Quite a bit has been happening since my last post...the main items of interest have been:
1) Wireless network issues. Even after our HP engineer had "fixed" the wireless network, we were still having trouble with the coverage not being consistent, and we found that we couldn't connect to some access points. However, once these were reset (by disabling / enabling PoE to the switch ports) they often - but not always - returned to normal operation. Obviously, with 500+ wireless clients, this was far from an ideal scenario.
A quick email to my HP ProCurve Business Development Manager saw our issues get escalated to engineers in Singapore. Whilst there were a few communication difficulties, largely the guys in Singapore (and our engineers in Aus) were more than helpful, and managed to get our problems sorted after a few days.
There were some other configuration issues with our APs, but the most benefit was when we disabled Automatic Power Control, and set each 802.11n radio to transmit at maximum power (20 dBm).
The next step was to "break" the inherited configuration of some of our APs (those with external antennae - ie those pointing outside) and configure them to use the external antennae, rather than the internal ones. This has improved our network coverage in some of our targeted outside areas.
Now I need to "tune" the 802.11g network to ensure optimum coverage throughout the campus. Given that this network will be used heavily by students with iPod Touches, and students bringing their own laptops to school, it is important that this network is available everywhere. By and large, this tuning will simply be a case of changing transmission power levels...with the odd change of channel thrown in for good measure.
2) A new IT Staff member. Finally! 3 years after an extra person was recommended by some eLearning consultants, the College is employing an additional IT Technician to help with our workload. Primarily, we hope that our new addition will assist with the support of staff laptops, including basic "how to" type training issues. Applications close in a couple of days...lets hope we get some quality applicants. Let's also hope that I can come up with some decent interview questions so that we can identify the best candidate!
3) Learning Management System (Studywiz). It's taken me nearly 2 weeks to get some basic info out of Studywiz support in preparation for the move to 3 servers. There have been some issues with Studywiz over the past few months....with the former company going into receivership, and a "management buyout". Needless to say, these goings-on don't inspire a lot of confidence in the product...particularly when we have paid up-front for 3 years "Premium" support!
4) Video Delivery System. We have completed the installation of our QuickTime Streaming Server, and Library staff are beginning to test it, and copy videos to it. We had some encoding issues...where copying a .REC file from our PVR to an MPEG movie would take 3x the length of the program to convert....but it seems that if we DON'T record in 16:9 high definition, this problem goes away. So, we're experimenting with 4:3 video....and conversion time is about real-time...much more acceptable.
5) Database Development. I seem to be less of an IT Manager these days, and more of a database administrator / developer. So far this year, some of the things I have done are:
a) re-written the detentions system within our Student Records database - in less than 2 days!
b) began writing an asset register database for our Accounts Office (depreciation, asset acquisition / disposal, etc)
c) scripted the import of 1500+ staff and student photos into our Student Records database
d) modified the Fees database to charge music fees over a 9-month cycle (was 8-months)
e) create a system that allows music tutors to send SMS messages to parents when students miss music tuition
I still have plenty of development to do....not least of which is to create a system where 2 teachers can edit report data for a subject (currently is restricted to a single teacher).
Once our new staff member is on deck, I hope to have more time to devote to other projects, such as:
- Investigation of VOIP
- Planning for our new Year 9 campus in 2011
- Mailing list management - enabling staff to manage their own "mailman" lists
- Cleaning up my desk!
- Lots more that I can't think of right now!!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
A new project...and a new blog
This week I commenced the iPod Touch Pilot Project. This project is probably big enough to have it's own blog...so here it is.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Settling in to a new school year
Well, all staff and students are back at school for another year. For the most part, things have gone smoothly (ish). Our one big issue was the wireless network - more about that later!
Some slight hiccups with creating new student accounts...turns out that we couldn't just import the same data that we could in previous years. After several fruitless attempts to import data from text files, we decided to purchase "Passenger" software (designed for just this purpose). Only problem with Passenger was that we couldn't get it to import the passwords for new users. Thankfully we had enough time (and a technician who didn't mind) to manually type the passwords for approximately 300 new users.
