It used to be fairly easier to deploy on your network, but after version 4.2 it became significantly more difficult if you use a deployment program like Zenworks. A new MSI test was introduced to determine where to install Google Earth. If the current user is not an Admin User it would redirect to [LocalAppDataFolder]Google\Google Earth (usually C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Earth) which made it inaccessible to other users.

As Zenworks uses the System account, which is not an admin user, this would happen when the installer was launched by a student.

To fix this problem there are a few different techniques. You can use either ORCA or Admin Studio Tuner (from Zenworks) to create a transform file that ignores these checks. Alternatively you can use ORCA to edit the msi file directly, I had to use this technique for V5 due to some exisiting problems in the Google Earth MSI.

First download the full version of Google Earth, (V5.0.11337). You should be able to find later versions through Google.

To find what you need to edit you can do a search in ORCA for AdminUser you should find around 3 entries.

The major entries are:

• InstallExecuteSequence: ChangeInstallDirForNonAdmin: NOT AdminUser (Delete this row)
• InstallExecuteSequence: setALLUSERS: AdminUser (remove the word AdminUser so it applies to all installs)
• InstallUISequence: ChangeInstallDirForNonAdmin: NOT AdminUser (Delete this row)

You may also wish to remove AdminUser as a Condition from Component: Plus_Registry_wavdest.ax

Once these are removed or modified it should install in C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth regardless of which user is logged in.

What ABE does is hide any file or folder that a user does not have access to. So for example the folder where you store all your users home drives, would usually appear jam packed with folders, most of which would return an Access Denied error. However, with ABE installed users would only see the folders they have access to, usually their own.

This is great especially if you are coming from a Novell background where this is the standard behaviour. It is also very useful in a school situation to keep the students from seeing things they shouldn’t.

To use ABE you need to download the management tools from Microsoft ABE Management Tools, then after installation either enable it on all shares or bring up properties and manually add it to shares.

A better description and walk through is available WindowsNetworking: Implementing Access-Based Enumeration in Windows Server 2003 R2

Links in this post:

• Windows Server 2003 Access-based Enumeration Overview
• Download Server 2003 Access-based Enumeration
• Implementing Access-Based Enumeration in Windows Server 2003 R2

Some additional notes:

To use the DET mail server you can either add mail.det.nsw.edu.au to the mail section of your php.ini file or add it to the
Admin -> Server -> Email: SMTP Hosts section.
If you wish to restrict to sending to DET emails you can add following to the Allowed email domains : “education.nsw.gov.au det.nsw.edu.au“.
Make sure to test the mail server settings before adding any restrictions to domains.

If using Novell or Mac OS you will need to use a different LDAP browser as AD Explorer only works with Active Directory.
For Novell I usually use the free Windows program Softerra LDAP Browser (MSI).
There are a few Java based LDAP browsers that should work with Mac. A good Java based LDAP browser is JXplorer this should work on Mac, Windows and Linux. For some more info on Mac and LDAP look at this article on LDAP in Mac OS X Server from the Mac Dev Center, it is not fully applicable as it also has home drive mapping but it does contain some useful info.

Paul Ganderton has made his Geography HSC site avaliable for guests. You can also view some of the other course on our Moodle site. Look for this logo which means guest access is allowed.

Bulk Operations: Some people asked about bulk deletion of users and courses.
This section has been moved to Moodle: Bulk Deletion Operations.

Presentations:

• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
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• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Plugins used by Moodle

Some of the items shown during talk are produced by plugins to Moodle. Below is a list of some of our favourites:

• Book: Allows structuring resource pages with chapters and pages.
• Gallery: Shows slide shows and generates thumbnails of images. You can upload a zip file containing an entire folder structure of pictures, and auto-generate albums and sub-albums from it.
• Course Menu: Creates a Tree Structure as a block on side of page to assist navigation.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file. On the main SBHS Moodle page there is also a Library block that sends search queries to our Sentral library page. This will need to be customised by schools to point to their Sentral system or the new DET My Library system (only accessible inside DET WAN). Just modify the block_library.php file to point to your Library search page. To install place the library directory in your Moodle blocks folder.

I’m aiming to use the site to let other admins know about some great utilities and websites to help in managing networks, primarily for schools, but hopefully relevant everywhere. As well as share some tips and ideas for managing computers.

Background

James Rudd, living in Sydney, Australia. I started working on the school network at high school and continued right through Uni. I am currently working full time as a Network Administrator at Sydney Boys High School.

Employment

• Network Administrator, Sydney Boys High School, NSW, Australia since 2001.
• Administrator of a ROCKS HPC cluster for the Centre of Excellence for Silicon Photovoltaics and Photonics (UNSW), used to run the Gaussian 09 simulation package, as well as VASP and Quantum Espresso since October 2005

Qualifications

• BEng Photovoltaics and Solar Energy (Hons.), University of New South Wales, 2007
• BSci Computer Science degrees, University of New South Wales, 2007
• Microsoft Certifications:
  
  • 70-159 TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization – Jan, 2012
  • 70-169 TS: Windows Small Business Server 2011, Configuration – Jan, 2011
  • 70-681 TS: Windows 7 and Office 2010, Deploying – July, 2010
  • 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring – May, 2010
  • 70-669 TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Desktop Virtualization – Mar, 2010
  • 70-693 Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator – Jan, 2010
  • 70-685 Pro: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Support Technician – Oct, 2009
  • 70-686 Pro: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Administrator – Oct, 2009
  • 70-646 Pro: Windows Server 2008, Server Administrator – Jun, 2009
  • 70-648 TS: Upgrading your MCSA on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 – Jun, 2009
  • 70-620 TS: Configuring Microsoft Windows Vista Client – Jan, 2009
  • 70-270 Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP – Jun, 2008
  • 70-291 Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure – May, 2008
  • 70-290 Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment – Jul, 2007
• D-Link Wireless Certified, 2007

Experience and Skills

• Moodle administration, bulk user and course management
• Microsoft XP, Vista, 7 and Server 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2
• Centos 5.5
• Rocks Cluster 5.4
• Scripting: Windows CMD, VBScript, Bash and Perl
• PHP and MySQL
• Novell Netware 6-6.5, OES 1, SLES 10, Zenworks 2-10, and Groupwise 6.5-7