will_

Hi, I'm after some confirmation that what I'm planning is sensible. We need to upgrade our Windows Server 2008 installation to Windows Server 2012. Our main support company has suggested we replace the entire server with a Dell T430 and offered to provide this service for £6500. This feels like a rather drastic upgrade and, frankly, we can't afford it. Our current server is an HP ML110 G7 which is plodding along fairly happily. The CPU generally ticks over at between 2 and 10%, and we're currently using 10GB of the 16GB of RAM installed, although the disks are getting a bit full for comfort. We're a small junior school (8 classes altogether, 1 ICT suite and around 20 laptops) so it really doesn't get thrashed particularly hard. I suspect our support company likes to spec for the worst possible scenario. My proposal is to keep the HP server but: - upgrade from 16GB to 32GB of RAM to allow for more caching - replace the data disks (currently 3 x 300GB SAS in RAID 5) with 2 x 4TB WD Re (not red) SAS. Partition each disk into a pair of 2TBs. Mirror the two 'Stripe A's for shared user data and use the two 'Stripe B's for a pair of backups, populated alternately so as to provide two levels of roll-back. Shared user data is accessed concurrently but it's usually the same file being accessed by a class so slow access times can be tolerated. - replace the OS spinning disk with a 256GB SSD, probably something like a Samsung 850 as I'm not convinced our use is hard enough to justify enterprise grade SSDs. Use this stand-alone (not in a RAID) for both the OS and user home folders, backing up the latter to the 2TB partitions. Home directories are access concurrently and putting them on a spinning disk would cause slowdowns as head jumps around all over the place. - install Windows Server 2012 onto the SSD in another machine and migrate it to the server when it's ready, so as to minimise down-time. The HP currently has all its disks connected through a P410 RAID controller but I wonder whether this will cause problems if we try to install Windows 2012 in a different machine and then migrate the disk to the HP. If so, there's a spare SATA socket on the motherboard that we could use. Happy to hear your thoughts, tips and suggestions! Thanks, Will

Thanks, all. I have a few quotes being drawn up as we speak, for NUCs, Lenovos and Nanos.

Hi All, As often seems to be the case, I think I'm probably asking the impossible. My wish list is: - micro form factor, to be mounted between the monitor and its stand - reasonable future-proofing (maybe i5 processor, although I concede my knowledge is out of date in this area) - reasonable value I fear I may have to choose two of the above. It's for a primary school ICT Suite, so mega-performance isn't really an issue but longevity of service is. I was looking at the Dell OptiPlex 3020, which gives me form factor and price, but only comes with an i3 processor. Shame because I like Dell. I'd welcome your thoughts!

FOG installed (or at least configured) the DHCP server, so hopefully. I don't think the problem is with the DHCP being served to the client, though; it is that the server's IP address is changing so the client can't find the PXE server specified in the DHCP offer. That's a good point. I'll have a look today. That's another great suggestion. Thanks. I'll try it.

I don't think so. ...Unless its process has a more obscure name which I'm unaware of.

allow-hotplugs removed. Cable unplugged and re-plugged. It's definitely something to do with an event firing off. Just to be doubly sure, I'm going to try restarting the whole server. (It's not yet doing anything except frustrating me!)

Oops! Over-enthusiastic spell-checker. Yes, it should have been eth1. I've edited my original post and put the brakes on the spell-checker's auto-correct! I'd left them in to catch the cable being plugged in and unplugged (which is happening quite a bit while I'm trouble-shooting). I'll remove them if it doesn't affect that. EDIT: Come to think of it, maybe it's a hotplug event that's kicking DHCP into action. I'll try disabling it.

I tried removing the auto lines and running /etc/init.d/networking restart but it left with with: eth0: no IP address eth1: 10.0.252.10 <-- the troublesome DHCP lease, not the static IP in interfaces

Really? I'll give it a try but the man page for interfaces says,

A client connecting to the server showed this on its PXE boot screen:

/etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.d/ is empty.

