Duke

No necessarily. QNAP's do CIFS and iSCSI so are essentially NAS ans SAN and they're cheap. It's more about performance and how 'enterprise' it is these days. You can get a cheap QNAP, but ours struggled with high usage over CIFS and doesn't handle replication particularly well. Our Oracle S7410 on the other hand costs way more, but can handle our 1800 users.

All SAN and NAS differentiate between is the way they're accessed and how the data is stored: NAS = File-level storage, normally accessed via CIFS/SMB/NFS, the NAS device controls how the data is written to disk and the client just sends file-level commands SAN = Block-level storage, normally accessed via iSCSI/FC, the client device has block-level access to the storage (in theory at least - in reality the SAN may do the actual writes and just present a block-level device to the client) Whether you need a SAN or NAS very much depends on what you plan to do with it. If you need block-level storage (e.g. for virtual machines) then you need a SAN. If your clients directly access files on a Windows-based system then you probably want a NAS. If you want both then get Unified Storage that does everything (many devices offer this now). Do you have any way or working out the IOPS on your current storage to make sure any new device will meet your needs? Chris

Looks nice - I wonder how the Atom will compare to the i5 in Surface Pro? You can definitely see the battery life improvement though! Hard to justify at twice the price of a laptop mind, and if you're got money then why not have a 4K resolution tablet?

Agreed, it's completely nonsensical to me. I like the idea of having iTap (or whatever you use) on an iPhone/iPad for emergency RDP use, but using an Apple device as the primary way to access your Windows desktop on the move doesn't make much sense to me.

Have you looked at Apple MDM? Apple - iPhone in Business - IT Center - Mobile Device Management in iOS Not brilliant in my option, but if you download the PDF off that website you can see the list of supported commands/configuration. It does allow you to lock the device down to some degree and wipe it back to your original configuration if needed. Cheers, Chris

I'd say that's fairly sensible really - that's all MS Surface Pro is after all. I'd be interested to see where you're finding a nice 10" notebook (as opposed to netbook) for £160 though! I don't think this is really what most teachers want though. They like the idea that a tablet is more engaging and has 'apps' (even if they don't know what apps they would actually use in their lessons), rather than just getting the same Windows experience they're getting on a laptop. I think the notebook would need to be touchscreen (particularly for Win8) before it came close to comparing. Give me something that has the hardware, form-factor and 'usability' of an iPad (with equal or better battery life), but let it have support for multiple network profiles with nothing other than caches stored on the local device, full integration with AD for logons and authentication, a mail client that supports Exchange (even just Activesync), POP and iMAP, support for SMB shares in a way that allows me to have mapped drives and folders based on home directory settings in AD, and allow me to control all the settings and lock it down through some kind of server-based group policy. Price it at equal to or less than an iPad and you're on to a winner. MS Surface Pro ticks half the boxes, but falls down badly on price, battery life and usability. EDIT: I don't see why they can't make an enterprise iPad - Macs can do most of what I listed if you have a Mac server running OperDirectory and Workgroup Manager. I assume iOS could be modified to support some of those things. Chris

I think you can lock down iPads to some degree, there's certainly policies that you can push out I think. I assume you'll be able to lock down an MS Surface Pro tablet the same way you could any other Windows 8 machine on a domain. Not much out there for Android as far as I know. I can't believe we're still at the point where no one's making an enterprise-ready tablet. Schools are literally trying to thrown their money at the manufacturers and no one's making a good solution. Cheers, Chris

You'd get sore arms if you were playing Temple Run on it though. Agreed, 5 hours isn't going to do much good in a school unless you have some kind of docking trolley/case.

The Verge got an early look at CES: Surface Pro: an in-depth look at Microsoft's super tablet | The Verge Not sure if anyone else is looking forward to a tablet solution with full enterprise compatibility? Based on that article, I'd be concerned about cost, size and weight - it seems more like a laptop replacement than the type of tablet you'd give to a class full of students. Nice to have a full desktop OS in tablet form though! Cheers, Chris

Right now I'd say we're close enough to the launch of the MS Surface Pro tablets to wait and see what they're like, unless you're already 100% sure they'll be out of your price range. My simplified opinion is: iPads Pros: The best 'experience' for single users, staff and students like them and want to use them, there's a good app store and they have some enterprise-level support Cons: They're single-user devices and there's no nice way to get around this (if you properly configure the device for one person then you can't give it to someone else without wiping it), and they don't integrate with anything on a Windows network Android Tablets Pros: Very well designed, great for personal use if you already like Android Cons: Don't really offer the best of any worlds in a school environment MS Surface RT Disappointed me to be honest. RT won't run any 'real' Windows apps, the app store isn't taking off very quickly, and there's no enterprise support MS Surface Pro In theory this is the answer to our (Windows domain users) problems - a well-designed tablet that has full enterprise support, can run Windows apps, can join a domain, and has multi-user support. In reality I think the price is going to be too high and the Windows 8 learning curve too difficult for some. Check out a bit of software called DisplayNote; it might solve some tablet/device issues for you. Cheers, Chris

Lol! That's one way of doing it I guess!

