kingswood

This is very intresting as it is written in the BSF Rules that if you want the BSF funding you have to be fully manage.. how did you get around this to the "hybrid" system... Do you still have the same role of running the Network ? As Tony clarified- and I should have made clearer- we aren't BSF at all. The Head doesn't like the idea of BSF period. And it does seem as Tony also stated that BSF will pass Corby by some. Sorry for the confusion. What I was trying to say was that BSF shouldn't have to mean passing ICT support to some mega corp or bug company that simply will not deliver the goods in as flexible a format as you get when working with a local skilled ICT support team. BSf isn't all bad though and I can see the compelling nature of having millions dangled in front of you, in a hypnotic trance-like way, if only you will let all your base belong to us! Paul

You only have to look at mess in Leicester with bsf to realises what happens when companies who bid bsf contracts don't think about the tender and then win. Being that you are in Scotland and not under bsf you do seem to take this very personally. Russell Sorry Russel.. I am not in Scotland but in England working in a Pathfinder School in the West of England... My jaw dropped a few years ago when the BSF consultants came in and said that the ICT department would be Service Managed, all staff would be TUPED or retrenched and that the school had no say in it.. Thats why I am so vocal.. because I have been there and understand what in means to see all that you have worked for get flushed away and know that you have no future because some low paid drone in RM will be the one working on your server and the rest of the school servers in the county... and if you want to work in te school you have grown to love with the staff that you have bonded with over the past 8 years you have to become a low paid techie drone.. Yea I have an agenda.... and thats to get the ICT managers of England mobilised to save their jobs.. Russel.. what is you role now ? and please can you tell us how you propose to keep your job when the BSF rolls in.. because as I know the Prefered Bidder in Leicestershire pulled out and they had to get a new supplier... but that will still not stop the BSF from taking over the ICT I think you have a healthy view of what BSF means Grommit. It's a complete shambles to be honest. It has been in the news (making the BBC web pages) and the ICT support component isn't up to scratch at all. Being a Senior Systems Manager in a school that is having a new build shortly, and having to project manage the ICT infrastructure and support framework for that new build, I can tell you that the Head's initial idea was to go managed services. It's compelling for Head Teachers. He asked me whether I would be with him on it and I told him I wouldn't become a toner replacement engineer for [insert company here]. I would leave before then if that were to happen. Now we are going it alone but with the support of a large company providing specialist network design and implementation services who will provide us with post-support using SLAs and other mechanisms, whilst providing us the freedom to source hardware and software for our particular needs and install and run the thing ourselves. Rather than BSF and total managed services I believe the best way to go is a hybrid- let someone like RM provide specialist services (pretty much as they kind of do now) with attached SLAs, and have the ability to still be flexible with localised ICT support and implementation. There is nothing more flexible than a couple of local technicians who manage and know the network and can respond to problems as and when they happen (like thos online tests that you get told about just 40 minutes before they are supposed to happen and you get working in time for them to start)! Yeah. Like it is for lots of us now really. So no real change in other words. But outsourcing ICT totally only sounds like a good idea to those in a position of safety. Or with vested interests and connections to the companies involved in the thing. Good luck in fighting your corner.

I downloaded that last year and it works pretty well. Robocopy is a very cool tool! Thanks for the link.

Ghost, RIS, and on some a simple CD. I am starting to move our Ghost images to an RIS deployment method over half-term- that way we get the benefits of using our existing Ghost images with PXE.

It is the only way around it. Dell have a master password that resets this sort of thing. And I'm sorry to say- it has to be *explicitly* set in the BIOS to activate. In other words, your techie friend who had the laptop did indeed set it. Sorry.

I believe it is the page file. As Geoff said run it with less and see what happens.

