Monday, November 26, 2012
Blevins
I spent the day at Blevin school district today. We worked on a couple of things. We reinstalled the operating system on one laptop, worked on a few issues on the server, and installed new time clock software. After we installed the new time clock software, we created a group policy to push out the shortcut to the desktop. That works great for Windows 7 machines, but windows XP machines are not as easy. So, we decided to just hit every single room and verify that the shortcut copied or we created shortcuts for the xp users.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Thursday, November 15
Today, I spent today working on several issues in the morning. One, a users icons moved around on the desktop so we set them back to write. Another user needed help with some backup software. Bakup software failed, but I realized that the problem is the flash drive. The flash drive will only format ass fat 32. Because her back up is larger than four gigs, That 32 will not support her back up using that software. I will find another solution.
Most of the day was spent in the area technology Cordinator meeting. We discussed various things such as erate, common core state standards and the IT technology readiness survey, various applications for monitoring desktop software, and other useful utilities.
During lunch, we discussed several topics including new distance-learning equipment, and a co-op wide data backup program.
The discussion regarding the co-op ride back up data program continued want to return to the office. A group of us sat around and discussed the feasibility of rolling out off-site backup storage solution for each of the schools in the co-op area. We think now is the time to start looking at rolling out such a program.
I plan to contact one of the local fiber providers, in order to find out what it would take to set up a co-op wide system. The plan is to have storage facilities at the co-op, and provide connectivity to each of the schools so that they can do off-site backups to our facility. Ultimately, the program would expand to include other services provided by the co-op. The number one concern of course is going to be the cost out to the member districts who wish to put dissipate. Jeff Madlock had a great idea. He suggested that once we determine the overall cost the cost will then be divided out by the number Of students in the co-op area. Then, each district would participate based on their student enrollment. We believe this will be the most fair way to approach sharing the cost of data storage services. We will call in one of the vendor providers and have a discussion. Once we have that set up, and we have a better feel for costs, connectivity, and rollouts, we will have a meeting with the superintendents and see how they feel about the project.
It is possible that once this project is rolled out, other schools around the state could also piggyback in based on their student enrollment if they wish. Again, depending on costs, we may also look at providing redundant offsite backup services. This means that the co-op would take the back ups that they receive and send them off-site to a storage facility either in Missouri, Tennessee, or somewhere similar.
After the meeting, I was called into the early childhood office in order to help troubleshoot a data problem on a flash drive. Turns out, the flash drive was fine but the computer into which the drive had been plugged had gone bonkers. That's a technical term!
I got the computer back up and running I believe. In the meantime, I had managed to salvage seven of the 14 corrupted files. As it turned out, four of the files that were corrupted actually existed on another computer. Therefore there were only three documents that were truly unrecoverable. After talking with the user of the bunkered computer, it turns out that those were the three files but that user was working on after the computer had started acting up.
Most of the day was spent in the area technology Cordinator meeting. We discussed various things such as erate, common core state standards and the IT technology readiness survey, various applications for monitoring desktop software, and other useful utilities.
During lunch, we discussed several topics including new distance-learning equipment, and a co-op wide data backup program.
The discussion regarding the co-op ride back up data program continued want to return to the office. A group of us sat around and discussed the feasibility of rolling out off-site backup storage solution for each of the schools in the co-op area. We think now is the time to start looking at rolling out such a program.
I plan to contact one of the local fiber providers, in order to find out what it would take to set up a co-op wide system. The plan is to have storage facilities at the co-op, and provide connectivity to each of the schools so that they can do off-site backups to our facility. Ultimately, the program would expand to include other services provided by the co-op. The number one concern of course is going to be the cost out to the member districts who wish to put dissipate. Jeff Madlock had a great idea. He suggested that once we determine the overall cost the cost will then be divided out by the number Of students in the co-op area. Then, each district would participate based on their student enrollment. We believe this will be the most fair way to approach sharing the cost of data storage services. We will call in one of the vendor providers and have a discussion. Once we have that set up, and we have a better feel for costs, connectivity, and rollouts, we will have a meeting with the superintendents and see how they feel about the project.
