OverWorked

I make staff members of the local admin group on thier own laptops, so they can do what they like with them. They need to be able to set up internet. They would be responsible for any crap software. I also configure offline file so they can work at home and in school. This would negate the argument about needing to use the laptop when the server's down.

Thanks. I need this because we're installing CMIS soon.

Thanks. It looks like SQL Server backup is included in v11d, so it won't be needed. I'll just need 1 x BE + 2 x Windows Agents. They offer an Active Directory agent. Is this really necessary to backup a domain controller? Or does it just add features I won't need?

SICTS = Schools ICT Services Sorry, I thought it was a standard acronym.

Thanks, Ric. I'll look into it. I wanted BE because our SICTS recommend it. Although getting them to come up with a specific recommendation isn't easy!

I need a backup system to backup Windows DC's and SQL server. There are three servers with these basic roles:- serv1: Server 2003, DC, MS SQL Server, file & print serv2: Server 2003, file & print serv3: Server 2003, DC, file & print. I'd like Symantec Backup Exec 11d, but there are loads of options to choose from. Can anyone tell me which options I need? Do I need to buy a license of the full product for each server and install it one each, or can I just buy one copy and install agents on the others? (i.e. can one BE installation backup other servers?). I've used BE 8.6 up until now, I've installed the full product on each server. I've got a feeling this isn't the best way to do it. Thanks.

It's taken me a while to get back to this. Half term and all that... Schools ICT have come back and recommended Symantec Backup Exec 11d for Windows Servers + CPS + basic support. I'm not sure this is right, so I'll query it with them. I'll start a new thread here with a more meaningful title.

A agree. We (I) also use Liberum, but uncustomised. Only one teacher has shown any interest in it! My only compliant about Liberum is the search feature. It gets the date format the wrong way round - instead of DD/MM/YY it uses MM/DD/YY, but doesn't say so. It took me ages to work out why searches weren't returning what I knew was there.

I'm also TTO. It's both annoying and great, depending on how you look at it. Annoying because all the essential server work has to be done when people are in and they get disrupted. Also I can't get any big jobs done because of constant interruptions. Great because of the holidays. I have a small child and another on the way, so don't want to go full time just yet. Spending days at the York Railway museum is the best way to spend summer!

Were you joking? I can never tell! :? I mean one share for all pupils, one share for teaching staff, one share for admin staff etc. There's about 20 shares altogether.

Thanks. I queried this with them after posting here, and they told me it was a mistake. Genie is for standalone machines. They still can't tell me which BE version to go for, though - there are dozens.

I'm doing exactly the same thing now - moving home folders to a new server. I'm doing one share at a time, then making the necessary changes in AD. I'll probably be here all week. robocopy source destination /E /COPYALL retains the ownership and NTFS ACL's Robocopy is available from the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools

We currently use Veritas Backup Exec v 8.6, but our LA no longer support or supply it. They now offer Genie Backup Manager v6. I've never heard of this. Does anyone else use this? Does it work? Does it do backup-to-disk OK? Thanks.

This is just an aside: Conversely, if you have the evaluation version of Server 2003, the licensing service is disabled by default, so you have to enable it just so you can have it moan at you so you can study the licensing part of the course. The MS training meterials don't tell you that, you have to work it out for yourself.

Congratulations, Russ. We're expecting our second child in late May / early June. A week or two's paternity leave in time for the QCA tests or GCSE exams. Ho Ho Ho.

Thanks. I published a CD of free software including OpenOffice for our students a few months ago, but no one's shown any interest, apart from a science teacher. (I'm fed up with kids bringing in homework from MS Works). I want to push the CD again. I just thought this would be a good opportunity to change to StarOffice. Now that OpenOffice is at v2.1, it may be a better choice - I'll have a look.

I want to encourage pupils to use OpenOffice at home, but first I need to decide whether to offer OpenOffice or StarOffice. Is there any real difference? I've read that StarOffice is free to education, but then OpenOffice is free to everyone. StarOffice may come with better support. Anything else? Thanks.

There's more here:- Becta: Why schools should avoid Vista and here. I haven't read Becta's report yet, but I agree with what's said in the ZDNet article about cost. It's simply out of our league. I don't think it will be necessary for a long time as it'll aslo be a long time before any educational software that neds it is produced.

I didn't think it was that bad. I'll probably use it at home in the next year. It's just that Vista is way beyond our hardware and doesn't provide any features useful for a school as far as I can see - certainly not worth the upgrade cost.

link

I don't know if this is mentioned anywhere else, but I've just seen this - Government agency tells schools to shun Vista.

What I meant is that:- a) none of our hardware meets the spec. (I really do mean *none* of it). b) we couldn't afford the upgrade licenses anyway. c) It'll be a couple of years, or maybe more, before we have enough hardware (with OEM Vista licenses) to use it. I'm not against Vista, it just that for reasons of software and hardware cost it'll be out of our reach for a few years.

We won't be XP free for a long, long time.

Thanks. The Windows update site is down at the moment, so I can't do a manual update. It looks like they have pulled it, then. I'll try again next week.

Help, I've just set up a couple of new machines. Everything went OK, they got all their updates from WSUS, except for IE7. Before Christmas IE7 was happily deploying throughout the network via WSUS, now it isn't. I haven't changed anything! It doesn't even appear as an update in WSUS. Have Microsoft removed it? How do I get it back?? Please help! :x