kingswood

I found out today from our Systems' Manager that Capita actually connect to our SIMS server via a web-driven invitation interface- called "streaming support" or something similar. Anyone know what this is? Paul

There's an application called MaSaI installer that I think does this- we looked into it this year but because we already use Prism Deploy thought we would stick with it and just extend the licenses. Here's the link: http://www.masaieditor.com/ It isn't bad at all, and is highly configurable. Price is about $240. The download is a 30 day trial, but lets you test out all of the features pretty well from what I remember. Paul

Gecko: No. Question: We actually allow a remote connection from SIMS too when they are repairing yet another glitch in the system. Which is about every week. So far, it's been twice this week. Basically the school (I think) has always given the remote engineer admin rights. Now I hadn't thought of the connotations of that legally, but I will look into it. Perhaps VNC would be a better... Paul

Yep- I'm testing Tiger server this weekend too. The media team here have decided to implement a Mac-based network- which means I have to make it work :-( Should be fun though.. Paul PS- Ives woould be OK :-)

:-) This thread really cheered me up! We call it "blinding them with rocket science" at work. You just grab a handful of acronyms and concepts and fling them at the poor people and watch their reaction! This last week someone asked me why the two sites hadn't been linked yet (second in ICT actually) so I told the person why. I said, "you do understand what an IP address is don't you?" Their face said it all.... Great stuff. Paul

Great advice Tony. You don't fancy doing the Apple side of things at the conference do you ;-) Paul

*sigh* Seems good in theory, but why add another level of management speak to an otherwise logical set of principles we all should learn when doing any kind of IT training. I think I covered a lot of this (albeit on a more practical level) when studying for my HNC. Planning for disaster? What are backups and redundant links for? Spare parts anyone? SLAs? When teachers understand better what it takes to make an IT system function at any real workable level I might consider slapping an SLA on myself and posting it on the intranet for all to hang me by ;-) Configuration management? Is it just me or are MS also talking of "change and configuration management" etc too? What I'm really saying is that my time is stretched thin- will this stuff help me manage my network optimally and in better ways without encumbering me with some kind of management philosophy that will make me sound good but offer no real practical skills? And how will this improve the use of IT within the school? /Rant Sorry for the rave there- but management talk really makes my blood boil. Especially from quangos... Paul

Gecko: " will give it a go when I am on the lower site if I have spare time" Really? ...and you were going to tell me about this..when? Paul :-)

Gecko: ask me tomorrow and I'll show you :-) Paul

If it's a managed solution you are thinking of, try RMs rivals CSE: http://www.cse-net.co.uk/ Other than that I agree with the comments already given- RM are perhaps not the best people to go to for help. I would recommend *at least* a chat with CSE and see what they say. With a project this size I think you could use the help! Take care- let us know how it pans out for you... Paul :-)

Hi. Here's an update to the issue: I said that the Sys Admin wants the networks separate (as does the head of ICT) but after extensive discussions with .ICT (County) and also our managed solution providers, we are joining the networks and making sure that we can manage most of the LAN centrally. It took a lot of convincing however. Thanks to all of you for your contribution- I actually went away and did my research and presented most of the points as arguments for or against managing these networks separately. ICTNUT: you were right on the use of tagging and backbone trunking- apparently we would have had a lot of problems with this and shared internet access. Paul

Thanks Geoff. I will be getting a copy this weekend and probably testing it on a machine at home before I use it at work. If I need any help I'll let you know. Paul :-)

Yeah- it was .ICT who told us that we "would have to" merge the two networks...what's that song? "One way or another, we're gonna get ya"! Paul :-)

No problems with Fujitsu here either- in fact we have about 90 of them for teachers/staff and they have been flawless. Good luck! Paul

Yes- it would be *nice* if the two were merged into one network for sure. When I started at Kingswood the big thing was keeping them separate no matter what, but then I'm told this year by county that eventually *common sense* will prevail and the two will become one. The other side of me says though that the person who has made this decision "higher up" may not understand the true ramifications of that decision. Perhaps in the long term it will be better- heck I have two separate networks with different IP configurations, different hardware and server platforms and such to support; it would be nice to unify this mess. But in the short term it would be a nightmare for us of almost epic proportions! How many of us know staff members who allow sixth-formers to log on the SIMS equipped machines on the LAN using the teacher's credentials to download stuff from the internet or play games etc? I was appalled to find that this had been going on on our network, but apparently it's par for the course. I think that preparation would be the key to success here- getting staff members to realise that security is holistic and not reactionist. If they understand that and can be made to see the danger in breeches of security where the admin and curriculum LANs are concerned, then integration of the two would be so much easier!! Paul

