TP#7

Thoughtful Problem #7:

The core mission of any school is to promote powerful learning through effective teaching. As technology director, you are responsible for systems that are directly related to this core mission of teaching and learning such as Internet access, student reporting and curriculum systems. You are also responsible for systems that relate to student safety, finance and personnel that are fundamental to running the institution on a daily basis. You are told that network-related issues, perhaps virus-related, are interrupting the operation of all major systems.

Which systems do you try to stabilize and restore to service first? Why? What systems might be your second priority? Which systems would have a lower priority. Answer in 3-5 paragraphs using systems that provide clear examples and choices (you don't need to discuss lots of enterprise or auxilliary systems).

Response

Every technology department should have a well defined and tested disaster recovery plan (DRP). As the tech director, it is your responsibility to make sure your organization's plan is well defined and updated as new technology is deployed. With this plan in hand, your response to this problem should already be scripted. Now, you must put your plan to work.

One of the most important part of the "recovery" section of a DRP is the systems analysis section. This analysis should show every system in the organization. In this analysis, each system is rated by its criticality to the organization. Included in the rating is an allowable downtime, ease of recovery and other conditions are recorded. This then becomes your recoverablility guideline.

Most importantly, the analysis needs to be realistic. Users of each system will always say their system is the most important. The analysis needs to be conducted without bias. In addition, realistic down times must be listed. If the email system is rated as having a downtime of 4 hours, then the appropriate resources must be in-place to support this. Otherwise, the plan is worthless.

Here is an example of a systems analysis:

In the time section, a six means less than 4 hours, a five is 4-6 hours, a four is 7-12 hours, a three is 13-24 hours, a two is 24-48 hours and a zero means there is no criticality to the system and Restoration can occur once all other systems are stable. According to this chart, my first system to get working would be my directory services, active directory. The other headings refer to the conditions that may impact recovery.

Active Directory makes sense as the first system because it is the system that allows users to log on to the network in general. If users cannot log in, all other systems are irrelevant. Once this system has become stable and users are able to log on, the next step would be to restore mail flow. This will allow the communications to begin flowing.

Many may think that a phone system is the most important system to recover first because the district is not reachable in an emergency. In reality, a quick phone call to the phone vendor and all incoming calls are routed to a cell phone or an analog phone that is separate from the district phone system. With this in-place, phones are "restored" before many even know there is an issue.

Once log on and mail flow are complete, you can begin to work on all of the other systems in the chart until all systems are stabilized. Without this type of plan, important time may be wasted just after the outage determining what to recover first.

Project Update

So far, I have provided several sections to our chapter.
Long range planning - with example
Documentation - with example
Replacement schedule - with example
12 Principals of GASB

I am currently working on the Needs Assessment, Draft, and Budget Account Samples. I should have additional posts by Saturday with these sections.

Thoughtfu Problem #6

Thoughtful Problem #6 background
Congratulations! You are the new Technology Director of a school district that has outsourced all technology support services in the past. You believe that your district needs its own technology department to address technology needs effectively and economically. The most expensive part of your department will be staff. Do a web search to see how other schools staff their technology departments. Find at websites that help you address the topic.
Thoughtful Problem #6 question
In three-to-five paragraphs, describe the jobs, tasks qualifications of the kinds of staff you will need. List no more than three websites you found helpful. (Alternative: you may choose a different aspect of maintenance and support using the same scenario.)

Response

In order to make an educational technology department self sufficient, you need several key positions. Depending on the size of the district, more than one person may hold any single position or one person may hold multiple positions. That being said, here are the critical positions:

Network Technician - The Network Technician is responsible for keeping the district network functional. This staff member should have a good amount of experience working with many different types of infrastructure hardware and should hold some industry certifications, such as Cisco Certified Network Professional. They must know switching and routing, firewalls, and intrusion detection. This position will most likely be you most expensive salary but it will be well worth it when you have a staff member that can diagnose network issues instantly.

Server Technician - The server Technician is responsible for maintaining all district servers. This staff member needs to be familiar with all operating systems in use across the district and should have an industry certification as well such as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer or Certified Netware Engineer. They should also be well versed with the hardware in place and may even hold a hardware certificate from specific vendors certifying they know the layout of the equipment. This staff member will most likely also be able to serve as a helping hand for the Network Technician.

Desktop Technician - Desktop Technicians are the grunt workers in an IT department. They are often responsible for hundreds of computers across a widespread area. Certifications for this position are not responsible however, the staff members should have an adequate amount of experience working on desktops. A good knowledge of desktop cloning is also preferred.

Database Technician - This position may not be required in all districts. Most district systems such as Grading, Student Information, Scheduling, etc. all rely on underlying databases. If the district has these products on site, it is important to have this position on staff. If they are all off site, it is less important. This staff member should be familiar with SQL and Oracle databases. They should be able to run queries and extract data when necessary. This person most likely holds a computer science degree.

These four positions will allow most technology departments to be self sufficient. There may still be an occasion where outside help is required however, that should be few and far between.

Websites
http://www.qcsd.org/21301081720118763/site/default.asp
http://www.beth.k12.pa.us/technology/it/staff.html
http://www.methacton.org/688090617141134/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=53352
*Also a good deal of this was taken from the structure I helped setup an Colonial School District

TP #5

Thoughtful Problem #5: You have been hired as a technology director for a school district that uses an operating system that is not your main area of expertise. Research the topic "imaging" or "cloning" to see how you might rapidly clone a new shipment of 500 laptops. Pay attention to cost, time and expertise. In three-to-five paragraphs, describe your options, why you chose the option you did, and what problems you may expect with that choice.

Response:

I have a good deal of experience with cloning Windows PC's and have been involved in cloning Linux systems as well. I have never been involved with cloning Mac equipment so I will choose this platform for my response.

Given the task of rapidly installing 500 new laptops, I would start by developing a project plan. I would assign all tasks to be completed to members of my staff along with acceptable time frames that need to be observed. The first and most important task is the image creation. I would immediately order/request a single unit that 100% matches the specs of the 500 to be shipped immediately. With any luck, this unit will be received at least one week prior to the full shipment. I would assign one staff member to build a clean image. An image creation checklist would be used to ensure the image was created according to the district specifications. The image would get built and a midpoint image would be taken. At that point, the unit would be passed off to someone else to verify. Once the verification was complete, changes were made if necessary and then the machine would be ready for a final image to be taken.

For this task, I would use two products together, NetInstall and Apple Software Restore. This solution is an Apple recommended solution. Using NetInstall, the custom image gets pushed out to each machine. From there, if additional changes are needed down the line, they can be sent using Apple Software Restore. By this I mean that if you needed to add PhotoShop to your image after the initial image was deployed, you could create a packaged install and distribute to all 500 units.

This option appears to be the best solution available for large scale imaging of Macs. The software is included with a OS X Server so assuming you have one on-site, there is no additional cost for the product. The interface is very easy to use for any technician that has Mac experience so that should not be an issue either. The main issue that may appear is the speed of pushing the image to the clients. I would recommend they be done in smaller groups of 20-25 machines at a time. At this rate, given an estimated imaging process of about 45 minutes per group, you are looking at almost 2 days to push the image out. From there, each machine will need a final inspection before final deployment. Overall, I would recommend at least two individuals for five days to finish the deployment process. Compared to doing each unit individually, the time savings is huge.