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Reddit’s r_k12sysadmin Credits: @r_channels @reddit2telegram
Building management software? Need a simple solution for teachers to be able to reserve a gymnasium building.
We have a newly built gym in its own building and are looking for a simple solution for teachers (and possibly others) to be able to reserve the use of it.
This can be for during school hours by the P.E. coaches, and possibly renting it out for use to local YMCA (for instance) for practices and possibly games our school is participating in during the weekend, or other schools organizations that need game space as well.
Full size basketball court, box office, concessions, bleachers, scoreboard, audio system, bathrooms, small simple locker rooms (with lockers). There is also a 2nd floor that that has three rooms (2 are big enough to have 12-15 student desks, 1 more could fit about 20-25 student desks).
What online solution is available for reserving, approving, adding set up times, managing a few assets that might be needed (scorers table, scorers chairs, spectrum scoring device use, concessions, etc)? I expect that about four people will be monitoring and managing/approving these requests for the gym.
https://redd.it/1b355u3
@r_k12sysadmin
Switch from VMWare to Hyper-V or Proxmox?
I'm a public K12 with about 3000 students running VMware ESXi Ent+ with vCenter Standard (5 servers, 7 sockets, about 85 Windows, Linux, guests with a few appliances from Cisco and some other vendors). iSCSI storage (Compellent), HA, DRS, no vSAN, no Aria, no hybrid cloud.
Well, I got my renewal quote from Broadcom today to the tune of a 500% increase. Well, they can Eff right off with that one. I'm going to be moving hypervisors and while Hyper-V comes immediately to mind, I'm also interested in Proxmox.
I've been a VMWare admin for 15 years and have only used Hyper-V in a single server setup. Does anyone have any advice, experience, stories to share about their move from VMWare to either Hyper-V or Proxmox. I'm have extensive experience with both Windows and Debian.
Proxmox looks very enticing (especially their backup server), and I would definitely purchase an enterprise support agreement.
Edit: spelling
https://redd.it/1b376b6
@r_k12sysadmin
Intermittent network issues reaching iCloud/Apple - Mosyle and Palo Alto
Looking for some suggestions. We're seeing some devices have issues connecting on our network to icloud.com. When we try to sign the users into the app store, it just spins and spins. We're not getting any block pages on Safari, just a timeout. There are no rules being triggered in the Palo Alto logs when I monitor the device's IP address. The most recent change was adding DNS filtering on Mosyle. There don't appear to be any blocks coming from there though. I turned off private Wi-Fi address under the wireless profile just in case. If anyone has any suggestions or troubleshooting steps I missed, I'd love to hear them. Thanks! P.S. - Naturally when one of the techs connected at home it worked with no issues.
https://redd.it/1b31lf9
@r_k12sysadmin
Adding "this message is from a student" to the body of an email (Google)
For our student OU, I want to prepend to the BODY of the message "This message was sent from a student at my school".
I've seen where you can add a footer or prepend to the subject. I don't like either of those options. Prepending to the subject just makes the subject super long and will just clutter up recipients' inboxes. Many people don't read the footer so I don't think that would be effective.
Is there any way to add this to a message through content compliance or something else? I've done a lot of searching and have been unsuccessful, so it may not be possible, but I haven't given up yet.
https://redd.it/1b2j76w
@r_k12sysadmin
Backpack recommendations
Hi all,
My backpack is on it's last legs and I'm looking for a new one. It's a Swiss Gear bag -- feature wise close to the 1271 model. I've always liked the covert side pocket where the laptop goes. 13" fits in there horizontally.
I'm thinking of getting a similar model but wondered what the hive mind thinks or if there's other models that are good for our line of work.
Thanks!
https://redd.it/1b2bf0a
@r_k12sysadmin
Itopia Review?
Has anyone here used itopia and have any feedback they'd be willing to share? On the surface it looks interesting but the price seems too good to be true compared to Azure or AWS.
https://redd.it/1b283c1
@r_k12sysadmin
Bigleaf SD-WAN?
