Blue_Cookeh

We're licensed for 3 Windows Server Standard installs. Currently this gives us the rights to run x3 Server Standard physical machines (running the Hyper-V role only) and 6 Windows VMs on top. In reality, we run 4 Windows VMs on 2 Hyper-V roles and 1 Physical server. We were told Linux guests don't count towards Hyper-V licensing, which makes sense since you can download the Hyper-V core server for free... Also, there's no need for a physical DC nowadays

Don't really need to eject USB sticks nowadays. Windows 7 and above turns off write caching by default for flash based devices. Still a good idea for USB hard disks though.

Plug them in to Apple Configurator and watch the Console in there to see why the iPad is rejecting the certificate. The console is very (helpfully) verbose as to what's going on behind the scenes on the iPad. I just recently wiped all our iPads and redid them using AC2 and Meraki.

Do you know roughly how much that is?

FYI Guys, plug an iPad with an issue into a Mac running Apple Configurator 2, there's an option to view the device's console somewhere in there, it's very verbose and has helped me figure out tons of problems!

We love our Sophos UTM (on the old v9 software) and we were using it to route between VLANs. You plug your Ethernet interface into a trunk port on your switch (Cisco speak), obviously the Ethernet interface will talk on the default switch VLAN, but you go into the Interfaces section of the UTM admin and add VLANs there, it's really easy. Be warned, it is likely your SG330 would come with the new XG Firewall software, which is a steaming pile of poop at the moment, but you get free downgrade rights to v9 (the one in that demo), which you should utilise. Sophos have said the XG Firewall OS should be on par with v9 feature-wise in about a year or two, and you will be able to upgrade for free when you're ready. Despite the mess of the new OS upgrade, I would still whole heartedly recommend it as a UTM, there are so many features in there and it's really intuitive to use. This is what their new OS looks like: https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/next-gen-firewall.aspx

Nah, they're rebranding ProCurve under Aruba (which they just bought), I believe HP's bigger stuff will now be HP Enterprise.

HP Procurve 2920 at the core with HP Procurve 2530s at the edge with/without PoE depending on if we need phones or APs connected. Working really well for us in primary!

I don't understand the point in picking out a technicality? You're using fully unsupported software by using RedHat without a subscription.

You're comparing Apples and Oranges, I'm not disputing the fact business is moving to a different way of working, what I did say was that in the case of most organisations (significant ones in the UK, I'm not talking about Silicon Valley/Roundabout startups here, lets be realistic) Windows is the primary choice of OS, and I said Apple follows in a close second because of the SMB types. This still doesn't warrant moving an entire school to Linux, if this is how you think you should be teaching children to work, then you ought to be ditching computers entirely and giving them tablets, but we all know your typical office worker isn't sitting on an iPad all day. IMO (and yours may differ...) schools should be providing a wide range of resource for students, but still be realistic. Give children the tools and let them decide what to use, this means having all manner of OSes and devices available at their disposal, but for serious work you should be looking externally at what businesses are using and realising that in fact, Windows isn't going anywhere anytime soon on the desktop. That's not free and OSS, RedHat is a fully commercial solution, in the same way Microsoft is (and I dare say you probably paid a relatively significant amount of money for it), the fact they contribute their code to OSS doesn't count, and their licensing/support fees can be just as eye watering as Microsoft's. Microsoft won't walk you through configuring your environment, their support is there for real edge case issues much like RedHat's.

Surely as people working in education your main priority should be enabling children to be prepared for the future? Realistically on the client end, Windows is probably used in the majority of business, with Mac closely following, and Linux way off the mark. Children should be given tools they will be using later in life, not using software shoehorned into an Educational environment that teachers can barely use. Chromebooks are an exception, they are entirely web-based and very much a closed ecosystem compared to any Linux distribution. If I tried to switch our school to Linux, no amount of saved money is going to convince them to let me install Linux everywhere, an NQT coming into our school knows Windows, a 4 year old coming into our school knows Windows, it's a no brainer as to what we should be using. A fun project, but it should stay that way, a mishmash of free OSS will never compete with the ecosystem Microsoft have built, and rightly charge for. I think you're taking a very naive view on why schools would be using Linux over Windows. Linux is not necessarily more secure, not necessarily faster, doesn't have more privacy, and isn't a drive towards computer science. 1. Your system is only as secure as the weakest link. If I open up SSH and RDP access to the world and leave those servers unpatched, both will eventually be exploitable 2. Speed is subjective, if I can do my work 10x faster on Windows because I know the environment, it doesn't matter that my Linux-based OS is booting 5 seconds quicker than Windows 3. Lock down your privacy controls using group policy, this is what Enterprise is for, not only this but the world is a changing place. The definition of privacy is changing, and privacy on a shared school computer is probably a moot point anyway. 4. Real "computer scientists" can work on any hardware/software combination. I can write my NumPy/SciPy based scripts in Python on any OS, it's entirely cross compatible. As I said, fun project, but not much more than that. Part of the cost of Microsoft or Apple products are the guaranteed support. You don't get that with OSS software. Samba4 will NOT replace AD and the associated services it provides. Maybe having an IT suite or laptop trolley with CentOS or Ubuntu installed would be a good idea though, to give children the option of using it. I guess my main point here, as much as I love Linux (and do have active Linux servers in our school!), is that this thread is a complete Linux circlejerk with the amount of "Micro$oft" bullpoop flying about.