It is possible that once this project is rolled out, other schools around the state could also piggyback in based on their student enrollment if they wish. Again, depending on costs, we may also look at providing redundant offsite backup services. This means that the co-op would take the back ups that they receive and send them off-site to a storage facility either in Missouri, Tennessee, or somewhere similar.
After the meeting, I was called into the early childhood office in order to help troubleshoot a data problem on a flash drive. Turns out, the flash drive was fine but the computer into which the drive had been plugged had gone bonkers. That's a technical term!
I got the computer back up and running I believe. In the meantime, I had managed to salvage seven of the 14 corrupted files. As it turned out, four of the files that were corrupted actually existed on another computer. Therefore there were only three documents that were truly unrecoverable. After talking with the user of the bunkered computer, it turns out that those were the three files but that user was working on after the computer had started acting up.
Wednesday, November 14
I took my son and several of his friends up to a college in Conway for their open house day. I was out of the office.
Tuesday at Bradley
On Tuesday, I spent the day at Bradley Schools. I worked with their technology coordinator to get files off of the superintendents old hard drives and install them on his new computer. It took a little bit of work, because the adapter I have requires an IDE drive to be set in master only mode.
We also worked on a couple of computers and knocked out several of the work orders that she had stacked up.
We also worked on a couple of computers and knocked out several of the work orders that she had stacked up.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Monday, November 12
Spent the better part of the day at Blevins troubleshooting network issues. We found one switch that it been plugged back into itself, so that one was good to find.
As we walked around trying to find another loopback, we found other issues to troubleshoot and fix.
For example, one users laptop would not connect wirelessly. Turns out, the Wi-Fi adapter would go to sleep on the computer did but it would not wake up. I set the Wi-Fi card not to go to sleep.
In other cases, users I could not connect needed to have new ends put on their network wires.
In the main server closet, we unplugged and re-plugged the media converters trying to find the second loopback. Unfortunately, we were not able to find it. I think we may have to try again after everyone is off-campus. I am convinced there is still a loop in the system. However, taking the first Loopout really improved network connectivity so we called it a day.
I have moved my visit to the Bradley campus until Tuesday. I will spend the rest of the afternoon, from about 130 until four, working on things at the main building.
As we walked around trying to find another loopback, we found other issues to troubleshoot and fix.
For example, one users laptop would not connect wirelessly. Turns out, the Wi-Fi adapter would go to sleep on the computer did but it would not wake up. I set the Wi-Fi card not to go to sleep.
In other cases, users I could not connect needed to have new ends put on their network wires.
In the main server closet, we unplugged and re-plugged the media converters trying to find the second loopback. Unfortunately, we were not able to find it. I think we may have to try again after everyone is off-campus. I am convinced there is still a loop in the system. However, taking the first Loopout really improved network connectivity so we called it a day.
I have moved my visit to the Bradley campus until Tuesday. I will spend the rest of the afternoon, from about 130 until four, working on things at the main building.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Back in the Swing
I haven't posted here in quite a while. I have been running around, helping schools, working on co-op related items, and generally keeping VERY busy. I am going to start recording here again, though I have been keeping up with my daily visits etc in my co-op calendar.
I appreciate anyone who is still following along, or may start now that this site will pick back up again.
Most recently, I was at Blevins to help set up student logins. There will be some growing pains, I'm sure! But, we were able to get the students set up, put into appropriate groups, and assign permissions.
Just prior to that, I was at Bradley to help set up new computers in their distance learning labs and troubleshoot various issues around the district.
In-house, I have been working on a couple projects that will come to light around Christmas break. I am pretty excited about them!
More to come as I get back into the swing of posting my daily log here again.
I appreciate anyone who is still following along, or may start now that this site will pick back up again.
Most recently, I was at Blevins to help set up student logins. There will be some growing pains, I'm sure! But, we were able to get the students set up, put into appropriate groups, and assign permissions.
Just prior to that, I was at Bradley to help set up new computers in their distance learning labs and troubleshoot various issues around the district.
In-house, I have been working on a couple projects that will come to light around Christmas break. I am pretty excited about them!
More to come as I get back into the swing of posting my daily log here again.
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