Anyone here using Bigleaf for SD-WAN? We are looking at them for LTE/5G internet failover backup/IPsec Tunnel backup.
https://redd.it/1b25t2p
@r_k12sysadmin
DLP or Data Classification products
Did a search and didn't see anything recent. Anyone in the group using a 3rd party DLP or Data Classification suite? I have looked into Varonis and Data Guardian already. Purview is lacking, and I want better tools to see and control data.
https://redd.it/1b1mumu
@r_k12sysadmin
Network Tester/Toner
Anyone have a great cable tester and toner? I've use Flukein the past and it was easy to use. Thanks for your input
https://redd.it/1b1gus2
@r_k12sysadmin
Google Docs Offline
Anyone else having issues with Google Docs Offline and having the message that admin has blocked this item? Its not blocked. In the admin console, google workspace/drive and docs/featured applications, Allow users to enable offline access is selected. Any direction is appreciated.
https://redd.it/1b1fwq7
@r_k12sysadmin
SFTP Server Recommendations for Schools?
Hello all! I am tackling the task of adopting new data systems for my school. Looking forward at the vendors we're choosing, it looks like I'm going to have to set up an SFTP server for a daily data sync. If anyone has any recommendations on a provider, I'd love to hear them. We're an all-Apple environment, and I believe macOS also has a built-in feature to turn on an SFTP, but I don't know enough to know if that would be sufficient for my environment. Any recommendations anyone has would be so, so appreciated.
https://redd.it/1b1bwle
@r_k12sysadmin
Has anyone taken over school photo day (and all that comes with it?)
Our school photographer ghosted the head of school. No idea what her deal is but now it falls into my lap.
If you've done this. Just wondering what site you have used. I am a shade tree photographer, the profits will go to me... we are a small school of 80 students...
https://redd.it/1b0i8ds
@r_k12sysadmin
Dell 3110 (2-in-1) 4GB Problems
Good Afternoon fellow K12 Tech Departments.
Our district is currently having a problem with a lot of our 3110's we bought the summer of 22'. We have had a influx of CB's getting really hot and won't turn on, due to the CB's being fanless we're writing it off as a bad motherboard that has a faulty component.
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I'm reaching out to see if anyone else has had this problem or if we just rarely got a bad batch of chromebooks. Sadly they're out of warranty so we've been buying replacement boards through where we get our CB parts.
https://redd.it/1b0riu3
@r_k12sysadmin
Episode 155 - Outside Looking In
The majority of this episode is spent talking with Eric the Intern from K12TechPro. He left the K12 world recently and went to private industry. A few weeks ago, he wrote an article for K12TechPro with his observations about K12 technology now that he is on the outside looking in.
https://k12techtalkpodcast.com/e/episode-155-outsidelooking-in/ and on all major podcast platforms.
https://redd.it/1b0mmfi
@r_k12sysadmin
Renaissance Outage?
Anyone else experiencing this? I'm in North Texas and I can't even log in as admin.
https://redd.it/1b0j6pt
@r_k12sysadmin
Moving away from AD
We are looking to move away from AD. I’ve been looking into jumpcloud as an option.
I was wondering if anyone has worked with jumpcloud before how do you like it & any upside or downsides you’ve run into?
Would also appreciate any other alternatives you would recommend looking into?
Thank you
https://redd.it/1b3686g
@r_k12sysadmin
Seeking model policy: MS Students to buy managed chromebook from school, get it unmanaged when they leave
Request: Do you require families to purchase a device from your district or an approved vendor that you manage until the student leaves? If so, I would like to look at your policy as a recommendation for a school I work with.
Background: I am working with a school that is BYOD in the middle school. These devices aren't managed. We introduced Deledao filtering and Hapara monitoring; not only are students able to subvert these but their parents are also upset that we push extensions out to their personal devices. I'm updating the policies to reflect that we can do this for now. Ultimately for the incoming 6th graders I'd like to move towards a more managed environment.
TIA!
Al
https://redd.it/1b35uyl
@r_k12sysadmin
BellCommander compatible network AMP
We use BellCommander to control out bell system. It does this by sending network audio to our Barix IP to audio converters which then connect to a regular AMP which then outputs to 100 volt speakers (pretty sure they are 100 volt).
