Soulfish

Ohhh OpenTTD. Really must get back into this (perhaps once my ME3 fix is done ). Used to play TTD for days on end .

We have it setup as follows: Press 1 if you know the extension number 2 for student absence/admissions queries 3 for staff absence or hold for reception Out of our core hours its setup as follows: Press 1 if you know the extension number 2 for student absence/admissions queries 3 for staff absence or hold to leave a message

You'll be wanting to look at VRRP - Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), and for the HP 5400zl series specifically (http://cdn.procurve.com/training/Manuals/3500-5400-6200-6600-8200-MRG-June2009-59923062.pdf). Can't remember if you need to buy extra licenses for the 5400 to use VRRP though. Essentially you connect all edge switch(s) to both cores using LACP trunks, with a LACP trunk between both cores. This thread at the HP forums explains more about someone with a similar setup - HP Communities - STP for LACP Trunks at Core1, Core2 (VRRP enabled)... - Enterprise Business Community Had it working (albeit with 2 x Juniper EX8200 chassis switches) at my last school and it worked really well. Killed one of the core switches and we didn't loose a single ping Edit: One thing I forgot to add was that if you do it right your able to split all traffic between both cores, and by having all devices connected to both cores you can increase available bandwidth, number of network ports available etc.

We had an internet connected fridge at uni in the staff common room. It had been hacked within about an hour and had doom installed on it. This was a CS department though What more do you want from your fridge than the ability to play Doom??!

We've had a Virgin connection since June/July, but we were probably the first school connected!

We use our biostore biometric database with Papercut MF (same as NG but support for direct control of MFDs). Also had it working to monitor printers attached to local computers at my last school.

I'm based in London and we have a full vSphere setup. Currently running vSphere 4.1 Enterprise Plus across three hosts with a physical vSphere server. Feel free to PM if your interested in coming to have a look

Yup - I'd totally agree with this. We have super overspecced amazing PCs (ask anyone thats been to visit - they're better specced than lots of peoples servers), but because of being a new build we had to buy everything now. Our replacement plans are...complicated. Currently we may try starting early replacements in year 4 and eeking others out to year 6/7 depending on how they wear. By that point we should be doing 20-30% replacements a year and be at a point where we have a manageable number of everything being replaced.

Sounds about right, but be careful with using anything other than Datacenter for virtual hosts. One of the reasons for using Datacenter is that you can only reassign licenses every 90 days. This means that if your using live migration/HA or anything else like that for the servers running Standard you can only move/shift VMs around every 90 days. Since OVS/EES is a yearly scheme anyway you wouldn't really need to worry about things until next year when you'd renew with 7 standard 2012 and 3 datacenter 2012

System Center management packs work in a similar way to other MS licenses where you can get Enterprise and Datacenter versions. Enterprise covers you for the physical box and upto 4 virtual machines, where as Datacenter covers you for unlimited VMs but you have to license all physical CPUs in the physical server. For most people running >4 VMs per server (where each server has 2 CPUs) the best option is to purchase two licenses of System Center Server Management Suite Datacenter license at around £30/license. This gives you the ML licenses (think of them as CALs for servers!) for all of the system center products, and the server license for SCVMM. You then need to license the enterprise desktop pack (as you've already indicated) to give you the System Center Client Management Suite, giving the client management licenses for all of your computers. Finally you need to purchase the server licenses for the components your interested in, typically at around £30/server. For SC2012 however everything changes. There are only two suites available (and you have to buy a suite to license anything) - System Center 2012 Datacenter and System Center 2012 Standard. SC2012 datacenter provides licenses for unlimited VM OSEs (operating system environments), includes ALL system center server licenses (AND the SQL licenses for them) AND provides 2 physical processor licenses. SC2012 standard provides access to ALL system center licenses (AND SQL licenses), but only provides management licenses for 2 OSEs and 2 physical processors. The SA upgrade rights require 2 SC2011DC licenses to convert to 1 SC2012DC license, where as 1 SC2011 Enterprise license gives you 2 SC2012 Standard licenses. The enterprise CAL suite (included in the enterprise desktop pack) continues to provide client MLs for all SC products. System Center 2012 is a lot easier to license, but no idea what the EES/OVS pricing is going to look like! Have a look at http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/1/1/11128EC7-2BE7-480C-9D46-4ECECA9E481A/System%20Center%202012%20Licensing%20Datasheet.pdf for more info. Finally to answer your other question - Windows 7 Enterprise is only available as an upgrade option. You have to have a qualifying OS already installed on the hardware your install W7 Ent onto, but yes it is included in the Enterprise desktop pack.

The ERA/ERA+ covers storing timeshifted content for educational purposes, but be very careful if your going to be ripping DVDs/CDs that have been bought. At the moment format shifting isn't legal, however the government have acknowledged that a lot of people do it and are working to change the law to legalise it but until the law is drafted and enacted your still falling foul of copyright laws if you rip a DVD to store on a media streaming server.