The rollover of Mathletics went OK, but we didn't get new usernames and passwords until after lunch on the first day of classes. Meant that a few maths classes couldn't use the program, but nothing major. The Maths faculty have now asked me to set up all year 7s and year 9s in QAX numeracy - another online system for doing NAPLAN-type testing. Hopefully the setup of this system will be finalised tomorrow (Monday 15th).
The upgrade of Studywiz to multiple servers hasn't progressed (my fault - too busy with other things). However, I have managed to get all teacher, student snd subject details into Studywiz without too much fuss. Given the fluid nature of students' subject choices at the start of the year, this is probably a process that will have to be re-done a few times. Must remind myself to do this first thing tomorrow morning!
I had a chat to one of our Deputy Principals on Friday (12th Feb) about the detentions system in our Student Records database. The College has a new Leadership structure, and they want to streamline the way detentions are done. They've given me until 2:30 on Monday to re-define the database tables and re-write all the scripting - this should be fun! Not!!
Our biggest headache so far has been the new wireless network. When installed, Shane (the HP engineer) and I walked the entire campus, and verified that the 802.11n coverage was pretty good. However, during the following week (1-5 February) when all staff were back, things starting falling apart pretty quickly. I was called in to the office at about 2:30pm on Friday the 5th (a day of annual leave), and spent until 11:45pm working with Shane (over the phone) working through the issues. The main symptoms were that we couldn't see any 802.11n networks (even though the controllers indicated the network was up), and that the controller itself became unresponsive, when logged in to the management interface.
At about 4:00pm on the Friday, Shane did a "factory reset" on the wireless controller, and began re-building it from scratch. Things were going OK until Shane enabled MAC address filtering (MAC auth) - suddenly the wireless controller started misbehaving, and becoming unresponsive to its management interface. Luckily, Shane was in contact with HP engineers in the US, who had also identified a Layer 2 transport issue, which would affect the beaconing of our wireless networks. It wasn't too long before a new version of the controller software was downloaded and installed. Shane continued working after I left (via VPN), and by about 3:00am we (supposedly) had a working wireless system. One of our techs went in to the College over the weekend to verify that everything was OK.
However, on Monday 8th Feb, when I arrived at work I still couldn't see 802.11n networks in some areas of the College. This was occurring in areas that we could previously see the network. It was almost like we had some kind of virus...was our wireless network infected with swine flu? Or, more appropriately dubbed by me, HPN1 (HP network, "n" networking on Radio 1)!!
Then, last Thursday, Shane found the specs for Apple's AirPort Extreme Base Station. Included was the information that in the 5GHz band, "Channels 1-13, 36-64, and 149-165 approved for use in Australia, Hong Kong, and New Zealand". We wondered whether the same limitation applied to Apple's AirPort cards...a quick confirmation from an Apple engineer seemed to confirm this. We also found some information from Cisco that these were the only channels allowed in Australia, however some info from the Australian Communications and Media Authority seemed to indicate that channels 100-140 (which are used by our APs) can be used in Australia, but only if using Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) - which our APs do. So, looks like the Apple wireless cards don't support the full range of channels in use by the APs - a situation we managed to verify by changing the channels on some of our APs.
So, the channels between 100 and 140 have been removed from the allowed list of channels for our APs, and they have had the entire weekend to re-adjust their power and channel settings. Fingers crossed that everything looks OK tomorrow!
Last, but not least...management has given us the approval to employ some additional help for a while. We couldn't find anybody at short notice, so we have arranged to hire one of the techs from our reseller for up to 40 hours. Hopefully, this will help clear some of the backlog!
Some slight hiccups with creating new student accounts...turns out that we couldn't just import the same data that we could in previous years. After several fruitless attempts to import data from text files, we decided to purchase "Passenger" software (designed for just this purpose). Only problem with Passenger was that we couldn't get it to import the passwords for new users. Thankfully we had enough time (and a technician who didn't mind) to manually type the passwords for approximately 300 new users.
The rollover of Mathletics went OK, but we didn't get new usernames and passwords until after lunch on the first day of classes. Meant that a few maths classes couldn't use the program, but nothing major. The Maths faculty have now asked me to set up all year 7s and year 9s in QAX numeracy - another online system for doing NAPLAN-type testing. Hopefully the setup of this system will be finalised tomorrow (Monday 15th).