We have a couple of AMPs that have multiple speaker strings attached to them which services multiple classroom blocks. Because of this we don't have any find grain control over modifying a particular string of speakers without impacting the entire AMP i.e. we can't reschedule the bells just for block 1 as block 2 and block 3 are on the same AMP and so the Barix unit and AMP combo is all or nothing.
Is anyone using BellCommander with a network AMP that would allow us to control multiple outputs on a single AMP independently of one another? The current alternative is multiple AMPs with multiple Barix units which is not the most ideal solution but would work.
​
https://redd.it/1b2o6af
@r_k12sysadmin
Deploying Intune - first time struggles
Hey guys,
​
Currently deploying Entra ID and Intune at our school, we're just learning as we go and obviously running into issues left and right.
We finally were able to deploy to a device using a provisioning package but we ran into an issue - licensing.
Most of our devices are equipped with Windows 10/11 Home (which intune isn't compatible with) so we upgraded to Windows 10/11 Pro using a default activation key when setting up the provisioning package and then letting intune upgrade it from that to Windows Enterprise Edition which comes with our A3 licenses.
Now our test device is saying the license isn't activated and is restricting some user features.
​
My question is: Have any of you dealt with this before? Do we HAVE to buy pro licenses for all devices that currently have Windows Home Edition installed or is there another way to activate?
https://redd.it/1b2h6b3
@r_k12sysadmin
Chromebook setting for Colorblind students
This is the first request I've had from the administration about configuring a Chromebook to work for a colorblind student. Typically the color-inversion which is Google's new term for High-Contrast mode has worked in the past. That shortcut is still Control Search H.
This isn't working for this particular student so I was wondering if there were any other methods. We of course have settings blocked for students so getting to the color correction setting could be difficult since it isn't included in the accessibility menu but I can create an OU to allow those students if necessary and that's the only option.
I didn't know if there was any good Chromestore extension that has been useful or another built in control that I didn't know of.
Thank you for your assistance
https://redd.it/1b299qq
@r_k12sysadmin
Issues with Email Delivery to Gmail?
Hi everyone, this issue just popped up for us yesterday, and there's a lot of really weird parts going on with it.
The issue comes from the fact that some of the emails that are sent out of our domain to someone with a Gmail address, are being bounced back with a status of "blocked", and that there is a failure of authentication with both SPF and DKIM. There are a few things that doesn't make any sense in this situation as far as I can tell:
1. I myself set up our SPF, DKIM, and DMARC rules in Google a year ago, and they've been working great all year until yesterday.
2. Only some emails bound to Gmail addresses will get the bounce back. Any time I've tried emailing my personal Gmail account from in domain, it goes through fine and looking at the raw headers shows a pass for all three checks.
3. We've found that often if we try resending the email to the same address, it'll go through. If not the second, then the third time. Why would the authentication check only sometimes fail for the same gmail account?
I've had a case open with Google Support for 17 hours, with a priority set to high. I haven't gotten any response from them yet.
I've also signed up and verified our domain to utilize postmaster.google.com . When I looked at it yesterday and checked the history of authenticated traffic from our domain over the last 120 days, we were at or near 100% success throughout that whole time... right until yesterday (same day I was looking at it) where it dropped off a cliff, and the percentages were reported back at 0.0% success. The weirdest part? I logged back into PostMaster today to see if there were any changes to the success percentage, and I no longer see logging from the 27th or today, the 28th. It cuts off at the 26th. Looking at the graph at first glance you'd think we were sitting perfect, because it's no longer showing the day we had 0.0% success (yesterday). It almost looks like Google is trying to hide them having an issue.
Has anyone else been having issues with this the past couple days? For clarification, we use Gmail in our district. So we're seeing an issue of going from Gmail to Gmail. The lack of overall attention this is getting makes me feel like I've been taking crazy pills.
https://redd.it/1b26pax
@r_k12sysadmin
Minecraft Education on iPads - can't host
Students are using Minecraft Education on iPads. When they try to host, other students can join but then they usually get kicked out within a few moments.
