SteveB_NI

Thanks all for your replies - was trying to keep costs down as it's my first server replacement so hoping to teach myself virtualisation if possible, but also have it as a natural progression to the 2 servers currently in use. Budget at present would be less than £1000 - taking into account your replies, what about a higher processor spec HPE model: HPE ProLiant ML150 Gen9 - Xeon E5-2603V4 1.7 GHz - 8 GB - 500 GB. I am proposing in the near future a higher spec replacement programme but as these servers have been in situ since 2009 I thought I better get another one & get up to speed with it just incase!

Hi all, I have the opportunity to hopefully order a new replacement server (for one of my DCs at least) & whilst I've experience purchasing desktops in the past this will be my first server so hoping for some advice please!! Current servers (2 DCs) DC1 Spec: Intel Xeon CPU E5640 @ 2.67GHz, 4GB RAM, Running Server 2008R2 64bit Roles assigned: Active Dir, DHCP, DNS, File Services DC2 Spec: Intel Xeon CPU E5430 @ 2.66GHz, 4GB RAM, Running Server 2008R2 64bit Roles assigned: Active Dir, DHCP, DNS, File Services, Web Server, WDS, WSUS Number of users: Approx 900 Number of workstations / laptops etc: Approx 240 (Curriculum classroom machines separate network so these are spread across non-teacher use ICT suites / study halls etc) I'm hoping to replace at least 1 DC with a new Server - and possibly virtualise both DCs onto 1 server? If not - at least I'll have experience setting up a new server for moving onto the 2nd DC in the future. I have been looking at basic servers, and have the following 2 ideas: 1. HPE ProLiant ML10 Gen9 Intel Xeon E3-1225v5 8GB 2TB - £438.70 Ex Vat (approx) - comes with 2 HDDs - I would then add another 2 1TBs and set up a RAID system & possibly add more RAM 2. Dell PowerEdge T130 - Xeon E3-1220V5 3 GHz - 4 GB - 1 TB - £488.91 Ex Vat (approx) - comes only with 1 HDD and not sure if you can have Raid on this. Much as I'd love a higher powered refurbished server unfortunately due to the purchasing system we have to buy new, but is there any other recommendations similar to the above 2 worth looking at? Thanks!

Thanks - I tried that but unfortunately still no success, computers remained switched on overnight. Very strange... wonder if it's to do with the required user ID I have selected?

Hi all, I'm hoping someone can help me shed some light on this issue I'm currently having with my remote shut down tasks (Win 2008R2 Server, Win 7 clients). Thanks in advance, it's weird how it worked (seemingly) for several days when first set up then no longer works now. I currently have a Group Policy set at Room level on the Active Directory. This has the following properties: Computer Configuration > Policies > Admin Templates > System > Power Management > Sleep Settings: Hibernate - Disabled System Sleep Time out (seconds) - 4294967295 Unattended Sleep Time out - Enabled Unattended Sleep Time out (seconds) - 4294967295 Turn off hybrid sleep (plugged in) - Enabled Then some display settings (turn off display - enabled, seconds: 3600) Shut down preferences: Computer configuration > Preferences > Control panel settings > Scheduled tasks > Scheduled task Name: Shutdown 5pm Author: Servername\administrator UserID: NT Authority\System (I tried administrator here but it didn't work either) Run with highest privileges: Highest Available Hidden: no Configure for: 1.2 Enabled: Yes Triggers: 1. Daily - Repeat task every 1 hour for a duration of 12 hours Stop all running tasks at end of repetition duration: no Activate: 22/07/16 17:00 Enabled: yes Recur every 1 days Actions: 1. Start a program: Program/script - C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe Arguments: /s /t 90 /d p:04:01 Settings: Start task only if system is idle for 10mins Wait for idle for 15mins Stop if computer ceased to be idle: Yes Restart if idle state resumes: Yes Start task only if computer is on AC power: No Stop if computer switched to battery power: No Wake the computer to run this task: Yes Allow task to run on demand: Yes If the running task does not end when requested force it to stop: Yes If the task is already running then the following rule applies: IgnoreNew