Find some flash interactive websites that have a lot of flash on the front page and load that up a few times. The nickelodeon website (Nickelodeon | Kids Games, Kids Celebrity Video, Kids Shows | Nick.com) used to kill lots of older thin clients, but they've redesigned it now so its not as bad!

I'm very lucky in that I've had the opportunity to do something very similar recently. I think the biggest thing for me is to ensure you have the physical capacity (networking, power, rack space etc) to move and change as future needs may dictate. This includes making sure that you've got extra network sockets/power available for digital signage, wireless, IP CCTV, IP speakers, access control, cashless catering/vending etc. One of our biggest bugbears is that we don't have this, which even though we're a brand new school we find limiting. It's a lot easier to do it at the start (although it may cost a bit extra) then trying to retro fit it in a couple of years time Other than that I'd repeat what others are saying. Site wide wireless is a must - just make sure you've specced the system with 1-1 future provision in mind, it'll make things easier again. Cat6 runs throughout and gig speeds to the desktop, with multiple fibre runs between all remote cabinets and the network core. If possible also put in somewhere you can use as a DR/Backup location even if its only making sure one of the comms rooms/cabinets can take a couple of servers/nas devices to backup on to. Juniper or HP switching throughout perferably with 10gig links between cabinets. I'd also be looking to run a fully virtualised system using Hyper-V or Citrix XenServer, together with some sort of SAN. We run VMWare here but to be honest it's too expensive for what it gives you, and you can get the same features for a lot less with Hyper-V or XenServer. I like the idea of running both Macs and Windows based PCs (we do it here), but I know it's not for everyone and does have extra expense. We use our macs for music and for video production (we have a video post-production edit lab). With the PCs standardise as much as possible - it just makes it easier . For each classroom I'd be looking at interactive plasma TVs and a fixed desktop together with a VOIP phone. For the phone system I'd likely go with a MS Lync system tying into a full Exchange deployment. I'm sure I've forgotten lots, but we are actually a new build school where technology is a integral part of what we do so if you have any questions feel free to PM me

Best racks I've used are HP or APC racks. The HP racks (and alot of other companies) are actually manufactured by Rittal (Rittal Enclosures, Cabinets, Boxes and Electronic Packaging.). We've got a load of 800 wide, 1000 deep, 42u high Rittal racks here and they are very nice - not cheap though! No idea on price for those particular racks (supplied as part of the building contract) but when I last bought HP racks they were around £700 for the HP 10642 G2 rack (600 wide, 1000 deep, 42u high).

It got switched out due to cost saving! Unfortunately I wasn't involved in the original building design. Still the UPS is in a IP65 rated case because of the sprinkler system (and they have now installed metal shields over the top of them!). Not that it'll do any of the other equipment any good...

I forgot to say that everything in the server room is fed from the main Borri UPS. It feeds 12 32a commando sockets for our 6 racks, 2 airdale easicool aircon units and the sockets on the wall. We also have full maintenance bypass and have it connected in to the fire alarm system to power off on sprinkler set off.

We have APC 3000XL's in all our comms cabs to provide 3hrs min runtime to those switches, while our main server room has a Borri B1031 (http://www.stontronics.co.uk/Stontronics/files/a6/a6b6ca3e-9b1c-447d-993b-fe0c671f52d8.pdf) 30kva 3 phase to single phase UPS with batteries to provide 30 mins runtime at full load. The comms cabs have pretty basic 3-pin PDUs, while in the main server room we use APC AP8653 PDUs.

Congratulations

I'm a huge believer that BYOD is the way forward, but not as a total replacement for the desktop PC. For a lot of things within business and schools certainly, but at the moment licensing restrictions and ensuring that devices are capable of running all the apps they need to (and getting them installed) are where I see issues. Terminal services/App-V/XenApp etc solve this issue for some applications, but CAD/CAM etc are still issues. XenClient and similar client-based hypervisors are one interesting avenue to help get around this issue and will be interesting to see them develop!

It was announced before this season even began that it was likely to be its last - no idea how they're going to end it though, it's only half way through so far!

Thanks for this - just registered for the Hyper-V and Private Cloud Reading events . Unfortunately the London events were already fully booked Would like to also do the consumerisation of IT event, but unfortunately nothing close to me

We were the same. We got a special offer last summer with a much cheaper price than anyone else was offering. I think because they're quite new to education, but are very big in other markets that they are able to cross subsidise a bit and have much larger market power. One of the other nice things is unlike the other providers they're an actual registered FSA eMoney provider.

We're also using sQuid. Not had any problems with it and it works well. Company are good to work with as well

I'm the Director of IT and sit on the SLT within our school. I'm line managed by one of the deputy heads, although he doesn't line manage ICT as a subject. ICT as a subject and IT as a school resource are treated separately, with ICT being treated as any other subject. We do a lot of work with the ICT department so have good relationships with them but work just as much with our Creative Media/Media Studies, Music and Performing Arts departments. All IT related technicians are line managed by me. I quite like our management structure and think it works quite well

At the moment we've got a brand new network of Cisco switches, but I'd be planning to replace them in 5-7 years. Main need for replacement would be to increase bandwidth, or add additional functionality such as newer forms of PoE etc.