Power outages during exam season - what have you got in place?

[kennysarmy]

Interested in what everyone has in place in case you have a power outage whilst students are using laptops or PC's to do exams?

 

Does your network/WiFi go down?

 

Are all your AP's, network switches etc on UPS?

 

Would the exam need to be paused until the power returned?

 

Are exam files stored on the network during the exams or just stored locally?

 

Thanks, we're just trying to ensure we're as robust as everyone else's setup.

 

 

Currently using ExamWritePad, students use domain accounts with no internet access, files saved to network (inc backups and auto-saves), work printed at completion of exam.

 

If we experience a power cut we lose our AP's so students need to wait for restoration of power and then can continue from last save, auto-save or backup from ExamWritePad.

 

Should we move to local accounts and files saved to memory sticks, even though that just puts the risk in the hands of a 50p USB stick, or local SSD which would then mean a ball ache for the invigilators to get the file off for printing.

 

I welcome any comments or thoughts.

[jthompson]

We use ExamWritePad currently, too. The candidates use individual exam accounts. The EWP file is saved/autosaved to their network home folder, with the automatic backups saving locally in the local profile. That allows for continuity in case of a device failure or in caes of a network/server issue.

 

In case of a general power cut, the servers are on UPS but the majority of edge switches around the site aren't. If the exam is being done on a laptop, then it'll continue on battery power, but if it's on desktop, then obviously that would lose power.

 

I imagine the exam would only be stopped if the power was out for an extended period.

[Brax]

Hi Kenny

 

It's a difficult one and one I've thought about and discussed with SLT and the exams officer a few times. The process here and always has been word on locked down laptops using a local account and files saved to memory sticks. Memory sticks are assigned to a student for that exam series. The benefit of this with the sticks is essentially having a backup for the exam board if needed but as mentioned it does put the risk into a USB stick. We have instilled a culture of getting the students to save the word document to the documents of the computer before the start of the exam and saving regularly (autosave also on but it get's them into the habit). We have some pretty good file recovery software so if anything super bad happens to the laptop during the exam whether that's loss of power or other issue, we have a very good chance of retrieving it. The students will then save the document to the stick at the end of the exam to be taken to print and sign the work before they leave. The downside to this is then having someone deleting the word document to make the laptop ready for the next exam, we don't have too many that use a word processor here so it's manageable but could be an issue if this increases. I have looked at a more network based system with something like examwritepad but we very rarely if ever run into problems so changing the system here would require a lot of convincing so i'll watch this thread closely myself. Bonus is that JCQ were very happy with how we setup during a recent inspection.

[kennysarmy]

We use ExamWritePad currently, too. The candidates use individual exam accounts. The EWP file is saved/autosaved to their network home folder, with the automatic backups saving locally in the local profile. That allows for continuity in case of a device failure or in caes of a network/server issue.

 

In case of a general power cut, the servers are on UPS but the majority of edge switches around the site aren't. If the exam is being done on a laptop, then it'll continue on battery power, but if it's on desktop, then obviously that would lose power.

 

I imagine the exam would only be stopped if the power was out for an extended period.

 

We could perhaps do the same for the automatic backups but currently our "desktops" are redirected to a server share so I'd need to alter that too and use local desktops otherwise the network outage would still lock-up the device if the desktop could not be reached.

[dapaulio]

Whilst we seem to have a similar structure in place as Jthomson personally i dont think it is really an IT issue if the power goes out. the exam would have to stop under extenuating circumstance anyway. in a powercut you will have little to no lights, heating will likely go off as well as the network resources will go down. The job of the UPS is not to maintain power for any lengths of time but is used to clean the incoming electric and keep the network up long enough for the automated or manual Disaster Recovery system protocols to do their job. the job and protocol of an IT engineer is not to worry about the exam but to ensure in the time the UPS has, to ensure the network is gracefully shutdown in prolonged power outages.

 

If you have a backup generator like in hospitals for life saving equipment then this could be a different story.

[jthompson]

We could perhaps do the same for the automatic backups but currently our "desktops" are redirected to a server share so I'd need to alter that too and use local desktops otherwise the network outage would still lock-up the device if the desktop could not be reached.

 

By "desktops" do you mean the Desktop folder of the local profile? Ours is too, along with Documents, Pictures, etc. but we have the following setting in our EWP config file:

 

 
{
     "Setting_Name": "DefaultBackupPath",
     "Setting_Value": "%USERPROFILE%\\ExamWritePad_backups"
}

 

It's been a while since I tested it, so can't remember if EWP gets the grump if the main save path (i.e. on the network) becomes unavailable for the regular autosaves.