Was it just a single DC? If so you can normally do it and get away with it. You can also generally snapshot and restore a single DC, although I don't think either are best practice per se. The issue comes about when you have multiple DCs, P2V or restore from snapshot one of them, and it starts to sync up with the other DCs with old updates. DCs have an 'Update Sequence Number' that allows them to keep their databases in sync, and when you roll back one DC to an old USN it really screws with the others. A single DC normally isn't recommended unless you only have a very small site, but for backup and restore purposes it can end up making your life a lot easier. Chris

Others may have different opinions, but generally what I've done and seen done is to P2V (physical to virtual) a server using the VMware converter (either standalone or in vCenter - vCenter is nice as everything takes place server-side so you can keep an eye on it but don't need to leave your own PC [for example] running if it's going to take a long time) but set the converter up not to power the new virtual server up when it finishes. Once it's converted, you'd normally edit the settings to turn off networking, then power the server up and make sure it runs properly. Some services that require a network connection will obviously fail, but check everything else looks okay. Don't forget to install VMware Tools. Next, clean up your hardware. You can do quite a bit of this using Device Manager (i.e. delete a Dell RAID card now that you're using VMware's SCSI 'card'), but it will probably not show you everything you need (e.g. an old NIC, which will stop you assigning the IP address you want to the new VMware NIC). To fix this open a command prompt run set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 followed by start devmgmt.msc then in the Device Manager window that pops up, do View > Show Hidden Devices. This will allow you to see all the hidden or ghosted hardware and clear it out. Give the new virtual server a few reboots and make sure it's happy, and check the hostname and IP address are correct (still with VM networking not connected). You generally should not need to assign a new hostname and IP address to the virtual server. Remember that you're replacing the old physical server, not trying to run them side by side. Once you're sure the virtual machine looks okay, shut down the old physical server, then shut down the virtual server, connect the VM network and power it back up. Hopefully, everything will run fine and your users will notice no difference between the old server and the new one! If you do run into issues, power down the virtual machine and turn the physical server back on, then disconnect networking on the virtual machine while you power it back up to troubleshoot it. There's nothing stopping you doing one server at a time (I'd recommend it in fact), but I wouldn't P2V your DCs. Make new virtual servers and DC Promo them, let them sync up, then demote your old physical DCs. Hope this helps, Chris

I think the concern is that RAID0 isn't technically RAID as it fails the 'redundant' part. Most people who want speed use RAID10 (or 0+1) as that gives you the speed of RAID0 with the redundancy of RAID1 (give or take, I know it's not quite that simple as there are overheads). If you've got failover then fair enough, but doesn't having to failover your whole disk pool due to a single disk failure seem a bit excessive? To each their own though, and if it's working for you then I'm certainly not criticising. Chris

Hi all, We have two ICT vacancies at Hardenhuish School, Chippenham (SN14 6RJ) that you may be interested in (or know someone else who would be). Hardenhuish is a Maths & Computing Specialist school with the ICT Mark and we were rated as 'Outstanding' at our last Ofsted inspection. We have around 900 desktops (incl. laptops) and 20+ servers. We use VMware, have unified storage (i.e. NAS/SAN), and handle pretty much everything in-house. The ICT Support team consists of four people, plus the new apprentice position below, and budgets are currently very healthy. I would be happy to answer any informal questions via PM, or you can contact our HR department (see website below). I’m moving on to other things, so the ICT Support Manager position is available. This would involve running the support department, overseeing ICT use in the school, managing the network, and planing/managing projects. Full details are available on the vacancies page of our website. We are also looking to appoint an Apprentice ICT Technician, which will involve working with the ICT Support team here while also gaining a qualification. This is a really great opportunity for someone looking to get in ICT, or if you know someone else who may be interested then please pass on the details which can either be found on our website or via the AVMS apprenticeship service website. The apprentice position will be advertised in the Gazette and Herald this week, and the ICT Support Manager position in the Bath Chronicle. The closing date for both positions is 26th November. All the best, Chris

Oh definitely, if you have redundancy at either the OS or Application level then many of the points I raised become less of an issue. I got the impression that this was going to be a physical server, but if it's a VMware/Hyper-V/Xen host then I'm happy to be corrected. Re: Maplin - What's their stock like on server components? I've never used them for PC hardware before, but do they sell things like LSI RAID cards? Only concern would be if they're out of stock on something, but I suppose that's why you keep your own spares in-house.

I think I'm in the middle - we've found Dell to be cheaper than HP on the servers we buy and I've had great support from Dell but poor support from HP. Something I meant to mention in my first post but forgot - what happens if/when you decide to leave and your replacement has to manage these servers? If you document everything really well then it's not too bad, but how many of us have the time to write proper documentation for our network and what if they're not as comfortable with server hardware as you are? Again, just trying to raise some thoughts. Chris

Hmm, I can see why you'd be tempted down the self-build route if you've had bad experiences with support! Anyway, I certainly wasn't aiming to criticise, just giving you some food for thought.

