seawolf

Your experience in this case is NOT normal. I have had many OSX Servers over many years with several of them being Mac Minis. They do not crawl. One caveat though - if you are using them on .local domain - all bets are off. Don't do that. Really. If you have a .local domain and aren't willing to change it, best to not even bother with Macs in particular, but Apple gear in general. You are creating a rod for your own back. Use ANYTHING other than a .local domain and it is smooth sailing. Like night and day. I do suspect the common use of "best practice" .local domains are the big cause of a many of the gripes about Apple I hear on here. So, I repeat. If you have a .local domain and won't/can't change it be prepared for pain. Don't blame the Apple gear for that pain though. Apple themselves and any Apple-savvy tech will tell you to never use .local domains.

Yes, there have been several studies already about the use of iPads in the classroom. However, you'll notice that several of these studies were not looking at the actual evidence of whether the iPad improved results, but whether students or educators "thought" they did. Those, we should completely dismiss as not being evidence-based. Some of the studies did use empirical evidence rather than opinion to make their conclusions, and there were a few with positive results: iPads improve special education at Coon Rapids school | Star Tribune Motion Math In-class | GameDesk Study: iPads improve Kindergarten literacy scores | Apple news, reviews and how-tos since 2004 iPad-equipped medical school class scores 23 percent higher on exams | mobihealthnews However, it should be noted that the studies that showed positive results were in very specific areas and circumstances that very likely affected the outcomes. My read on these is that iPads are very effective with Special Needs students, for assisting in learning fundamental maths at the Primary level (making dry subjects more game like usually helps!), possibly assisting younger kids with literacy, and it appears that they also are effective at helping already highly driven and goal-oriented Medical students. On the other hand, I've seen iPads cause lots of problems in classrooms particularly for teachers who don't know how to manage a classroom effectively and there are many studies that show many detriments to using laptops in the classroom, which would probably carry over even more strongly to iPads as they are even more distraction causing. http://www.mcla.edu/Academics/uploads/textWidget/3424.00018/documents/laptop_use_in_the_classroom.pdf http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist156/laptops.pdf UNL study shows college students are digitally distracted in class | News Releases | University of Nebraska-Lincoln But...shhhh....don't tell anyone or there would be half the tech in schools and there would be half as many jobs for us all. But, seriously I'm highly skeptical of the amount of technology being pushed into the classroom when there are so many teachers who cannot manage a classroom effectively already and don't really know what they are going to do with the technology (or how to do it). Technology has been pushed as the solution to improving student outcomes and grades. Sorry to break the news, but they don't. To add a bit of irony to it all, the one area where technology can be used REALLY effectively - in teaching computer programming and other tech-centric skills - is the one area where schools are falling down the most technology-wise. That's why things like code.org even exists. All of this technology in the classroom and it isn't even being used effectively for the one area where it is absolutely necessary.

Nope, still works here. I don't know what you have going on there, but using the method I've always used still works just fine as I just tested it. Also, don't know what you've got going on here unless you are trying to update an app on hundreds of iPads at once. We only have 30Mbit fibre and it only takes minutes to update most apps. Of course, if I pushed an update to 300 iPads at once it could take a while, but not two hours. Don't know what Apple's "greedy politics" you are referring to, but most of the majors seem to be about as bad as one another. Microsoft certainly doesn't give anything to anyone for free, and Google only appears to give things away for free while rummaging through your data in ways the NSA wouldn't have the balls to even think about doing, and using that information to make metric butt tons of money. Do you generate a powerful EMI field that only affects gear made by Apple. Perhaps operating on a particular frequency? A top spec Mac Mini that you are only using for the Server app running that slow is very, very out of the ordinary (and not even remotely usual). Unless perhaps you are trying to manage hundreds or thousand of iPads using Profile Manager there is no reason for it to be going that slow. I repeat - it is not normal. Perhaps a hardware scan is called for here.

