1). Rebuild the existing 5 year old server with a new computer and server operating system.

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1 SUMMER ASSESSMENT 2014 FINAL REPORT AUGUST 10, 2014 Chris Flook Instructor of Telecommunications I. OVERVIEW: This document serves as the final report for the TCOM Assessment Storage Server Summer Assessment Grant through the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at Ball State. The primary objective of the project was to rebuild and redesign our local Assessment storage server, upgrading technology and streamline the process in which faculty archive their assessment materials. This document will evaluate the project s goals, explain the process of rebuilding the system, and explore the methods used in creating it. The appendices provides information for faculty in other departments to implement a similar system, a general framework to modify it for their own purposes, and an abridged guide for the TCOM departmental showing the intricacies of the system. In 2009, the Department of Telecommunications purchased a small Mac OSX server to store large student project files for the purposes of archiving. As Ball State advanced in assessment stratgies, this server became TCOM s primary central depository for all assessment endeavours including the storage of all syllabi, related assessment documents, student projects, and other course material. Over the past five years, additional external storage hard drives were purchased to expand the server in order to handle all of the department s assessment files. While some faculty need only a small amount of storage, many faculty teaching video courses require large amounts of storage. However, the old server had become slow, outdated, and the workflow for archiving materials was inadequate for current needs. This project updated the server with a new computer, new hard drives, and a new backup system. The whole process was streamlined and the connection via the internet was improved. The project s central objectives were as follows: 1). Rebuild the existing 5 year old server with a new computer and server operating system. 2). Retain the existing assessment documents, while allowing for a steady method for storage expansion. 3). Provide detailed, yet easy documentation for other faculty in the Department of Telecommunications to gain backend management access. 4). Provide easy instructions and methods for TCOM faculty to gain access to the front end to store their assessment materials. 5). Write extensive documentation on how to setup the system so that other academic units on campus might replicate a storage assessment server for their individual needs. 1

2 II. OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS ASSESSMENT OF GRANT: Answers specifically to the project s assessment questions are provided below. A). How project goals and objectives were met? 1). Rebuild the existing 5 year old server with a new computer and server operating system. This was completed over the course of three weeks in June and July of In early spring of 2014, a request was made through the annual IT CCIM College Technology Refresh to purchase a new server computer, new storage devices, software, and a network switch. Funding was made available in late June and all materials were procured. A Mac Pro computer was purchased and Mac OSX Server software was purchased and installed. Over the course of two weeks, all of the digital files, approximately 4 TB of data, was migrated to the new system and new sharepoints were created on the system. UTS connected the Assessment Server to Ball State s authentication system, which allowed for TCOM faculty to be give permission for specific areas (sharepoints) to archive their assessment documents and materials. The system went live in mid July and has been in continual operation since that date. As of this writing, all technical issues have been resolved and the new/refreshed server is operating as planned. 2). Retain the existing assessment documents, while allowing for a steady method for storage expansion. The old system had 9 separate storage units, with a total of 10 different hard drive arrays and numerous share points. The server operated from a single five year old Mac Mini computer with four RAID 5 external hard drive arrays attached to it, two additional ethernet RAID 5 systems, two internal storage drives, one large ethernet storage server (a separate server system), and most of the whole system backs up to a concatenated array in a different office. The new system is entirely streamlined for speed, efficiency, and simplicity. The new computer running the server software has three drives connected to it. The assessment materials and other related documents are attached via Thunderbolt connections to the system. A single RAID 5 external hard drive is also attached for backup (via OSX s TimeMachine capabilities). The system can be expanded indefinitely by either adding larger external Thunderbolt hard drives, or by daisy chaining new hard drives into the existing system. 3). Provide detailed, yet easy documentation for other faculty in the Department of Telecommunications to gain backend management access: Please see Appendix A. 2

3 4). Provide easy instructions and methods for TCOM faculty to gain access to the front end to store their assessment materials: LOGIN for MAC USER 1). For Mac users, start by going to Finder. 2). Click on Go at the top menu bar and choose: Connect to Server. 3). At the server address, type one of the following (both work): REMOVED AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST 4). Type in your Ball State Username and Password. 5). Click Connect. 6). The server will mount and you see it on your desktop and/or in the sidebar of a Finder Window. LOGIN for PC USER 1). For PC users, start by going to Start > Computer 2). Click on Map Network Drive at the top of the window. 3). Select a drive letter (it doesn t matter, as long as it s not C). 4). Type the following address where it says Folder both should work: REMOVED AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST 4). Type in your Ball State Username and Password. 5). Click Finish. 6). The server will mount and you see it on your desktop and/or in the sidebar of a Explorer Window. 5). Write extensive documentation on how to setup the system so that other academic units on campus might replicate a storage assessment server for their individual needs: Please see Appendix A and Appendix B at the end of this document. 3

4 B). How the project related to student learning outcomes, or to programmatic/departmental/collegiate accreditation as was stated in the proposal: Our department is not currently accredited specifically by an outside entity. Our assessment endeavours are in accordance with Ball State s policies toward assessment and retention of documentation of these efforts to support the university's 10 year assessment plan. We began archiving assessment materials in the runup to Ball State s 2013 re accreditation process. This allowed us to modify and improve our archiving strategies, while providing detailed documentation for faculty to close the loop to improve their instruction. Currently, each faculty member must archive a syllabus and examples of A, B, and C work for all assignments, for each iteration of a class, for every semester. This requires a centralized storage place to archive materials, thus the assessment server. Many of the documents created in classes are word files or pdf files. However, the students completing assignments in production courses produce large video and audio files that must be archived as well. This requires the system to have adequate space for storage and backup, with a flexible architecture to allow for easy expandability. 4