The upgrade of Studywiz to multiple servers hasn't progressed (my fault - too busy with other things). However, I have managed to get all teacher, student snd subject details into Studywiz without too much fuss. Given the fluid nature of students' subject choices at the start of the year, this is probably a process that will have to be re-done a few times. Must remind myself to do this first thing tomorrow morning!
I had a chat to one of our Deputy Principals on Friday (12th Feb) about the detentions system in our Student Records database. The College has a new Leadership structure, and they want to streamline the way detentions are done. They've given me until 2:30 on Monday to re-define the database tables and re-write all the scripting - this should be fun! Not!!
Our biggest headache so far has been the new wireless network. When installed, Shane (the HP engineer) and I walked the entire campus, and verified that the 802.11n coverage was pretty good. However, during the following week (1-5 February) when all staff were back, things starting falling apart pretty quickly. I was called in to the office at about 2:30pm on Friday the 5th (a day of annual leave), and spent until 11:45pm working with Shane (over the phone) working through the issues. The main symptoms were that we couldn't see any 802.11n networks (even though the controllers indicated the network was up), and that the controller itself became unresponsive, when logged in to the management interface.
At about 4:00pm on the Friday, Shane did a "factory reset" on the wireless controller, and began re-building it from scratch. Things were going OK until Shane enabled MAC address filtering (MAC auth) - suddenly the wireless controller started misbehaving, and becoming unresponsive to its management interface. Luckily, Shane was in contact with HP engineers in the US, who had also identified a Layer 2 transport issue, which would affect the beaconing of our wireless networks. It wasn't too long before a new version of the controller software was downloaded and installed. Shane continued working after I left (via VPN), and by about 3:00am we (supposedly) had a working wireless system. One of our techs went in to the College over the weekend to verify that everything was OK.
However, on Monday 8th Feb, when I arrived at work I still couldn't see 802.11n networks in some areas of the College. This was occurring in areas that we could previously see the network. It was almost like we had some kind of virus...was our wireless network infected with swine flu? Or, more appropriately dubbed by me, HPN1 (HP network, "n" networking on Radio 1)!!
Then, last Thursday, Shane found the specs for Apple's AirPort Extreme Base Station. Included was the information that in the 5GHz band, "Channels 1-13, 36-64, and 149-165 approved for use in Australia, Hong Kong, and New Zealand". We wondered whether the same limitation applied to Apple's AirPort cards...a quick confirmation from an Apple engineer seemed to confirm this. We also found some information from Cisco that these were the only channels allowed in Australia, however some info from the Australian Communications and Media Authority seemed to indicate that channels 100-140 (which are used by our APs) can be used in Australia, but only if using Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) - which our APs do. So, looks like the Apple wireless cards don't support the full range of channels in use by the APs - a situation we managed to verify by changing the channels on some of our APs.
So, the channels between 100 and 140 have been removed from the allowed list of channels for our APs, and they have had the entire weekend to re-adjust their power and channel settings. Fingers crossed that everything looks OK tomorrow!
Last, but not least...management has given us the approval to employ some additional help for a while. We couldn't find anybody at short notice, so we have arranged to hire one of the techs from our reseller for up to 40 hours. Hopefully, this will help clear some of the backlog!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
A new school year is upon us
Tomorrow is Monday, 1st February 2010. This date signals the return to work of all our teaching staff, and the realisation that our few weeks of peace and quiet are well and truly over!
Quite a bit has happened since my last post...here is a quick run-down:
We finalised the 2010 budget and spent lots of money! For our money we got:
* 80 staff laptops
* 162 new student laptops
* 3 new Xserves
* 1 new Windows Server (Library)
* RAM upgrades for 170-odd computers
* 6 new laser printers
* New software site licences (Mac OS X 10.6, FileMaker Pro, iLife and Adobe Creative Suite 4)
* A new wireless network
...and the associated bits n' pieces to make it all work. We didn't end up purchasing a 4th year of warranty for our computers...it was waaaaay too expensive. Instead, we've "retired" some desktops to use as spares, and purchased additional laptops to give us enough spares for the student fleet.