Gecko: We don't want to know about your cracking abilities do we? Paul :-)

_Bob_ Thanks- that looks interesting but I'll have to dig deeper today and see what it offers. If it's *that* easy I'll be impressed! :-) Paul

Hi Tony. I think you may be suggesting we use tagging a la 802.1q (used in VLANs on layer 3 switches). We have two layer 3 switches (one on each site) and I'll get on to David Oram on Monday and get his body over here to configure them (he hasn't given us the correct username and password for the switches--incredible!). As you say, *if* I can get hold of him :-( Thanks a bunch!! Paul

Great help ICTNUT! What's different between our two networks is that (if I read you right) we are running two completely separate domains- each with their own DHCP server. If it were a case of one domain (as your own is) then spreading DHCP across more than one server makes a lot of sense. What I've found out since asking the question is that a good way of actually blocking DHCP requests from crossing physical sites is to install either (a) a router (which won't forward broadcasts) or (b) use VLANs. I'm going (I think) with (b) VLANs. One for each domain. Well, I'm going to try it anyway- lol! Does this make sense? Summary: two separate networks (I know it's stupid, but it's what they want); two separate DHCP servers; separated by two VLANs so that DHCP broadcasts stay on the local subnet only. Thanks again- and if you think I'm heading down the wrong track here feel free to say so :-) Paul

For a school? Whichever you can afford :-) We just got an iMac G5 2Ghz for home and it is very impressive. But we have also had emacs and the school has just bought about nine of them for the new media block- they are nice too. If it's emacs you are getting, go for the larger hard drives and try and get more RAM. The larger HDDs tend to be faster on the emac. The more RAM you have the better (obviously). Tony's advice was good and I don't intend to take away from that. Paul

OK. On from my DNS query, we have run into a problem that I saw coming but need to try and fix before we spend lots of money calling in CSE to do for us: we have a split site computer network. My Systems Manager wants to keep our new "lower" site separate from our managed "upper" site, and to do this we have to dat installed a separate server, used local profiles with redirected folders etc., and it runs nice. The "problem" occurs when we RIS image the systems. They don't know where to get their DHCP address from (the upper site server or the lower site server). This shows itself in lack of ability to browse to the REMINST folder all the way to not even seeing the server on the LAN at all! I'm aware that you aren't "supposed" to run two DHCP servers on the same LAN. I told them this a while ago while planning was taking place. But no-one listens and they want what they want. My solution would be to have CSE come in and make the LAN one contiguous space (install the server as a member of the upper site network etc). The Sys. Manager is reluctant and wants to try different solutions next week. We have exactly one week to decide what to do before things start getting critical mass. All that said (sorry for the length), I want to know: (a) If running two separate DHCP servers (with different subnets) on the same LAN is possible and can work, and (b) How to make it work. Can I use prestaging of the clients in the AD and then RIS? Can I block DHCP broadcast requests on our switches so that DHCP requests don't travel across sites? Or is there another way? Any advice via PM, email, or on the forum would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Paul

Thanks (yet again) for the feedback. Well, you were right. CTRL-ALT-DEL sorts the long "list building" delay that we were getting. Amazing. I could sleep, but it looks like I have an errant technician on the forum to work over :-) Paul

We do the same as Tony. Tends to make things a little easier, and apart from the odd *oddball* everything is dandy. I think. But then they woudlb't admit to many problems, would they? :-) Paul

Hi people. Great advice- lots to consider. Thanks! I'm leaning towards a Linux only LTSP solution at the moment. Although I also like the idea of LDAP. I thought about SAMBA but didn't see a real need to use unless (as you say) we need to access user-related files on the server. I'd rather not do this, but it's something I could hold in reserve I suppose. Oh well- off to the grind-stone. Thanks again, Paul

Hi Geoff. Thanks for the heads up! I tend to agree- and have actually used debian in the form of Knoppix for a long time. What I will do is get a copy of Gentoo and give it a whirl. Thanks mate! Paul