Boredguy

The company we use has staff qualified to terminate fibre, and the last rebuild we had done the electricians the builders used also did the data cabling and terminated it all for me (though wish they hadn't as they had no proper sequence for how the socket numbers went into the patch panel) but at least it was all fluke tested.

We typically pull our own fibre, but get a local group of electricians in to do the termination as it is cheaper in the long run when you consider how often we install fibre and the need to get all the kit in the first place. I tried pre-terminated once but it was a pain drilling the over sized hole for 1 cable, and several hundred meters of 8 core OM3 wasn't too expensive and we've still got plenty left if we need to install additional runs.

You can create a new address book and limit what is included in it, but it then needs assigning to accounts. All of which can be done via powershell We originally used the guide from https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ukeducloud/2013/04/15/alumni-address-book-policy-in-office-365-education/

Oh the naivety of that question. If you get audited and are found to be running illegal software (which includes running it on more devices that your licence allows) then a fine plus the cost of the additional licences often can occur. Schools are not exempt from adhering to licencing even though some staff sometimes think so. While I would not recommend whistle blowing to Microsoft, a frank discussion with the Head regarding the legality of the current situation would be best, especially if the current licences were only upgrade ones with no trace-ability.

If you do not have an OVS-EES licence in place (assuming it's a small school), and there are no records of any CAL's for your windows devices to connect to the windows servers, your establishment could be in for very large fines for running unlicensed software

If your using SAGE 200 Cloud, then you do not need to worry about RDS as your staff could run it it at home anyway as it's just a web site launched via an App. It should work via an RDS session depending on how you have it configured. If you let users have a traditional desktop experience it should be fine, if you just serve it as a RDS RemoteApp, then it might be more interesting

I guess it would depend on which of your users currently use the RDP day to day. I might be that instead of an instant DR of having full RDP provision up and running on Azure, that a scaled down version to those critical users that need it while sourcing the new hardware could be a compromise. If you had said it was just students that used the RDP, then it's a service that may be worth delaying recovery. But if it was admin staff who use it to access SIMS, then that is a more important requirement.

Not sure Core would be wise for the SIMS servers, as don't think Solus 3 likes it without a GUI, but you never know. I'd go with spinning up some servers in Azure to get the core features running, but leave RDP etc til the new hardware arrives

The commands you ran originally only setup the address book and told it the data that should be included in it. You always have to assign that new mailbox to users either via powershell, or for the Exchange admin panel for each user. Although the custom address books are a pain to get setup in the first instance, it does make it easier to try and limit what appears for some users purely from a housekeeping point of view. ie, students might not need to see rooms/resources in their address book where as staff do.

You do need to assign the Mailbox policy to users even after setting up the GAL. Below is the code we use to ensure students get the mailbox policy once their exchange account is created. $users = Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Where-Object {$_.UserPrincipalName -like "STU????-*" -and $_.AddressBookPolicy -eq $null} if (($users)){ #For each user we found, we will loop thought them and apply settings Write-Host "Set Exchange Policy" foreach ($user in $users) { #for debug purpose we write out their name write-Host $user.UserPrincipalName #Set their Address book, role assignment and sharing policy to be the student related one Set-Mailbox -Identity $user.UserPrincipalName -AddressBookPolicy "ABP_Students" -RoleAssignmentPolicy "Pupil Role Assignment Policy" -SharingPolicy "Pupil Sharing Policy" #Set the OWA Mailbox Policy Set-CASMailbox -Identity $user.UserPrincipalName -OwaMailboxPolicy "Pupils" } }

To disable Sync, create a reg key in the following location path - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge Keyname - SyncDisabled Value - Dword 1

There was the GPO setting with the release of 80 that disabled the "getting started" screen. Our staff now just get they "you have signed in, do you want to enable sync" the first time they launch Edge (students have sync disabled) and as it automatically picks up the user details from azure they don't have to sign in. Using a UEV template, the nag screen status is held with their network account so when they use another PC it knows they have done the first run already. Each time the browser updates, it's worth checking the GPO download again as they add new features.

Well the only place you can get CC4 from is via RM, but there is a cost implication plus server licencing etc so it would not be cheap.

Err, logic fault detected. a) No 10Mb switches exists (or shouldn't!) b) most AP's have 1Gb NIC's to support all the clients connected at a reasonable speed, so you need at least 1Gb switches, and maybe 10Gb backbone in select areas We generally use Netgear Smart Switches at 1Gb through the entire site (and that is about 36 switches ranging from 8 port to 52 port) all with vLans. Only thing we're missing is a layer 3 switch, but it's on the wish list for when we win a lottery.

@phazlehurst if you mean for adding students, yes via Wonde. Thats the only thing we've not setup since migrating across to it before Christmas

Our AUP for students is also signed by the parent/guardian as well as the student so they know the policy (and it helps when staff enforce breaches that result in sanctions) We've had a few parents over the last year or two call up asking for their students login details so they can install Office 365, we just politely point out we don't know the password, and if their child has forgotten it they need to come and see us to get it reset. In each instance the parent has been fine with that stance and it has not been an issue. If the student is off on long term sickness, then resources are always sent via the parents contact details by the office so should not be an issue.

It might be a useful function for home use, but not on a network where you want the start menu to be common throughout the estate. Even more so when start menus are workstation specific.

It also works with Office 365 SSO so you don't need to bother with Google

Just wait til they find that the Teams photo can be changed by the user as MS do not have an option to disable them from changing it

That is possible. We have a shared mailbox that holds our public calendar in 365. Via OWA if you "open another Mailbox" and connect to the Shared Mailbox, and go to the Office 365 Settings (the cog) -> All Settings -> Calendar -> Shared Calendars, you can then publish the calendar with the information you want (such as just free/busy, or all) then it will generate both HTML and ICS links you can use in a website/shared with parents

It would likely have worked if you had created a share at the users folder, as C$ should only be for admins to connect, but just wondered

@thimon any reason you didn't just use a GPP call to map your O drive instead of a batch file?

We use powershell to do the end of day shutdown's (we run it twice) and run it from one of our servers. Around 6pm it goes though the list of workstations, pings them to check if they are on, then checks if there is anyone logged on to the PC. If someone is logged on it gives them a warning message then starts the shutdown process. This gives them at least 60 seconds to save documents, and as we normally run this when our site is due to be locked up it rarely affects anyone. If the PC is turned off, then it jumps on to the next station. We then run the script again around 10pm, but this time it will do shutdown regardless if a user is logged on or not, as by this point any evening activities on site would be over.

Think your all barking mad

Yep, MS have done away with that feature for new licence activation it seems. Because we set ours up while it was still available, our newly added stations still activate.