rpain

Thanks for the advice. In the end I went for option 3 yesterday and the replication now happens every 5 minutes (only takes a few seconds). I’m going to do a planned failover later this week and see how it goes while there’s still no one on the network. Would I need a SAN for clustering?

- because I don't want the wait of restoring a backup if the first fails for whatever reason. The second server's hardware is slower than the operational one so I would presume that clustering would give me a performance drop due to the second host? Thanks

Hi, I wonder whether I could have some opinions please. I have 2 hosts as member servers and I'd like to set up the second as a replica (it's currently empty other than hyper-v). I have 2 VMs on the first host (one DC and the other runs the BMS/photocopiers) - total size of both is about 160gb (we use M365 for files/emails and our mis is hosted hence the small size). Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe I have three options: 1. Keep both hosts as member servers and set up certificates to allow replication 2. Create a domain just for the hosts then use kerberos 3. Join the hosts to the domain that is run on the vm and use kerberos I see possible downsides with all solutions - 1 just seems fiddly 2 over the top? 3 could there be access problems i the domain controller vm goes down? What should I do? Thank you in advance. Richard

Katy - your guide is excellent. Thank you for taking the time to produce it. Richard

Hi, We want to start using ASM. If we use the SFTP route then managed ids are created by users logging in their ipads. I'd rather do this in advance. The alternative is using SCIM which can provision based on which AD groups you select so what I'm thinking is that I use SCIM to create the accounts and then disconnect it and change to SFTP. My question to anyone that has had experience of this is - when I disconnect the scim will it remove the managed apple ids that have been created? I have federated our domain which makes it will make logging into the ipads straight forward for everyone - I'd just like to have everything ready when we hand them out in the summer term. Thanks Richard

The Head gets the impression that people don’t read his emails and his latest one was important. I suggested using read receipt requests but he thought it a waste of time. I did explain that some people (me included) read then mark some emails as unread again as a prompt for following up. I told him it was going to be really fiddly and he said it could wait for another day. With my number of support tickets at the moment it’s not going to be soon. I think he only wants to be able to say something along the lines of ‘I can see a third of people haven’t read the email yet’.

Hi, We'd like to know whether an email from the Head has been opened. We have run this command: Set-OrganizationConfig -ReadTrackingEnabled $true ...but are only cloud based. I'm starting to think that this is only relevant in a hybrid situation. I was following the guide here but realise it's 4 years old: https://practical365.com/exchange-server/tracking-read-email-messages-exchange-server/#:~:text=You%20can%20check%20whether%20read,with%20the%20Get%2DOrganizationConfig%20cmdlet.&text=If%20read%20tracking%20isn%27t,future%2C%20turn%20it%20on%20now. Is it possible to find this information on an email if we don't have Exchange in either a local or hybrid set up? Thanks, Richard

Hi - our staff have iPads which they can set up with their own apple ids. We have them enrolled in dep and use a Meraki profile to control them. I have one device which I reset using the Mdm. I got the user to log out of iCloud before erasing it. When it restarted it said activation lock was enabled. The problem is that the address that comes up isn’t hers. I think it must have been from the previous member of staff who has left. I can’t remove the activation lock from the mdm as the device has now been reset and no longer has the profile - is there any way I can disable it via Apple as it is still dep registered? God it’s annoying. Thanks Richard

Thanks - that sounds like an idea :-) Now just got to look up about power apps.

Thanks - I don't think they're going to be putting in scores. Basically something like: 10/7 | "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" | Read Page 45-55 | 'Enjoyed reading comment etc'

Hi, We are looking to move our Reception-Yr2 reading records to the cloud so they can be reviewed and added to by both parents and TAs electronically. The requirements are that they are easy to add to, TAs can easily see all boys records but parents can only see their own children's. We now have parents handling Office 365 and Onenote fairly competently. My ideas: 1. We could go for putting an editable spreadsheet into a onenote page in each child's onenote but that's a little fiddly to enter into and not especially speedy for the TAs to be able to go to 2. We could set up an ms form which parents and TAs could fill in at each sitting which would add to an ongoing spreadsheet. Downside is that TAs would still need to open up a separate spreadsheet for each pupil 3. Set up an Access database (shiver...) I know there are systems out there that do this nicely but we want to avoid extra cost along with the need for parents to have to remember yet another login. Any ideas would be most welcome. Thanks, Richard

Term finishes at the end of next week so it will be September earliest.