There are some good improvements (iCloud Drive, Spotlight, AirDrop compatibility with iOS, Mail drop) and the overall changes to the UI don't really trouble me either. However, there are a few "improvements" that I would prefer were dropped or had never even been considered: Helvetica - Why oh why? I hate Helvetica in iOS. It looks good in documents and printed type, but it is a sucky interface font. Safari - I hate the look of the new Safari, and the apparent limitations of it. It might work for K-5 kids, possibly. For me though, now I'm going to be forced to choose between slowish Firefox or the resource hungry Chrome when this neutered version of Safari comes out. Phone Calls - No, I don't want to receive phone calls on my Laptop...or my iPad. That's what my phone is for. I like these things being isolated from one another. I like to be able to put my phone on silent and concentrate one one single thing rather than 10,000 when I so decide. Or, not have a phone call pop up on my laptop when I'm trying to do a presentation in front of 100 people. Sure, I can turn it off - maybe, we'll see. More crap to figure out how to disable - Now I will have to spend countless days trying to figure out ways to turn off most of these new social sharing features that are either utterly useless or just user nags in a managed environment. Of course some of them will likely turn out to be like Notifications, which cannot be reliably disabled for all users in a managed environment no matter how hard you try or however many plists you try to edit.

So...you base your decisions on whether an OS "touches" your network or not based on its name? Awesome.

I don't know what the sales team are actually saying in the UK, but in Australia, Apple employees (not resellers) were stating from day one pretty loud and clear that the iPad was a 1:1 device and that using them as "shared" devices was not what they were designed to do, and that forcing them into that square hole would be difficult. This was stated at two different Q&A sessions where Apple employees were in attendance to answer questions from the IT Managers and Principals at schools in Victoria, Australia. So, was this actual Apple employees singing their praises for "shared" use, or resellers?

Is this something that changed in the last week, because last time I checked you can create an Apple ID without a credit card or gift card by trying to purchase a free app when not logged in with an Apple ID and then choosing the option to create an Apple ID when prompted. Works on both iTunes and on an iPad from the App Store. Some of you boys on here have 100x more problems than I've ever seen with iPads. I don't know if it has something to do with the proxies and shared internet connections/filtering UK schools have or what - but the UK seems to have the biggest brunt of management issues with them. Correlation does not necessarily imply causation, but I have to wonder.

[sARCASM] Yes, this makes perfect sense. I can't understand why Canadians, Americans or Australians study Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dickens, Tolkien, Orwell, Bronte, Eliot, C.S. Lewis, or Byron. I mean, of what relevence do any of these authors works have for anyone other than the British...sheesh! [/sARCASM]

Yes, but it worked well because Apple was always a hardware company first and software company second, and they have long been vertically integrated in respect to end-to-end product design, (contract) manufacture, marketing, retail, and support of the whole product. Microsoft is certainly trying to turn the Titanic, but I wonder if they are actually steering the ship into an iceberg rather than away from it... Anyway, I'll stop raining on this parade. The S3 might sell like hotcakes in a cold Canadian winter who knows. It will be interesting to hear some hands on reviews and to try one out myself.

Probably around $50-60 AUD I'd say. Not sure what the import duties would be though.

Yes, but it's the type of gamble that a company in distress would normally take. Like what Apple did it when they had nothing to lose and Jobs killed all of the clones and cut a deal with Microsoft. I still think it was a strange, strange decision. Balmer's last stand I think.

Yes, I think the biggest flaw in the Surface 3 - is that it isn't a laptop. If they'd thrown away the hinge and keyboard cover in favour of a transformer-type tablet-laptop hybrid I reckon they would have a much bigger market.

Why it matters to Microsoft is that a big portion of their revenue comes from OEM licensing of Microsoft software to PC manufacturers. They've had huge growth in their cloud services business, but if their long-time cash cow of Windows OEM licensing plummets because of a poorly orchestrated takeover of the PC hardware manufacturing industry - they will suffer. Shareholders don't like surprises and big surprises could send MS into leadership turmoil, particularly with a relatively young and unproven CEO at the helm. Because even the iPad 1 was a chore trying to read eBooks on it for an extended period of time and the much larger screen of the S3 would make it even more cumbersome in that regard. The S3 is a big tablet and no tablet of that size yet has proven to be popular or useful in everyday use. As for not sitting on the lap as well as a normal laptop - have you tried it much with a Surface or Surface 2? It's not nearly as easy to use like that and is best used on a desk or table top with the kickstand. Unless there has been a 500% improvement in the keyboard and trackpad, then I seriously doubt it is going to be as good as the keyboard and trackpad on a MBA or good Ultrabook.