We started using SMH in August here. Not too bad so far but you are right administration headache at times. One thing though - our teacher unions are grumbling (quite rightly I suppose) about teachers receiving emails from students via this out of hours sometimes quite late at night. Is this an issue in any of your schools and what's the solution? Staff like the notifications feature for other things so blanket turning them off isn't an answer nor do they want to turn emails off at night

Hopefully someone can advise me on the best way to go about this issue! I have a staff member who requires local admin access to workstations in the classrooms they teach in (to run some exes - they are blocked to everyone except when run as admin is clicked) I do not need them / want them for obvious security reasons to have access to active directory, other server functions but the only way I've worked out to do it so far is to give them administrator rights by making them part of the admin account group. Would there be a group / something I can assign the user account to which gives them local admin access to run exes on different stations (win 7 clients) but limiting access to the rest of things like other staff accounts. Thanks in advance

dhoward_westexetc - Where do you place your scripts to allow it to be ran by students and general users? I'm running into a permissions issue when allocated at log in

I created a VB script for the printer adding / setting as default. It runs ok when an admin / elevated account logs on but no success when logging on as a pupil or even general staff user. It still doesn't run if I put it in the all users > start up folder. Do I need to add a gpo to allow a specific vbs script name? Not too keen opening up all vbs scripts to students Thanks

Some of our staff have decided to bypass the copy / duplicate restrictions on our printers by copy & pasting the same item multiple times in 1 document - this is to print 50 copies for example whilst only sending one document to the printers - i.e. gets past the restrictions. I have now imposed a 20 page limit on that printer but I was wondering if anyone knows of a PaperCut script which will detect large amounts of copied / pasted content & refuse the job based on that?

Every time I opened print management the spooler will immediately stop & almost crash the server. If I tried to open print management with the spooler stopped it would complain and require spooler to be started. Rinse & repeat.. nightmare!

Ok - so I removed print services role from the server. I got an error stating "Print Services: Removal succeeded with warnings : Deleting network printers failed with error 1722. The RPC server is unavailable No printers or ports were deleted. Please delete your network printers manually using Printers in Control Panel. The following role services were removed: Print Server LPD Service " Any ideas short of an OS re-install?

Thanks guys - already done that. Spooler service still wont stay started. As soon as I then go into Start > Printers it stops. As soon as I click "server properties" to remove the driver from there, it won't let me into that as local spooler service isn't running. I can also see the driver in Windows > System 32 > driver store > File repository, but I can't delete the folder as it's denied and I need permission to remove the item. I'm logged on as admin.

I attempted to update a driver today for one of our network printers (HP4700) and the process stopped / terminated mid way with an error message. Now all printers deployed by the server won't work, and the printer spooler service on the Server keeps stopping immediately after being started. As such I can't actually get into the Printer server properties to remove the corrupted printer / driver. Any ideas how I can get the spooler service to keep active long enough to allow me to do this? Thanks

DR is something I should really think more about... I'm using Windows Server Backup on my DC's to back up to external hard drive each night, which is regularly swapped / exchanged and stored elsewhere. I have the backup set to backup the following items: Bare metal recovery, system state, and then the hard drives. Using VSS copy backup. My worry is now I have read that bare metal recovery only works on identical hardware? As in, if the worst comes to the worst & I need a new server prompt this could be an issue?

Thanks for that, although I'm stuck as to where to put this script. If I put it into the log on group policy, then it fails to run for all users (anything other than admin). If it's ran as a startup item it displays an error message about the vbs script being invalid. However, I can save it as printers.vbs & click to run / tested ok on my log in account.

Could I ask a nosey question please & have a brief summary of the current print credit policy in each of your schools? At present, printing credits are assigned & topped up for both staff + students as required. No charge is made to students, and no deductions from departmental budgets for staff credits. They have to budget from their departments for photocopying credits, so the problem is now that printing is seen as "free" and copying is seen as chargeable. I would like to implement a system where each staff member picks the department they are printing for - i.e. some teachers teach 3 subjects so they would choose the department category in paper cut which relates to their print out. I'm hoping to have a management meeting soon so practices from other schools would be a good benchmark. Thanks!