[jthompson]

Whilst we seem to have a similar structure in place as Jthomson personally i dont think it is really an IT issue if the power goes out. the exam would have to stop under extenuating circumstance anyway. in a powercut you will have little to no lights, heating will likely go off as well as the network resources will go down. The job of the UPS is not to maintain power for any lengths of time but is used to clean the incoming electric and keep the network up long enough for the automated or manual Disaster Recovery system protocols to do their job. the job and protocol of an IT engineer is not to worry about the exam but to ensure in the time the UPS has, to ensure the network is gracefully shutdown in prolonged power outages.

 

If you have a backup generator like in hospitals for life saving equipment then this could be a different story.

 

I agree with this. If the power is out for a prolonged period then it may just become a general site safety issue anyway.

[noelmm]

We use laptops along with ExamWritePad and save to the local drive, this way if the network goes down the only problem would be printing the paper but if that happens we can always save the file to a usb drive and print the paper manually. If the power goes down we may lose lighting, but in the summer that's not too much of an issue, the main thing we would lose is our TV screens showing the start and end time of the exam etc but we always have a whiteboard/flipchart as a backup as well.

[3s-gtech]

I set up our laptops to use a local profile with an AD account - once logged in they run independently and save to USB. The laptops are old but they have time to save their work at least.

[Aprice]

We have a bank of 'exam' laptops which are only used for exams. Sadly they aren't the DFE ones that would ironically be perfect for this application.

 

Batteries are still fairly strong on them, so easily last an exam.

 

We run Exam Write Pad with autosave on, Save path to somewhere discreet on the C drive (just in case) We have a password set to exit the application.

 

Devices are standalone, not connected to the network. That might change though, USB printing has been a bit flaky so might stick a WIFI point onto a standalone printer.

 

In a power cut I presume the exam would have to stop, our main hall and sports hall have no real natural light sources and the emergency lighting wouldn't be suitable I don't think to continue. Don't believe we've had a power cut yet since the site opened, so not overly concerned.

[Olliedawg]

We use ExamWritePad currently, too. The candidates use individual exam accounts. The EWP file is saved/autosaved to their network home folder, with the automatic backups saving locally in the local profile. That allows for continuity in case of a device failure or in caes of a network/server issue.

 

In case of a general power cut, the servers are on UPS but the majority of edge switches around the site aren't. If the exam is being done on a laptop, then it'll continue on battery power, but if it's on desktop, then obviously that would lose power.

 

I imagine the exam would only be stopped if the power was out for an extended period.

 

I do similar for our students who are entitled to Word processors (laptops) during exam periods. We use ExamWritePad with the student working locally using individual Exam user accounts, which are locked down heavily (even more so than their regular student user). These accounts are only able to save to specific folder/s. I deploy a scheduled task to these exam laptops which runs robocopy /e every 5 minutes to the network location where we store their exams.

 

All a power outage would do for us during exams is remove the ability to print, until power is restored.

[ITGURU]

Students using laptops are on AC power so if power loss file still saved to the local machine

Students using desktops, they save the exam files to network drive auto every 1 minute so if power loss work upto the last minute is saved as all core and servers on UPS

[psydii]

Much the same as every one else: laptops, examwrite pad, saving locally. We'd shrug off a power outage with no interruption to the candidates, as long as we got power back to charge the laptops overnight.

 

We had a print system failure during one exam. The exams team didn't blink, they just hooked up a spare laptop to a printer, collected the scripts on USB from each candidate (still under exam conditions) and printed them out. Obviously with no power there are no printers, however the scripts would still be collected, and we move to the final paragraph of this post.

 

However, a power failure would take out the air handling units in the sports halls. In the summer months this could make them unbearable within a few hours - so the non-computer based students would be the ones with cancelled exams!

 

Web/online based tests/exams though come with their own guidance for technical failures. In general, as long as the rooms had good daylight, we'd have about half an hour before there would be any technical interruption. Anything much longer than half and hour we'd start to loose wifi/internet/virtual infrastructure and since the technical cold restart can take up to 1/2 hr (assuming no additional failures) it then would be for the exam's officer to make the call.

 

 

 

Where an exam is significantly disrupted (for example the students can't complete the exam or the are not able to sign their completed scripts) The we turn to section 25 of ICE. Of specific relevance is paragraph 25.6

"As each incident will be different, advice must be sought from the relevant awarding body as soon as it is safe to do so. For example, where the centre is concerned about the security of the examination(s) or where candidates are unable to return to the building to complete the examination." https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ICE23-24-Sept23revision_FINAL.pdf

[PotNoodleTech]

I've been wanting to fit UPS to each switch for some time as that would keep a lot of infrastructure up and running in a power cut, phones CCTC 1:1 Chromebook etc.

 

There's never money for it and it's such a rare event there probably never will be.

 

If more and more exams run on PCs in IT suites really there isn't much most schools can do to negate that as it would be prohibitively expensive to design an infrastructure around keeping all devices on during a powercut.

[kennysarmy]

So I'm thinking I need to test:

 

 

ExamWritePad installed locally

Currently it's running in "portable" mode, which is great as I only need to maintain one config file on a central server share.