Eh, I think it's all about the pros and cons that vary on your dependence on the hardware and the budget available to you. I've built my own servers in the past, but only for testing and development purposes. Once a server/service goes into production it's put on a pre-built server with a warranty. I wouldn't run production-level services on something that I'd built myself unless budget restrictions forced me to, but that's not to say you shouldn't or that it can't be done. Just playing devil's advocate for a minute: Pros Cheaper Easier to service yourself Can customise to your exact spec Pay off-the-shelf prices for components, not inflated server manufacturer prices Can keep hot/cold spares on-hand Cons No HCL or guarantees of components properly working together No support if you cannot fix an issue yourself No guarantees of spare parts being available, or information on their expected lifecycle No central place for hardware/support issues, you need to contact individual component manufacturers yourself and arrange RMAs with separate suppliers No SLA's in place if you need a hardware/software fix and do not have the required equipment on-hand I don't doubt that you're a perfectly capable system builder, but what happens when your RAID controller decides it doesn't like the firmware on your SAS disks, and starts to corrupt data, get read errors, or mistakenly report drives as failed? Is that something you have experience dealing with? Do you think you'll get quick support from the RAID card or disk manufacturer? Is it not quite likely that LSI (or whoever) will blame Seagate (or whoever), and Seagate will blame LSI, and you'll be stuck in the middle with no fix? If I buy a pre-built server from Dell, all the hardware will be properly tested together, and if I have any issues I go straight to Dell who will either supply a fix themselves, or find out which component manufacturer needs to fix it. What happens when you're running lots of critical services on this server and you run out of component X replacements, only to find out that manufacturer Y no longer makes component X, and the next replacement component uses a different chip which would require rebuilding the server? E.g. you run out of motherboards, and the next model available uses a completely different chipset that your OS won't support. I have no reason not to believe that Dell will be able to supply me with compatible hardware for the life of the server. They've done so for servers 6-7 years old, and have a vested interest in components that have a long lifecycle, whereas consumer hardware manufacturers often don't. What happens when you get a hardware issue that you just can't figure out? I'm not saying you're not very skilled, but even the best of us get a problem we just can't fix without more information or support from the supplier of the hardware/software. Who will you go to when you've bought all the components individually, and none of the manufactures guaranteed that their component X will work with someone else's component Y? A Dell server is designed and tested for all the components inside to work together, and if I do get a weird issue then it's their support department's job to fix it. Now, I've only used Dell as an example because that's what we use here. I have obviously exaggerated the issues you might face and the level of support we get from Dell, just to make a point. I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't do it, but you asked for all thoughts. EDIT: There's been a few posts since I started writing this and you've pointed out the 1 year warranty on some components. I can usually have 3-year as a base warranty on a server, and keep extending it upwards of 5 years. How do you and your users feel about running hardware that's out of warranty, even if you do keep a spare of every component on hand? What about the costs involved with replacing them out of your own pocket (well, the school's pocket!). Chris

Always used Intel PRO NICs with no issues either. I have a couple of HP dev boxes running ESXi 4.0 with Intel PRO/1000 GT desktop adapters. Chris

We have the ICT Mark status and have been on vSphere for the last four years. Chris

I've been using a QNAP TS-859U+ with Veeam without any issues, however we have seen problems when putting them under heavy load from Backup Exec. We experienced dropouts / SMB errors when connecting to a Windows share on the QNAP, but these problems were pretty much resolved by using iSCSI. They're not the greatest boxes in the world and don't quite live up to their advertised features when you push them, but they're quite nice for 'dumb storage' if you don't need high performance. Chris

Heh, I can't believe there's not more information out there on this one... So, Windows 7 uses 'winhttp' to communicate with Microsoft's servers for activation. winhttp does not pull down proxy settings from IE like pretty much everything else does, so regardless of what settings you've made on your proxy, winhttp isn't going to see or use them. Thankfully, you can set winhttp settings via a command line, so assuming you already have your key in the image (if not then see LeightonJames's post), you need to run something like: netsh winhttp set proxy proxyname:portnumber cscript //b c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato Rather annoying. Chris

Microsoft, Google and the KMS server. glen_j's link explains it fairly well. I'd never heard of this at all before this summer, but it affected us pretty badly. It's annoying that there's no way around it, even if you have all your fully legal media and licences to hand. The only solution I saw online was to go back to the bare-bones PC manufacturers and ask them for a BIOS update that includes the 'Windows Installed' flag - there's no guarantee they'd have one or give it to you though. Not sure how you'd go about proving you had a valid copy of Windows anyway, and I didn't fancy doing that many BIOS updates! Not sure about VMs. We don't have many Windows 7 VMs so have activated them all with MAK keys anyway. All our virtual servers use MAK keys too. Cheers, Chris

Cheers, that's definitely worth a try! Just wish I knew why they wouldn't activate automatically!