Any ideas? We're using Ubiquiti for Wi-Fi.
https://redd.it/1b1tcbo
@r_k12sysadmin
Driftnet
Has anyone heard of Driftnet (https://www.driftnet.com/solutions/k-12-solutions)?
I was asked to look into them by my Director to see if we could utilize grant money to purchase their system. I did a demo and it looks interesting, but something just doesn't feel right.
I'm suspicious for many reasons, one of which is that it's actually too cheap. They gave a price with coverage of our entire building with their sensors for $14k/yr.
https://redd.it/1b1khl3
@r_k12sysadmin
Google Credential Provider for Windows
Anyone using it? What has been your experience?
We're looking to corral logins behind something to give us MFA for windows logins, but we're a Google centric district and already use Google for a lot of SSO and this seems like it would work.
I haven't started down the hybrid join route yet, so debating whether to do that, or stay on prem if GCPW works ok.
Thanks
https://redd.it/1b1dsl1
@r_k12sysadmin
Microsoft Office 2019
Pushed updates this past weekend for Office 2019 amongst other things, and we now have endusers experiencing what's show in the video in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint when right clicking and selecting virtualy any of the available options. I'm using Alt+F4 to get rid of the bubble so they can continue to use the software they're in, but that's obviously not a fix.
Anyone else out there seen anything like this?
https://redd.it/1b1efvf
@r_k12sysadmin
Slow Chromebook startup with Clever
Hi,
I'm stumped! Newish Chromebooks running 117. Upon opening the lids, it takes a while for Clever to load. I mean a LONG while. Great WiFi speeds based on SpeedTest. AP on the ceiling right above students. I'm talking 25 Chromebooks. Not hundreds being used at once.
The only thing I can think of is a device setting - Erase all local user data - which is set for our elementary students. Middle School devices do not seem to have this loading issue. They also don't use Clever. I read that Erase all local user data limits the storage of the device by almost half.
Hive mind - please help.
​
https://redd.it/1b11h7n
@r_k12sysadmin
Classroom camera for short-term e-learning
We have a student who will be home for a few weeks for medical reasons but still expected to "attend" class daily. Most of our teachers can handle the tech side, but we have a handful who are using the whole whiteboard for each lecture. We have webcams, but they don't really fit this use case. Can you recommend any budget-friendly cameras that could be mounted on a tripod in the front row and zoom as needed? (Also, why did an iPhone just flash into my mind as I wrote this?)
Open to alternatives here too. The faster, the better. This student is already at home, twiddling her thumbs, so we're playing catch-up.
https://redd.it/1b0hxg7
@r_k12sysadmin
Who do you use for interactive panels?
We have 100% ViewSonic interactive panels for every classroom. It appears they have a life span of just about 5 years according to all the failures this year we have had. We have lost close to 10 with soundboards dying, a few with bad power supplies, and 1 with a bad backlight.
I am open to a new brand if this keeps up. Promethean has been at a few of our conferences and they seem nice. Are there any others you would recommend?
https://redd.it/1b0msk6
@r_k12sysadmin
Promo Code for K12TechPro West Meetup in San Diego on April 19th
Take on some k12 tech dept professional development and hang out with the K12TechPro and k12sysadmin Community in San Diego!
Use promo code K12SYSADMIN77 for a discounted ticket.
Registration, full details, and agenda are here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/k12techpro-west-meetup-embassy-suites-by-hilton-san-diego-bay-downtown-tickets-777905926567?aff=oddtdtcreator
https://redd.it/1b0mg3q
@r_k12sysadmin
AV suggestions -soon to be former Kaspersky shop
We're being forced by the state (Florida) to switch our AV from Kaspersky. Within the next seven days. And now we're looking at our options for ~1000 Windows stations and 15 servers. We have 2k KES licenses for 3 years for $30k.
We're looking at SentinelOne, Sophos, ThreatDown, and CrowdStrike right now. But, we don't have time to do demos with everyone.
So, what's everyone using and how do you like it? If you don't mind, what's your rough pricing?
https://redd.it/1b0jxec
@r_k12sysadmin