EMBC WAT Tool

[cvl4]

Anyone else noticed that when you use the WAT tool to create a new user - when they eventually get round to do it (seems to take at least 2 days not overnight!) they have no mail box. When I phoned synetrex to report this I discovered they are not creating mail boxes until you request them to be set up!

I contacted our LEA EMBC liason guy and he had no idea this was hapening the reply I received later was -

"Having now checked with embc the situation is as you describe. Email

accounts have to be requested for users. Not the ideal situation I know but

the reasoning is that Syentrix found many email accounts set up under the

old system and just not used. There is a finite number of licences available

for email accounts and they wish to be sure that every one requested is

actually needed. So the process is set up the user and then request an email

account for them."

Words Fail me!

And there is no mechanism to place this request other than logging a support call and this is a totally undocumented feature!! again Words fail me!!

Edited April 23, 2008 by cvl4

[GrumbleDook]

Having looked at the figures of unused email accounts (including email accounts from users that had long gone and not deleted because a large number of schools did not do any housekeeping) there is a real concern that accounts are created just for the sake of it.

 

Schools with their own in house server (using a domain other than school.region.sch.uk for it) could set up accounts on the old system with a mail account for [email protected] ... at it would sit there ... unused ... wasting a licence.

 

The issue of email has been discussed this week within EMBC and the remaining licences will be apportioned out shortly. It'll be a few days before I can get a response about Northants (probably not for Friday's meeting ... sorry) but other schools in other LAs will have to chat with them. User administration documentation is still being tweaked ... I will check that the process for adding email accounts is in there. If anyone gets info before me please feed back to others too.

[kmount]

It does make me wonder though, if licenses are such a big deal why can't we delete users?

[sparkeh]

It does make me wonder though, if licenses are such a big deal why can't we delete users?

 

QFT! There's a whole bunch of licences I would just love to hand back.

[Wildebeaste]

Licenses?

 

The EMBC knows which schools are connected. They should know how many pupils and staff in each one - or they could ask. Every member of staff and every student has an email address. They then tell the school they have n+ licenses and that they are using n++ and need to do some housekeeping. I don't think it's that complicated.

 

None of the tools work. Each time we get a problem, they fiddle with something, move along a stage and it still doesn't work.

 

Half baked? I don't think they even bought the ingredients.

[sparkeh]

Licenses?

 

The EMBC knows which schools are connected. They should know how many pupils and staff in each one - or they could ask. Every member of staff and every student has an email address. They then tell the school they have n+ licenses and that they are using n++ and need to do some housekeeping. I don't think it's that complicated.

 

I love your wild optimism

[GrumbleDook]

Wild doesn't even begin to describe it.

 

Take Northants. Before migration there was no list of which schools had their own server, even the list of schools on connected sites needed trimming due to school closures, mergers, etc ... if a school closes or merges then someone has to do housekeeping ... the old school will not do it, neither will the new school. The LA don't have the staff and the previous ISP wouldn't delete anything in case it was wrong to delete it.

 

The list of schools with their own mail servers is now almost complete. Some schools that have their mail hosted with a 3rd party might slip through the loop but checking and double checking the information is time consuming and hard.

 

To presume that all schools have the same level of technical ability or the same needs is a common error and even getting a named contact is hard at times. Secondary, primary and special schools, outreach centres, PRUs, travellers ... it is scarey!

 

It is unrealistic that every member of staff and every student needs an EMBC provide mailbox. It is also unrealistic to presume that all schools do their housekeeping properly. This is a simple fact of life so yes ... there are concerns about email and making sure the right people have access to it. Remember that the costs that have been worked out for contracts like this are usually based on existing accounts ... if we suddenly find that more licences are needed then the money has to come from somewhere and since Northants is top-slicing then it is the LA that has to find the money, not schools. Similar will probably apply to other LAs ... wondering where the money is to be found for 20000 extra licences!

[kmount]

I don't want 20,000 extra licenses, just 1

[cvl4]

Same here!

 

Why can't they just add a proviso when mailbox is created that if not used after certain period say 6 - 12 months then the owner of the mailbox is notified and the site admin then if no response then the mailbox is deleted.

It's no use comming up with all these explanations and excuses, this problem should have been identified as a risk factor early on and a system put in place.

 

I am some un-impressed - anyway must get back to work - there is just me here I have no other help and over 250 PCs and 750 students and a curriculum and admin network to manage.

[kmount]

Cookie?

[THERADIOTUBBY]

Am I alone?????

 

I have access to the WAT tool, can view my users and even download the upn reconciliation file, however passwords still can't be reset 'the password is invalid' and I can't upload my upn file.

 

Logged with synetrix, no reply, chased twice -tier 1 very polite and apologetic 'someone will get back to you' - but still no reply

 

My talk to synetrix (note 'talk to' not receive any communication back) page says 'Investigation by technical teams taking place'

 

Am I wrong in guessing they don't know what is wrong either?

