Home folder migration complete

The migration of home folders and shared folders to the new server is complete, and the drive mappings were changed on Monday, July 4. When logging in on Tuesday (or Monday evening for that matter), your drive mappings point to the new location. Hopefully you didn't notice anything different.

The migration of user profiles to the new SAN will occur in the near future, and will happen overnight. We'll give you a heads up so that you can be sure to log out before it happens, to make sure that everything copies over correctly.

Server migration status update

The migration to new Active Directory servers is underway. You should now use your new password for most services that require your OSD password. This includes email, Google Apps, IT helpdesk, etc.

You will still need to use your old (Novell) password to access Skyward for the time being. We are working with Skyward to change their LDAP authentication configuration. 

We are joining district computers to the Active Directory domain, but this is a time-consuming process, as we have to configure every computer manually. Until we are finished, you can determine which password to use to log in to a computer by looking at the login screen. If it has a Novell login window, use your old Novell login. If it does not have a Novell login window, press Ctrl-Alt-Del and enter your new password. 

Email will automatically go to Gmail soon

There is a slight delay in making the DNS changes necessary to make mail sent to xyz@oregon.k12.wi.us arrive in your Gmail Inbox. This should not have any effect on most staff, who have already configured Gmail to check GroupWise mail via POP.

If you are one of the people who has not configured Gmail to check your GroupWise mail (meaning that you still have to manually check both inboxes), this means that, for a couple more days, you'll have to continue checking both.

We'll provide more status updates when we make the actual DNS record changes.

New email system coming Summer 2009

After a year of evaluation and testing, we have decided to migrate the district email system from GroupWise to Google Apps' Gmail. The cutover will occur in July 2009, but we are announcing it now so that everyone has time to make the transition. We will be providing documentation and training sessions from February to June so that everyone has a chance to begin using Gmail prior to the switch.

Between now and July, both GroupWise and Gmail will be fully active and supported, so you can continue using GroupWise, switch to Gmail, or even use both at the same time until you are comfortable with Gmail. We will provide lots of training sessions this spring and again in August to make sure that everyone can use the new system. And don't worry about your old mail- we will move all the messages in your GroupWise cabinet to Gmail.

In case you are curious, a few of the reasons we are switching include:
-seamless integration with shared calendars;
-it saves money; Google Apps Gmail is free, unlike GroupWise;
-more features;
-integration with Google Docs to share documents;
-better support for mobile devices like smartphones, iPhones, and Blackberries;
-integrated spam and virus protection;
-guaranteed 99.99% uptime;
-more storage space for mail;
-easier to search for old messages.

I realize that this, like any change, may cause some concern. I have been using Gmail instead of Groupwise for almost a year now, and although it did take a little time to grow accustomed to a new system, it works much better. We are committed to providing you with training and support to make this a smooth transition. If you have any specific questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me directly.

Tech office moving later this week

The IT department office will be under construction beginning July 23 and ending (hopefully) July 25. During that time, we will still respond to phone and email, but we may be physically relocated to a nearby meeting room. Just in case you need to find us.

Delays with server migration

We ran into some issues with the server migrations. Netmail is done. The fibre-channel cards for the old servers did not work in the new servers, so we had to buy new ones. Ouch, they were pricey. Now, we are having trouble getting them to work properly with the Linux host OS. They came with a driver disc, and it seemed to install, but isn't recognized for some reason.
We are postponing the remaining server migrations until we figure that out. Also, we will get some consultant help to assist with migrating the email servers to a new VLAN (and therefore new IP address) to get them off the management VLAN. It's a best practice thing.