The only issue I have found is that hitting "print" to get the codes candidates need to log on with produces...nothing! Anyway, that aside, I think these are far better than KS3 tests (which I am still running this year). But the jury is out. I have 80 students on Friday taking the ALAN tests- so time will tell

maybe a dumb question here but if you delete it after they log off then how do you check whose logged on if its deleted ie if you check the database after they have logged off and hence its been deleted ? Hey Shane. I suppose because it's really about checking who is logged on and where, rather than *who was* logged on and where. :?: Paul

An interesting discussion this one. I'm mostly with Tony. Macs do look better (and that's not a dogmatic statement it just happens to be true- that's why they win design awards). But that isn't reason (enough) to purchase them for schools. Our place used eJay on very fast systems for music and then independently went the Apple route. They use Pro Music apps and other things on there and will be integrating with the wider network before summer. But they didn't just buy the Macs for the music software. That was a huge benefit- it is slightly better and more integrative than a Windows solution, but there are some very good Windows solutions out there for music production and you will find as many shouting the praises of Windows in this area as you will Macs (and some even for Linux). Any school that buys Macs for their aesthetic value are stupid. But if you seriously look at the benefits of the Apple platform and services for schools I think in many cases you could safely justify their purchase for a lot of the subject areas Apple and its software base is strong in- programming, databases, science, mathematics, design (art etc), digital media production- the list could go on. And that is the strength of Apple in industry too. But they aren't for everyone. And nor should they be. We have a wonderful diverse world full of software that fits all kinds of needs. One of my favourite bits of software (well, an OS really) is Server 2003. I love it. I think it will be years until Apple beat it. But I love Macs- all my home PCs are Macs! Strange, but true. And so it goes in schools. There's a needed place for all. Tony was bang on- we need to teach principles. That means giving the school a variety of tools that enable education. And I think that includes Apple, Linux and MS Windows. I'm impressed that Tony and his team are introducing Sun systems into the network- I think it shows a willingness to think outside of the box for the sake of education and balance. We need more of that in education, not less. Anyway. Music software on Windows is a-plenty. Buy it if that's what you want. But arguments against Apple systems based on loose understanding of the system and/or some bias isn't an argument at all. Apple systems are in industry, science, movies, education and lots of homes. And the same goes for Linux and Unix. They all fit somewhere. Long may it continue! Paul

We decided to authenticate using integrated AD information, storing movie files locally until finalised whereupon the student/teacher can save finalised projects to the RAID for backup. Teachers can use ARD to remote in and save the projects and/or backup to an external hard drive or burn files to disk. I think this is an area that Apple really need to address- but even if they did "fix" it, shunting huge unfinished movie projects across a network is a *BAD (Inc)* thing to do. You really need to build your infrastructure from the ground up just for this or keep your servers (XServe and RAID) on the local subnet of the Macs doing the movie work. Something we are considering for our new build (with more servers and storage and many more Macs to worry about). Paul

What I would do is utilise the XServe RAID as two independent RAID units. In other words, if you have two XServe Servers to connect to the RAID and use both sides of the RAID Server use one fibre channel connection to one XServe and one connection to the other. Since the RAID controllers are independent this would work fine. If you connect both sets of the RAID server to two servers it would be *BAD*. Fibre needs some form of arbitration and wouldn't get any- imagine multiple read/writes on the same data set at the same time and think what that would do to your data! Basically, connecting the XServes to the RAID system in the above way would mean you are using the independent nature of the RAID server and just sharing power. My *preferred* way of doing this would still be through some kind of fibre channel switch. I just think this would be a whole lot cleaner for what you seem to want to do. In your post you mentioned that you cannot make shares on the XServe RAID because you are integrated with AD. Can you elaborate on this- I have the same setup and can happily make shares from the XServe on the RAID server and share it out etc without any issues. Perhaps there are some other things at work here? Paul

Hi. Emulex make a good FC switch. But yes- you have to use the Fibre Channel connections for XServe RAID. The ethernet ports on XServe RAID are for administration only (monitoring etc) through the supplied RAID Admin tool set. What we have done is connect the RAID to our XServe through dual FC connection and then connected the XServe to a gigabit connection dedicated to the task of feeding files to and from storage. Works great. If you look on Apple's store (UK) business section you will find FC switches. http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukBusiness.woa/61054045/wa/PSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=304FA966&node=home/mac_accessories/networking&wosid=wD6XgYep5KIq35nabu6ZJnRoOi6 Hope that helps! Paul

That's definitely one for our Tony! Paul

Still running it here with absolutely no problems from day one really. We do have the odd station that fails to upload test results, but having them log on to another machine and restart the session usually sorts that one out. We're planning for the summative test and *should* be ready- but with Edexcel online exams and other things coming up... Paul

Not sure about your location etc., or about a restriction of 1 day (pretty tough to get certified etc in one day) but you might want to look at sending them on an A+ course. One of my technicians has this and it's really worth the investment. Not sure if that helps any, but wanted to throw it out there...

