Bobby_Moore

Thanks @elsiegee40 If you have any queries, feel free to PM me Bobby

@jmak you pay for just one licence per GAFE account you are syncing to. It's basically a more advance google drive client so it will enable you to have more than one GAFE account on one machine/server (if you have multiple shared areas on one server..) Then it's just standard process to share the folder from Google Drive to the rest of your users.

Dear all, According to this link: Upgrading to SOLUS3 | Essential information for Schools | Capita SIMS Any one got any links/information for this? Best wishes, Bobby

We are using InSync and I am struggling with my plans to provide a half way house. We wanted to keep the shared drive in place and use InSync to sync any changes made locally or on the cloud Up/Down. InSync doesn't play nice with large storage shares and the sync times are too slow. I guess the only way to do this is to migrate departments in phases to solely use GoogleDrive or not. Is this consistent with what other people have found? Best wishes, Bobby

Dear all, I am having to bid farewell to one of my very capable technicians who is unfortunately moving onto pastures new. Feel free to pass this around to anyone who would be interested: IT Network Administrator Salary £18,228 - £23,435 We are looking to appoint an IT Network Administrator to assist with the smooth running of the school’s IT infrastructure. The successful applicant will enjoy working in a busy school environment solving every day hardware, software, networking and general computer issues. Strong experience is required of: · PC support, both hardware and software (including MS Windows 7 & 10 and MS Office 2013/2016) · Experience using and supporting virtual environments based on VMware vSphere ESXi · Virtual desktop technologies (Citrix Xendesktop) · Configuring and supporting complex networking systems including managed switches, managed wireless networks, firewall and routers · Microsoft Windows Server administration (Microsoft Windows Server 2008 r2 & 2012, Exchange Server 2010, Active Directory, Group Policy) · Using and supporting Apple Client and Server products · Strong organisation, project management, communication and interpersonal skills Heathside School is a successful Academy for students from the ages of 11 – 18 years with approximately 1279 students on roll. A commitment to help all young people and staff to achieve their best is expected of all staff. Closing date for applications: 12.00 pm on Tuesday 3rd May 2016. It is anticipated that interviews will be held week beginning 9th May 2016. If anyone would like to join our fast paced team, you will have exposure to not only the high-end server infrastructures/software but the opportunity to lead and implement on projects. There is a lot to get your hands dirty at Heathside with the following systems currently requiring either maintenance, procurement or implementation in the coming months: Ruckus wireless, iPad MDM, MAC suite with MAC server management, 1:1 device, VLAN, switch upgrades, CCTV, access control, Veeam DR, Cloud storage, cloud backup, cloud compute, e-mail migration to cloud, XenDesktop VDI, remote access, RES Software suite, IP telephony, XenServer and VMWare ESXi. The vacancy will be placed on our website shortly. Please note CVs cannot be accepted. Vacancies - Heathside School Best wishes,

So what i've discovered is you either present the server publicly and use the paper cut web clip/app (which does cost centre selection) Google print doesn't provide this, and automatically charges the personal 'purse' - i think we are only going to be able to provide google print to students Am I correct?

I seem to recall downgrading a BIOS setting from ACHI to IDE only for during the build for this exact model It's not UEFI is it?

Do you need to open port 5222 to do the cost centre selection? If anyone has got any guidance on this, that would also be helpful. Best wishes, Bobby

@mowgli82 The tool looks great, especially if you have multiple shared drives on one server or you want to granulate what you do/don't want to upload to cloud storage. Will definitely buy into it when we move forward, thank you

Dear all, Apologies for the delay. I suppose we are splitting this into three phases: 1) sync our ITSupport shared drive for testing 2) sync our common drive for testing 3) sync user homeshares (work in progress) I think it is pretty common, with shared devices, the sync client is not viable. We trialed installing O365 and Google clients on the servers to provide shared drive access with the following requirements: - Easily accessible/editable, especially on iOS (iPad deployment) - Secure - Fast to replicate We found the O365 wasn't easy for the user to access shared files. You can do it in two ways, with sharepoint teamsites or with OneDrive and share the folder out. Sharepoint You create a teamsite which gives you a teamsite URL (which would have to be circulated and trained to staff) that you need to enter into the Office iOS suite of apps. If you want to open a file, you have to open the relavent app to open that file. A user has to change mindset from "where are my files i want to open" to "what type of file am i about to open, let me find that app". With the latest OneDrive client, you can sync the team sites files to your PC but on-mass, that won't work and generally thought, if I'm looking for files, I want to be in OneDrive. OneDrive Using OneDrive, a centralised account and sharing the folders in this way is much better. However, with iOS again you can view the files in read-only in the OneDrive iOS app under the 'shared with me'. You have to copy the file, and copy it back (making a duplicate) should you wish to edit it. For desktop users however, I found the online editing tools to be good and if we didn't have a large iPad deployment, this method would suffice. Google Again, creating a centralised account and sharing the content from there was great. We kept all documents in their native docx, xlsx formats but with the Google word processing tools on the iPad, users are able to view all the files on Google Drive, click on a file, which automatically authenticates you and opens sheets/docs, allows you to edit the document and when you click back, updates/saves the shared version, PERFECT! Even online drive allows you to open and edit files in Word 2016 and saves directly back to Google Drive. I have checked changes have replicated to the shared drive pretty much instantly and have not yet experienced any slowness... Homeshares With appdata, system files, media files I don't think we aim to host homeshares in the cloud but provide a network share to it. Cloud Drive Mapper - Enterprise Cloud Storage | IAM Cloud Best wishes,

Bump please.

