Live@Edu distribution and address lists

[mcnallyfc]

Morning all

 

I am looking at live@edu and am currently testing this on a seperate domain we purchased. Our goal is to move all staff and pupils to live mail for the start of next year.

 

For email we currently use an LEA webmail system (squirrelmail) for both staff and pupils. It uses the domain of @school.area.sch.uk whilst the new domain would be @school.co.uk.

 

The LEA uses SIMS data exported to them to create pupil and staff email accounts (specified csv format) - its also used to create pupil and staff timetables as well as distribution lists. They include form class lists, teaching class lists and year group lists. This is used quite regularly by staff and they are keen for any new system to allow them to do this.

 

How do people create distribution lists in live mail at moment? As we dont have the AD structure for distribution lists i was wondering how people have created these?

[mcnallyfc]

No one?

 

ok another question - we currently have no exchange etc setup on site so the email address isnt populated in AD. Is there a way of populating that with the live mail address once it has sync across? as far as i know the sync is only one way from AD to ILM etc?

[Stuart_C]

There's a Windows server command dsmod which will allow you to script changes to AD. I used it when I needed to populate our AD with E-mail address.

[zag]

You can create distribution lists in the webmail admin. Just create a new one an add members, its very easy.

 

We have an All-Teachers and All-Admin list here.

[mcnallyfc]

You can create distribution lists in the webmail admin. Just create a new one an add members, its very easy.

 

We have an All-Teachers and All-Admin list here.

 

Thanks Zag

 

I have created simple groups such as All Staff and working through Departmental ones such as ICT, Art, SLT etc etc

 

The issue for me was creating all the form classes and year groups. In AD as we are on RM CC3 network we have the year group folders but no distribution groups etc and other than manually going through adding pupils to form and year groups i was wondering if anyone for examply exported data from SIMS etc.

 

As i know with dynamic distribtution lists if they have say a year and form field then you can create the DDL's using that data. Just not sure how do it.

[zag]

Ahh I see your problem.

 

We have usernames that signify which year and tutor group they are in so its pretty easy for us.

[mcnallyfc]

Ahh I see your problem.

 

We have usernames that signify which year and tutor group they are in so its pretty easy for us.

 

I could look at this option - how do you do it based on usernames?

 

Problem is with usernames say if i allocated usernames to pupils such as 8HJD, where 8H is form class and JD is initials, this will change yearly and so their email/logons will change. Another option is to have 9HJD, where 9 is the year joined, H is form class and JD is initials. This poses problems trying to work out what form class is i.e. 9 = Year 8 (joined 2009 now in Year 8!) and how you formulate this into a distribution list. Does that make sense ?

 

I suppose the best way is that say SIMS is used to populate AD and so the form class is inputted in Department field in AD. Then ILM is used to sync Outlook live daily and so every year when records are updated via SIMS/AD it is then populated into the dynamic distribution lists.

 

In meantime though will play around with what i have to see if easy way of setting up the year groups (these are in seperate OU's in AD) and also form classes.

[zag]

We output from Sims alphabetically then put a random letter at the front for the year they join so:

 

Year 7 = 2010 Entry = "F"

 

then the house they are in such as south house "S"

 

So the final username is

 

FS00001

 

and it shows nice in active directory or live@edu making it easy to put in distribution groups.

 

I really think life-cycle management is overkill for a secondary school, it makes much more sense for universities really.

[mcnallyfc]

We output from Sims alphabetically then put a random letter at the front for the year they join so:

 

Year 7 = 2010 Entry = "F"

 

then the house they are in such as south house "S"

 

So the final username is

 

FS00001

 

and it shows nice in active directory or live@edu making it easy to put in distribution groups.

 

I really think life-cycle management is overkill for a secondary school, it makes much more sense for universities really.

 

I see - so how do you then use that username with regards to the email groups? i.e. i want all Year 10 South pupils email - how does office live convert the username to that information?

[mcnallyfc]

Still banging my head on this one!

 

I have fiddled with excel and date from SIMS so have our 1400 student details in a spreadsheet. Using various formula's etc i have setup email addresses based on admission number in SIMS, alias email address on their [email protected], usernames on ST then year started then admissions number (ST07005423 for example).

 

So i can populate the mailboxes fine and also with the source spreadsheet i can simply import new users at start of year and it will populate the rest of the info.

 

The problem i have is getting my head around linking this info to the distribution lists - i want to have it so we can create form class and year group distribution lists. But im struggling to see how we can do it - unless i update each account every year with the latest form class and year (by populating fields such as Department and Postal Code with the year and form class) and then creating distribution lists each year for ones matching year and form - i cant see a simple way of doing it.

 

For example - if i import all my users now everything will be correct. A year 7 called John Smith, adm No. 005000 will be setup as [email protected] and department set as form 7H and post code set as 7. Then i can do distribution lists for year 10's and form 7H by creating dynamic distribution lists for post code = 10 and department = 7H.

 

BUT - next year with new year 7 intake little Johnny Smith wont be in year 7 or in form 7H. Only new users will be imported using csv or powershell and so Johnny's department and postal code will be incorrect.

 

How can i get around this problem? How have people done it? there may be a simple way but my head is spinning at moment!