If you check the help file it tells you there. But if you want a quick overview: 1. Change to Updates 2. In the left column choose from "Products and Calssifications" to create a "Custom" filter 3. Click "Change Custom View" and then define your criteria. The update screen will then filter by your criteria rather than the defaults. You can then change the approval status, synchronisation and search by text keys etc. Paul

Yeah. I have been a subscriber to their casts since they started. This is another great episode.

That's pretty much it really. Although you do have to watch that you meet the pre-requisites. And if you are upgrading a SUS server to WSUS there are some things you need to watch for. Oh and then setting the GPO properly..and also making sure that clients check in when they should..meh..it'll be fine Paul

Mmmmm..not sure about that to be honest. Sorry I can't be of more help on that one. I would say that if you don't need the tapes now it would be a good idea to erase them and re-inventory, making sure to label them too. You could try stopping and restarting the Backup Exec Engine...it's a long shot...but as they say on the IT Crowd, "have you tried turning it off and on again?" HTH even a little :? Paul

Politics? In a school? Actually yes. It happens all the time and is one of those things you have to ignore and just get on with your job. That's what I tell my technicians in any case. Tony mentioned that he had been in the police force- I actually know a long-serving and high ranking officer in this area who is now working in IT. I know a person who was in the force who now runs the global IT operations for a major charity in the UK. Another of my friends also came from the police force and is now an MCT. But I also keep in touch with friends who have been car valeters, machine minders, and one a teacher- who now choose ICT as their profession. I came from an engineering background, moved into IT because of the engineering degree I was studying, and then settled in industry for a time. My wife has gone from accounts to a degree in IT with the OU. Strange how the world turns really. One of my technicians used to work for Mercedes and is now A+ and N+ heading for MCDST; and the other is a single mum with an HND who specialises in web programming and databases. They both teach me how to suck eggs regularly. And I like it. If I can learn from my work buddies and they can learn from me we are all contributing something to the cause. What I'm saying is: don't let a background indicate lack of knowledge. Take what you have and use it and then if they offer something positive tell them so and use that too. Work together. Enjoy.

It's....hard. But worth the effort in the end. Have you looked at Kerios Mail Server? A lot better and a lot more like Exchange. Basically I would get as many resources together as you can about Postfix and Cyrus (O'Reilly I think do a good book on Postfix) and use those to help you get the mail service in OS X Server running and configured as well as possible with the resources and time you have. Good luck- let us all know how it goes!! Paul

There's a "Media" tab on Exec 10 I think (I'm not at the server right now), and if you click that and then highlight your tape drive in the list you can then right-click said drive and tell it to inventory whatever is in the drive. This should leave you with the media in the right-hand pane with whatever label was used on it (or the default) and if you right click this object you should get a Properties option that will let you see how much of the tape has been used etc etc. Also there is usually an information pane at the bottom of this screen that tells you the media type (AIT etc). HTH Paul

This might help too- it'll let you know where your site is in terms of compliancy so far and let you see where you need to be to make it happen: http://www.scormsoft.com/scorm/cam/overview Hope that helps in any case!

Read here: http://www.adlnet.gov/index.cfm Basically, and at a conceptual level, SCORM compliance means you could package your online materials as modules available across multiple platforms that are also SCORM compliant. It's an easy way to reach interoperability. I'm not sure it's necessary to jump through those hoops for your stuff, but if that's what you want to do- provide your materials for as wide an audience as is possible- then shoot for it. Paul

Great stuff there. Paul :-)