Thanks. I have found documentation online, but didn't find anything on here, pertinent to my question. There are many tools to map cloud storage as a network drive (Cookie365, IAMCloud) but I have found this quite slow to navigate and I assume is not being used as a working directory? Again, I haven't seen any discussions of centrally syncing data via the server and just providing a network share as normal. Is this a viable option? Office365's answer for shared storage is Team Sites/Groups, what is Google's? Best wishes,

Dear all, Looking at utilising cloud to host some shared areas. We've done some research, but we want to know how it works in the real world. Both Microsoft and Google seem to be more tailored to personal devices and replicating shared drive content across shared machines is not really viable. Has any one, for example, migrated their shared/common drive that all staff have access to? How did you achieve it? How do you present the data to users? Are syncing at server level and does this cause any issues? Best wishes,

Thanks guys - the specific software I am trying to find is for A-Level science (to avoid using Kerboodle!!) - any recommendations for that specifically? P.S. I think VLE's are still good. They were never going to reach the utopia of an all encompassing MLE and I think a lot of vendors went down the 'content creation' route - turning teachers into VLE administrators. We use Schoology, all subjects are grouped and we are heading down a very positive route of teachers becoming more efficient with sharing workloads/resources/good practice

Dear all, We are a secondary and we currently have an non-unified approach to curricular software. A department will have found some software with pre-populated content, has 'everything they need' and want to buy it. I doubt they have researched much. Each student requires a login. Department two comes along, says the same thing but is a completely different software. Each student requires a login. For Maths alone, they have Pearson Active Learn, Collins Connect and MyMaths. Why these platforms don't support O365 or GAFE integration is another discussion however, my question is: Does anyone have any recommendations about a content resource that has a good collection of resources for all departments? Thanks in advance,

Happy SysAdmin day to one and all! "Good updates we bring, to you and your kin, we wish you a merry sysadmin day and a happy new patch tueessdaayyy"... too far

Dear all, My bursar is wanting me to investigate Procurement frameworks and I was wondering if someone who help explain them to me. For many years, like most of you, I have just spec'd up hardware and projects and approached suppliers myself. Various Framework I have seen include; ESPO, YPO and the UK Government's offering; Crown Commercial Service (CCS) What I think the Framework are? These organisations have created various LOTS, a matrix of terms and conditions for various provisions and have engaged with suppliers who they deem to be able to service the requirements for those lots best, in terms of service and price. LOTS can almost everything including consultancy, hardware and even office supplies. I don’t think they can save money for small hardware projects (<£50k) and acts more of an accreditation for suppliers. They have to go through the same process of obtaining quotes and I seem to get the same price either way. One of the one benefits I can see are the terms and conditions surrounded by the purchase, better protecting the client compared to the standard T&Cs suppliers offer. We are currently purchasing some software on a 3 year deal worth ~£20k through a re-seller. After some investigation, the T&Cs waver them from all UK common law, consumer goods act and sales of goods act and you buy it “as is”. The results in us not being protected if the software vendor decided to pull out of the UK market, going bust or generally providing a bad service. The software vendor services around 4 million users and the supplier is listed in the top 30 of suppliers in the UK, not small companies that are too willing to change their process (I assume). Is this an educated risk that some of you take? Have any of you looked at the T&Cs your suppliers offer? When should you use a framework? How big should a project be (in terms of capital expenditure) when it becomes beneficial to use the frameworks? We are progressing on a VDI project this year, something I have already scoped off the back of some technical assessments I had done. The agreements seem to be a bit ‘one size fits all’ so are they better for hardware than for services? How quick and easy is it to use a framework? My bursar wants me to use the framework to procure 7 iPads, something I feel is quite excessive however, having not using them before, I don’t have much to argue not to. Is this something she should be investigating RE: legal? I think there might be a quick quote option on CCS..? Thanks in advance for any comments, Bobby Moore

What kind of network are you running? You could: 1) create an additional profile share separate to the user share. Use GPO to redirect to their profile 2) revert Appdata to the local machine and block C: drive access. What is so important in appdata that you need it to migrate from machine to machine? Bobby

I was wondering if any schools have successfully implemented VDI, including remote access and a full desktop experience for students. We are looking at Citrix and Microsoft options. The internal VDI solution isn’t the problem however, after having a chat with a software vendor, the required Microsoft licencing to provide full virtual desktops remotely to students is a pretty hefty fee. We have an OVE-ES agreement based on FTE count. Because our staff are covered under the agreement, they are also licenced for extended roaming rights permitting them to dial in from home. However, you need RDS CALs (not part of the core CAL bundle included in the OVS), a remote connector licence and an RDS server connector licence. BYOD for staff wanting to use their device internally will require a CDL (client device licence), allowing staff on the agreement to use up to four personal devices internally. Unsure how this is actually managed but you can reallocate licences every 90 days. Moving from one headache to the next, student access then becomes more difficult. I have been told students will need a VDA licence (per device) if they wish to connect to a windows session remotely or internally. Do any of you provide remote desktops to your students or have you been forced to provide individual remote apps instead? Apparently, by providing Application virtualisation you will only require an external connector licence. Do any of you have your Microsoft agreements based on Student count? Is it more cost effective? Do any of you have VMWare Horizon View, using their PCOIP (PC Over IP Topology)? Avoiding Microsoft’s RDS services also releases you from requiring CALS however, unsure what else. Microsoft licencing is a pain in the neck to say the least. If any schools have been down this path before, I would really appreciate if you could send me their experiences in correlation to above! Thanks in advance, Bobby Moore

Dear all, Thanks for the guide really helpful. However, with your setup I have to authenticate twice, once to Ruckus, once to Smoothwall. What is the best method to only have to authenticate once? Thanks in advance, Bobby