 

If its installed locally on each PC, how is everyone ensuring the latest config file is on each device?

 

 

 

Local exam account on each laptop/device

 

Who is responsible for removing any files left over by the previous user? The invigilators?

How are these accounts locked down as active directory group policies aren't in effect?

Do the invigilators have the laptop logged on and the application open ready for the student to arrive at the exam?

How does the local account get the ExamWritePad icon on their desktop?

[kennysarmy]

We use ExamWritePad currently, too. The candidates use individual exam accounts. The EWP file is saved/autosaved to their network home folder, with the automatic backups saving locally in the local profile. That allows for continuity in case of a device failure or in caes of a network/server issue.

 

In case of a general power cut, the servers are on UPS but the majority of edge switches around the site aren't. If the exam is being done on a laptop, then it'll continue on battery power, but if it's on desktop, then obviously that would lose power.

 

I imagine the exam would only be stopped if the power was out for an extended period.

 

If there was a network outage could the students still logon to their exam accounts?

Could they still print if the network was unavailable?

[psydii]

If there was a network outage could the students still logon to their exam accounts?

Could they still print if the network was unavailable?

 

FWIW We don't currently have unique accounts for each student, the exams teams just clean things up between sessions, so authentication failure is not an issue.

 

However we have not had an unplanned outage (during school hours) of the authentication system in the last 3400 days or so, and our APs are distributed across switches and comms rooms, and every switch has at least two diverse paths back to the core, which has ensured 100% wireless coverage even with the occasional hardware failure takes out a switch and cluster of aps.

 

Now we are talking about supporting no more than 20 devices under exam conditions. If we had a hall full of laptops and a switch failure, we might not be able to provide coverage. Printing, the exams team collect the scripts onto USB and print them on behalf of the students, who counter-sign them. If we needed to scale up, we would have a dedicated network printer, but the fall back would be the USB copy, and the exam team hooking one of their laptops directly to a printer printer (as mentioned previously this has happened).

[jthompson]

If there was a network outage could the students still logon to their exam accounts?

Could they still print if the network was unavailable?

 

No, but if they're already signed on when the network goes down, they can carry on using the machine with EWP saving automatic backups locally, which an exam officer would then retrieve after the fact. They wouldn't be able to print if the network is not available.

 

We use a computer startup script to copy down the EWP config file. That means that if/when we adjust the config, machines would pick it up at their next reboot.

[dapaulio]

I've been wanting to fit UPS to each switch for some time as that would keep a lot of infrastructure up and running in a power cut, phones CCTC 1:1 Chromebook etc.

 

There's never money for it and it's such a rare event there probably never will be.

 

If more and more exams run on PCs in IT suites really there isn't much most schools can do to negate that as it would be prohibitively expensive to design an infrastructure around keeping all devices on during a powercut.

 

My last site we had the money to put 300va ups in to each cab. Was good as the switches would stay live practically the whole working day. Couple years later we stopped replacing the batteries as the cost far out weighed the benefit as we only experienced 1 outage in all that time and it ground everyone to a halt anyway. Replaced them with voltage regulator and surge protection devices instead to clean the electric input

[kennysarmy]

We've simulated what happens when domain exam accounts that are using ExamWritePad lose WiFi connectivity.

 

With our config set:

 

DefaultBackupPath = %HomeDrive%\ExamWritePadBackups

&

DefaultSavePath = %HomeDrive%

 

 

We've found that at Wi-Fi loss the next auto-save defaults to:

 

 

C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Temp\

 

 

Users are unable to access the C:\ drive through file explorer, but that shouldn't be an issue as long as power is restored before the end of the exam, as once it is, it automatically reverts back to saving to their home drive.

 

If power is not restored we'd be able to logon as local admins and retrieve the work for printing once power was restored.

 

 

I'm satisfied now that we've a robust setup in place in case of any power or WiFi outage.

[msi_school]

We've simulated what happens when domain exam accounts that are using ExamWritePad lose WiFi connectivity.

 

With our config set:

 

DefaultBackupPath = %HomeDrive%\ExamWritePadBackups

&

DefaultSavePath = %HomeDrive%

 

 

We've found that at Wi-Fi loss the next auto-save defaults to:

 

 

C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Temp\

 

 

Users are unable to access the C:\ drive through file explorer, but that shouldn't be an issue as long as power is restored before the end of the exam, as once it is, it automatically reverts back to saving to their home drive.

 

If power is not restored we'd be able to logon as local admins and retrieve the work for printing once power was restored.

 

 

I'm satisfied now that we've a robust setup in place in case of any power or WiFi outage.

 

We have had a couple of Wireless issues this week during mock exams and this process works very well it takes a couple of minutes after the network is reconnected for it to realise which is a littel annoying if you are trying to get a print out but the exams are not being lost.