Server advice needed

Rannoch

Rannoch

Rannoch

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Rannoch
Hi Guys

Schools old server is Windows server 2008 32-bit with 4GB ram.

There's about 50 users, all kids. They have access to 15 Windows 10 PCs that connect to the server. No more than 20 users are connected to the server at one time. I would like them to be able to access their documents from any of the Windows 10 machines in the IT room, folder redirection stopped working recently.

Is a new server the way forward?
 
Vargas said:
Hi Guys

Schools old server is Windows server 2008 32-bit with 4GB ram.

There's about 50 users, all kids. They have access to 15 Windows 10 PCs that connect to the server. No more than 20 users are connected to the server at one time. I would like them to be able to access their documents from any of the Windows 10 machines in the IT room, folder redirection stopped working recently.

Is a new server the way forward?
Click to expand...
How have you reached that conclusion ?

Have you checked the error logs ?
 
I wouldn't be replacing the server because folder redirection has stopped working, that strikes me as a fixable problem. I would be looking for a repalcement system becuase Server 2008 is out of support in January.

If it's just for fileshares then do as @Mujja suggests and look into something cloud based - supporting a server onsite for such a small environment just isn't worth it in most instances.
 
Little_Crow said:
I wouldn't be replacing the server because folder redirection has stopped working, that strikes me as a fixable problem. I would be looking for a repalcement system becuase Server 2008 is out of support in January.
Click to expand...

This. If budget allows you might look into a full refresh to a fully locked-down setup: PCs that simply boot over the network to a Terminal Server session on a much-enhanced server. A fully locked-down setup will make things much easier for you. This sort of thing is Microsoft's bread and butter.
 
Start by fixing the immediate problem, it should be relatively simple, then sit down and look at what you have. The only useful thing ‘Windows Server 2008 32-Bit with 4GB RAM’ tells me is it’s EoL soon and you probably aren’t really the best choice of person to be dealing with this as you clearly aren’t aware of what information was relevant to your question. Surely as a school you have either a competent IT supplier on support contract, or someone on staff who’s qualified/capable of dealing with this or the local LEA offers centralised services/facilities?
 
Is this a school or what not?
Seriously get someone qualified and experienced to do this. I have seen many a primary and secondary school shambles before and its no where near what should be ran.
this aint a dig at you but just a point that it needs doing right.
 
In a school, i'd be surprised if you'd be allowed to have anything relating to kids data ( whether personal identifiable information or not ) to be stored outwith the local authority's control. So that would likely rule out the likes of a OneDrive / Google setup. Thats going by the experience my wife has as a depute head in a primary. The local authority are quite locked down on what you can do with their machines and setups.

And then there is budget ... schools these days just dont have big budgets and going by the location put on the OP and then mention of 50 pupils, i'm guessing the school is out in the sticks a bit and so IT help is not just around the corner. As much as some people think there should be masses of support and infrastructure put into it (which absolutely does have its place in some businesses), dont be surprised that in a school, there isn't.

i.e. there may be an aspect of the OP having to do it himself.

There does need to be a bit more information though ... i.e. how do you want/expect the setup to work?

How do pupils log in at the moment ? My experience from my wife's primary school is that machines have a generic 'pupil' login account that they all use. Do your pupils have individual logins or a shared pupil login?

Is the server just there to hold seperate pupil folders for each of the pupils to access ?
 
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Donnie Fisher said:
In a school, i'd be surprised if you'd be allowed to have anything relating to kids data ( whether personal identifiable information or not ) to be stored outwith the local authority's control. So that would likely rule out the likes of a OneDrive / Google setup.
Click to expand...

My child's school and college use Google Suite and another local college uses Office 365. The University I work at offers both, Google Drive and One Drive. The data is encrypted.
 
Actually I suppose so, you're right, my wife's laptop has o365 via the glow portal - but thats teachers and staff. My point was more about just creating your own online account and using it for the pupils if you know what I mean - the local authority would want control over it.
 
You’re correct, but the O365 path is well trodden in the educational sector, my 11 y/o is enrolled via her secondary school, admittedly it’s under the secondary school account, but that’s managed locally without direct input from the LEA.
 
I'd wipe all those workstations and install CloudReady on them (basically turns them into ChromeBooks) and use Google Suite. As much as I hate Google, the fact that ChromeOS doesn't get viruses, is completely locked down by default, is lightning fast, and has very little management overhead, while at the same time removes any dependency on local infrastructure, seems like such a no-brainer to me. My kids' school uses them extensively, and it's lovely to see the number of things the kids come up with on those laptops (they have *actual* ChromeBooks).

https://www.neverware.com/#intro
 
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