Your comparison of the The Nexus line of Android devices misses the mark because none of them were manufactured by Google. In fact, Motorola Mobility was sold by Google to Lenovo because if Google started directly manufacturing Android mobile phones on a large scale - it would drive the other manufacturers to move to another mobile OS. The Surface is not a "template" device. Google is trying to become the new Microsoft, and doing a pretty good job. Microsoft is trying to become the new Apple, and struggling. I've worked in the electronics contract manufacturing business in years past, and dealt with many of the big PC companies, component makers, etc. They won't be liking Microsoft's encroach into their already shrinking piece of the pie. Game consoles and accessories are one thing, but Microsoft is rolling the dice with their growing line of Surface products. Only time will tell how that goes, but there is danger there. That's what I'm saying...seriously. I have a 64GB Surface sitting on my desk. I've had it for 7 months. I've been trying to sell it for the past three months. It is a far cry from being as useful as an iPad for most people. The Surface 3 is too big to function as a good tablet (try reading an eBook for a good while with one and let me know how that goes) and it won't sit on the lap as well as a normal laptop and the keyboard isn't as good either. It's still very much a compromise device. Perhaps a better compromise, but still a definite compromise. Go ahead and buy one, use it for a few months and let us all know how it stacks up. In the meantime, if anyone wants to buy a lightly used Surface let me know...

So, the Surface was supposed to be the "iPad killer" when it came out. Now, the Surface 3 is the "laptop killer"? I'll wait to see how well this goes over with all of the hardware companies out there building Windows laptops. Unless MS intends to become the dominant Windows PC hardware manufacturer, I think they are painting themselves into a corner.

@JMB - My recommendations for backup software are Veeam Backup if you have vSphere/Hyper-V and BackupAssist for backing up Windows servers, file servers, and Hyper-V (BackupAssist does a decent job for Hyper-V backups, but not as good or full-featured as Veeam in that respect).

Yes, I'm the IT Manager, Senior Network Technician, Senior Sysadmin, IT Systems Architect, DBA, AV Solutions Designer, and Help Desk Manager all rolled into one. I didn't say I had a cushy, high paying job and no, there's no extra money for the extra skill set or duties. In Australia, a "College" is interchangeable with "High School", "Primary School", "Secondary School", or a combined Primary and Secondary school. It does NOT indicate a larger organisation with lots of extra money. You quite often than not get what you ask for. If you ask for it in the right way.

...And you pretty obviously are making an assumption that is 100% incorrect. I've been the IT Manager, and head IT and AV solutions designer, at a College for 3 Year old Kinder to Year 12 (VCE and VCAL) students for the past 5 years. I just wouldn't take job if that was the sort of budget I was given. Been there, done that, have the T-shirt and never going to do it again. If it doesn't bother you, then so be it. I would be fighting like a banshee to get more money though. That's just me.

Certainly, take requirements into account and such. But, everyone must decide what their minimum standards are regardless of the "requirements". If you have no minimum standards then you're just shifting sand beneath someone's feet. I turn down jobs where someone wants me to cut corners that I'm not willing to cut or where the bar is below what I believe is acceptable (regardless of what they think). You can do what you will. there were times in the past where I've crossed the line and bent to someone's will or "budget" and it ended badly. I refuse to do that anymore. If that is "rigid" - then I'm as rigid as they come.

