broc

Did you have any problems installing/running VMM on a DC? I have read that Microsoft don't recommend running VMM on a domain controller although I have never seen any explanation given other than they don't recommend running anything else on a DC.... What sort of spec did you use for the DC/SCOM/SCVMM server?

Dusting off an old thread..... Did you eventually sort out this fine example of Microsoft product integration? I find myself in a similar position: 3x Hyper-V hosts running 'production' services plus a need to run a DC, SCVMM, SCOM & SCDPM somewhere other than in my Hyper-V cluster. It seems a shame to have to run several seperate servers just for System Center.

They will get bored eventually & go back to the laptop......quietly

Medium sized secondary, we probably get around 5 laptops (mix of 12" & 15" models) dropped per term causing significant damage, out of 500 or so student laptops which are normally stored in trolleys. Repair costs vary, typically £50-£150 a time. I have given up trying to advise staff about 'safe' handling of laptops in their classrooms, now I just send the bills to their department heads.

I saw that too. It's a pity MS don't state that alongside the statements they make saying SQL Express is not supported..... it might stop people taking fright at the prospect of having to buy another SQL licence just for SC 2012.

It looks like SC 2012 VMM does not support SQL Express......

Trying not to hijack the thread, but what would you recommend for a Hyper-V host OS? Our existing ESX hosts are RAID 1, when we move to Hyper-V I am torn between leaving them at RAID 1 or moving to RAID 10? User data & VM OS would be on a SAN so this is purely for the Host OS itself.

We have 40+ of an earlier version EB450Wi. Staff like them, the comment about the Epson pens is true, they are a bit clunky & heavy & don't bounce well. Be sure to check you have enough height in the room & the walls can take the weight of the projector & arm. height can be a problem if you want to use a big board, I think Epson have a calculator somewhere on their website. We had a couple of rooms at my school where the ceiling was too low for these. Also, make sure you use a matt finish board, glossy boards are a nightmare, semi-matt is still not as good as matt finish. Watch out for software licences; Promethean wanted £500 per user to licence Activstudio for use on a non-Promethean board. We now use Easiteach Next Generation across the whole school, we bought a very reasonably priced site licence.

Thanks for all who responded. WiFi phones seemed a good idea until I saw the price. I think we will stick to the way we do things now, much the same as everyone else does

How do your staff stay in contact with technicians & network manager in school? Do you use simple facilities, like email, telephones on the desk, or have you more advanced technologies, like DECT phones, WiFi phones, use smartphones, Skype, tablets etc etc? I am looking at replacing a phone system & got prices for Wifi handsets, they come out at around £500 each by the time you have paid for licences, handsets etc. It seems like a lot so I wondered if there were better/cheaper ways of keeping in contaact with staff as they move around the school?

What works well, what doesn't? Plans for BYOD, if any? Numbers of students with access to computers at home. Communications with parents, attitude of parents & staff towards biometrics, eSafety & child protection. School software licencing policy, equipment replacement strategy. Any School budget pressures? Falling rolls, or increasing? Without wishing to sound patronising, think like a network manager Good luck....

I know of one lady technician, she's a bigger geek than many people I know & I bow to her knowledge especially in certain areas. She's a lovely person too. I think we need more lady technicians like her......

The Re-tred, a bit like the manager described earlier. Spent his entire life in IT, has seen it all, seen the fashions in IT come & go.... mainframe, micro, PC, handheld, smartphone...centralise, decentralise, cluster, distribute, virtualise..... It's all the same. Started his career in mainframes as a techy... worked his way up the organisation(s), ended up being remote from day-to-day operations, either in management or consultancy; decided on a career change late in life, left his expense account, company car, company credit cards, living out of a suitcase, never at home.... & got a job in school, working with real problems, real people, hands on. Goes home after work with a smile on his face because he is happy with life again.....

Try negotiating for 3-5 year deals on support, this sometimes helps get the price down too.

We should feed some of these stereotypes into HR for inclusion in various Job Evaluation exercises still sweeping through LAs across the country; they are probably more relevant than the ones being used

I treated myself to a new 'home' laptop this week too Samsung RF711 17.3-inch Laptop (Intel Core i7 2670QM 2.2GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M, 1TB HDD, Blu-ray, LAN, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit) It has space for two HDD, so I slipped in a 120gb SSD too & I have just had confirmation email that the VAT 'cashback' offer has been approved.

I have been putting off changing my phone for exactly this reason; It seems that the current trend of slimmer, lighter phones with bigger & higher resolution screens & multi-core processors is not helping. I can make my HTC Desire last a couple of days or more by reducing it's capabilities to the level of the Nokia phone I had previously i.e. turning off data, Wifi, GPS, not using any apps but then what's the point of having a smartphone?

Take a look at the Skype website; you should find a discussion around this; Skype for Windows works fine with a proxy, for iOS it does not. I am not qualified to say if this is a problem with Skype or iOS, although I know from experience that apps running under iOS don't always play nice with proxies.

Are you using a Proxy? Last time I looked Skype iPad app does not support proxies.

I am entirely happy with all of the suggestions to consider Google Apps.... when starting the thread I was trying to be non-specific about the solution & choice of platform; my intention was to challenge the accepted norm that we provide email for all Google Apps & Microsoft Office 365 for Education are on my list; my starting point was a new server running Exchange sized for 1000 users. I am picking away at this in terms of cost but also in terms of use too, obviously if I go down the Google Apps route the local costs are minimal. Even so, if I provision a service for all of my users, I estimate 85-95% would be inactive most of the time & therefore potentially a waste or resource, regardless of where I host it.

I think the article itself is interesting although I don't necessarily agree with the conclusion; it's a bit like the so called paperless office we were supposed to be moving towards. It did start me wondering; I need to provision a new email service & confess I had been blinkered in thinking I needed to look at providing a service for all staff & every student. Staff email is a given at present, we need it and I don't see it being replaced or superceded anytime soon. I wonder if there is any value in providing am email account for every student though; I know that the current ICT curriculum teaches students about email, but I am wondering if it will be relevant in the future? I have asked the ICT teaching staff for their views. I may end up providing a robust industrial strength email service for staff but look at something more lightweight for students who need it to support the curriculum rather than give all students access automatically.

Is email dying? The death of email | Analysis | Features | PC Pro Should I worry about providing email for students in the future or just provide it for staff?

Not sure if this helps; we found quite a lot of $recycle.bin folders littered all over user home drives & subfolders; most were small but quite a few were 300-500mb in size. This came to the surface when a user 'deleted' a load of images to release space & then still could not save new files. I reclaimed 20gb space on our file server by getting rid of these folders. I still haven't fathomed out how they came to be left around.

You could always establish a trust between the two networks, that was how SIMS.net & lesson monitor were set up when I arrived in my school in 2003. A couple of years later we merged the networks & we have run with a single combined network for more than 7 years without issue.

We use Pcounter, some of our printers operate in 'Super Pause' mode which means that work gets queued on the printer until an authorised user 'releases' it. We delegate control to the subject dept staff.