Question : Problem: School Server

I asked this question several months ago, but now the equipment is in and we are ready to get set up.  We have acquired four servers and many, many slimline computers.  We have a lab with just over 20 ready to hookup, an office which will house four units, a wireless network, and 12 classrooms around the grounds which will house one unit each.  Where do I start?  The servers are hooked up to one terminal.  I understand, I think, that I can load programs and software into the servers via the main terminal and use these programs on any units around the school.  I suppose the servers need to be wired into the network, and the units into the servers, and we are good to go.  BUT I want to make sure I'm doing this correctly.  We received a ton of CAT5, hubs (single, double, multi-port), and other assorted wires and components.  Also, do we really need all four servers running?  Help, please, I think I must be in way over my head!

Answer : Problem: School Server

Hi,

If you are a non-profit UK based organisation there is an institute that may be able to help. Basically there's a network of volunteers who work in the IT industry who offer to do free work in the UK for charities and non-profit organisations:

http://www.it4communities.org.uk/it4c/index.jsp

I signed up a while back with a colleague who also uses this account to volunteer, but we haven't have anyone interested in us yet, despite us having a fair bit of experience and qualifications, so there are bound to be people in the same boat waiting to help you.

The problem with your question is that it's basically a massive reply. So for instance, for installing on servers you're going to have to know a minimum about RAID disk sets, though in your scenario if you have two or more disks in the servers you'll probably be better just sticking to RAID 1 mirror sets so that you've still got a network in the event of a hard disk failure.

Then you've got things like AD if you want to have a network users can log on to, DNS, DHCP, etc, etc.

And while you can run Apps from a central location, most of them will want to use terminal services to run, and that road will be pretty costly in a windows environment.

Sorry to be so negative, I honestly think you'd be either better off splitting what you want to do into lots of questions. It will make it much easier for people to answer, and with my experience of this Site, you'll get a much clearer explanation than you find in books or MS Website.

Good luck!

Ian

PS If you're in the Somerset region of UK then you may be able to get a few volunteers to help already!