I recommend the HP602DN (maybe newer model out now!) - the duplex facility is a great feature for us. The toner cost is very low too for the high capacity remanufactured cartridges.

I was tempted to set him up with a raid system but then again a lot of his data is simply stored, and not necessary require all to be backed up. Therefore the main use of the ReadyNas 10400 will be to enable him access wirelessly to all 4 hard drives if possible - I could advise him to manually ensure a duplicate of anything he definitely needs to be backed up.

Hi all, looking for some advice for a complete newbie to NAS storage methods. For someone who uses many smaller USB connected hard drives I have recommended they look into using a NAS, or some sort of network accessible storage system within their house. They save a lot of data, so overall I'd say they need at least 8TB of storage to futureproof themselves. From my research - am I right in recommending the Netgear ReadyNas 104, 4 bay NAS, initially populated with either 2x 4TB western digital red drives, or if budget allows 2x 6TB WD reds? Also - someone else has now recommended the Western Digital Mycloud 3TB, from which apparently you can connect further hard drives via USB? If I go with the ReadyNAS solution - can a remote PC be set up to access these hard drives like a folder share - i.e. from their desktop? Need something relatively simple for him to use. Thanks

Thanks FN-GM - I've been thinking it may be worthwhile looking into PFsense - does that work ok in combo with BT Infinity? I've also found a DrayTek Vigor 2860n ADSL/VDSL Wireless Router - is this more powerful than the supplied BT business hub 3?

Following on from the above I have worked out that it usually drops whenever the iMacs (all recently updated to Yosemite) are woken from sleep and users log in. Is it possible for the network to be flooded / slowed down due to Apple automatic update?

Hoping if someone could give me some advise here... Our network has up to 170 desktop computers / laptops, and around 10 ipads / phones connected at the same time. This hasn't changed since last year, when the Internet connection worked perfectly, but issues have crept in for the past fortnight. At peak times (i.e. straight after break time, and lunch time) the BT Infinity router (business hub 3) light for broadband goes from blue to solid red. All devices in the school lose connection & CensorNet complains about having no hostname / DNS lookup. Once I physically switch off the router and switch it back on - the blue broadband light switches back on again & everything starts working throughout the site immediately. I replaced the BT Infinity business hub 3 on Tuesday & there was no issues until this morning, but then again Wednesdays are very light use days. There has been no extra equipment added, and the only thing that really has changed has been the CensorNet software upgrade but that was done mid August. The connection layout is: workstations connect with Gateway set as Censornet proxy server. The censornet server then obtains Internet access from our BT Infinity router. The BT router is plugged into the network switch and the Censornet server is in another part of the school connected to the cabinet in that area of the school. The only thing I'm thinking is if the censornet server and BT router are on the same switch would that make much difference? Thanks in advance

Here is a weird issue that's affecting only some clients in one specific room - no reports of anything happening elsewhere on the network. (so far - touch wood!) The computer (Win 7) is able to log into the network (Server 2008r2) ok & see the users desktop, documents etc. I can write to the server (My Doc > folder created) and see this elsewhere on the network. However I can't browse the internet whatsoever - it just comes up saying I leave the domain and join local workgroup. It gives me full internet access as desired. I re-join the domain and no internet access again at all - even on proxy bypass ports. I also can't ping the 2 domain controllers, yet obviously I must see them ok for the MyDocs / log in to work. Weird issue - anyone shed some light on this? Thanks!

I'm thinking of putting a message up on our digital signage for the A-Level & GCSE results days, but really unsure of appropriate wording!! Anyone put a "Congratulations" message up? I was thinking of congratulations on your exam results but don't want to offend those who done badly lol!

Server room is sitting at 32oC & the ICT suites are at 28oC at the mo. My office was 35oC this morning before I got the window opened and fan on. No air conditioning in any of our rooms. Server room used to hit even higher before I moved some stuff out of it.