15 Warm Up The Lab Using LANSchool

In this tutorial you take control of all the workstations in the lab simultaneously, using our new LANSchool lab management software.  You will be able to:

• Power Up All Workstations In The Lab At Once (116 PC Lab Only)
• Log In All Workstations Simultaneously Using The Guest Password
• Shut Down The Whole Lab At Once

Exercise A:  Power Up The Whole Lab From The Teacher's Workstation (116 Only)

Note:  For reasons undetermined, LANSchool can’t remotely power up our Mac lab workstations (303/304) or the MacBooks on the Cart.  If you want them “on” when students arrive, you’ll have to turn them on manually.  In 116, however, you can start up all the PCs at once as follows:

1. Log into the Teacher’s Workstation using the guest password*.
2. Click the "String of Pearls" icon to bring up LANSchool.  LANSchool may ask if you want to register it (you don't).  Click "Cancel" to continue.
3. In the LANSchool top menu, choose Administer / Power On Student.  A popup window appears, in which all workstations are highlighted in powder blue by defalt.  [Note:  If no workstations are highlighted, click on any workstation and key Control-A (Command-A on Macs), which will select them all and surround them with red borders.]
4. Click the Power On button.  All workstations will power on.  If students have turned off any of the monitors manually, they must be manually powered back on.  Walk around and depress the power switches on these until the LED comes on.
5. Click the Close button on the pop-up window.

*About the Guest Password.  Please feel free to use our Guest account for your own login when in the lab, in place of your teacher credentials. Note:  although YOU are encouraged as a teacher to use the Guest login, logging students in as Guest is associated with significant concerns and must be done according to protocol.  Possible problems and current Guest Password are both detailed in this Google Drive document (access restricted to staff members). 

Exercise B:  Log All Workstations In Simultaneously Using The Guest Account

Please note that the activity described below is NOT a “turn-key” operation.  Remote workstation login requires patience and finesse.  Why? Computer labs are like labs full of students.  Even though you tell them what to do, they won't all get it done at the same time, and some will occasionally only get part of the message.  Furthermore, individual workstations are likely to have competing priorities (read “Windows Update”--Ugh! *Dark Scowl*).

1. If you haven't read our Google Doc on Hamilton's Guest Account, and its notes on issues associated with logging in student workstations as Guest, please do so now.
2. Log into your Teacher Workstation as Guest (as generally recommended).
3. Power up all workstations in the lab (see Exercise A).  IMPORTANT Note:  It's essential that all machines in PC lab 116 be turned on at least 1/2 hour prior to students’ arrival, else they can become catatonic for 20 minutes or more doing Windows update, and you will waste an entire class. 
4. Bring up the LANSchool Teacher Console on the Teacher’s Workstation (“string-of-pearls” icon).  The workstations are represented as rectangular icons in the console window.  If some workstations are not displayed, refresh the screen, which re-polls all the workstations.  The exact refresh command depends on whether the students have Macs or PCs, as follows:

"Refresh" Commands To Bring Missing Workstations Online

PCs (116)	Key F5 or Control-R
Macs (303/304)	Key Command-R

Note that re-polling takes approximately 10 seconds.  If you key the same command a second time too quickly, the second command will be ignored.  If after 10 seconds a workstation is still missing, it may be powered down, or its network cable may be loose or disconnected:  go check.  Also occasionally, students will remove or disable the LANSchool software on their workstation using a downloaded hacker utility.  If LANSchool reports this or if you suspect it has happened, contact Mr. Creamer.

4. When all machines have had time to boot fully, blank their screens to check whether they are "awake" and and responding to LANSchool.  Take the following steps:

• Click the gray background in your LANSchool console ('string of pearls") to deselect all workstations.
• Key Control-A (Command-A on Macs) to select all workstations.
• Click the drop-down button to the right of the Blank Screen button, and choose Welcome Wolverines.
• The Wolverines message will appear on all machines which are responding to LANSchool.

If any workstation does not display the "Welcome Wolverines!" screen after taking the steps just given, go investigate.  [Note:  The seemingly contradictory move of first de-selecting, then selecting the workstations will prove worth your time when toggling the blank-screen on and off.  Otherwise, LANSchool evidently loses track of which workstations are blanked and which not.]

