falling behind

This always happens when I try to keep a blog going. In completely random order:

- Added another print release station, on RMS "Staff" printer. Using G4 iMacs ("lamp" style) for this purpose since they're cute and have a small footprint. Now running 3 release stations, would be better with more licenses for the "real" release station client but the web release works OK.

- Got the Intermapper XServe going again. Not really sure why it went down in the first place. I went to do diagnostics on the disk, found nothing wrong, rebooted, and it's been fine ever since. Huh? Anyway, we're close to the 50-device limit and the SSL cert is out of date (probably the software too), so it keeps disconnecting while I'm working on the map. I've also forgotten a lot of the little tricks Fisher showed me, but I have notes somewhere.

- Added two drives to the RMS XServe RAID, expanding the 2nd RAID set to its maximum of 1.5TB. I think. Not sure if I have to reformat/repartition, which would be a pain. I'll give it overnight to finish thinking about itself or whatever.

- Scheduled AlertNow/Connect5 training for everyone@everywhere.com in December. I bet at least 1/3 will not make it.

- Helped RMS populate PS fields properly for new NH state reports. It's ugly, but workable.

- Attended several of MCS's after-school tech trainings.

- Attended Apple's fall tech update in Portsmouth. We're going to need a Bonjour gateway if we go full-bore with Apple TVs.

- Showed Carol at SAU how to do the permissions stuff I do in the NH DoE SSO system.

- Figured out how to enable duplex via web print (create a 2nd printer queue).

- Helped transition control of the Broadside website to a student (Conrad)

- Worked with a network consultant to figure out what it would take to not have to do two-headed DNS. Answer: Complicated. Need another interface on the router.

- Purchased gear for Ray network mini-upgrade. 10 new Airport Extreme base stations, 3 new GB core switches, 6 new GB desktop switches, a bunch of new Cat6 cabling. Planning to do installation today at 2pm with Steve. Ordered little Ikea wall shelves for the new APs but those won't get installed til after Thanksgiving due to shipping time.

- Helped Andrea at HHS with PowerSchool fees reporting stuff (can't do a custom SQL report against a field called "date", thanks PS!) Also helped with reporting/exporting on discipline log entries. Need to document this...special functions, search log entries, then export and you get a mini DDE against the log entries table.

- Upgraded PaperCut at both HHS and RMS.

- Redid the DNS setup at RMS. Separate notes with more detail but basically, the rmsmini is the DNS master, and nameserver slaves to it. They both forward to ns1 and ns2, and both resolve using themselves first. In the event of a fiber bypass, change both sets of forwarders to the Comcast IP addresses. ns1.dresden.us slaves the frms zone from the mini.

- In the process of transferring domains to NHVT.net. Eventually I plan to have them do all our external DNS; switch internal dresden.us SOA to the high school's Mac nameserver; switch internal sau70.org SOA to the SAU mini; replicate the RMS config at both MCS and Ray; and, hopefully, vastly simplify DNS management for my successor(s).

- Rebuilt felix after its boot drive failed; set up a CCC job to a second disk, as we're doing with PaperCut. Screw RAID.

- Rebuilt homer after one of its data drives failed and corrupted the other member of the RAID set;  set up a CCC job to a second disk, as we're doing with PaperCut and felix. Screw RAID all the way. Crashplan restore worked perfectly, and just in case of data loss from the day it went down, I did a full restore using Data Rescue II; but no students came forward complaining of lost info, so that was unnecessary. Nice to know that we technically lost zero data though.

- Fixed (?) the perpetually-jammed print queues at RMS with a script that unjams them. Makes no sense but seems to work.

- Put the January 2012 Chromium image on the library Dell netbooks for use by students to do basic Internet research and Google Docs. No printing, no cute stuff, hopefully easier to maintain for these limited tasks.

- Opened a case with Aruba regarding the connectivity problems on the RMS 6th grade floor. But Sam and I moved an AP up there and haven't heard of any more total cart failures since we did that, so, that might've been the fix. Closed the case with Aruba until or unless issues arise again. I also wonder if the DNS rearrangement on the servers helped stabilize things (maybe the APs were having trouble resolving the controller?) OR maybe now that Sam isn't doing much netbooting/imaging, the mini is less overloaded. We may never know. I've readied a 2nd mini server to take over DNS/DHCP if things get weird again.

- Figured out some reports for Deb at Ray re: attendance comments to help her with her ILI stats and such. The Custom Reports Bundle rocks.

- Put together preliminary budget numbers for the district-wide tech accounts. Added them up and they came within $170 of the current budget. woot.

- Processed several Apple quotes and orders for Marion Cross since Apple forgot how to not charge sales tax in VT.

- Coordinated two major recycling runs with Computer Recycling of Claremont. Probably close to a ton across all four schools.

- Put the "ipad student 1" etc. accounts in a local-email-only suborg to limit the potential for abuse via quasi-anonymous email.

- Attended a webinar on Hapara, an add-on to Google Apps that can give teachers "god rights" over students' data, makes it easy to organize shared docs across a class, etc. MCS might sign up for a section or two and see how it goes.

- Launched a Chromebook evaluation experiment with an RMS 8th grader to get some real-world feedback about its viability as a student device in a 1-1 scenario. Biggest potential pitfall I see thus far is printing. Lots of notes in the tech docs website about that.

- Patched PS gradebook server config to not break with new version of Java

- Met with nurses to discuss PS capabilities and limitations re: screenings, immunizations, and office visits. Got some stuff sorted out, other stuff will take a ReportWorks weenie with more skills than me. Updated the Big Enroll Form again to include a few more tweaks for their convenience.

- Redid the March Intensive signup system for 2013. Need some of the freshman web nerds to port that sucker to something more modern.

- Began process of porting HHS website to Google Sites. Still working out how best to handle the DNS/redirection.

- Set up Tyler Tech remote access to BudgetSense server via persistent Bomgar thingy so we don't have to punch a hole in the firewall anymore.

- Helped John and MCS get going with Mealtime for their lunch program. Mainly the PS export portion, John did the rest.

- Restored Ray and MCS connectivity due to massive power surge that killed several of our power strips/surge suppressors.

- Prepped network and machine guest access for RMS tech night.

- Did MCS tech faire with John & crew.

-  Computed shared cost stuff for PS, Internet connection, Microsoft Office, etc.

- Worked with John L and a talented freshman to arrange some projector/laptop theatrics for a play

- fixed many broken things

Enough for now.