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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

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Managing Blackboard

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  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

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