"All my other schools gave us the administrator passwords"

[localzuk]

When I First joined the sschool I thought even the non technical network manager shouldn't have the only admin password. Now the password has been changed and locked in a safe. All tech guys have been given a separate admin account and a user account and elevated the network managers permissions just enough for him not to give me grief. He has since left and the new network manager has no more

privileges than a normal staff member. The most powerful thing she can do over any other teacher is access her c drive and delete print jobs from a queue. Makes for a happier network when you're not battling with who may have screwed something up. I'm glad I implemented this as soon as i did as years went on I come to learn there were lot more teachers that did know the admin password then did. Scary thought

 

Huh? Network Manager not having admin privs is extremely weird! You must have a different structure to your staffing than the places I've worked - where the network is ultimately "my" network, as network manager.

[plexer]

When I First joined the sschool I thought even the non technical network manager shouldn't have the only admin password. Now the password has been changed and locked in a safe.

 

How does the "non technical" network manager work out then? I can't even contemplate how that post actually works.

 

Ben

[flyinghaggis]

How does the "non technical" network manager work out then? I can't even contemplate how that post actually works.

 

Ben

 

I thought it was quite common in schools for the Network/IT Manager to be a member of teaching staff on SLT/SMT so I suspect it's probably not that unusual. If the person in that role has no IT/technical background I can see why it might not be appropriate for them to have a domain admin password. Probably comes down to do the semantics of how you define the job role of the person ultimately in charge of IT in the school.

 

Judging by the responses to the poll it is very unusual for anyone non-technical to be given the admin passwords for network systems/services which is sensible. Putting it in a sealed envelope in a safe (or the equivalent) is likely the safest thing to do just in case anyone needs to get their hands on it in an emergency.

Edited March 21, 2015 by flyinghaggis

[strawberry]

network manager has no more

privileges than a normal staff member.

 

We did similar, We locked the caretakers broom in a cupboard to stop him making mischief. Or have I misunderstood?

[LiamH]

I thought it was quite common in schools for the Network/IT Manager to be a member of teaching staff on SLT/SMT so I suspect it's probably not that unusual. If the person in that role has no IT/technical background I can see why it might not be appropriate for them to have a domain admin password. Probably comes down to do the semantics of how you define the job role of the person ultimately in charge of IT in the school.

 

I have always known the network manager to be a technically minded IT professional and a ICT coordinator be a member of the teaching staff that liaises with the technical support to make sure its going in a teaching and learning direction.

 

Having said that I have also known SLT members who's responsibility seemed to be sampling free food in staff room. Every school does it differently.

[witch]

Think of Jen in the IT Crowd - she knew nothing about IT and yet was a manager.

It is this thinking that leads to people like me not being able to be "Network Manager" because I don't manage anybody - only all the computers

[localzuk]

In my experience, its always been technical IT Manager reporting to an SLT person (usually bursar or similar), liaising with an IT Co-ordinator (or rarely, reporting to them)

[jtoland]

We dont give it out and we dont use the administrator account unless we need to we have a device called a yubico key with the password on incase we need to use and that is locked away

[Grey-gear]

In the past I have given one member of staff admin rights on there own computer, only because he was in the same office and he need to ask me or the other IT techs if he could install stuff (mostly flash and java).

[Bezwick]

The only staff that have network admin passwords are myself (NM), my technician and the performance manager. However all staff have local admin access to their machine, for us that seams to solve a lot more problems than it creates. The machines are monitored so if they install software they shouldn't, i'm informed but we have had it that way for almost 10 years now and I cant remember the last time it caused us a problem. Worst case scenario I have to re-image their machine more of an issue for them than me.

[GrumbleDook]

I voted yes ... and not just to be awkward.

 

:-)

[DCUK6]

Only the one administrator account here and im the only one with the password.

 

That account only gets used when needed. Not even my account has domain/local admin rights.

 

Only been asked twice for the admin password and that is when i first joined. They wernt used to having tech support so were used to doing things themselves.

 

If i died or something the password is locked in a safe at my place and there is a data backup in the fire proof finance safe incase both me and my place were destroyed. Would require a network rebuild though.

 

As soon as you give it out, you loose control of your network.

 

 

In my old school the network manager kept giving it out to people because he couldnt be bothered to goto the machine. He also kept writing the password down and loosing it. In the end i told him to change the password and il create my own admin account. That way if anything happened it would be harder for him to blame me.

Edited March 24, 2015 by DCUK6

[dapaulio]

I have always known the network manager to be a technically minded IT professional and a ICT coordinator be a member of the teaching staff that liaises with the technical support to make sure its going in a teaching and learning direction.

 

Having said that I have also known SLT members who's responsibility seemed to be sampling free food in staff room. Every school does it differently.

 

Guess it depends how you interpret the role. Our it support is a professional external outfit so the role of ict coordinator and network manager would be the same person. As we provide the support and development strategy we have no budget or authority to action anything without said persons approval