Our migration to Google apps has stalled...due to difficulties in synchronising our Open Directory (LDAP) with Google accounts. It's simply not worth it if we have to maintain 2 different sets of usernames and passwords. However, we have done some tinkering with our email server in an effort to make it more stable...fingers crossed.
We have managed to set up a QuickTime streaming server in conjunction with the 3 PVRs we purchased at the end of 2009. We will probably allow some staff to access this service (so we can test thoroughly) before unleashing it upon the masses.
During the last week or so, a network engineer from HP has been with us setting up our new wireless networks. We have upgraded to HP ProCurve's MSM422 access points, and 765zl controllers (which plug into our core switches). We have currently set up 61 new access points, and for the most part, our coverage looks pretty good. Since the vast majority of our client machines have 802.11n capable wireless cards, we have concentrated on the "n" deployment throughout the College, with a "g" network offering thin coverage for non-"n" clients.
There will be some tweaking to be done, with some access points to move, a couple to add, and we are waiting on some antennae which will improve our outdoor coverage. Once this is all done, we will get our resellers in to do a "post-implementation survey" to verify the network coverage.
Just before Shane (our HP engineer) arrived, I managed to bring down about half the network. I was "simply" configuring some new edge switches in the network, when I gave one of them an MST (Multi-Instance Spanning Tree) priority of "0", not "10" - 1 character can make a whole load of difference!
Nett result of this action was that the new edge switch saw itself as root of our MST implementation, rather than our core switch. Traffic was being sent to the wrong switch (and then dropped, because the switch didn't know what to do with it). Fortunately, with Shane's help, I managed to find / fix the problem.
After a bit of effort, it seems that I have had a win with the Principal's calendar. Until recently, we have been using Meeting Maker for his appointments. Problems began to arise when the Principal bought a new phone (an iMate Jazz) a couple of years ago. It simply wouldn't sync to a Mac, and it was clear that a better solution was needed.
About 12 months ago, I flagged the possibility of using iCal and synching to an iPhone. The Principal was happy for me to test this. We installed some workarounds so that Meeting Maker could sync to iCal, and then to his iPhone. This worked OK, but obviously not an ideal solution (I didn't want the Principal's PA to have to re-enter all appointments for the year...minimizing downtime was crucial!)
This issue came to a head during these holidays...the Principal was getting an upgraded laptop, and Meeting Maker will not run on the new machine. Being the end of the year means that it is the perfect time to make these major changes. So, last week I upgraded the (previously) Meeting Maker server to Mac OS X 10.6 server. After a couple of calls to Apple in Austin TX, I was finally able to configure iCal service, and publish some iCal calendars to the server. I also successfully tested delegation - which means I can control who can see (and modify) my online calendars. Last, but not least, was to deploy a new SOE on the Principal's PA's laptop, so she has the newest version of iCal. Tomorrow will be the day that this all works, or all falls in a heap (I'm confident that it'll be the first option!)
Of course, we still have quite a bit to do before students arrive back at the end of this week. First of these is to arrange the upgrade of our Learning Management System (Studywiz) server. We're going for a multi-server deployment to cope with increasing numbers of connections. We're also hoping to have the system automatically interrogate our student records database for all staff, student and subject changes. This should make administration much easier.
We also need to create accounts for new students. Hopefully (fingers crossed) this will just be a matter of importing a specially-prepared spreadsheet. Creating the accounts is the easy part...getting tutors to hand the password slips to students is the difficult bit!
While I'm setting up new accounts, I also need to roll over the users on our online Mathematics program (Mathletics). Again, a specially formatted spreadsheet should do the trick!
There are still some computers waiting for new homes:
* Several staff laptops (about 30-40)
* Library circulation desk PCs
* Laser printers
...this is before we get any support calls from staff. Looks like another busy week for the IT Department!
