Implementing Chromebooks in Education HE environment

[Davit2005]

Was just asked about ChromeBooks by staff member, so have a few questions.

 

1) I guess there is no Active Directory integration for basics such as user logon?

 

2) Do users have to have Google accounts and sign in with them, hopefully not as have last year just rolled out Office365 and that was enough?

 

3) Mapping of users network drives?

 

4) Application compatibility, I guess only Google Apps will work?

Edited August 21, 2015 by ZeroHour
Fixing typo - ZH

[pcstru]

1) I guess there is no Active Directory integration for basics such as user logon?

Yes and no. You can synchronise a Google Apps for Education domain with AD so that usernames are the same. You can use a utility that synchronises passwords when the users change them in AD. If a user changes their password in GA, that will not sync back.

2) Do users have to have Google accounts and sign in with them, hopefully not as have last year just rolled out Office365 and that was enough?

Yes but you could use the device as a guest user and access 365 that way. I don't see any advantage in doing that now that windows devices are more price competitive with chromebooks.

3) Mapping of users network drives?

No. I believe it is possible to sync google drive with a networked drive.

4) Application compatibility, I guess only Google Apps will work?

Any browser based application should work.

[Davit2005]

Yes and no. You can synchronise a Google Apps for Education domain with AD so that usernames are the same. You can use a utility that synchronises passwords when the users change them in AD. If a user changes their password in GA, that will not sync back.

 

Bit concerned about setting up users in Both Google Apps and Office 365 TBH, we have the 365 domain as an UPN for the students would we need the same for Google Apps?

 

Back a few years I went through Live@EDU with another school and it certainly was a bit different going to Office365.

[CyberNerd]

 

1) I guess there is no Active Directory integration for basics such as user logon?

 

Yes, they work by syncing with GAFE

 

2) Do users have to have Google accounts and sign in with them, hopefully not as have last year just rolled out Office365 and that was enough?

 

Yes, the synced accounts are google - but it is a lot easier to do than O365!

 

3) Mapping of users network drives?

Network drives are a thing of the past here, we move them to google so they can be accessed anywhere and on any machine.

 

4) Application compatibility, I guess only Google Apps will work?

 

 

You need third party software, but they comfortably run windows apps via Citrix, or VMWare. There are also a lot of native apps available.

[Davit2005]

It seems to mention that it ties in with the users mail attribute in AD for the sync.

 

With Office365 I just added the domain as the users UPN and that works.

 

Must admit I've never tried putting more than one mail address in the mail attribute but I guess it's not possible anyway.

 

 

Not too sure I want to confuse the users after jus rolling out 365 a year ago

Edited August 21, 2015 by Davit2005

[CyberNerd]

It seems to mention that it ties in with the users mail attribute in AD for the sync.

 

With Office365 I just added the domain as the users UPN and that works.

 

Must admit I've never tried putting more than one mail address in the mail attribute but I guess it's not possible anyway

 

 

You can choose to sync with whichever AD attribute you choose. We use the "userPrincipalName". You can also add aliases in the sync too, and a UPN if you wish.

[Davit2005]

You can choose to sync with whichever AD attribute you choose. We use the "userPrincipalName". You can also add aliases in the sync too, and a UPN if you wish.

 

Yep, not too sure how it will work using both Google Apps and Office 365 together. Our students get a free copy of office with 365.

[CyberNerd]

Yep, not too sure how it will work using both Google Apps and Office 365 together. Our students get a free copy of office with 365.

 

...they won't need it with GAFE.

 

You can route emails to go between either if you want, but it really sounds like you just don't want to .

[Davit2005]

Will speak to my boss about it as the request came through him. At least I can give him a bit of an idea of how it might work.

 

I do like keeping DC's clear of any applications though so is installing the GADS/GAPS on a member server possible.

[pcstru]

I do like keeping DC's clear of any applications though so is installing the GADS/GAPS on a member server possible.

GAPS, as far as I know it needs to be on a DC - I assume because it needs to intercept the password as cleartext so needs to hook into that event on the DC. GADS can be run from any windows box.

 

I think the biggest issue given a good set-up is just user confusion. If an organisation is running both, it suggests they don't really have good policy on document management (or any policy). That will make your job (backup, access retention on staff leaving etc) more difficult.

[Davit2005]

GAPS, as far as I know it needs to be on a DC - I assume because it needs to intercept the password as cleartext so needs to hook into that event on the DC. GADS can be run from any windows box.

 

I think the biggest issue given a good set-up is just user confusion. If an organisation is running both, it suggests they don't really have good policy on document management (or any policy). That will make your job (backup, access retention on staff leaving etc) more difficult.

 

Yes I was thinking more along the lines of confusion.

[gshaw]

Network drives are a thing of the past here, we move them to google so they can be accessed anywhere and on any machine.

 

How does this work for the users with more specialist software e.g. Photoshop and the like? Have any users had issues with sync or do they tend to use the web interface only?

[CyberNerd]

How does this work for the users with more specialist software e.g. Photoshop and the like? Have any users had issues with sync or do they tend to use the web interface only?

 

For more specialised software we are using the HTML5 ica client which connects directly to a windows server and it saves on a mapped drive, but we don't have shared drives anymore as everything can be picked up from google drive. They are Chromebooks, so the files are only synced if the student asks for them to be synced otherwise it is the web interface.

[robjduk]

Running both GAFE and 365 along side network storage here perfectly as we like to offer the choice. Google is the preferred system as it ties into Chromebooks. Will take about 2 cups of coffee to get setup and working and in my 3 years of using it, trouble free.