robknowles

Hello, Once I changed to unknown medium changer, used Symantec Drivers I probably use to get about 1.5GB/Minute speed but sometimes the speed use the vary dramatically starting off very fast and then slowing down to 4/5 MB/minute. Changing to the 39160 Card improved the speed no end (about 5GB/Minute about wire speed of the device) and has made it very stable. I use to have issues with jobs not working mainly because the Backup Exec Job Engine stopped but since adding in this additional card I've had issue free backup for weeks! Rob

Also meant to add when I originally ordered the dell server that the autoloader was connected to it had a Adaptec 39320A Card (I think that was the model number) which had built in RAID. Although this only had the autoloader connected to it use to exhibit the same speed issues. When I added a new card in it worked fine. The original card isn't faulty as I also have an Sony AIT-3EX Connected to it and that also works a full speed. I think I remember reading somewhere after this issue that the Autoloader didn't support being connected to a RAID SCSI Card. Rob

Hello, I had the exact same issue for many weeks. This is what I did 1) Install an adaptec 39160 card and just have the Autoloader connected to this 2) Use the symantec drivers for it 3) Enabled Multi-LUN Support in the SCSI Card BIOS 4) Update firware I have an external Sonnet eSATA HDD with 5 SATA HDDs on Windows Software RAID 5 and that backups at just under 5GB/minute which is the data rate that the drive is supposed to work at. Check out Scurvy Jake’s Pirate Blog » Blog Archive » Dell PV124T Speed - this helped me fixed the issue.

Hello, I had a similiar issue to you, had the motherboard and ram swapped by the company I brought it from and it was much faster - try another couple of modules for the 2GB of ram to see if that makes any difference. Rob

Hello, Technically Windows 2008 is at SP1 level. I've got it running school at the moment (2 DC's, 2 Cluster File Servers, Backup Server and our VLE Server (Moodle). Works great not a single problem - been using it on the 2 Cluster File Servers since Beginning of Feb. Exchange 2003 will not work on 2008 Server, so if you go with 2008 server than you will need Exchange 2007 SP1. For managing Vista Clients you will need either Vista Business, Enterprise (which you only get if you are a schools agreement) or Ultimate. Thanks, Rob

Hello, Possibly in the summer I'm going to look at purchasing a HP ProCurve 5412zl switch as our core switch. With that I'm interested in configuring VLANs. I've been thinking about this and have come up with a possible setup - I'm wondering what people think who have setup VLAN's in the past 1 - Default VLAN (limited access - enough to add computers onto the domain basically) 2 - VLAN for authenticated domain stations via LAN via 802.1x (i.e. added to our AD) 3 - VLAN for authenticated domain stations via Wireless 4 - VLAN for 3rd party computers (i.e. students laptops for example) to have limited access to the domain (web browsing, internal vle etc and my docs) 5 - VLAN for servers 6 - VLAN for management consoles (switches, WAP's etc) 7 - VLAN for Printers and other network peripherals Then in the future VLAN's specifically for telephony, video systems etc Then with our wireless network (for which I may purchase the procurve wireless management module) to have three SSIDS 1 - SSID for authenticated domain computers (802.1x) 2 - SSID For authenticated computers (for school machines that don't support 802.1x - i.e. our PDA's etc) 3 - SSID for Open Access (but secure encyption) to the VLAN network for 3rd party machines. Thanks, Rob

Ok thanks! Which version of the software did you use to installed on VMWare ESX (we have 3.5), I've looked on APC's website and can't find an ESX specific version of the software? Thanks, Rob

Hello, I'm wondering how people have configured their VM's in ESX to shutdown in an event of a power failure? Since I've got the Network Shutdown option for my UPS server I could install the client agent in each machine and configure it that way and also install it on the ESX Physical Host as well. The other method which might be best is to use the inbuilt system in ESX to automatically startup and shutdown machines. Has anybody used this? Thanks, Rob

Hello, I've added a Windows 2008 Domain Controller last week and it went fine and there's been no issues since. What I did was demote and remove the old server (DC2), reinstalled Windows 2008 from scratch (I've never upgraded a server), installed Windows 2008 and then added to the domain - I had to upgrade the schema on the other DC. A couple of features I like are the prevent accidental deletion of OU's and also the preferences settings in group policy. The only thing I've got to look at is to deploy the CSE's to all my XP Workstations. Thanks, Rob