Quite a bit has happened since my last post...here is a quick run-down:
We finalised the 2010 budget and spent lots of money! For our money we got:
* 80 staff laptops
* 162 new student laptops
* 3 new Xserves
* 1 new Windows Server (Library)
* RAM upgrades for 170-odd computers
* 6 new laser printers
* New software site licences (Mac OS X 10.6, FileMaker Pro, iLife and Adobe Creative Suite 4)
* A new wireless network
...and the associated bits n' pieces to make it all work. We didn't end up purchasing a 4th year of warranty for our computers...it was waaaaay too expensive. Instead, we've "retired" some desktops to use as spares, and purchased additional laptops to give us enough spares for the student fleet.
Our migration to Google apps has stalled...due to difficulties in synchronising our Open Directory (LDAP) with Google accounts. It's simply not worth it if we have to maintain 2 different sets of usernames and passwords. However, we have done some tinkering with our email server in an effort to make it more stable...fingers crossed.
We have managed to set up a QuickTime streaming server in conjunction with the 3 PVRs we purchased at the end of 2009. We will probably allow some staff to access this service (so we can test thoroughly) before unleashing it upon the masses.
During the last week or so, a network engineer from HP has been with us setting up our new wireless networks. We have upgraded to HP ProCurve's MSM422 access points, and 765zl controllers (which plug into our core switches). We have currently set up 61 new access points, and for the most part, our coverage looks pretty good. Since the vast majority of our client machines have 802.11n capable wireless cards, we have concentrated on the "n" deployment throughout the College, with a "g" network offering thin coverage for non-"n" clients.
There will be some tweaking to be done, with some access points to move, a couple to add, and we are waiting on some antennae which will improve our outdoor coverage. Once this is all done, we will get our resellers in to do a "post-implementation survey" to verify the network coverage.
Just before Shane (our HP engineer) arrived, I managed to bring down about half the network. I was "simply" configuring some new edge switches in the network, when I gave one of them an MST (Multi-Instance Spanning Tree) priority of "0", not "10" - 1 character can make a whole load of difference!
Nett result of this action was that the new edge switch saw itself as root of our MST implementation, rather than our core switch. Traffic was being sent to the wrong switch (and then dropped, because the switch didn't know what to do with it). Fortunately, with Shane's help, I managed to find / fix the problem.
After a bit of effort, it seems that I have had a win with the Principal's calendar. Until recently, we have been using Meeting Maker for his appointments. Problems began to arise when the Principal bought a new phone (an iMate Jazz) a couple of years ago. It simply wouldn't sync to a Mac, and it was clear that a better solution was needed.
About 12 months ago, I flagged the possibility of using iCal and synching to an iPhone. The Principal was happy for me to test this. We installed some workarounds so that Meeting Maker could sync to iCal, and then to his iPhone. This worked OK, but obviously not an ideal solution (I didn't want the Principal's PA to have to re-enter all appointments for the year...minimizing downtime was crucial!)
This issue came to a head during these holidays...the Principal was getting an upgraded laptop, and Meeting Maker will not run on the new machine. Being the end of the year means that it is the perfect time to make these major changes. So, last week I upgraded the (previously) Meeting Maker server to Mac OS X 10.6 server. After a couple of calls to Apple in Austin TX, I was finally able to configure iCal service, and publish some iCal calendars to the server. I also successfully tested delegation - which means I can control who can see (and modify) my online calendars. Last, but not least, was to deploy a new SOE on the Principal's PA's laptop, so she has the newest version of iCal. Tomorrow will be the day that this all works, or all falls in a heap (I'm confident that it'll be the first option!)
Of course, we still have quite a bit to do before students arrive back at the end of this week. First of these is to arrange the upgrade of our Learning Management System (Studywiz) server. We're going for a multi-server deployment to cope with increasing numbers of connections. We're also hoping to have the system automatically interrogate our student records database for all staff, student and subject changes. This should make administration much easier.
We also need to create accounts for new students. Hopefully (fingers crossed) this will just be a matter of importing a specially-prepared spreadsheet. Creating the accounts is the easy part...getting tutors to hand the password slips to students is the difficult bit!
While I'm setting up new accounts, I also need to roll over the users on our online Mathematics program (Mathletics). Again, a specially formatted spreadsheet should do the trick!
There are still some computers waiting for new homes:
* Several staff laptops (about 30-40)
* Library circulation desk PCs
* Laser printers
...this is before we get any support calls from staff. Looks like another busy week for the IT Department!
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