enbiggen

Just reading backwards from the end - yes, I see this now - thanks. Very useful.

Just back from lunch duty, where I was thinking about the advantages of this approach: Am I right in thinking that this is done as your virtual host is a "generic", so you can move it to a completely different physically different server without worrying about drivers etc, as they all conform to the same "generic" virtual machine? I'm definitely veering towards it in my head now. "decoupling" - that's the word I was looking for - we decouple the sims server from the physical hardware that it's running on to make it easier to move somewhere else in the event of hardware failure, regardless of it being the only virtual machine on the host. Thanks, Enbiggen

Weirdly we seem to quite like SIMS here - even if we don't like some of their tactics about contract length. We do have some additional software that integrates with it, such as Class Charts, so that might take some of the rough edges off it? It's also possible that we don't know what we're missing :-)

True, but I took it as more of a suggestion to think about virtualisation as a whole, given that we're buying new servers - that said, we can't afford to go down that route at the moment.

We can't afford to go with a proper virtualized setup at the moment, so we're going with the physical server. Ideally we would be virtualised, and I love the thought of being able to migrate virtual machines between different physical hosts. Even with the existing server the entire SIMS database can be held in memory. With 2x32GB there's going to be no issues. All of the drives are hot-swappable (within the limits of the RAID configuration obviously). This would tend to favour the 8x smaller drives approach, as then I could have 4x drives for the OS, and 4x drives for data? (Sorry if that's not what you meant.) If they were SSDs though, could I get away with mirroring, rather than mirroring and spanning, or does spanning (by nature of spreading the data across disks) mean that there's reduced "wear" on the individual disks making it more reliable? Thanks, Enbiggen.

Hi, I'm trying to unify three separate quotes with different specifications into one specification to "rule them all" so that we can compare like-with-like. Our current server (HP ProLiant DL380 G7) has been fine specification-wise, but it's old, and we need to migrate to a new operating system and version of SQL: Smart Array P410i with 8x 137GB SAS 15k 6Gbps drives in a RAID 10 configuration. 2xIntel X5650 processors at 2.67GHz 24.0GB of RAM 4x1GB NIC (only one port used) 2x PSU Our SIMS database is about 12GB in size, and FMS is 0.5GB in size. Storage is fine, using less than half of the total space available. From the specifications we've got back, the main split seems to be in the drives, and to a lesser extent, the processors. Drives (all including a P408i storage controller with 2MB cache and battery): One has two 2x 960GB hot-swap SAS solid state drives (read intensive) - which means that we'd operate in Raid 1 mode, as there's only two drives? One has 8x 300GB SAS 12G enterprise mechanical disks. One has 8x 240GB SATA 6G Read Intensive SSD drives. Processors: 2x Intel Xeon 4208 2x Intel Xeon 4210 2x Intel Xeon 4215 Memory = 2x 32GB NIC 4x 1GB Nic 2x 10GB Nic 2x PSUs Should we go for SSD over mechanical? I know solid state is faster, but my mind thinks back to the horror stories of them all failing at the same time (I'm sure they've improved). Is striping still necessary for the best performance, in which case we'd 4x multiple smaller disks, or are they so fast/reliable that you could go with a larger SSD mirrored? Should we go with 2x 10GB, even though our infrastructure is still 1GB, or use 4x 1GB and upgrade later if our infrastructure is upgraded? Processor-wise, are they really all over kill for what we need, and we could go with the 2x Intel Xeon 4208? (I know the clock speed is less than our current processors, but they have a lot more cache and memory throughput.) We're using SQL standard server with separate client CALs model. What do you think, which bits should I standardize on when I go back to ask for requotes? I won't forget to specify a 5 Year NBD warranty this time round - one company read my mind and included it thought, the others went with the default 3 Years warranty. Hopefully I've thought of everything - making big (for me) purchases like this always gives me angst. Thanks, Enbiggen.

Hi Everyone, We're moving into our Ofsted window and I'm wondering what IT requirements might be required? Do we have to provide Wi-Fi access (our policy doesn't allow non-school devices on our Wi-Fi network), or can we provide a wired connection? We'd probably patch in our direct to ADSL backup connection (informing them that this is a non-filtered service, and is limited to that room for the duration of their stay). Is there anything specific? Has anyone undergone a recent, post Lockdown inspection who could cast some light on any changes? Cheers, Enbiggen.

I don't think so, I think it just detects the reagent - we've done tests with an unused swab and the control line shows up.

Leaving the school yesterday someone in a car shouted "Don't you know you don't have to wear that anymore" as I headed, mask on, to my crowded train journey home. I politely replied that "Yes, and I can choose to wear one too. Thanks, bye". My local paper has a journalist who went to a post office to interview the shop keeper, and instead found themselves writing an article about how they were shouted at and abused by a customer because they chose to wear a mask.

Adding to the anecdotal information pile about mask usage: On the bus yesterday (first bus of the day) there were fewer people than usual, but most wore masks. Today, more people on the bus, about a fifth wore masks. The two mask-less people at the front looked like they'd been out clubbing (sorry, it's hard not to judge). I was the only person that opened any windows. Trains seem to be better masked than buses, but still down on what we had before.