5. LANSchool ignores most commands when screens are blanked, so un-blank all screens again.  To un-blank the screens:

• Click the gray background in the LANSchool console window to deselect all workstations.
• Key Control-A (Command-A on Macs) to select all workstations.
• Click the drop-down button to the right of the Blank Screen button, and choose Unblank screen.  All machines which are responding again show Windows/OS-X rather than "Welcome, Wolverines!".
• Click the gray background in the LANSchool console to deselect all workstations.

6. Before proceeding, Windows or OS-X must be visible.  Key Control-A (Command-A on Macs) to select all workstations.

7. Now enter Remote Control mode.  Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Control button and choose "Remote Control".  A dialog box pops up, asking "Do you wish to Remote Control all computers at the same time?"  Say Yes.  You will enter Remote Control mode.

8. (116 PC Lab only) On Windows machines you must send out a Control-Alt-Delete command, via Remote Control, to put the machine into login mode remotely.  This cannot be done directly by depressing these keys on the Teacher workstation, because the Teacher workstation captures that key combination before it gets sent to the network.  To transmit Control-Alt-Delete, again click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Control button and choose "Send Ctrl-Alt-Del (while controlling)".  IMPORTANT:  Immediately afterwards, click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Control button and choose "Stop Viewing or Remote Controlling".  It is important to Stop Controlling because the keyboards and mice on the student workstations will be locked while they are being Controlled.  Finally, wait and walk around all the workstations to see whether the Novell Log On screen is visible everywhere. If it is not visible on any workstation, intervene manually on that workstation to do whatever is necessary to bring it into sync with the other machines.  When at last all the machines are ready to receive username and password, re-enter Remote Control mode on the Teacher Console.  Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Control button.  A dialog box pops up, asking "Do you wish to Remote Control all computers at the same time?"  Say Yes.
9. In the next steps, you enter the username and password for Guest on all machines simultaneously.  Keep in mind earlier warnings that workstations in the lab behave like unruly students and that you may need to intervene with any workstation that is not completely cooperative.

• While in Remote Control mode, first clear out the entry box for the username by keying control/command-A and then pressing delete/backspace.  With slow and even keystrokes, key in the Guest username (guest-haml).  Then pause and wait until the Composite Student Screen in the Teacher Console, constructed from the majority display on all workstations being controlled, updates to show "guest-haml".  If the updated username differs from "guest-haml" in any way, repeat this step and try again.
• Once "guest-haml" is successfully entered as username, tap the Tab key once to move the cursor to the password box.  Again, with slow and even keystrokes, key in the Guest password (see this document if you don't have the current password).  Check to see that the number of bullets on the Composite Student Screen for the Guest Password matches the number of characters in the actual password.  If the correct number of bullets is shown, press the Enter key, then immediately afterwards, click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Control button so that you can choose "Stop Viewing or Remote Controlling".  It is important to Stop Controlling because the keyboards and mice on the student workstations will be locked while they are being Controlled, and you may need to intervene on any system that do not log in.  If the composite display does not update appropriately and you haven't yet pressed Enter, you can use control/command-A plus delete/backspace to clear out the password textbox and try again.

10. At this point, most workstations in the lab will be logging themselves in and should shortly be ready to go.  Walk around and manually log in any "stragglers".  As the workstations log in, you can return to the Teacher Console and put up the "Welcome Wolverines!" screen.  Login will continue normally behind-the-scenes until the students are seated and you un-blank the screens to show them their logged-in desktop.

Exercise C:  Shut Down The Whole Lab At Once

Compared to remote logins, shutting down the lab in a single stroke is a piece of cake.  Steps:

1. Click the "String of Pearls" icon to bring up LANSchool.
2. Click the gray background in the LANSchool console window.  This activates the console and deselects all workstations.
3. Key Control-A (Command-A on Macs) to select all workstations.
4. Click Administer in the LANSchool top menu and select "Shutdown Student".  A dialog box will pop up, asking whether you really want to do that.  Click Yes. 
5. A few moments will pass, after which the workstations you selected will each display a "talk-to-the-hand" icon (palm-forward), indicating that they are powered down.
6. To confirm that all workstations are shut down, refresh the console window by keying control/command-R.  You should see an empty blank gray console screen.  Yay! 

 

Download this page as a Google Doc.