ITGURU

For all Hyper-V servers I just use the build in Windows Server Backup - I run it via a script that rotates the backups for 'today' 'yesterday' and 'older' so I can roll back/restore from at least 3 days prior. only ever had to do it once when a hyper-v refused to boot past a blank screen and worked fine.

I have a Sever 2012 R2 server with a strange disk space issue. If I highlight all the folders (including system and hidden ones) on the data drive it shows a total of 18.1GB However, in my computer and when you right click the drive and go to properties it says that 53.0GB has been used. What else could be causing this? All recycle bins are empty and shadow copies are NOT enabled, so where it is getting the extra space used from?

Under the new GDPR laws coming into effect from 2018, is it going to be necessary for schools to only allow encrypted usb sticks and drives on their systems?

We had in excess of 65+ desktop printers and went to a centralised print solution 18 months ago to "save money" However according to the papercut statistics, I reckon we are spending more now because staff can copy and print themselves, rather than just printing. We have it default to mono/double sided but people forget and still waste paper when it's been printed and forgotten to change the settings. We also have an issue when staff photocopy, they enter someone elses pin number so get complaints when the reports go to departments saying x name isn't in our department but using x's code.

All of our indoor fibre runs 4 or 8 core are usually around the £800 mark , length doesn't seem to make much difference on price. As for external runs, they are usually a little bit more as they are armoured. It usually down to the number of cores and termination type (splicing or cold cure) which determines the cost. If external cost could also cover the need to catenary wire, cherry picker etc as part of the install. We did one run ourselves with pre-terminated fibre , but had to drill 20-25mm holes to get the gland through then fill the holes after. Always get 3 quotes and see how they compare.

Acronis True Image - used it to image our PCs for the last 13. a 20gb image restored in 10 minutes, add to the network and PC restored and back online !

We've had All Staff locked down for a number of years to try cut down on the mass emails. Others don't see it necessary but does help and only those who need permission are added to allow sending to it.

Dektops are easier for patch management. I find a lot of laptop updates failed due to losing battery charge, switched off during updates. With desktops I can roll the updates out at 4pm, then the pcs will reboot if no one logged on (or install when staff shutdown) then all patched ready for the next day.

For ease when you don't have any dual layer DVD discs seeing as the image is over 4.7GB. It's so much easier just to boot from USB.

I've always used Wintobootic for creating windows bootable drives.

I asked another school what their backup plan was as they are on O365 and onedrive. Their answer was, we have 4g in an emergency. Really...for all staff to use?! I'd like to see that happen! To me, it's more important all data is accessible during school hours so no plans to move to the cloud.

Each time our school photographers come in to take the photos, the license file is always included on the disc with the images so we can bulk import them straight in to SIMS

I just probably haven't got the time to deploy both on Monday that's all to wait for SOLUS to be done then SIMS. I'll do the main release first then SOLUS perhaps over the holidays.

I'm intending to update SIMS to the autumn release shortly. I've just gone into SOLUS 3 and noticed that we are not on the latest SOLUS 3 release, I think we are 2 behind. 3.10.73.23 Does anyone know if there are minimum version requirements of SOLUS 3 for deploying the new Autumn release. I can't find anything in the release notes, or should it be Ok with the version we are on?

I dont know why SIMS had to change from a pull update to a push updates. To me it was always easier to let them know a time SIMS would be offline for the update, put the DB into single user mode,, apply the update then re-allow connections. Clients could then update, and login. With SOLUS you wait an age for it to do all the server parts then it has to push out the update to the clients in batches, so some clients update straight away others may be in 10 minutes. not ideal if machines have been off, and they login and try to access SIMS before it's been updated after checking into SOLUS and realising there is an update

How are you trying to access, through Outlook? Remove the profile from Control panel in 'mail' then re-run outlook and the wizard should set up the account. If it cannot find the account details automatically, you have a miss-configured autodiscover

We love CAT tests, they can take place in any of our 6 IT rooms. This year we were asked to check all IT rooms for sound to be working and so that there were NO issues with the tests. Come the day of the tests, 3 rooms in use, their are issues with the sound not working, the next button not appearing, us IT support getting calls with staff frustrated asking why we've not checked the machines. we told them its because the website cannot handle the load (we won't be the only school using it) and that its an issue on their website. Next thing we know they cannot access the website (yes apparently its our problem again) and advise its the website. Next thing we know they have email the website support copying us in saying that the IT team say thats it the website with the issue. Guess what they reply and say yes, your IT team are correct, we experienced an issue where the system couldnt handle the requests and it was a rare occurrence that shouldn't happen again. Is that not why we're in the job to support and advise! Roll on next year when we have to go through it all again!

Try telling our SLT that - I've been trying to get SSDs for our 7 year old teacher PCs without success, so now when they complain it takes so long to boot up and log in to SIMS I say, speak to SLT!

If your using on-site exchange, from the recipients mailbox, open the email, go into the message properties and at the bottom of the header it should have originating Ip: do an nslookup on this to get the pc name. I then view the pc logs and see who was logged on at that time. its how we catch the devils logging on to each others emails even though logged onto the computer as themselves.

When I started the job 13 years ago I had an AMD Athlon with about 512mb of ram! All school computers were higher spec p4's etc. It used to randomly freeze and crash multiple times per day. As time went on I eventually managed to get a quad core but now i'm on the same spec as admin, i7 8gb ram, but with the benefit of an ssd. with viewing and retrieving hd CCTV also it all helps. id never expect to manage a network using lower spec pcs than what the clients are using.

my next questions is, if I then want to remove the database through SQL management studio will it automatically delete all the usernames under the Server Security as well as the database security? or how is best to remove it?

That worked running the commands thanks. However, recently added new users don't appear to work on the login box. Is this something to do with how the database is backed up? also, can the user password be changed from the SLQ management studio, or does it have to be within system manager?

I assume I just replace the sims. part with the restored database name to run it against the other database? exec sims.db_p_install go exec sims.db_p_grant go

How do you sign up, get the copy through Dreamspark?

if I use dbattach to restore a database as a new name, will it have any effect on the current live working database? I.e you can only use it to attach/detach 1 database? Just want to be sure before I do anything that might mess up the current database.