I believe aerosolized particles float in the air, rather than drop to the ground with gravity (as they're smaller and lighter) - so they are airborne.

It's also about variations - the fewer opportunities for variants to develop the better. (Although we have to hope that we haven't left it too late with the Delta variant which our vaccine looks to be less affective against.)

We're in West Yorkshire.

Hi, Does anyone have any recommendations for companies that would migrate SIMS, FMS, Solus etc to a new server and newer version of SQL? Many years ago we used Capita, but I'm not sure if that's something they still do now that they've sold SIMS? I don't seem to have the Google-Fu today to get useful results. Thanks.

This seems logically unlikely, and it's not something that I've read, so I would need to see the source. (Editted: I suppose it could be that they don't have as wide an immunity?)

Variants arise naturally, and similar variants can arise in multiple locations - there's nothing to stop a variant starting here. Which is why vaccination is the only route to get effective immunity, as natural immunity means spreading the disease increasing the risk that a variant of concern will spontaneously arise.

I did like spiceworks, but we're moving away from it. It isn't really coping with the volume of tickets, and the reporting in order to get the best our of the data doesn't seem that good. It used to have better features too - like the ability to combine tickets etc. Also, it looks like we're going with Parago, as that's the way the premises team is headed. Cheers.

Hi Everyone, I'm perplexed by the number of different helpdesk systems and matching them up with what I and others want, so I thought I'd come here for some general advice. (It doesn't help that I'm not completely sure *what* I want for it.) The sort of things we require are: The helpdesk would be email driven, although possibly with forms as well to encourage people to fill in the right level of detail for us to be able to help (rather than having to go back and forth to try and get the information, slowing the response down.) Something that can be used by separate departments (both the Premises Team and the ICT Support Team). We'd also want asset inventory - ideally on the ICT side it would fill in details like amount of RAM, Serial Number etc from interrogating devices where possible. I'd like to be able to store multiple pictures with each asset so we could record damage, and see how that damage changes over time. I'd like to be able to add tags to tickets (including retrospectively) so that I generate reports based on these. I'd like to be able to park tickets - if we're waiting on a response I don't want it to be visible on my day to day list, but I also don't want to forget about it either. Similarly, we occasionally get tickets too far in advance which I'd like to park until a set date, then for them to appear, rather than them clogging up the helpdesk view. We'd like to be able to categorize tickets so that we could more easily identify who has training needs, common problems - maybe whether a particular type of device is failing relative to its age etc, whether there's particular issues with rooms (ideally without always having to record which room something happened in manually). It would be good it the inventory side could submit tickets automatically - e.g. A service asset for, say, when the contract is up for renewal, or when we NN days away from the last day we cancel before renewal. We might also need queues so that move tickets between them, to help us keep things compartmentalized. I guess the main things are easy to use, without it getting in our way, clear, and allow us to get useful information out of the helpdesk to help us plan for the future. I realize that I need to get a better handle on what where trying to achieve (that the helpdesk helps towards), but I don't know what I don't know. So I'm throwing this open, not only for solutions, but the sort of thing other people think is important, and what sort of requirements I should be considering? Bleurgh. That's a bit of a word splurge, but hopefully someone will have something to contribute to help me clarify things in my head. Thanks.

Hi Everyone, We'll be having some work done on the floor housing the main server room (where both our fibre and ADSL line come in) which means the power will be off most of the six week holiday. We also have a secondary server room in a separate building with a replicating file server, domain controller and space to move the server with SIMS on it to, but no internet access. I've seen a few references to using a 4G router as a temporary internet connection on here (e.g http://www.edugeek.net/forums/internet-related-filtering-firewall/187568-temporary-internet-provision-big-ask.html ) - does anyone have any other recommendations, or alternate suggestions? Thanks.

One thing to remember - even if we protect the most vulnerable with a vaccine - is that we can't let it proliferate amongst everyone else. The more people it proliferates amongst, the more likely that a variant which the vaccine is less effective against will be able to take hold, which means the most vulnerable become at increasing risk again.

Hi, If we double click on a file to open in Excel 2016, and that file is already open with another user it appears to hang. If we open Excel first, then open the file from within Excel we get an informative message, and we can proceed. It doesn't just look to be if the file is open somewhere else, it's whenever there's a problem that Excel wants to tell us about when it's opening a file. If it's within Excel we see it, if we double click the file and that launches Excel it doesn't and it hangs. It's not that the dialog box opens up behind a window (or if it does then it's not visible, and there's no way to change to it). Any ideas? Thanks.

Yes, and far too busy to be dealing with this every month.

I've just looked up Tizen online and it's open source, not proprietary. That's probably the case though :-)

Thanks you everyone - we've been getting these intermittently over the last week. We thought it might be the patch, but as it was just a trickle we reimaged and had done with it. Having a quicker solution helps - thanks.

From the email Sophos sent out yesterday evening: "Running any Sophos Windows endpoint or server product except Sophos Central Intercept X. (Note: this does impact Intercept X Advanced and Intercept X Advanced with EDR.)" Ooops, someone got there just ahead of me :-)