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Outreach Laptop Management

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Edward Nutting edited this page Feb 2, 2017 · 7 revisions

Overview

The MVSE Outreach programme has a number of laptops that it uses for its events. These laptops are maintained by IT Services but the requirements for them (including when they are needed) are specified by us. The task of managing the laptops involves two main aspects: bookings for events; and coordination of technical requirements.

Purpose

Bookings for events

The purpose of this aspect is to ensure that we are able to obtain the laptops from IT Services at the right times for our outreach events. IT Services need as much notice as possible (minimum 1 week) in order to set up user accounts on all the laptops. A new user account is required for each event (due to data protection laws). We also usually need to book the laptops for on day in advance of the event, in order to charge all the laptops overnight.

Coordination of technical requirements

The purpose of this aspect is to ensure that the laptops have all the software (and in some cases firmware and hardware) necessary to run the various Digimakers workshops. Each workshop has a unique set of requirements ranging from just neeeding a web browser and wifi to needing the full Arduino IDE with custom board configurations installed. Coordination of this requires the OTA to gather the various technical requirements and submit them to IT Services for the various changes to be made with sufficient advance notice.

Details

At the time of writing, the outreach programme owned 31 laptops.

Bookings for events

Note: Please ask Caroline for the name of the person in IT Services who we usually work with.

  1. A list of all confirmed events should be submitted to IT Services (Zone E) in a single ticket at the start of term.
  2. A separate ticket for each confirmed event should be submitted to IT Services (Zone E) as soon as possible with the following information:
  • Date and time of the event
  • Date and time that the laptops will be collected (usualy 12pm the day before)
  • Number of laptops required
  • Any important notes
  • Name of the person who will collect them
  1. Collect laptops on the day of or the day before an event
  • If collecting the day before, set them up to charge overnight.
  • Charging overnight requires careful planning. The charging location must be secure and able to supply sufficient power. Each charger draws 1.5A at 240V~. A double floor socket is typically rated to 20A total for both sockets, max 13A per socket. This means at most 8 chargers (advisable only 6) can be plugged into a single socket (using extension leads) and at most 13 for the whole socket (advisable max 8).
  1. Gather, shutdown and give laptops to workshop leader on the day of the event. Also provide the power supplies.
  2. Receive laptops after an event. Count them and ensure they are all shutdown (not slept) before returning them to IT Services. Also return the power supplies.
  3. Any malfunctions or issues with the laptops: See "Coordination of technical requirements".

Coordination of technical requirements

Each workshop has its own specific technical requirements. Running any workshop at Digimakers or in schools also brings its own set of challenges. This aspect of the task involves translating from what workshop creators and leaders say they need new or fixed, into tickets submitted to IT or solutions we do ourselves.

  1. For each new workshop, determine its technical requirements: hardware, software, system configuration, user accounts, software licenses, data protection compliance, etc. See Technical requirements evaluation for more detail.
  2. For each requirement, determine (to the best of your ability) whether it requires an admin change on the laptops, a system build change, a change to Windows, a user account change or similar. If so, submit a ticket to IT Services. If not, organise outreach helpers to perform the change on all the laptops manually. If the change needs to be permanent, you may also need to inform IT Services of the change.
  3. For any specific issues with individual laptops, note down the Service Tag (the ITXXXXXX number on the bottom of the laptop), the name of the issue and a detailed description of the issue (cause, reproduction case if possible, etc). Submit this as a ticket to IT Services (remember to CC Caroline) and continue communication with IT to resolve the issue.
  4. If a change is going to cost money, Caroline will need to approve it etc as it comes out the Outreach budget. You may need to find alternative (non-costly) solutions or write a brief report to justify the cost.

Also see Internal technical communication for more details on communicating with IT Services and others within the University.

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