If your school believes that their school administration (that being the system that contains all of the information about every student, staff member, and parents including reports, medical information, emergency contact info, discipline history, etc) and finance system is worth "very little" then sure, I guess you're correct. Or, if you deem the importance of data by the physical size of it whereas a school admin database and finance system can be small in size (but large in importance) - then sure, I guess you're correct again. If they had requested the equipment (hardware/software) needed to provide a backup solution that would provide a reliable DR solution and they were denied the funds and made it clear to management in writing that they were placing the organisations critical data at risk and that was signed off by the school management - then no I would not fire them. In that case it is the school management that should get the axe for failing to properly manage risk. If they did not either state the need for such a DR solution, request money for it, and inform the management of what could occur if they decided to forgo these recommendations - then yes I would. You've made assumptions about risk and the importance of your organisations data that I believe overlook risks, underestimate the importance of your data, and set the bar too low. Why offline? Because online backups can become corrupted or accidentally overwritten with garbage just as easily as on-site backups can. Especially if you are simply using secondary copy to the cloud backup service from your local backups (as most do) rather than taking separate backups directly to the cloud. If you are doing the latter and the cloud backup provider is backing up to tape or other archival storage media (e.g. you are outsourcing your offline backups) then cloud backups would meet the requirements. However, most people do not have a fast enough connection to a cloud backup service to make that leap or can afford it. It is certainly much more expensive than using tape to meet this objective. Why not a different building? Because the same disaster that strikes one can easily strike the other. If there is a local flood, cyclone/hurricane, tornado, or bushfire even having a building 1km away will do little to protect you. Another building will protect you from a local building fire, but not much more. And actually, the loss of data means that the school could not quickly bring temporary buildings or lease out another facility and bring their services back online quickly with no school admin data, finance system, or IT infrastructure (e..g ability to recover data and systems to new servers). So, a data loss can greatly hinder rapid resumption of services more than loss of facilities in many cases. Organisations without good contingency/DR plans including data recovery very frequently fail - that is go bankrupt, shutdown, fold up, expire, and all such descriptors in the near future. How is that for a reason. Hey, if you're management is cool with a one year data retention policy and is willing to take those risks then so be it. But, really is that the bar that we should be setting as IT professionals? Shouldn't we try to go above and beyond the bare minimum that our (sometimes ill-informed) management places on us? Managers who do not have an understanding of IT, backups/DR, etc. often have no idea what it is they are agreeing to or asking until they are facing the consequences of their bad decisions made out of ignorance (even when you try to explain it to them). It's my job to protect my organisation from that as best I can. Going the extra mile. That's what being a professional is all about.

WD's URE specs for their SATA drives are a bit of a dodge because they state <10 in 10^16 - which means less than ten failures in 10^16. The common benchmark for 10^16 is <1 failure in 10^16. The marketing team at work here. The WD Re and Se drives are very good though. Just not quite that good. Yes, some of the true enterprise grade SATA drives are rated at 10^15. I doubt that is what most people who've commented on this post are using with their NAS arrays or archival backups as a enterprise grade drive such as the WD Re or Seagate enterprise drive is generally 2x more expensive than a standard drive and much more expensive than an equivalent size tape drive.

Really? What about the school administration or finance systems? Most countries have a 7 year data retention requirement and I'm pretty sure not being able to successfully restore these systems would probably result in the loss of a techs job or his managers job. I would certainly fire them in such an instance. I would fire myself for that. And go ahead and lose the entire Moodle system (or your LMS of choice) and see if the teachers wouldn't want to have your head on a (disk) platter. No, I think schools have some pretty critical data - to them. There are three very important things that at least one copy of your backups must achieve or they do not cut the mustard, whether you are Google or not: You must have at least one backup that is off-line (cloud backups don't qualify) and off-site (another building doesn't qualify), and they must be archival quality storage to ensure the backups are usable when needed (SATA drives aren't archival quality). There is currently only one reliable way to achieve all three of these that I am aware of at the present time, and that is with tape. You may choose not to use it, but it means your DR plan has a serious flaw in it. That's not just according to me, but to people with decades of backup/DR experience who know what can happen when this advice is ignored. Tape storage libraries are relatively cheap these days and cost per GB there isn't a cheaper storage medium than tape, so it's not some esoteric, costly backup method. Even VEEAM Backup now has a tape backup feature for archiving offline copies of VMs. Tape is dead, long live tape... FYI - the URE rate on LTO tape is 10^16 vs 10^15 for SAS/FC disks or 10^14 for SATA drives. Tape is an order of magnitude better than SAS/FC as an archival storage medium and even more so than a SATA drive.

Legal requirements should really only be used as a minimum standard. I'm usually concerned more about protecting the data of the organisation I work for, regardless of whether it's required under law or not. Loss of important data can cripple or destroy a company or organisation. The law does require data be kept for more than a year here though in any case.

“Truth is a hard master, and costly to serve, but it simplifies all problems.” So, how many of those 8TB NAS boxes do you have lying around to carry off-site once per quarter? One? Two? Unless you have a lot more than that (expensive!) that means you don't have any backups that go back further than a term or two? If that's the case, then you have a problem. What if the files you need to recover were important ones deleted a year ago (or 2 or 3). Yes, that happens. What happens if the single off-site archive you have fails to spin up or starts to throw errors? It happens. Disk-based backups are outstanding for speed, size, and recovery speed. They are not very good for long-term archive. But, whatever woks for you. I care little about trying to change your mind on the matter. My aim is to provide sound advice for those who seek it.

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