 

In the meantime my curriculum colleagues are understandably feeling quite frustrated

[kmount]

You're not alone by any stretch of the imagination.

 

My admins are students

[vikpaw]

I got my proxy issue resolved, but i can't imagine how long it would have taken had i not attended the meeting on friday and got some urgent phone calls made after the end of the meeting.

 

Apparently, there was a couple of lines of faulty code in the firewall that made it open to everything and anything regardless of proxy being in place or not. I'm still not sure i believe the explanation, but it's fixed now at least.

 

The one guy that is allowed to touch the firewall was kept up all night friday trying to sort it. i think he's the only tier 3 guy they've got.

 

for everything else, if someone says it's being escalated to tier 3 it means they aren't sure what's going on and they need to go and twiddle with something!

[kmount]

I've acquired several names and email addresses for first/second line people, but I've yet to even speak to a hallowed member of third.

 

I opened a call requesting an email account to be provisioned Friday morning and its apparently been sat with third since then so I'm going to wait and see how long it takes to happen given its now Tuesday

[rush_tech]

The story so far..........we have access to reset passwords now, we are still having intermitent internet problems, still unable to upload our UPN csv file. As for creating a new account with email address not gone there yet.

[kmount]

I've heard several stories for why the internet is unstable, all funnily enough from Synetrix so who knows!

 

You _can't_ create them with email, you can make the account, leave it overnight and then request an email address to be done, but I've yet to see this happen.

[GrumbleDook]

A break down of things discussed on friday to Northants members. (please remember that YMMV for *your* LA)

 

The Firewall!!! Errors have cropped in but the migration from Checkpoint to Cisco was not smooth. Yes, there is one person making the changes. This is pretty good practice to reduce errors. There is a team that call you up, collate the information and make sure everything is correct before the changes get made. If you get a call from the firewall team and they ask you for information that you have already sent over to the first line support it is because *they* want to make sure that they have all the right information and *they* have no idea whether you have any clue or not. Let's face it ... they also speak to secretaries in primaries and ICT consultants in LAs ...

 

WAT!!! There was a description of what it does, and what it doesn't do at the moment and an admission about what is happening with it. WAT does not do email. This is for a number of reasons but mainly it is licences. Acertain number of licences were purchased, there are some left over, if you are an existing EMBC mail user then use them, if not chat with your LA. If you want to create emails get the accounts sorted and then send the same file over to the support desk with the request for email accounts. It should only take a day or two, but as we have seen it is taking longer.

 

Websites hosted on EMBC server. out of approx 1200 only 600 have been migrated. If you work closely with your feeders then check with them if they are on EMBC and have they migrated yet.

 

Missing emails accounts and email from transition. There are still around 300 accounts across the region that have to be manually fixed so that legacy email is sorted. If you are aware of any in your school make sure you get it all logged asap. The final chunk of work on these will be over the bank holiday weekend and then Mirapoint will be turned of ... and no chance of getting the mail afterwards.

 

I think that sums up the main points ... if I have missed something then please feel free to add it in.

[SpuffMonkey]

I've heard several stories for why the internet is unstable, all funnily enough from Synetrix so who knows!

 

 

What have you heard? Its getting on my t!ts now - specially as quite a few people here use our Citrix provision to work from home - so I keep getting irritated phone calls about dropped connections.

[kmount]

Having spoken to a top bod there today it would appear it was a routing issue (as documented on T2S) but given we're still suffering now, I wonder how bad an issue it is!

[sparkeh]

Am I alone?????

 

Lord no

 

My support ticket regarding UPNs has gone unanswered since the 18th. Nearly two weeks now.

 

The sad thing is that I was making some headway in getting people to use the service for email, portal controlled filtering etc before the switch over. But they have all dropped it again.

[lindabutler]

I too got the error when trying to reset passwords. I spoke to the helpdesk & apparently there is an error in the administrator setup. If you give them your admin username & password they can correct it and enable the 'password reset' option.

UPN Reconciliation is a nightmare - tried bulk upload every day for over a week. Error every day until today when it was accepted!! Just wait & see if new users acctually appear.

Result - I actually got a member of the helpdesk to admit they had launched too early and were not prepared!! Like we didn't know that already!!!

[sparkeh]

So can I expect to see anyone at the Leicestershire WAT workshop?

 

Hopefully they can answer why my UPN reconciliation will still not work

[cvl4]

So can I expect to see anyone at the Leicestershire WAT workshop?

Workshop? has one been scheduled then?

[russdev]

Email was sent to all main office email Give Carole a call for details..

 

Russell

[Jobos]

I’m assuming this workshop is just for Leicestershire county schools?