Michael

Out of curiosity, if you run the PC in Safe Mode with Networking, is the issue still there? This would point to a hardware issue if it were the case - possibly memory as a guess. Imaging uses a comparatively small amount of RAM (500MB), whereas Windows itself can easily use 2-3GB+ for a typical user.

I'd be asking the e-learning website to update code their end. I think it's ridiculous to expect schools to run a specific Java version - the latest is Java 8 Update 121, so 74 is well out of date. I've had similar problems in the past because websites were only coded to recognise Flash version 9 - anything 10 or above wasn't recognised. We're now up to version 25!

Beat me to it This could be used for so many examples

Really? Wasn't aware of this, do you have a link?

Hyper-V is free in all x64 OSes, it's just the OSes which are licensed. Windows 10 x64 Hyper-V and Server 2016 Hyper-V are the same (as far as I'm aware). This gets round the license limitation, if it still stands.

If money's tight, then maybe look at changing the MIS. I know this is for another discussion, but has been discussed quite extensively recently on Edugeek. SIMS is expensive, especially for Primary budgets. One option you could look at is installing Windows 10 x64 as the Hyper-V host, then install 2 x Hyper-Vs within that - 2012 R2 for SIMS and 2016 for everything else. Probably your best bet.

In answer to your question - will it work - probably, would I recommend it? No I wouldn't. SIMS isn't yet certified for Server 2016, so you could get round this and set the server up as a Hyper-V, then split up the roles accordingly. Install SIMS on a 2012 R2 Hyper-V. My main concern is redundancy, especially in the context of the DC. Having two or more DCs per domain makes a lot of sense, if you've ever had the pleasure of restoring Active Directory.

The District-Wide Site License model looks interesting at $1 per pupil, per year, unlimited devices. At this price, it would work for a Primary.

I thought a trunk or a tagged port were the same thing!? One or more VLANs required to pass-through, either Switch to Switch, or Switch to AP for example. Teaming ports I suppose is also considered a trunk also; but that's just it, I call it teaming.

Just a thought - if your server has 2/4 NICs, you could create a new virtual switch based on a physically different NIC. Optionally you can tag or untag the switch port to your requirements. Thing is, if you do end up tagging everything, it makes it a bit pointless having separate VLANs.

What about if you create another virtual switch on the correct VLAN, then point your single Hyper-V instance to this instead? I think the issue is the virtual switch ID 1000 > to ID 50, it wouldn't translate logically speaking. When creating the virtual switch, it only knows of ID 1000. I guess it also depends if you still need this server to talk to other servers?

I do agree, I do exactly this for other more critical roles. WSUS is less critical however in my view. Depends how many you need to manage I suppose!

I've had no issues installing WSUS on Server 2016 (physical box). Instead of a VM, I normally create a separate volume in the same instance, so I can exclude it from the backup schedule. Seems a bit much to have WSUS on a dedicated host.

It actually makes sense to have both on the one server - the DHCP lease is given out, then the DNS record(s) updated and then replicated to other DNS servers. I suspect it's most likely to do with your external DNS provider, rather than internal, otherwise you'd have problems mapping network drives for example. Worse case scenario, I'd always suggest resetting all DNS server services, rather than the whole server which takes seconds.

If you've configured a time server, this shouldn't be an issue

The three biggest issues I come across are as follows (quotes from Staff) - - The interface is slow, irrelevant what browser you're using. And yes, every other website works as expected. - Support is hit and miss, depending on the nature of the problem - It has no finance package, whereas Facility CMIS does The last point has particularly interested me. To the best of my knowledge Advanced haven't teamed up with a finance provider, or alternatively offered customers a choice. It's a very strange decision, whereby I've then seen schools using Progresso, but still have Facility running just to do finance!? Recently I think they've introduce SSO support for Google customers, but not Microsoft! I'd probably say statistically I come across more O365 schools than Google. The speed issue could easily be resolved - more powerful servers and faster bandwidth, it's not really rocket science! I personally don't think schools would have an issue paying that little bit more knowing you're on a faster or virtualised/dedicated server, depending on the school or MAT needs. In saying that, sometimes just the way it's designed can also be influential. Scrappy coding isn't going to help anyone, but I'd like to think a great deal of care is taken by all providers.

The only thing I would say is go for Server 2016 - it's absolutely solid, no problems at all. I have a similar setup to Fazza, almost identical. The only thing I haven't really explored too much is Hyper-V replication. I'd still have a physical DC in there somewhere too, why? I've seen it so many times where the only physical server is Hyper-V and yes you've guessed it, it's domain joined! If the only virtual DC fails, then you're screwed basically! Definitely one to think about!

Also (word of advice) installing any SFP - do not look directly at the module when installing it to protect your eyes - it's there in all the manuals, but thought I'd mention it here!

Also (word of advice) installing any SFP - do not look directly at the module when installing it to protect your eyes - it's there in all the manuals, but thought I'd mention it here!

I agree - Windows 95 still works, but as we all know it's been superseded in pretty much all areas. SIMS is a bit like Windows 95

I agree - Windows 95 still works, but as we all know it's been superseded in pretty much all areas. SIMS is a bit like Windows 95

I'm not entirely sure what the obsession is with SIMS to be perfectly honest... and to have it hosted (which it wasn't originally designed to be hosted), round hole square peg comes to mind.

Consumer Experiences GPO does work on Edu/Ent though.

Consumer Experiences GPO does work on Edu/Ent though.

It's from build 14901 you'll see ads. I'd go down the GPP route which works on any domain connected PC, if a GPO wasn't available, but I am running Windows Edu throughout.