Primary school, two domains, want SIMS in classrooms but just bought new kit.....

[nikaso]

So one of my primaries has separate curric and admin networks, it was on the summer work plan to flatten these are the requirement for air-gapped networks was no longer there, this would have simplified management and also allowed easy deployment of SIMS to classroom teacher machines.

 

Fast forward to the half term and the school has bought a new admin server and 3 workstations (for the 3 admin users). I don't know the server spec yet but I am assuming as it was only for 3 users it won't be anything special. I was wondering about having it take over some of the curric DC server roles maybe? I don't want the school to have felt they have wasted money on it but the decision seems to have been taken without consultation!

 

The current curric server has an expired warranty just to make things interesting!

[Mcshammer_dj]

So one of my primaries has separate curric and admin networks, it was on the summer work plan to flatten these are the requirement for air-gapped networks was no longer there, this would have simplified management and also allowed easy deployment of SIMS to classroom teacher machines.

 

Fast forward to the half term and the school has bought a new admin server and 3 workstations (for the 3 admin users). I don't know the server spec yet but I am assuming as it was only for 3 users it won't be anything special. I was wondering about having it take over some of the curric DC server roles maybe? I don't want the school to have felt they have wasted money on it but the decision seems to have been taken without consultation!

 

The current curric server has an expired warranty just to make things interesting!

 

When you say a separate network structure are you meaning different links and total separation or do you have a single link split between networks using Vlans

[mikkydoos]

I know what you mean @nikaso

@Mcshammer_dj - LA's split the network into either two subnets or two domains. Admin and Curriculum. No VLANs.

 

Why, god knows. Pupil data security I suppose. Mine used to be an age ago. No reason to now.

 

Sims.net minimum requirement is a disk partition with MS SQL installed on it and the Sims.net software config'd to serve and update.

 

 

Anyway getting back to it.... I wouldn't mix the two if I were you. Simply because the Sims.net data needs to be highly available.

I wouldn't put anything on that machine that doesn't need to be there. Lose any of the data/availability and they're .

 

If you ever needed to replace the DC its going to make the job more difficult when you need to keep the data available.

 

If they bought it.. let them lump it. They should have bought a server you could virtualise the whole lot on.. right ?

[Mcshammer_dj]

I am from an LA and we do use Vlans. We have a central switch at each site with a pair of Vlans, 1 for the curric network which has a class B and 1 for the admin network which has a Class C.

 

At my sites rules on the switch and ACL's can be used to allow the networks to talk

[danelliott87]

You could use the new server as a dedicated SIMS server and still flatten the domain.

[mikkydoos]

You could use the new server as a dedicated SIMS server and still flatten the domain.

 

Just re-read the original post... see what you mean now.

 

You'll have to dump one of the domains and redo the GPO's etc for the other one... then join the SQL server and whichever client machines to the right domain. Shouldn't be that much of a hassle should it ?

 

Migrate the SQL data afterwards.

Edited June 1, 2015 by mikkydoos

[mikkydoos]

I am from an LA and we do use Vlans. We have a central switch at each site with a pair of Vlans, 1 for the curric network which has a class B and 1 for the admin network which has a Class C.

 

At my sites rules on the switch and ACL's can be used to allow the networks to talk

 

 

Makes sense to me that way. Round here they've done previously it without VLANs. 2 completely separate networks.

[biz]

Just re-read the original post... see what you mean now.

 

You'll have to dump one of the domains and redo the GPO's etc for the other one... then join the SQL server and whichever client machines to the right domain. Shouldn't be that much of a hassle should it ?

 

Migrate the SQL data afterwards.

 

I imagine the curric domain would be more complex in terms of software, hardware, GPOs, etc. I'd be tempted to move the admin machines on to the curric domain, but the admin machines could have some very bespoke (read: pain in the proverbial) software installed, so you might want to go the other way.

[nikaso]

I'm leaning towards either leaving it as is or using the new admin server as a dedicated SIMS server provided it's other specs are up to it. I can't remember what switches they have off hand but hopefully Vlan will be a possibility.

[Michael]

Originally the idea behind separate Curric and Admin domains was mainly down to permissions/accessibility. Back in the days of Windows 95/98, these could only be installed on FAT/FAT32 partitions and not NTFS, but could only read NTFS on NT4 or Windows 2000 over a network.

 

Some LAs had two separate domains altogether, as well as separate subnets, some had two separate domains on the same subnet (with or without a trust) and some have separate domains on separate VLANs, again, with or without a trust.

 

How do I do it? I generally recommend a single domain, on a single subnet. Permissions are less of an issue and NTFS is more advanced and more secure by default. VLANs in this context are in my opinion unnecessary, bearing in mind MIS is now used in the classroom, as well as the School Office and in future, it will be more so a cloud/web service. This'll reduce the need for separate domains/networks even more, however I do believe VLANs and more of a requirement for guest WiFi networks, large Intranets (such as the BGfL) and other specialist networking requirements.

 

In this context it seems relatively simple to me. Add this new admin server to the existing curric network, migrate the MIS across, then re-join the three admin workstations to the existing curric network, then deploy/share the MIS across all devices in classrooms. No VLANs are required, but just make sure permissions on the MIS shares are correct and you'll be fine