Hi, I'm trying to set up a FOG server on Debian 8. It has two network interfaces, both with static IP addresses. eth0: 10.0.248.68 / 255.255.252.0 <-- This is to connect to the outside world. eth1: 10.0.252.1 / 255.255.255.0 <-- This is for clients to connect to Client machines awaiting a rebuild are connected to eth1, from where they are offered an IP address in the range [10.0.252.10-254] and PXE boot into FOG. This is where I'm stuck. As far as I can tell, DHCP is somehow overwriting eth1's static IP address - it keeps changing from 10.0.252.1 to 10.0.252.10. Weird. This doesn't seem to make much sense to me. I'll nip down to the server now and try and get you some more concrete information.

One disadvantage that I've found of running LearnPad software on non-LearnPad hardware is that, because the devices aren't rooted, silent installations aren't possible. The installation requests can still be pushed out to the devices but you have to go round to them all and say yes when it asks for permission.

Go to learnpad.co/install on the device. You'll need to enable 3rd party installers (or something like that) and then find the installer in the Downloads folder/app.

Just bought one Hudl to test it on. Looks great so far.

Is anybody currently using the LearnPad software on Hudl hardware? I can see no reason why it shouldn't work, but would have a slightly warmer feeling in my tummy if I knew somebody else at there already had it working. Just been given the provisional go-ahead (assuming the PTA play ball, which they're expected to) go get our first batch of tablet. Excited! EDIT: Also thinking of storing and charging them in the LapSafe eReader transporter: http://www.jp-uk.co.uk/security-trolleys/tablet-ipad-transporters/lapsafe-ventilated-ereader-transporter-store-and-charge-16-bay.html Again, any tales or advice?

Thanks, everybody. Really useful feedback. We'll be buying 7" devices in that case!

Hi, We're looking at the possibility of setting up some Android tablets in a primary school. What are your opinions about screen size? If 7" was sufficient, we could afford more, but are they too compact for Key Stage 1 fingers?

Thanks, CESIL. I've been looking at LearnPad - probably their software on third party hardware. I'll start my own thread for other questions as I'm at risk of hijacking this one. Edutech, does your school have a debit / credit card? I would imagine your bursar would not want it linked to any account permanently but perhaps it could be used as required. Vouchers do sound like quite a tidy (if a little cumbersome) solution, though.

I'm interested to hear how you get on with this. I keep being badgered to buy iPads but simply can't justify the cost per unit of functionality.

Well, yes, I suppose it is. It seems a bit less naughty than blatantly breaching our acceptable use policy by bypassing the filtering, though.

Thank you very much for the suggestion. Unfortunately Chrome isn't a supported option, so we can use it on our staff laptops (if we install it ourselves) but pupils can't. For them, it's IE, IE or IE.

Thanks, Chris and Ben. I didn't think it could be that hard. I may be wrong but I suspect they must be using a product that "does it by magic" and/or doesn't allow enough customisation, so they're stuck until the next version comes out. Here's the announcement. I've just about stamped that one out now but it was the school's policy until I got there. Quite. A few of us rip anything we need at home but most people just resign to not being able to use it.

I'm a primary school teacher. If I want my class to do any research, I am required to select which search terms they can use and pre-check them all. The children may not use their own search terms. Wikipedia is banned because it might not be accurate enough. Google has just been banned because our service provider has realised they are not able to force Safesearch on and a pupil might switch it off. Youtube is blocked, even to teachers. I understand and agree with the need to cover our backs, and the desire to shield children from undesirable content. However, I can't help feeling we're being steered by a series of knee-jerk reactions rather than a properly thought-through programme of educating children to conduct themselves safely, coupled with a risk assessment policy that balances risk against educational benefit. After all, as soon as the kids leave the premises they'll be using their unfiltered phones with their friends. Maybe I just need a summer holiday. Am I being unreasonable?

I've got some improvement by swapping the "new" (=remanufactured, shoddily I suspect) toner's drum with the old one. (It's surprisingly easy to do.) It's not perfect but it's certainly a lot better now.