filtered?

 

Yes Office 365 mail does get filtered by default. Microsoft do an excellent job in this area I have to say!

[peterfarrell]

Hi Michael,

 

The school I work in are looking to migrate from Zimbra (Link2ICT on a BGFL line) to Office 365 I'd like to hear any advice you could give me on doing this as it's something I've not done before. We subscribe to MS volume licensing through Link2ICT but they are charging a £1000 a year for this (Office 365) but I'm sure we can get this free from Microsoft, am I correct? Thanks.

[Michael]

Hi Michael,

 

The school I work in are looking to migrate from Zimbra (Link2ICT on a BGFL line) to Office 365 I'd like to hear any advice you could give me on doing this as it's something I've not done before. We subscribe to MS volume licensing through Link2ICT but they are charging a £1000 a year for this (Office 365) but I'm sure we can get this free from Microsoft, am I correct? Thanks.

 

You're correct that you can do all this for free and avoid paying any such fee. Your EES agreement is irrelevant when it comes to O365.

 

All I will say is I've migrated a considerable number of Birmingham schools to O365 over the years, well before BGFL 365 was 'invented'. The difference being Link2ICT want to charge you an annual fee, whereas the migrations I do are one off fees. In my experience, even low experienced Technicians are perfectly capable of managing most tasks in O365 with the right support.

[peterfarrell]

Hi foofighterjim,

 

An idiot's guide would great. The school I work in are looking to migrate from Zimbra (Link2ICT on a BGFL line) to Office 365 I'd like to hear any advice you could give me on doing this as it's something I've not done before.

[peterfarrell]

Hi again Michael,

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Any further advice/guidance I'd really appreciate, I want to get the ball rolling on this ASAP.

[peterfarrell]

Hi again Michael,

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Any further advice/guidance I'd really appreciate, I want to get the ball rolling on this ASAP.

[Michael]

You can start the process and register your school here

 

To be honest, there are many steps involved and not as straight forward to put it down in black and white. In saying that, the Microsoft wizard is quite good and will prompt you what's required. The more difficult bit is getting your actual data from Zimbra to O365, it is time consuming.

[peterfarrell]

Hi Michael,

 

Thanks again I've already set up an account and I'm in the trial stage at the moment so I haven't verified the domain as yet. The school email is @worldsend.bham.sch.uk as originally set up by the BGFL, do the school or BGFL own this domain? We recently purchased the domain name worldsendjuniors.co.uk so do we have to change to that?

[Michael]

Hi Michael,

 

Thanks again I've already set up an account and I'm in the trial stage at the moment so I haven't verified the domain as yet. The school email is @worldsend.bham.sch.uk as originally set up by the BGFL, do the school or BGFL own this domain? We recently purchased the domain name worldsendjuniors.co.uk so do we have to change to that?

 

The school are the legal owners of your .sch.uk domain, but Service Birmingham are your technical contact, so they'll process any specific changes related to your domain - including DNS, MX etc...

 

Regarding your other domain, you can do whatever you like with that. Personally I'd probably keep the .sch.uk domain as your primary and add your other domain as an alias.

[peterfarrell]

Hi Michael,

 

You've been very generous with your time and knowledge it is much appreciated. My next move will be to contact Link2ICT/Service Birmingham with a change request and see what hurdles they require me to overcome. Thank you very much.

[Daaood]

Hi would anybody be able to assist me in migrating our current mailboxes from BGFL Zimbra to Office 365?

[Michael]

Hi would anybody be able to assist me in migrating our current mailboxes from BGFL Zimbra to Office 365?

 

What kind of assistance do you have in mind?

[Daaood]

assistance in moving the mail boxes from zimbra to office 365

[Michael]

In summary, you need to do this via Microsoft Outlook. There's no easy way to get data out.