All of them - SLT were apparently talking about having a teacher on the gate with a clipboard ticking names (my heart sank when I heard that).

OK so I'm presuming that we will get Teams phones which will work based on users rather than extensions. How does licensing work - do we buy licenses for every member of the school that we want to have the ability to call outside lines? If we have standalone shared phones here and there for everyone to use, do I set up an office 365 account for the device then give it a license? If that phone won't necessarily need to call an outside line can we just get 'it' a standard O365 Teams license which is included in our school subscription? Then there is the auto attendant side of things - can we set up the usual 'press 1 for office, 2 for etc.' and can we have hunt groups with timeouts set by ourselves (I saw a page from MS which talked about staying on one account for 20 seconds before moving onto the next one which would be far too long). Thanks

Hi We’re looking to upgrade our phone system from Avaya ipoffice to something a little more friendly. We’re a Microsoft based school and have been using Teams a lot so I’m thinking that using it to handle our phones would be a reasonable idea. Does anyone just use Microsoft and Teams for their telephony and of so how well does it handle auto attendants and call routing? Thanks Richard

Hi Does anyone have a system of noting when children have left school at the end of the day? Our Head wants to know whether our activities system can do it - the system people are saying that they’ve never been asked before. We take registrations at the start of an activity but that is the last time we take any kind of register. This is for children from year 3-8. Thanks Richard

Thanks - and do you know whether there is a way to stop some devices taking over others that are projecting? The last thing I want is one teacher spoiling another's lesson by accidentally choosing the wrong room from the airplay device list! Now BYOD is well and truly here with our year 6's back, there would also be the potential for the kids to send their screens and although a passcode needs to be entered, it would still interrupt lessons. I can put them on different wireless ssids but I don't yet know how flexible airplay is. Richard

We just don’t want do have to separately mount one coupled with lamp replacement costs and picture shake when the kids upstairs jump up and down.

Hi, Our new Head doesn't like interactive boards - he'd rather have teachers with tablets of some kind being able to roam around the classroom. I'm sure you can imagine some of the teachers opinions but anyway that's where we are. All our staff have ipads and I'd like to get them either laptops or yoga type devices which could hook up wirelessly. What would people recommend for non interactive 65" screens these days? I'm looking at the Samsung qled screens as they're very bright (we have quite a few brightly lit rooms) and also have apple tv and miracast facilities built in and don't cost the earth. Thanks Richard

Thank you - so pleased it's not just us. Time for toast...

I guess that's what happens when Microsoft suddenly offers it to the world free of charge. Basically I don't think we can use it at all - a big waste of time Are people persevering with this? I think we're about to have teachers with pitch forks wanting to attack us...

How is everyone finding the performance of Teams? We're finding we can't set assignments without sitting there for ages and at the moment it's not working at all. Worked ok first thing this morning but just now is unusable. Infuriating...

Thanks for that - the problem is that the ics link just downloads a file so if we update the calendar subsequently then the parents won't get the information (unless they reimport the events). The html page is very thorough but doesn't really suit the design of our website (it's just too big).

Hi, We have created an office 365 account for our school calendar. Salamander then syncs events to this from isams. I can get a downloadable ics file from it and I can get an html link but I'd like to be able to give parents a subscription link so if we update the calendar then the parents will also get the update. Does anyone know whether this is possible or am I just dreaming? Thanks, Richard

Thanks - just checked their website and it does. Sorry I was just being lazy.