Model Overview What does an OSX network look like in a DET school? There are many different options available when setting up a managed network in a school environment. During 2003 a number of schools throughout NSW were trial sites for the DET Technology Support Project. Many other schools have now been setup in a similar fashion to the trial schools. The information on this page provides a brief overview this setup. This information is far from comprehensive, nor is it intended to be prescriptive.     Hopefully the information contained on this page will help others understand the model which has been used, and which is continuing to be successfully refined as the model is "rolled out" across the state. Welcome to your new Server (559k - pdf) An overview provided to schools when their new Mac OS X Server is installed.         Network Requirements What you need before you start! A managed network describes a network where users' access to files on the local workstation, access to files on the network, as well as their desktop environment, is "managed" by the server, from the time they login to the network.   To successfully deploy a fully managed Mac OSX environment, your network infrastructure must provide nothing less than sound, certified, 100Mb bandwidth to all workstations. Ideally your server will have a 1Gb connection to the network campus distributor.       Server Setup What does the OSX server look like? Your OSX server is setup as an Open Directory Master. Users are identified in the directory by a username and ID number, based on a combination of their cohort year of enrolment and their school OASIS number. Students maintain this relationship with their cohort enrolent group, rather than a class group, throughout their time at the school, negating the need for a time-consuming end-of-year "rollover". Dennis Ross developed the xSUIM tool to import users from OASIS to the OSX server Directory, using the above crtieria. Your server has at least two drives - separating the core operating system, directory and services from the volume used to store users' data files. This improves server performance and simplifies the data backup process. In some instances the server has multiple drives which are setup using RAID to provide redundancy in the case of drive failure.   Your server has been setup to provide a variety of network services - Open Directory, AFP, DHCP, DNS, LDAP, NetBoot/NetRestore, Printing, Web and Windows services. The data volume provides separate folders for the storage of student and staff Home folders, again based on the year of cohort enrolment at the school. Larger secondary schools have taken this a step further by splitting their server over three different machines - one for directory authentication and network services, with user files spread over separate drives on the other two machines. Schools with a significant number of Windows workstations can set their server to provide access to these workstations either as either as a Workgroup member or as a Domain Controller. The server also provides a Netboot/Netrestore service, enabling multiple workstations to be completely re-imaged in around 10 minutes.       Client Access What do users see when they use the network? When a user sits at a network computer they are unable to access the desktop until they login. They are presented with either a list of names, from which they choose their own name, or a text-entry box for their username and password. Once logged in, students have read-only access to the files on the local workstation, and read-write access to their Home folder on the server. Users' home folders provide the usual OSX sub-folders, including Movies, Pictures, Music and Sites.   User access to various functions is "managed" on the basis of the users' designated workgroup. When saving documents, the default location (in most apps) is the user's Documents folder, within their own Home folder, on the server. Each user is able to access their Home folder, including their iPhoto Library, iTunes library and their Documents and Web Site folders, from any computer on the network. All users have access to common workgroup areas on the server for the completion of collaborative project work.       Intranet Organisation Electronic publishing in your school. Each user has, by default, their own web site. This site is accessible using a web browser by other users on the network at: http://servername/~username/ Students and staff members edit their web page by opening their Home folder and navigating to the index.html file in their Sites folder.   Once their work is saved, it is immediately available for others to browse. You can view an example school intranet, which provides an example of the template that has been distributed to DET schools using the standard "model".       Workstation Maintenance Providing a standard network interface across your school. The Netboot/Netrestore process provides a simple way for a network administrator to rebuild/re-image computers on a network. The OSX operating system has built-in re-imaging software as part of the Disk Utility application. Schools use the NetRestore utilities, in combination with the OSX NetBoot process to re-image network computers.   An "ideal" computer is setup and then "imaged" using utility software. This resulting disk image is stored as a file on the server. Multiple images can be stored for use by different faculties, or to suit different client configurations. One of the stored images is the "original" DET image. Workstations can boot from the server (by holding down the N key at bootup) and users are presented with a screen providing options for rebuilding the workstation.
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