Notes from inside the School IT bubble

There are many parts to being an IT Technician in any environment. You have to be knowledgeable, you have to be able to stay cool under pressure, you have to be able to find information quickly when resolving problems and be able to work through logical processes in order to come to a resolution. These are all very important parts of being a good technician. However there is one other part which is often overlooked. Good customer service skills.

I have seen many Network Managers who get so caught up with making sure the system runs perfectly and so caught up in always making sure they use the latest technology etc.. that they sometimes forget that a crucial part of the job is good customer service. Even though I work in a school and I know all the users I view them all as customers. This allows me to maintain a high level of service by imagining that customers can leave you, and go elsewhere where as colleagues can't. 

With this in mind I have been looking for a new helpdesk for a while. I currently use Spice works and with the introduction of ipads around the school and staff using their ipads and phones for lots more tasks now I find that using the web based ICT portal on Spice works to be a little prohibiting. All staff have their school email attached to their PC's their iPads and often their phones. This means that emailing a ticket to the helpdesk would be the best way. Also, I wanted a helpdesk which would integrate with the way I work better rather than it being a separate application. This is when I thought about using Evernote.

I use Evernote for everything work related. I use it to manage quotes, audits, projects, day to day tasks aswel as interesting things that I'd like to go back and look into more detail when I have time.  I had an idea. If I could get staff to email a support ticket into evernote and have it stored in a special notebook I would be able to see jobs coming in and deal with them much quicker as I always have evernote open on my 2nd screen.

As many who use Evernote will already know you get an evernote email address which you can use to email note to your account. It's not a very easy to remember email address but that doesn't matter for what I'm going to do. We use Google Apps for education here so I have set up a new email address helpdesk@*******.sch.uk with forwarding set up to my evernote account. I am going to get staff to email the helpdesk account which will auto forward it into a notebook I have set up, in evernote called Inbox.

From there I can move the note into Helpdesk - open and deal with the request. Then, once it's completed I can update the note with any information I feel is relevant and email the note back out to the end user by sharing the note via Email. The end user will then get an email like this:

I can then move the note to Helpdesk - Closed. This will allow not only staff to keep a record of jobs completed but also allow me to create a record of what I do day to day. I'm going to get staff to start using this new 'helpdesk' from Monday morning and see how we go. If it works well and staff adopt the new set up well I'm getting the school to upgrade my account to Premium which will allow for more security features and higher storage and bandwidth.

I've had quite a productive day today. Along with all the technical and support issues I've been dealing with today I've also been getting all the admin side of my job sorted after what has been a very hectic couple of weeks.  I love evernote and have used it for a little while now. I've spent some time today getting all my evernote ducks in a row. Getting all quotes imported into it, pictures, notes and emails. I'm back to knowing where everything is again and what everything means.

I don't like not knowing where things are. I also don't like not being able to answer things straight away. With Evernote I have it on my computer, laptop, iPad and phone. I always have the information I need, where  ever I am.

I've also started using Boxer today. It is an email client which connects to my work Gmail account. It allows me to export emails very easily, just a couple of taps, to my evernote account. This is helpful for archiving emails which contain information I know I'm going to want to come back to. Leaving them in my inbox means they will get lost very quickly as I get around 30 -40 emails a day or more in a busy buying period.

I don't use Boxer as my main client but i just use it to pick out the emails I want to put into Evernote. For my full time email client I still use Gmail as it does everything I need and want it to do.

This blog post is just showing the path I took. Please don't take this to be the definitive guide. If anything goes wrong with your system it's not my fault :-)

Also, appologies if it's a little difficult to understand in places, I've had to do bits and bobs around other jobs so I couldn't take the time to format it the way I'd have liked.

I started using Meraki to manage our first lot of iPads, about 6 months ago. It worked well but we ran into two issues. The first one was deploying our profiles. We have our internet provided by YHGfL or Yorkshire and Humber Grid for Learning. They blocked certain aspects of Meraki so whilst I could set the iPads up on the Meraki Dashboard when they were in school, any settings that were deployed didn't take affect until the iapds were connected to unfiltered internet, in our case teachers homes. This proved to be abit of a problem because it was hard to tell if they had applied properly and not all staff connected their ipads to un filtered internet. After speaking to YHGfL they have opened ports up to allow the Meraki MDM to talk to the Ipads in school. Now as soon as a device is enrolled onto the dashboard the settings and restrictions are deployed and take affect.

The second problem didn't stop us from using the system it was just abit of a disappointment. There is an option to view the last GPS location of the Ipads. This is the last time the ipad checked in with meraki. However I found out, once we started using the system that for the GPS location to work you need to have the meraki management app installed on the devices. Not a problem as it's free and takes two minutes to install. The problem is that in order to send the GPS information to Meraki the app has to have been opened. This means that in the event of theft you are relying on the theif to open the meraki app in order for it to relay GPS information to us.

After signing up for Meraki and logging in the first thing to do is create push certificate from Apple. To do this browse to Organization > settings and then scroll down to IOS Mobile device management. Click on Update/ renew certificate.

The click on Meraki_Apple_CSR.csr to download it to your PC. Then click on Apple Push Certificate portal to go to the apple portal where you need to upload your Meraki_Apple_CSR.csr file. Once you have uploaded yoru file you will be asked to download the apple certificate. Do that, then back on the Meraki settings page just upload your new apple certificate and type in the user ID you used to download it.

Next it's time to create a profile for your iPads. I have created just one upto now for the staff iPads. I will create more when the student ipads are ready to be rolled out. You can find the profiles sections by navigating to MDM> Profiles. Click on Add New and give your new profile a name and description.

Once you have finished click on Save Changes at the bottom of the scree and then navigate to Settings, still under MDM section. This will allow you to specify restrcitions and settings for your ipads.

Once you have modified all the settings for your new profile you are ready to add devices to the dashboard. To do this go to MDM> Add Devices.

You will see there are two ways to do this. You can use the network ID code or a QR Code. I haven't used the QR code method so I can't comment on how it works. I use the Network ID Code. To do this follow these steps on your Ipad.

Open Safari and type in m.meraki.com. A webpage will open asking for your network ID. Type in the network ID which is quoted on your Add devices page. After a few moments the iPad will ask you to install the new profile. Tap Install then tap install again on the next screen. When it's done it will tell you the new profile is installed. You can double check this by going to Settings, general and profiles on the ipad. If you dont have any filters blocking meraki you should start to see any settings you created take affect with in a few moments.

Once you have done that go back to the Meraki Dashboard and goto Monitor > Clients and you will see your new device pop up. Chances are it will be called IOSDevice if it's a clean install. To change the name click on the green name and change it in the settings that pop up.

Your device is now enrolled on the meraki MDM system. In my next post I'll talk about VPP and deploying apps. I'll also talk about pushing out new profile settings or re-installing profiles from the Meraki Dashboard.

I'm in a somewhat reflective mood today. I, as alot of other techies do, moan from time to time about work load, lack of pay, users, technology and other things that irritate us but I just want to take 5 minutes to actually take a look at my current job and mention how lucky I am. Ok, money isn't as high as I could get in the private sector but considering how little pressure there is in education compared to our corporate buddies I think I get paid quite well for what I do. Having said that I do still work hard for my pennies looking after what is a very large and rapidly progressing school.

A network Manager I used to work for, some years ago now, once told me that his ideal role would be where he woke up one morning, in the server room, after a frantic night of tweaking and fixing, with Pizza stuck to his face. Now, whilst I don't need to be in here all night fixing anything I believe I've got about as close to that as you can get, in schools. As many who have read my blog before probably know the servers are housed in my office in a rack. My choice. The servers needed to be somewhere secure and I wanted out of my current office so moving into a bigger place with my 'babies' ( yes I do love my servers) seemed like the best Idea.  Now, sitting at my desk I can see my servers, blinking and chugging away, and I can tweak them, test things and tinker to my hearts content.

Since starting here I have been thrown head long into stuff that I've never had chance to do in other roles or at least not on the same scale. I now have 5 servers all running various roles. I'd never used SCCM2012 before working here, I now have that running quite nicely, even if I do need to get images on there still, but it looks after Endpoint Protection and updates just fine.  I've installed, configured and administer Symantec Backup exec 2012 which I'd never had chance to use before as my previous employers used windows backup and usb hard disks. * Shudders at the thought* I'm currently working with alot of ipads and setting up Apple MDM solutions and  VPP licensing for them. I have been involved in creating a new network infrastructure, upgrading from copper to fibre , new managed wireless solutions, door access systems, administering volume licensing.