Hello, I've just been through a CMIS > SIMS Transfer in the last few weeks. I've got a few points 1) Don't expect it to go smoothly though that said there hasn't been a large scale issue. Make sure SLT are aware of the implications. 2) Speak to Capita - they have a department dedicated to returning schools 3) It maybe worth buying in their project management service in - we didn't and I think in hindsight it may have been worthwhile. 4) Be careful on the data transfer - not everything comes across. We had to have 3 databases sent to us before the attendance data was correct. Look out for other bits and pieces regarding Meals, Board Status and such sort - ours wasn't filled in but a CTF Import of the relevant data sorted it fine. Contact information is an issue to look at. CMIS only exports contacts in a student's CTF File if they have parental responsibility - meaning most of our contacts didn't come across. What I'm working on is a script that will be allow me to create a CTF myself with the data (created using a list report) as SIMS allows any contact to be imported. 5) Timetable for this year will have to be done manually if you are moving before September. This will take some time to get sorted - far more time than the Capita said it would take - just one day! 6) There will be some functional differences naturally. One is the generation (not creation) of reports. In CMIS one good thing was how the items (i.e. students) are added to one page and then you can quickly filter/remove/add additional students. This can't be easily done in SIMS. What we are doing in the meantime is picking up a group (for example form) and then having to select all the ones we don't want to keep and then are left with the ones we want to use - rather then simply clicking the ones we only wanted to generate reports for. Also the student/staff homepage can't be easily customised - literally add fields. 7) There's plenty of useful features - Lesson Monitor for SIMS is great, as will be EMA, the sharepoint Webparts and also the Assessment suite as well. 8) You will need to spend a little more time on supporting the program on clients than eportal/CMIS Admin (as for us it ran off one server). On Edugeek there's a script for installing on computer startup if it isn't already installed somewhere in the forums that's useful. I've also modified computer security a little to allow SIMS to auto-update itself. 9) Capita's supportnet site is ever so useful as well. With that in mind without a doubt it's the best thing we've done. Staff I think have picked it up and are using it well. Next half-term (once I've had a break from it this Easter) we can start using new features - such a electronic behaviour management, Thanks, Rob

The problem is that most students will naturally just double-click on the file in their my documents which would open up in IE/Firefox as N:\ in the address bar, or preview in Dreamweaver again which would open up as N:\ etc Thanks anyway. Rob

Hello, Thanks PRicho that worked. I just wanted to see how it works - not sure whether we will use it yet as concerns about security (same reasons as specified in above posts). It's a shame you aren't required to type your windows username and password into the SIMS.Net logon box as an extra bit of security. Thanks, Rob

Ok, thanks that's worked. Another question... I'm currently trying to restrict the locations they can browse - the example in the wiki provides me a way to restrict it to everything bar the web, but I need them to access the N:\ (the home folder). I think i've gathered how to put the exception in for this but when I load up Firefox it displays nothing at all, taking out the offending line makes it works again. I've attached below... if ( (!location.match(/^file:///N://^) && location.match(/^file:/)) || location.match(/^\//) || location.match(/^resource:/) || (!location.match(/^about:blank/) && location.match(/^about:/)) ) {loadURI("about:blank");} Thanks, Rob

Thanks for that, I suppose it quite obvious in the end! Now I've managed to uncompress the jar file (to restrict what they can browse to) but now can't figure out to compress back to a jar file - tried both WinZip and Winrar Thanks, Rob

Hello, As anybody been able to integrate Active Directory and SIMS.Net together? We've just moved to SIMS.Net and if possible would like the ability for SIMS.Net not to bring up the prompt but instead log them straight in based on their AD Credentials. Thanks, Rob

Hello, I'm attempting to put Firefox onto the network today and have found the very useful guide in the Wiki (http://www.edugeek.net/wiki/index.php/Locking_Down_Firefox), however, I'm a bit stuck on the CCK Wizard - I've downloaded it but don't what I've got to do it and I can't find any installer for it - just a single .xpi file. Thanks Rob

Hello, In fact if you are a technet subscriber you can download the full version for both 32 and 64 bit editions right now - like I've done. Also I've noticed typing in Winver reports that's Windows 2008 Server with Service Pack 1 installed! Rob

Hello, Our Fax looks like it's soon about to die and I'm looking at a replacement. Initially I started looking at traditional fax systems i.e. receive a fax and it prints on paper but after looking at the costs of running the fax machine about £1,700 over the past three years I thought how about a system that is entirely digital - i.e the faxes come in and then can be simply emailed to staff therefore avoiding any paper printing at all. I'm wondering as anybody got such a system or know a good place to find them? Ideally I want to keep the equipment onsite and use our existing fax telephone - not use an online service. Also I would like a dedicated device to still send faxes - I can't expect staff to find a computer with a scanner, scan it and then fax it that way. Thanks, Rob

Hello, We are after an A3 Colour Scanner possibily with a Automatic Document Feeder for our D&T Graphics Department and also Reprographics department. Can anybody recommend a decent scanner? We did have a cheap A3 Mustek but it wasn't that good. I've looked at the Epson GT-15000 which seems ok but a little expensive. Thanks, Rob

We moved to CMIS and then moved back again - in fact I've just converted had the converted database back of Capita today! There is a import facility in CMIS from SIMS and also SIMS.Net - I haven't tried these as Serco Derby did the conversion for us.

Hello, I'm wondering whether anybody knows where Internet Explorer keeps the list of URL's that are saved in the address bar. We've had an issue with a couple of staff where they have been using this to access their 'Favourite sites' - rather than saving them in their Favourites and with a profile reset it's deleted them. Hopefully I can find the data files and then copy them across. Thanks, Rob

Hello, I did trial it last summer and it was very good, unfortunetly it was expensive (even with the educational discount). Rob

Not only are we considering it we have moved back (or will be within the next few weeks). Received the disks on the last day before Christmas break.

Hello, Anybody know of a useful tool kit to fit around the waist - something that we can wear with us all day allowing us to carry bits and pieces - such as cable snips, screwdrivers, cable ties, the odd network lead and possible a mouse or two etc? Thanks, Rob

It was from http://av-digital.com/ (Avante Digital) that I got my san from.