Electronics in the wiring closet

Just a few thoughts about switches and other electronics in your school wiring closets based on a district discussion I recently had:

* Check your environmental conditions - I know that some of you may not be able to immediately fix some of these problems, but it needs to be in your plans somewhere. If your wiring closet doubles as custodial storage, watch for the trend to use switches as a shelf for chemicals, etc. Some wiring racks double as a coat rack, which kills any hope of adequate ventilation. Switches today are more dense and, while it's a great space-saver, it makes proper ventilation an even more important requirement. In some cases, it isn't a coat covering the vents on a switch or server; rather, it's a thick layer of dust. Much like straightening up your patch cables, cleaning out dust on switching electronics is one of those tasks that always seems to wait until a better time. Too much dust can equal no ventilation and no ventilation can lead to equipment failure, which leads me to...

* Check your temperature - Most of these network electronics prefer a cooler temperature than would a human occupant. Nevertheless, there are countless closets where no dedicated cooling is in place. This is particularly important in data centers where racks full of network components and servers may be installed. This is the time of year where a lack of dedicated cooling can really harm a school district. Why? The school's HVAC system is heating the rest of the building and, in some cases, it's actually heating the wiring closet or data center. In some cases, the effect is seen immediately. Servers today can (and will) shut themselves down if sensors indicate that the environment is too warm. Other components like switches and routers may not fail immediately, but these components will have a shorter lifespan if regularly exposed to excessive heat. Also, don't forget about these electronics that may be left on while a cooling unit is shut down (for summer break, for example).

* Check your battery backup - Honestly, the bigger issue in many cases is that some outlying wiring closets don't even have battery backups for switches and network electronics. For those that do, I've heard many reports on UPS devices failing quite often. The UPS battery is seen as a money pit. Why do they fail so often? If the environment is too hot, the UPS can be significantly degraded. In fact, according to this APC white paper, some batteries experience a 50% reduction in life for every 14.4 degree temperature increase over optimum, which is about 77 degrees. This paper also discusses the number of discharges and the rate of charging as factors in UPS life. There's some good info in the white paper. The bottom line is to understand that proper battery backups are needed but that their life is impacted by the same factors as other network electronics.

At any rate, this was on my mind after meeting with a school district this week. Hope it's of some interest - take care!

ADManager Plus

Just a quick note to mention a product called ADManager Plus. John McMillen shared this product with our regional group today and gives a detailed review of his experiences with the product in his blog.

ADManager Plus is simply a tool for Active Directory management, assisting technicians with template-based user creation and mass creation, editing, etc of accounts. It's a tool to make your technicians' lives easier.

In general, I would state that this is an area where many technology staffs could use some improvement. School districts invest in so many instructional packages for their students and teachers. Ideally, this should increase knowledge and make better use of everyone's time. The same logic needs to be applied to an IT software toolkit. Often, the tech staff is so focused on saving money and living on a shoestring budget that they may not even consider investing in a tool like this.

Products like this are a reminder to occasionally evaluate the tasks that consume the majority of your time and search the landscape for products to make those tasks easier.

Common Craft

I'm not sure if you can make use of this service but, if not, you can at minimum take some of the spirit from Common Craft in your own creation of instructional content.

Common Craft is a simple and interesting concept. They take certain relatively complex subjects and create videos of roughly three minutes to explain this concept. It sounds simple enough, but it's obvious that a good bit of time and effort resulted in each of these productions. You can view their content online and can purchase individual or site licenses to use these videos in your own environment.

Their topics include technology items such as cloud computing and Twitter search. (As an aside, the cloud computing video might be a very good way to explain hosted email and other services to your teachers and staff.) There are also money concepts like borrowing and saving money and social concepts like the process of electing our President.

...and what video library would be complete without knowing how to deal with a zombie attack. :)

Cybersafety for Parents and Kids

A good instructional video posted by the KY Attorney General's office. Some good overall cybersafety tips and facts in this video: