New Network Manager - Tips?

[mikkydoos]

My main piece of advice is take your time before you change anything. Rushing into changing things, even virtualising, is a recipe for disaster.

 

Get in the staff room at breaks, talk to people, listen, understand, investigate what is happening on the network and understand that too... then you will be in a position to make changes without the whole lot crashing down around you.

 

Now there's some good advice.

[GRitchie]

Thanks guys, a lot of these tips are very useful!

By all means keep them coming, as broad as you like (useful software, useful templates, useful procedures etc.)

 

But thanks a lot!

[edutech4schools]

300 students

 

That's is a very small secondary school or do you mean computers?

[GRitchie]

No, 300 students - it is a small school! Probably will be a nice place to begin the NM profession though! Start small!

[Garacesh]

...Oh, check scheduled tasks too. Nothing funnier than a 6 month delayed prank.

Run "Shutdown /a" on all your servers, just to be safe

[GRitchie]

Very good point Garacesh! Also, loving the quote in your signature!

[GuyJD]

I can only echo what others have said, don't go making huge changes straight away, sit back and talk to the staff, find out what issues are making their lives difficult, this also helps with finding out which members of staff are likely to cause you problems in the future through their lack of computer knowledge or their over confidence that they know it all.

 

I've been in a new ICT manager role for 2 months now and I've only just got around to planning things to improve the use of ICT around here.

[SpuffMonkey]

Audit the licensing side too - its important to ensure that you're legal.

[GRitchie]

Very good point about licensing.

Quick question, whats the average Microsoft Agreement pricing for education?

 

I've never actually done purchasing of that, I suppose you can get the agreement via a re seller?

[localzuk]

Very good point about licensing.

Quick question, whats the average Microsoft Agreement pricing for education?

 

I've never actually done purchasing of that, I suppose you can get the agreement via a re seller?

 

That really depends on the size of the school. If you are staff heavy and computer light, then you may be better buying a Schools Agreement. If the school is computer heavy and staff light then EES (OVS-ES) is probably the better choice. For us, with 75 staff (FTE according to Microsoft's numbers) and 300ish machines, OVS-ES is the better choice and the pricing is around £4300 pa for our requirements. Back when OVS-ES didn't exist, and we were under Schools Agreement, we were paying double that.

[GRitchie]

Ah I see, but I presume re-sellers would help me to determine which is the best option?

I've not got exact figures yet, but I also suppose the current technician will leave notes about current licenses/agreements in place

[localzuk]

Ah I see, but I presume re-sellers would help me to determine which is the best option?

I've not got exact figures yet, but I also suppose the current technician will leave notes about current licenses/agreements in place

 

The better resellers would, absolutely. Some not so much. Companies like IDNS, Softcat, Millgate, CCS Media etc... seem to be on the ball.

[Oaktech]

Ah I see, but I presume re-sellers would help me to determine which is the best option?

I've not got exact figures yet, but I also suppose the current technician will leave notes about current licenses/agreements in place

 

This year is my first year with this school and the licensing was a state, 3 unlicensed 2008r2 virtual boxes, 1 unlicensed physical box and 4 unlicensed multipoint servers, plus all of the SCCM cals for those unlicensed boxes. I spoke to Kate at Millgate to help me through the minefield, she is *very* patient.