5 C). Any relevant artifacts/report/rubric to substantiate your findings: A full guide was written and provided to the chairperson (Timothy Pollard) for reference. If for some reason, I were to die or leave the university, the document would serve as a primary guide for managing and maintaining the server in the future. Information, such as the items below, were included in the document. I have removed the username and password information, but I can provide this upon request. A full version of the document, amended to remove authentication information, is included in Appendix A. LOGIN INFORMATION: Server Name: Assessment Sharepoint Name: Mac Login address SMB: Mac Login address AFP: PC Login mapped network drive: PC Login SMB: administrator username: administrator password: Administrator Management: Mac Only generic username for assessment: generic password for assessment: tcom assessment assessment REMOVED AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST REMOVED AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST REMOVED AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST REMOVED AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST available upon request available upon request REMOVED AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST available upon request available upon request Administration Software Overview Screenshot: 5

6 Administration Software Screenshot of Network Monitoring: Administration Software Screenshot of User/Faculty Administration: 6

7 Administration Software Screenshot of Server Sharepoints: 7

8 III. THE REBUILT SERVER: There are four hard drives associated with the server. There is an internal hard drive Macintosh HD that runs the whole system. The system contains three external hard drives with the following names and functions: 1). faculty: This drive has legacy data and will slowly be removed from the system over the course of the 2015/2016 academic year. Individual faculty members have permissions already set. This is a thunderbolt G Drive with a 4TB capacity. It currently has ~600GB of space left. 2). assessment: The assessment drive is also a G Drive 4TB thunderbolt hard drive. This drive contains all of the assessment data from 2011/2012 through the current academic year. 3). timemachine: This is the backup for this system, using OSX s timemachine capabilities. The actual server is a new Mac Pro trashcan model (it s not really called trashcan, but looks like one). It is in the black server cabinet in the TCOM back office. The Mac Pro sits on a shelf. There are two G Drives assessment and faculty, located on a different shelf connected to the trashcan. A Lacie 9TB fire wire 800 disk serves as the Time Machine drive. Because Apple is stupid, you cannot directly connect the firewire into the trashcan. There is an adapter in place that converts the firewire 800 signal to Thunderbolt. The server (trashcan) is connected via two ethernet cables to a 1Gbit switch sitting on an older and slower switch. The switch has an ethernet cable running out the back to connect to the wall jack. 8

9 IV. APPENDIX A: TCOM Assessment Server guide. 9

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19 V. APPENDIX B Guide for Development: In most cases, departments across the university would not need a system this complex or advanced in order to archive their assessment materials. Media files (photo, video, and audio), however, create large file sizes and require large amounts of space for storage and backup. The guide below is scalable therefore, to allow for departments to compensate based on the amount of data produced each semester. There are generally two strategies to produce an archive server. Option one is to request storage space from Unified Technology Support on campus. UTS can provide central server storage space for departmental use. To begin this process, contact Todd Phelps (Director of Enterprise Computing Operations) at tphelps@bsu.edu. UTS would prefer that this method of storage and archiving. Halfway through the TCOM assessment server rebuild in summer of 2014, UTS expressed concern over the TCOM system. Their concern of having a rogue server system, out of the university core system, that might perform functions detrimental to the larger system. To produce a local system in the department, a few items are necessary. Both Mac (OSX) and PC (Windows 8) have server software that is able to be installed on a computer system with attached storage. I recommend that the department utilize either a PC or Mac system based on how familiar the department is with a particular platform and the number of PCs vs. Macs use of faculty. PC or Mac computers range anywhere from $500 $7000. The server software can be installed on any system consider a Mac Mini or Mac Pro (desktop) to run OSX. A simple PC Lenovo desktop can run Windows Server 8. Once the computer is purchased and the software installed, external hard drives should be purchased again, the size of which should be determined by the needs of the department. External hard drives can connect to computers via USB 2 or USB 3, E Sata (PC), FireWire 800, and Thunderbolt (Mac). The storage, attached to the system, can then be shared within the respective server operating systems. This creates a sharepoint that allows for faculty to login and access the sharepoints to retrieve, archive, copy, and move assessment materials. Once connected, this is treated like any hard drive. Administration of either OSX Server of Windows 8 Server does require knowledge of the system. Generally, someone can learn via documentation online and with the software, but does require basic server administration knowledge. If this is not possible in your department, I recommend that you develop a system through UTS. Once the system is connected and running, it needs to be connected to the larger Ball State network. Create a HelpDesk ticket and have a member of UTS come and connect the system to the BSU network. This will allow you to add BSU users (faculty) to authenticate or login to the system with their BSU username and password. Both windows and mac server software will allow you to add and remove users as needed. Connect the computer system by a simple ethernet connection. 19

20 Once the system is up and running, their will be specific paths and addresses to login (see above for specifics). I recommend that the entire system be locked in a cooled server cabinet. 20