Are you not concerned about the licensing associated with Meraki? I looked at it and I just cant justify licensing all our networking gear to stop it becoming a brick every 3 years :/

Netgear has the most frustrating interface on the planet if you're trying to do anything remotely clever, and our Netgear APs started dropping out one by one a few years ago. We ripped it all out and put HP everywhere.

You can get PoE powered switches For example NETGEAR GS105PE-10000S ProSAFE 5 Port PoE-Powered (PD) Pass Through Gigabit Web Managed Plus Ethernet Switch: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

So looking at this new list of stuff... What MDMs are people using nowadays? It seems like different MDMs support different features for iOS etc. Currently we're on Meraki MDM, trialling Lightspeed as a replacement.

It's important to note the physical portion of the licensing (if using x2 VMs) only accounts for a host running the Hyper-V role and nothing more.

Most of the crypto variants have actually supplied the decryption keys on payment, only a few haven't... absolute worst case scenario with no backups etc etc obviously though.

Does your router know how to get back to the 10.55.210.0 network? Routing is a two way street

Avaya IP Office worked out very inexpensive for us and does everything we need it to. Auto attendant, voicemail to e-mail etc etc. We have something like x8 Avaya 1616 IP deskphones (with pass through for PCs on another VLAN), a red analog emergency phone for powerfail, and an Avaya 802.11g WiFi phone. We went for this solution since a) if I leave a company can easily support it, b) it's very much set and forget, not yet another server to support c) gave us easy flexibility when it came to POTS, ISDN lines, and even SIP later on. We bought from a place called ExteraDirect and did the install ourselves.

Don't you think you're just moving the existing point of failure outside the case? So long as that external brick is of a good quality I don't see any reason why it shouldn't last as long as any internal PSU would. VeryPC seem to do very fair pricing on fairly decent spec NUCs, something we'll be moving to in th new FY hopefully. When you price up the NUC, accessories, and a monitor from Iiyama or some other decent company, you end up at the same price as an AIO with arguably easier servicing if something goes wrong.

Our .sch domain is currently hosted with Eclipse Internet, it was never with Nominet as far as I'm aware since it was ported over from (the very ancient) NTL years and years ago. I would check if your domain is actually showing as registered, if not then just go and get it from someone like 123-Reg. Nominet are a pain in the butt.

Hi Dave, will put a ticket in on Monday, thought I might be missing something daft!

Hi Guys, Has anyone successfully managed to get the iOS Mobile Filter app working prroperly with Lightspeed Filtering & MDM? More specifically with @SchoolsBroadband? I've been pointed to this how to on the LS wiki but I can't get passed the 'Restricted' page in Safari. I have successfully deployed the Mobile Filter app and its PLIST config to a supervised device via the MDM and configured the URL to the LS Rocket in the MDM's Policy section (that shows up in the Mobile Filter app) but it seems like everything is blocked and there are 0 known mobile devices showing in the LS Web Filter panel. Any ideas?

Turns out a certain company named above supply the people we bought all our iPads from, might be able to get all our existing ones onto DEP after all!

I started deploying updates using SCCM. Staff have updates deployed to them ASAP after they become available, with a deadline set to 1 week after Patch Tuesday. Updates are set to install OOH (8:30-15:30) but they'll get forced at the deadline. Pupil netbooks are deployed to ASAP after becoming available, but the deadline is extended out to 1 month after Patch Tuesday and set to install OOH before this as above. Our teachers know this routine so once a month they'll set them all up for an hour after school to update.