XiJ

For primary we’re using SATA (in a RAID1 usually) with a full onsite backup and offsite critical data backup. We also use SSD for boot and VM storage for performance. Spinning rust for large data storage

All our local primaries are in Class A networks. It comes from a time when all the schools were on LA internet and each school has its own addresses as part of the whole. Now it’s just easier and less time consuming to carry on the same scheme. The biggest primary I know has a /22 and doesn’t need anything like that.

Agree about Anker and AmazonBasics. But if it’s MfI certified it will be fine. Even as a so called ‘Apple fan boi’ id never spend £19 on a lightning cable.

New internet and filtering rollout at one school Some imaging and updates to do on a hand full of PC’s at another. Some P2V migrations to plan. And I won a family day pass to David Lloyd’s sports clubs so on Friday I will be hitting the gym* *pool and hot tub.

Yeah fair enough - a lot of head room but drives are relatively cheap!

Nas will be great. We do use WD red a lot - although starting using gold recently. Do you need 24tb though for a 3tb data set ?!

Synology. I wouldn’t use anything else. Good stuff and reliable.

We do this here where there were separate vlans for admin and curriculum. As above, P2V the dc, wipe the old physical and install a clean OS with hyper-v Repeat on the admin server. You could even use the admin server as a second host. I would look to have a single subnet. We’ve this this is some cases and as a temporary measure given admin clients a static DNS of the admin VM server to connect to that domain. Ultimately with a view of one flat network and security permissions / ACLS to keep things secure. The only tricky thing here is responsibility of each area. If you have a good relationship it works - but can still involve some ‘finger pointing’ occasionally. I’d also recommend ssd to Store your Vm’s on (data can be mechanical). Makes thing much quicker.

Zioxi for us. They’ve actually faired better than any metal trolleys we’ve had.

Do you have visibility of live traffic? Occasionally a resource can be allowed ie bbc.co.uk but some content server might still be blocked. I’ve seen this create slow down rather than an outright block page.

I would Store VM’s on the ssd without question although I agree 400gb is a bit skinny. WSUS and maybe a candidate for storing in the mechanicals.

Our schools affected in Rotherham / Doncaster too Great planning by gamma to have the network status on the partner panel - which was down

The irony that people are blaming at Apple for forcing their hardware on people when the eu are forcing hardware on people. The same people who probably moaned at Apple for changing the to the lightning cable from the 30 pin connector. They’ve changed the socket once In 13 years. I understand the idea that it’s convenient to carry one cable. But I think it can also stifle innovation and developments.

Have you spoken with Sophos? The might be able to help. The exe does need parameters and needs to be called from a script / command line AFAIK

You’ll not thank me for saying this but I found to the upgrade to Sophos Central the easiest of any AV deployment I’ve done before. The downloaded installed with the script just took care of everything, including removing the old Sophos client. The batch file runs in a GPO and deploys to all machines. I setup a local server cache and things “just work”

I use https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

We do have our schools run DC/DHCP/DNS/fileserver roles. And then a SIMS VM (until they move to a decent MIS). But yeah backups are critical.

We use MDM but for non dep devices I’ll supervise them with a Mac first. For our schools that don’t have a sync enabled trolley, I use a powered 10 port USB hub.

Virgin used to have a network setup that didn’t help - especially with static IP’s. However unless there’s a specific issue with SH3 passing packets I don’t see where the problem would be. But get rid of the SH and buy a decent router. Mikrotik is my choice.

Sims 8 / cloud will never see the light of day. Do your self a favour and move to something from the 21st century. We like arbor but there’s plenty of others.

I bought an Xbox 1S digital 1tb - will go in the playroom so kids can play against each other. (And/or get me more TV time in the living room!) At £84 with 3 games I couldn’t turn it down.

We’ve often found admin machines to be the biggest effort / issue. Because often setup to save locally and even have the sims database and all its integrations. Urgh. I try and use upgrade time to move the schools away from this and do a clean install. Short term pain, long term gain.

Brilliant. Would you also be able to send me the guide please? I’ll send a PM (You’ll have to set up a distribution list at this point!!)

We have a VHDx for the OS drive. Usually dynamic. In our case that’s stored on ssd in the host. Then we have a vhdx for data - expanding and large. That’s stored on hdd for us. Primary school data from staff and pupils is fine on spinning rust in our use cases. But the ssd for the OS makes a massive difference of course.

You can also get flat hdmi cables. If you can get the carpet up might be a help ?