The school is a different place to when I started. Both the level of ICT provision has gone up but also the level of support the school gets has gone up. Since being here I've been able to completely set this school up, from scratch, the way I want to set it up and I've enjoyed every minute of it. I'm currently sat in my office, blinds drawn, I've only had 1 member of staff come with a support job, all day, I'm working between imaging laptops, setting up the Apple MDM solution and working on tweaking KMS activations. My music is on and loud and I'm have the freedom to lose my self to my geeky side.

Don't get me wrong, there are times when I'm up against it and stuff needs doing urgently, where things fail that I have to sort but I love that too because it's a buzz to work against the clock, to fix things that have failed and continue to make this school run well and support the hard working staff in delivering an excellent school experience to the kids.

Right, that's enough of that now. I shall go back to moaning again. Oh and tidying my office, it needs it, again.

Happy New Year. It's the start of 2014 and I'm back at work. I have to say, I'm really pleased with my first day back. Not had one issue. All the servers were up and running when I arrived and no one had any problem getting onto the system and cracking on. The only issue I've had to deal with this morning has been a whiteboard issue which originated before the Chrsitmas Holidays.

Another reason for me to be happy is I have a new toy to play with. I have a new Ultrabook. I recently purchased an ulta small form factor PC, for my desk, from Very PC. I also needed something for use at home and around the school. I have ordered new iPad Airs to repace the staff iPads and as I also had an iPad 4 I was going to get myself and Air. However, I quickly realised that I could do much more with a windows laptop than I could with an ipad, therfore making me far more efficient. The only problem being that it was difficult to find a laptop which was small and portable enough to use around school for the same price as an iPad.

This is where Very PC came in. After being very impressed with my Broadleaf one USFF PC I decided to have a look at their Ultrabooks. I managed to get a very nice, very light and quite nippy Ultrabook for the same price as an iPad air.

Spec:

Intel Pentium Dual Core Mobile Processor 997U HD4000 2 x 1.60Ghz.

13.3" Glossy HD LED Widescreen 1366x768 with 1.3Mp Webcam

8Gb RAM

120Gb SSD Hard Disk

3 in 1 Card Reader

3 Year Warranty

It's a joy to use. I'm currently running Windows 8.1 Enterprise on it and it flies. With upto 7 hours of battery life it's proving to be very useful around school and allows me to do everything I can do, at my desk, from anywhere in school.

I have found this ultrabook to be far more efficient than an ipad. I can get far more done especially when working with documents. I can also play on Minecraft whilst I'm at home, which is always a bonus :-)

A few months ago, when we had our last big SIMS update, I had an issue where the client machines couldn't update when the teachers logged on and tried to use SIMS. I got round this by creating a GPO, attaching it to the computers OU, where it set the teachers as Local Admins. Left it on whilst the sims update was rolled out and then took it off afterwards.

Well, last Friday I updated SIMS once again. I set the same GPO onto the teacher computers and expected everyone to be able to update sims as normal on Monday. Alas, this was not the case. I should have expected it really. Nothing ever works correctly twice in a row.

I have had to go round and let the update run under the admin account, thank god for user switching, whilst I work out why the GPO didn't apply properly. A very kind follower on twitter, who goes by the handle: @BaconMcSandwich told me about the files I need to edit security on in order for this to work without the need for the GPO. I am going to look into this.

My New machine has arrived. I've set my desk up to be a little more productive.

For those that don't know I've bought a new Windows PC so I can work with Virtual machines. I've give my mac up, it's now in the ICT Suite being used for video editing.

My new PC is a Very-PC custom built Small Form Factor ( SFF). It's an all alluminium case which can be laser etched with pretty much anything you want.  It has a 4th Gen i7 Intel CPU, 16Gb of RAM, 1Tb hard disk, running Windows 8.1 Enterprise 64Bit.  It flies :-)

It's ideal for use with virtual machines. I want to set up mulitple virtual machines not only to test settings and applications but also test backups and server baremetal and system state restores.

