1 / 24

Managing Blackboard

Managing Blackboard. [ A System Administrator Discussion ]. Blackboard Academic Suite™, Blackboard Learning System™, Blackboard Community System™, Blackboard Content System™ This session will focus on best practices from a technology point of view Best Practices for System Administration

maili
Télécharger la présentation

Managing Blackboard

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Managing Blackboard [ A System Administrator Discussion ] Blackboard Academic Suite™, Blackboard Learning System™, Blackboard Community System™, Blackboard Content System™ This session will focus on best practices from a technology point of view Best Practices for System Administration New System Administrators System architecture Building blocks management Problem solving and strategy

  2. Summary: To AVOID This…

  3. Consider This…

  4. Panel Members • Larry LambertOnline Instructional Support SpecialistSouthwestern College * Chula Vista, CA • Dave Dean, Ph.D.Information Technology System Specialist VEastern Washington University * Cheney, WA

  5. About Southwestern • Community System: Enterprise Level for two-years • 7-servers: Load Balance, 2-Web Apps, NAS, SQL Database, Collaboration, Testing • Version 6.3.1.5 • 20K students and 1,500 faculty • Snapshot, IIS integration • Windows 2000 platform • Portal used on Learning System only but campus wide in fall-2006

  6. About Southwestern • Physical space for employees and students to get technical support • Dedicated to Online Learning • 2-part time tech support people • 1-FT faculty Instructional Designer • 1-FT back and front-end System Administrator • 1-FT Multimedia Specialist • 1 FT Clerical Support • 1-FT Academic Administrator

  7. About Southwestern - Challenges • Finding money! • (Title V had deep pockets) • Inadequate skills to be a system administrator • Inadequate support (no people) • An anonymous project (nobody knew what online was)

  8. About EWU • Self-hosted BASIC since 1999 • Learning System Enterprise (1 year) • Version 6.3.1.424 • 1,000 Courses / Term • 700 Instructors / Leaders • 8,000 Students active each week • ONE FTE TOTAL for server, systems, & application administration • Primary sysadm (.80) and backup (.15) and third backup (.05) • No snapshot, LDAP, SIS integration

  9. Discussion Bullets • Best Practices that we have found for: • System Administration • Server platform • Data protection • Problem tracking • Communicating • Planning / Upgrading • New System Administrators • System architecture • Building blocks management • Problem solving and strategy

  10. Server Platform - EWU • Production • Dual Dell PowerEdge 6650s • Hot spare 6650 • Production and Test servers • Windows 2003, IIS, MS SQL Enterprise

  11. Server Platform - EWU “Don’t mess with the server during the school year.” • No optional patches, building blocks, tweaks, etc. • If you do have to mess with the server, GHOST it first.

  12. Scheduled Downtimes - EWU • ½ day, 3rd, 6th, 9th Friday afternoons of each term from 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. • Thursday of break week • Entire last week of August

  13. Data Protection - EWU • Service level: If catastrophic server failure, won’t loose more than 2 hours of data • SQL backup every two hours • File replication at two hour intervals (courses subdirectories) • Full Ghost every three weeks • Nightly backups (incremental) • Weekly backups (full)

  14. Tools - EWU • Sentry/Go monitor • (internal) monitors events and restarts services • SiteScope • (external) service monitoring and alerting • Accumulates history (hits, cpu, disk, etc.) used for forecasting of necessary upgrades • PeerSync • File replication service • BlackICE • Software firewall • Ghost and Veritas • Server imaging and backups

  15. Problem Tracking - EWU • Capture, then fix error • Need to capture via screen shots, log files, monitoring reports, etc. • Organize in way you understand • Monitoring BBADMIN-L • I have a “bbadmin-keepers” folder. • Also keep copies of bbadmin emails. • Do the basics, read release notes, etc.

  16. New System Administrators • Develop key relationships with faculty and computer support areas • Become an expert in systems and online education • Create your Operations Manual • Set goals for support • 2-hour replies to support requests • Conduct periodic user surveys • Round-the-clock attention to make sure the system satys up and running

  17. New System Administrators • Develop a working relationship with administrators • Ensure your salary matches your responsibility level • Communicate, communicate, communicate! . . . But not too much! • Begin messages via Blackboard with “BB” • Be conservative • Don’t tell everyone everything! • Place yourself on working committees • Grow thicker skin • Drink heavily……. And often

  18. Building blocks management • Test drive first • Understand what they are: Third party software for PROFIT! • Define support for faculty • Make contact list for tech support • Include course cartridges • Some good ones: • Discussion grader • Seneca Who’s online? • Advanced Group Management • MAPQuest

  19. Problem solving and strategy • Duplicate the problem • Create support webpage with request forms • Get complete information, including course ID and location • Follow through and resolve all problems • Care calls to faculty • Statistics will promote and protect your existence

  20. Summary: To AVOID This…

  21. Consider This… Packing Their Chute Reliability Communication Monitor Service & Support

  22. Thank You! Larry Lambert - Southwestern College LLambert@swccd.edu Chula Vista, CA Dave Dean, Ph.D. - Eastern Washington Universitydave.dean@mail.ewu.edu Cheney, WA

More Related