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Sierra Deployment Strategy and Advice for K-12 School

  • November 3, 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 39 views
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We have five small schools with shared computer labs, iMacs and MacBook Airs.
Currently using Open Directory, creating mobile accounts with home sync for staff and students in each location. The settings are pushed in a Configuration Profile. It isn’t perfect, but it works in our remote environment. We eliminated Active Directory a few years ago as it was overkill for us and too difficult to remain current on all systems. There is one tech for everything – PowerSchool, JamF, Network, Email, and Servers. Currently 9 servers, 350 computers, 120 mobile devices.

I am working on Deploying Apple School Manager, but this won’t help with our lab environments. Our next replacement cycle in one school is June 2017 – so I have to get my act together before then.

I need a solution for the home folders as students may use several devices over the course of the week, depending on their availability. Network only accounts are fine, except for applications like iMovie which need to write locally.

3 replies

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  • jgwatson
  • Contributor
  • November 3, 2016

I used to have home folders in my lab, and it was just a pain in the butt to manage. Student's forgetting passwords, students forgetting to log off, etc.

Now I just have 1 account (Guest), with one easy password 1234. Some students forget that as well LOL. I tell students that if they don't save their work to the cloud (Google Drive), I will delete it.

As for our yearbook class, they do have a separate login, but they also need to save work to the cloud.

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  • bughollow
  • Author
  • Contributor
  • November 3, 2016

The cloud doesn't work for us, the satellite connection is too poor.

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  • bughollow
  • Author
  • Contributor
  • November 3, 2016

Would something like this work?
1. Log in as Guest on shared computer 2. A login script to mount network home with input parameters - prompt to enter name and password to connect to network share? Or Apple ID**
3. Users are taught to save all files to this network folder (been working at this for years) 4. Logout script to copy all locally saved files to 'network' folder

**Any idea if there is a way to link an Apple ID to Directory credentials.

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