I also have a second machine on my desk, an older Fujitsu machine, running Windows 8.1 Enterprise, 64Bit. 3Gb RAM 500Gb Hard disk.

I use the second machine for email, web surfing, reading, writing etc.. and my main rig for virtual work and more resource hungry tasks.

I also have my iPad set up, between the two monitors as a quick browsing and reading station aswel as Spotify and Netflix, iPlayer etc.. I have a blue tooth keyboard for the iPad too so i can write on it if I choose to.

I have two 1Tb external hard disk which are used for backup. One is taken home each night. Finally, to finish it off I have a APC USP battery backup. a CS650. It powers my two machines only. Here are some pictures:

Our new photo copiers have been in for a few weeks now and are working really well. However there has been one lingering problem with I've finally sorted out, today.

We have authorisation and account track set up on the copiers. This means that each user has a username and password set up on the copiers. These usernames are the same as the network usernames. For example jbloggs username on computers, jbloggs username on copier.

When staff come to print, from their domained computers, the username field is already filled in as it pulls it from the user profile logged on. They just have to put the password in . Great. However, for local user laptops ( staff laptops) the usernames are completely different. Joe Bloggs instead of jbloggs. This means when ever staff print from their laptops they have to change their username every time. Not a massive thing but it has been causing problems for a few staff.

Today, I managed to find where you change the setting to default to the correct username.

This has only been proven to work on Konica Minolta C654e copiers under our setup. It's not guaranteed to work elsewhere.

Right click on the printer, and go to Printer Properties.

CLick on Printer Preferences.

Click on Basic Tab.

Click on Account Track button

As most of you will be aware OS X Mavericks was released a few days ago and it's completely free. I have a 2009 Macbook and after upgrading to Mavericks I could instantly see the difference. It made me think though, that I could probably boost it some more.

It has a Dual Core processor and 3Gb of Ram. It had a 160Gb Sata Hard disk. I have just replaced this with a 128Gb SSD Drive. I'm now installing Mavericks from Scratch and starting again. I'm expecting it to be very nippy indeed, for the spec at least.

Something I like about Apple kit, it just seems to go for ever. This is a 2009 Macbook and it's still going strong. I've just looked on Amazon and Ebay and they are still going for £350. Not bad at all for a 4 year old laptop.

I've got Mavericks installed on my mac, at work and I love it. One feature, which is only a small feature but something I love. Tags. To tag files in finder so you can find all files related to those certain tags. Brilliant.

One of my older Fujitsu Siemens desktops has just died. It's about 4 years old now so just out of warranty. Fans spin up but nothing else, doesn't reach Post, doesn't do anything. Tried everything I can think of to breath life back into it. I think it's the Board that's died.

As I’ve already posted about, I have changed our IP Range on our network. One of the devices that needed a new address is our NAS box. This holds all our backups.

I’ve changed the IP address on the NAS. This was a painless job. However, it’s not just as simple as pointing Backup Exec to the new IP address. You have to delete the NAS storage device from Backup exec and re-create it. Always a little nerve wracking even when you know it’s not going to delete the backup files.

Well after a further 30 minutes of trying various things I have finally got the door controllers back online.Despite changing the IP address of the individual controllers and restarting the Net2 server, as instructed, the controllers still weren't responding. I finally realised the problem. Even though I put the IP address in, clicked apply and restarted the server it seems you have to go to a 2nd tab and click apply again before the changes will take affect. This 2nd tab is called TCP/IP advanced. Nothing is changed in this section but you have to click apply here before it will work.

The controllers are now back on. However we have developed another problem. The Business Manager, the person who will be dealing with setting users up and making changes, couldn't see any indication, from their console, that we had tested the fire alarm on Friday. However 3 doors were set to always open because of the fire alarm. If you can't see the alarm has gone off, from the console, then you can't reset the doors.

Well, I've come in this morning to change the IP addresses of the door controllers. Not something that I should have to do, as it should have been done last week by our supplier, but they haven't done it and we need to have operational doors before the kids arrive. Safe Guarding comes before everything else. Arguments about who should have done what can wait until afterwards.

I'm currently changing the IP addresses of the controllers. Supposedly a simple and straight forward process except that I have now changed the IP addresses but the controllers still aren't responding. I've gone through all the settings and nothing else seems to need changing.. Nothing is ever simple.