4 ms·

Not sure where you are based, but here in the UK schools are rapidly gaining better uptimes. The biggest problem we see is miss-configured proxies playing havo

by xd 16y ago

Not sure where you are based, but here in the UK schools are rapidly gaining better uptimes. The biggest problem we see is miss-configured proxies playing havoc with https connections. I couldn't say what the average uptime is, but if a school network goes down we normally get an immediate call asking us if there is a problem our end because they use our system so heavily. So at a guess .. at least 98-99% for the majority of secondary schools, but don't quote me!

patio11 16y ago
They're only actually occupied for about ~30% of hours in the week during the school year, and the hours are usually fairly predictable, which gives one some advantages. For example, if you had a scheduled maintenance window for 5 hours a week every week starting at 2 AM on Sunday, that would blow 98% uptime but no actual user would ever know. (This has saved my bacon a few times, as 2 of the 3 outages of my software were outside of peak hours, so I could count inconvenienced customers on one hand.)
- xd 16y ago
  We use to find the holidays a massive advantage. But schools take some of their holidays on different weeks in different parts of the UK so as we expanded we effectively lost these maintenance windows. Also teachers/students/parents access the system from home so we have to keep it running 24/7.
- ZoFreX 16y ago
  Just because students are out doesn't mean the school isn't occupied! I used to work as a network admin at a boarding school, and there would usually be at least one "off-site" staff member working past midnight each day (and of course, on-site staff 24/7, although thankfully most of them sleep at night), as well as staff coming in at the weekend. Computers have become mission critical in schools now - lessons, paperwork, planning, organisation, telephones, intercoms, security cameras†, locks‡ were all computer-dependent. To date that school network is the most advanced, highest-uptime network I've ever worked on: two server rooms (network continues at almost full capacity with the loss of either) in separate locations and a backup server in a third location. Unplanned outages were basically non-existent, and the loss of any service was very rare and involved lots of people shouting at us :( † Internal only, external were still on tape ‡ I don't mean all the doors open if the network goes down, but the electronic locks were controlled over the network
  - elai 16y ago
    At one of the colleges I attended, they shutdown the school's course registration/student management system from midnight to about 7 am every day. It was incredibly frustrating at times.

by xd 16y ago

patio11 16y ago

They're only actually occupied for about ~30% of hours in the week during the school year, and the hours are usually fairly predictable, which gives one some advantages. For example, if you had a scheduled maintenance window for 5 hours a week every week starting at 2 AM on Sunday, that would blow 98% uptime but no actual user would ever know. (This has saved my bacon a few times, as 2 of the 3 outages of my software were outside of peak hours, so I could count inconvenienced customers on one hand.)

xd 16y ago
We use to find the holidays a massive advantage. But schools take some of their holidays on different weeks in different parts of the UK so as we expanded we effectively lost these maintenance windows. Also teachers/students/parents access the system from home so we have to keep it running 24/7.
ZoFreX 16y ago
Just because students are out doesn't mean the school isn't occupied! I used to work as a network admin at a boarding school, and there would usually be at least one "off-site" staff member working past midnight each day (and of course, on-site staff 24/7, although thankfully most of them sleep at night), as well as staff coming in at the weekend. Computers have become mission critical in schools now - lessons, paperwork, planning, organisation, telephones, intercoms, security cameras†, locks‡ were all computer-dependent. To date that school network is the most advanced, highest-uptime network I've ever worked on: two server rooms (network continues at almost full capacity with the loss of either) in separate locations and a backup server in a third location. Unplanned outages were basically non-existent, and the loss of any service was very rare and involved lots of people shouting at us :( † Internal only, external were still on tape ‡ I don't mean all the doors open if the network goes down, but the electronic locks were controlled over the network
- elai 16y ago
  At one of the colleges I attended, they shutdown the school's course registration/student management system from midnight to about 7 am every day. It was incredibly frustrating at times.