colly72

Quick update to this thread. We've now (finally) decided to go ahead and buy 2 identical Dell R630 servers (96GB RAM, 2 x 2620 6core CPUs and 8x1TB SAS disks) and use a combination of local storage and Hyper V replication. Although it's not quite as good as a clustered/storage spaces solution, for us, it's a great, relatively affordable option and avoids the unnecessary complexity of a SAN. We might consider going down the Direct Storage Spaces route, once Windows 2016 is released as that seems a tantalising prospect. With Veeam backups and the replication, I feel happy this gives us everything we (and most schools) really need.

Thanks for all the replies. On another (related) topic, in order to implement ACLs on VLANS, do the edge switches need to be ACL capable, or can I just add the ACL to the config on the core switches? I'm assuming all the work is done at the core?

Considering which switches to use as core switches in our school. Just had a reseller recommend Dell as a possible alternative to HP. Does anyone have any experience of Dell switches both for core and edge? Do they have a similar CLI to HP? Thanks in advance, Michael

Thanks for the advice. I'll get the proposed network diagram uploaded here so you can see how it might look.

Hello all, I'm currently planning our schools migration from an ancient flat network, to a segmented, VLAN network. We've just about settled on HP Procurves for our core and edge switches and I'm reasonably comfortable on getting the VLANS set up and routing configured, together with subnets etc. Im undecided on whether to use ACLs to secure our inter plan traffic or whether to use our existing Sophos UTM firewall to achieve similar results. Does anyone have specific experience of using Sophos UTMs to do this or is using ACLs a better option? Thanks in advance. Michael

Here's the link for the certified JBOD list. DataOn seem to be a popular choice

I've got a company coming in next week, to talk about our options, including the Dell VTRX system, which they say they've successfully installed in a leading independent school. Stone also seem to do a similar integrated setup, with their new Integrum appliance. Both seem good options, although I'm a little bit wary about having everything in one box, although it seems like a cheaper and simpler way of having shared storage without a costly SAN.

Thanks for the reply. I'm tempted by Hyper-V to be honest, most schools I talk to seem to lean towards it over ESXI. So, I guess my 3 options are: 1. Use Hyper-V with local disks and replicate to other hosts using Hyper-V or Veeam. No auto failover? Requires same number of replica hosts as live? 2. User Hyper-V with a cluster JBOD tray/Storage Spaces. Same advantages as SAN but cheaper and more flexible? 3. Use Hyper-V/Vmware with SAN. Have I got that about right? Thanks, Michael

Thanks for all the input guys, it's exceptionally useful. Let's say for a minute I don't go down the SAN route and use replication instead, is it best practice to double up on the servers (i.e. 2 'live' hosts, plus another 2 doing the replication)?

Hi all, I'm currently embarking on a virtualisation project, to replace our 12 ageing physical servers. I was pretty much set on going down the 2 host + SAN route but I'm reading that some people are recommending avoiding a SAN and going with direct attached storage instead. Just wondering what peoples views are on this - without a SAN is it best practice just to replicate the primary host using Veeam or Hyper V? Does this provide immediate failover or is there a break in service? Trying to get an idea of best practice vs cost. Thanks in advance, Michael

Hi all, We are looking at a project to virtualise our ageing physical servers and I wondered if anyone in the West Yorkshire area would be willing to have me pay a visit to look at what they have in place at their school. Our budget is small, so I'm looking for cost effective solutions where possible. Thanks in advance, Michael

Hi All, I'm trying to setup, in a test environment, a Meraki AP, with a Sophos UTM. Ideally, I want a scenario where the end user connects to the AP via WPA2. they then get presented with a Meraki splash screen, enter their AD credentials (no RADIUS involved), which then get presented to the Sophos UTM and access granted. I've got so far and the Meraki splash screen authenticates correctly but then I can't access the UTM. It looks as though the DNS is set incorrectly as it won't resolve the internal DNS name of the UTM. The Meraki is set in NAT mode but it has the internal DNS servers set, so it should work. Does anyone have experience of setting this up? Thanks in advance, Michael

We're running v9 on a SG330 hardware appliance. It's only been in just over a month and in terms of functionality, it's great. It does pretty much everything we need. We have had some issues with stability though, it's randomly rebooted a few times without warning (twice just today) - Sophos are looking into this.

+1 for the Sophos UTM home version. We use the full hardware appliance at my school as well and it's a fantastic bit of kit.

Hi all, We use SLG here and have just purchased a Sophos UTM box, which I'm looking to potentially use to publish SLG using reverse authentication. Just wondering if anyone has already done this and what gotchas to look out for. Thanks in advance, Michael

Yes, I've restarted it a few times. It's really baffling me.

Yeah, mysqli

Thanks for the suggestion - I can connect both as root and moodleuser, via command prompt. I've checked the privileges on the db and granted full moodleuser

Yes, the service is running. I can access the db fine from PHPmyadmin

I've upgraded MySQL from 5.1 to 5.5, in preparation for upgrading to the latest version of Moodle. After backing up the Moodle DB using PHPmyadmin, uninstalling MySQL 5.1 and installing 5.5, I've then restored the moodle DB using PHPmyadmin and added a user, granting all privileges to the database. I've then run mysql_upgrade on the db. When I try to browse to Moodle I get the following errror: Error: Database connection failed It is possible that the database is overloaded or otherwise not running properly. The site administrator should also check that the database details have been correctly specified in config.php I've checked the details in config.php and they've not changed, so I'm at a loss what to do. I'm on Windows 2008 R2. Can anyone let me have some advice? Thanks, Michael

After looking into this a bit more, I'm sure that the Fortigate can be used to achieve this, with a combination of VLANs and VDOMs, which effectively split the Fortigate into 2 distinct devices and apply firewall and routing rules based on that, to set the traffic up as required. Has anyone used VDOMS effectively to achieve a similar outcome?

Thanks for the reply. I know that a Layer 3 switch would be the preferred option but from a financial perspective, it's a luxury I don't have, I need to try and make it all work with the hardware we already have. Can it be done?

OK, here's the requirement. I have a Netgear GS748T switch in one cabinet and an HP Procurve 1810G switch in another - I want to setup 2 VLANs - one for the academic network and one for accounts. In addition I have a Fortigate 80C which is used as a perimeter UTM device but can also act as an L3 router. I need the accounts PCs which are connected to the Procurve to be able to connect to the academic VLAN but the academic PCs (connected to the Netgear switch) not to be able to access the Accounts VLAN. I'm assuming that I can use the Fortigate as an L3 router to enable inter VLAN routing but I'm unsure where to start, or even if it's possible/desirable to have HP and Netgear setup in this way. Can anyone give me some pointers or basic setup instructions? Thanks in advance.

NetSupport do a really nice helpdesk system, which integrates with Active Directory. It's quite cheap too, from memory.

I work in a independent school and also have my own web design company. Take a look at The Silcoates School Foundation (my own school) which is a site I designed, using Drupal. I could design a Joomla site for you for an extremely competitive price, much more efficiciently than most other commercial design companies. I'm happy to quote for you if you are interested.