neilknapp

This job has been relisted and is now open for applications again. If I could find the edit button i'd have used that. Closing 27th June

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a dynamic and self-motivated ICT professional with excellent management and communication skills, to manage our school’s ICT department to develop and implement our ICT strategy. You will manage all aspects of the ICT services across the school, supporting 1,100 users with 600 attached devices using Windows server 2003 and HP/IBM servers technology. You will work closely with academic leaders to meet their educational needs. You will have relevant ICT/network qualifications and experience of managing a large network, preferably in an educational environment. For an application pack or further information, please contact Alison Murphy, our Personnel Officer, tel: 01462 622300, email [email protected]. Closing date for applications: 26.5.11. The school is committed to the wellbeing of our young people. The successful applicant must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including an enhanced CRB disclosure.

This is exactly the same sort of thing I need to do right now. Sorry to hijack your thread Andy. Most of our data is currently stored on 1 server (user data/profiles/public drives) and it's primary purpose is to serve files. It's got 1tb of storage but between 1000ish users that isn't going very far, especially now people are getting to grips with video more and more. Our previous setup was 100gb on a different server so I bought this new server and put 1tb of storage in it then used DFS to remap all the folders from the old servers to the new servers without having to change all the paths and what not. Ideally i'd be looking for a solution where I can "add another drive" to the server and extend the volume onto it, but the server is at fully capacity. Can I do this with SAN/NAS? What approach would you take? I'd really love to be able to consolidate all the storage into a single box (SAN style) but I don't know if that is feasible. Really I just need more storage as we're running out to the point i'm having to delete stuff to keep it going! Any advice much appreciated. Regards, Neil

Hello all, I'm looking to reduce our printing costs and recently had a meeting with a salesman from a company called Copylogic. They appear to be in use at a number of schools (or so i've been told) and my boss knows the company and said they have been around for years. The product and service looked excellent (almost too good to be true?) so I was hoping to find some feedback on here for any negatives but I couldn't find anything at all! If you have any experiences with this company i'd be very interested if you would care to share them. Many thanks, Neil Knapp

ICT SUPPORT TECHNICIAN Actual salary range H3 (£15,725) Full time – 37 hours per week We are seeking an enthusiastic colleague with a high level of relevant experience and expertise in both computer hardware and software to support the ICT Manager. Please contact Alison Murphy on 01462 622300 for an application pack. Visits are welcome by appointment. Closing date: 10th December 2009 The school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post including Criminal Records Bureau check. Job Description The post holder will be responsible to the Headteacher through the ICT Manager and Business Manager. Support colleagues play a vital role in supporting the work of Teachers, and by doing so, enable them to improve student achievement. Support colleagues are therefore valued and valuable members of our staff. S/he will demonstrate a genuine commitment to our equal opportunities policy, which reflects the rights and needs of our entire school community. The job description will be reviewed annually as part of the Performance Management Review process and will involve working closely with administration and teaching colleagues to ensure that the school can provide a full ICT service. Full support and training will be provided as part of the Performance Management process. 1. Responsibilities will include (not exhaustive): 1.1 The general maintenance and repair of ICT equipment. 1.2 Supporting colleagues with understanding and use of ICT technologies 1.3 Supporting students and colleagues with the use and development of the VLE 1.4 Support colleagues in the use of SIMS ICT software 1.5 Installing and testing all new software, including anti-virus software. 1.6 Making software available to appropriate users. 1.7 Supporting the planning, purchasing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of ICT resourcing. 1.8 Checking of new computer equipment on arrival and its installation. 1.9 Updating and ensuring the accuracy of the school inventory. 1.10 Ensuring all health and safety needs and regulations are met. 1.11 Providing support for all peripherals, such as scanners, printers, projectors 1.12 Keeping a log of all technical faults. 1.13 Maintain a stock of consumable items such as printer cartridges and projector bulbs 1.14 Supporting the development the school’s internet and intranet facilities, including its websites. 1.15 Liaising with the ICT Manager on the effective use of computer software and hardware Person Specification A basic understanding of ICT hardware and software. A willingness and ability to learn new software/hardware to support colleagues. The ability to work under pressure and to remain calm and methodical when problem solving. A flexible, friendly attitude, able to appreciate the confusion and lack of confidence students and colleagues may feel when first confronted with new technology. Good administrative and communication skills, verbal and written. Ability to interrelate with colleagues, students and other agencies as appropriate. An understanding and commitment to equal opportunities. A commitment to their own professional development.

CyberNerd, OOps! Thanks for that - I stumbled upon that while going through the software list and forgot to mention it. That looks incredibly promising - I read through the webpage briefly and came up with a few questions but I can't remember what they were now. How have your experiences been with it? If it delivers everything it promises then it looks absolutely perfect. K.C.Leblanc - PSEXEC seems like the adventurous option, I assume you support it with a lot of scripts. Does it work for you? Thanks to you both, Neil

Hi James, Thanks for the prompt reply. I assume you're speaking from personal experience and that you use scripts to deploy software? There are a few questions that come to mind when thinking of logon scripts and it would be very useful to hear your experiences with them. Can you run the script at machine start up and if so does it use the SYSTEM account or another? How are permissions for that handled? Have you experienced any problems with software installing incorrectly because of permission problems? Have you had any problems such as computers getting stuck because an installer is waiting for a prompt and the script hangs resulting in the computer freezing? Do you use user logon scripts rather? I assume the reliability of installing the software is only as good as the script that's running it? (Assuming the installer does its job properly) What method of error handling do you tend to use? Simply have the installer log what it's doing? I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to have a shared area the installation script could access and write details to for tracking purposes. Have you written a custom script or would you recommend one available from elsewhere? If you have any other useful information i'd be very keen to hear it. Many thanks, Neil

Hello, Like everyone here I spend too much time installing software. I have been looking into various ways to simplify installing software. Anything that is distributed with an MSI is easy and a pleasure to install but something like Adobe Master Collection/Creative Suite is an absolute nightmare of which I have found no reliable way to install other than to manually run a script on whatever computer it needs installing on. I spent a summer playing with a trial of Microsoft System Centre Configuration Manager which managed to install things but it was incredibly bloated if just used for software installations, it was also not as reliable and managable as GPO deployment. My question to you is how do you install software and do you know of an elegant solution to installing non-MSI applications? I've been playing around with the software listed in the essential software section of the wiki but before I get too involved trying to find solutions with them I was hoping for feedback on how you install software. Appdeploy always refers to command line switches but this is obviously no use with GPO and i'm struggling to find a program to handle switches and such. I currently install software by praying it comes in an MSI format (maybe tweaking a MST with Wise Install Tailor) or by using Veritas Discover/Software Console to repackage programs. I've thought about using Microsoft System Centre Essentials but i've read it's a real pain with licensing and can get very expensive. Very interested in hearing others experiences with this topic. Many thanks Neil Knapp IT Manager The Priory School