Poll - RM School or Vanilla School

[sparkeh]

Please stop trying to use CC3 to insult people's skillset.

 

Agreed. This is a recurring theme and its just tiresome.

Actually the original question was simply to tick a poll saying which network you used, not 'tick an option and disparage anyone who uses something different'.

 

I would never join a school that uses RM Community connect or RM

Then its good that no one forcing you, and you probably wouldn't be suitable for a school offering that job, so everyone wins.

[jsnetman]

I would never join a school that uses RM Community connect or RM

I agree this is a pointless statement, I'm not a big fan of RM but I came to this school with RM in place, and got rid as soon as. But if another school was offering good money with RM in place I would take it.

[siuko]

Vanilla... but.... Still Windows 2000!!!

[FN-GM]

I agree this is a pointless statement, I'm not a big fan of RM but I came to this school with RM in place, and got rid as soon as. But if another school was offering good money with RM in place I would take it.

 

Its just my opinion. I care about the job rather than the money really

[u8dmtm]

We are a mix of CC3 and vanilla and gradualy moving away from CC3 to vanilla as machines are replaced. We're also OS X too.

[6Foot2]

Joined the school: RM Connect 2.4

 

Moved the network soon after: Viglen Classlink7

 

Now: Vanilla: Server 2008/2003.

[cookie_monster]

Was Viglen Classlink7 any good? I've never come accross it.

[6Foot2]

Was Viglen Classlink7 any good? I've never come accross it.

 

Pants! Glad to see the back of it. Support was awful too. Although when you did eventually get it recognised that there was an issue which had to be dealt with they did have a few engineers who seemed to be able to help but getting to that stage: What a nightmare!

[Edu-IT]

Classlink 7 worked but it was basic.

[jamesfed]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to vote on which system you are currently using, the SLTs say it has proven very useful.

 

Thanks,

James

[andy_d]

Currently on CC3 but will be moving to Vanilla Server 2008 before the end of the year :) Can't wait

[elsiegee40]

Currently vanilla 2003 - vanilla 2008 coming next summer!

[leco]

Both Win 2003 and Win 2008 servers - vanilla

[DrCheese]

Mix of 2008R2/2003 on the backend, would be totally 2008 R2 if was setting up new.

I don't see how any school can justify the massive cost of CC4 (going on the website pricing of £70 a client!) on top of Windows licenses.

[Diello]

Can you please back your assertion up with some facts? I would class our support team very skilled, yet we still run an RM CC3 network; and it is nowhere close to a trade-off.

 

[...]

 

Please stop trying to use CC3 to insult people's skillset.

 

Please read what I wrote "As you move up to more ingrained 3rd part network management, you loose flexibility and innovation, but require less skills. So it's basically a trade off." - I never said that "you use RM, so you must have no skills". I've worked in, & they've stayed, RM schools before, that didn't suddenly mean I became dumb.

 

My point was, and still is, that to successfully run an CC3 network, you need less skills than to run a Vanilla network. You want a fact? Changing a setting in RM Type Manager is easier than setting up, configuring, and linking, a GPO. If RM works for you, & and gained time allows you to use your skills in other areas, than that's great.

 

As for being a trade-off, as with most things, YMMV - we found that CC3 didn't offer us the flexibility we needed, and vanilla did, again, if it works for you, fair enough.

[PiqueABoo]

All of the above, but I'm not a school.

 

to successfully run an CC3 network, you need less skills than to run a Vanilla network

 

I get your point as intended, but at a slight tangent that depends on the "Vanilla".

 

There's a implicit premise in both yours and some other folk's posts in this thread that a Vanilla is harder to manage and maintain than a CC. Whereas I firmly believe that a well designed and implemented Vanilla should be easier.

 

You certainly need the skills up front to make that Vanilla, but the more of those you have, the easier the subsequent management and maintenance work. Plus (focusing on CC4) you don't have the subsequent care, feeding, bugs and patches for a bemusing large set of management software and it's idiosyncrasies. You have your system configuration out there in standard AD etc. where you can manipulate it rather than shut away in a "black-box" DB you dare not touch. You don't have the extra layers and their bugs getting between you and the underlying native functionality.

 

CC saves you from needing the skills to make the system from scratch, it has more novice friendly documentation/training than you're likely to find for Vanilla and it has support, but it is not inevitably easier to look after.

Edited October 9, 2009 by PiqueABoo

[john]

Server 2008 R2 DC's

Server 2003 R2 Member Servers

Smoothwall UTM for Proxy, Filtering, VPN.... (the list goes on!)

Sun S7000 for Storage

[burgemaster]

Vanilla here, with mix 2003/2008 enterprise

 

When i joined the school we had Ranger. It was easy to manage the network through it, but after 6 months i had nearly replaced everything it could do with GP and free softwares (e.g. LanView). It then became restrictive and im glad I removed it.

[burgemaster]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to vote on which system you are currently using, the SLTs say it has proven very useful.

 

Thanks,

James

 

Our SLT are completely obvilious to what system we are running and wouldnt care? Can I ask why they are involved?

 

Could your school not have a network manager by any chance??

[Oops_my_bad]

Is it sensible that people are still recommending 2003 for new vanilla builds?

[cookie_monster]

Is it sensible that people are still recommending 2003 for new vanilla builds?

 

Why not it's a tried and tested platform that will be around in large companies for some time and is supported for another 5 years. I contacted QCA the other day and it seems their exams software 'should' support 2008 soon. I'd recommend 2008 DC's now on a new build but if you need 2003 member servers I can see no reason not to use it. It's an excellent platform with low hardware requirements and it virtualizes pretty well.