SharePoint and Windows Media Services – Part 3

The final part of the series looks at how you let your users get to the streaming media content from within SharePoint.

I decided to use a product we purchased a while ago from a company called SalamanderSoft. The product is called My Documents and My Shared Documents. They are basically web parts that allow you to view and access files from My Documents or from shared folders on a server.

The install of the web parts is simple and you use a .xml file to control which shares the My Shared Documents web part has access to. The My Documents  web part automatically picks up its location from the AD settings of the user home drive.

Once you have added the web part to the page you can access the settings for it and tell it which shared folder to show. (Remember the .xml file holds the details of the shared folders that are available)

The folder in question is the shared asx folder on the media server. So what you get is a view of the folder on the server and clicking on any file will open the said asx file

 

The reason I used this method instead of creating a document library was because it makes life simple and I like simple.

Whenever you create a new publishing point and .asx file, as long as you save it into the shared asx folder it will immediately appear in SharePoint. No more steps necessary.

So that’s it for the series apart from the small point of:

Licensing

As a School you are more than likely covered by a LEA obtained ERA license. The Educational Recording Agency licence covers School to record ‘free to air’ programs and use them in School for educational programs. It does not cover you to turn them into digital content and allow access to them from outside of the School.

The ERA+ licence however does. The cost is fairly minimal and covers your use of digital content.

None of these licenses cover you for any other copyrighted material and you should therefore not have these on your Learning Gateway.

SharePoint and Windows Media Services – Part 2

In part 1 of the series I showed you what we had achieved at West Hatch using Windows Media Services 2008  – giving our students access to digital media through our SharePoint learning gateway.

Part 2 is the technical stuff

The server is a 64 bit Windows 2008 Server box with a standard install.

The first thing you will notice (mentioned in Part 1) is that you can’t add Media Services as a server role. Server 2008 doesn’t come with media services installed and you need to download the package from the Microsoft website.

Once you have installed the downloaded package you will then be able to add the media services role in the same way you would add any other role to a 2008 server system and manage it using the administrative tools.

If you have used media services in Windows Server 2003 then the interface for the 2008 version will be very familiar, but I thought I would show you how to publish a streaming feed anyway.

But before that I want to show how we setup our folder structure on the server.

On the server we created a folder called MediaServices – shown below:

In the root we created 3 main folders

• ASX – contains the .asx files (will be explained in part 3)
• Audio – contains audio files, broken down into sub folders by department
• Video – contains video files, broken down into sub folders by department

The asx folder looks like this (all will become clear why in part 3)

So back to creating a publishing stream, this one being a video file.

Right click on the name of the media server and select Add Publishing Point (Wizard)

Give it a sensible name.

You now have some options – in this case we are going for the ‘One File’ option

You can now select

• Broadcast – imagine TV show. Best for live encodes not single file
• On-Demand – imagine DVD. Starts from the beginning every time the viewer selects it

For this time we choose On-Demand

The next screens will ask you to find the source of the stream, in this case the video file and if you want to enable logging. Finally you will come to this screen.

This is where you can choose how the stream is published to the user. In this case we are going to select .asx file. In simplest terms an asx file is a simple text file that points a media player to the publishing point. It looks like this.

So once you have selected asx file click finish

This screen shows you the address that will be used in the asx file to tell media player where to go for the actual publishing point.This is normally the name of your media server. At West Hatch we use our full domain name in School for services that are available internally and externally so by clicking on modify we change the server address to our publically available media server address

Note: We use split DNS in School to be able to use internal domains and external domains at the same time – another post I feel – at some point

From this screen you select where to save your asx file. We always save our asx files to the department sub folder within the asx folder that I showed earlier in the post.

So that’s it – we have created a publishing point for the file and a .asx file for use by media player so that it knows where to go to get the media stream.

Part 3 – This is going to explain how we publish the files using SharePoint.

SharePoint and Windows Media Services – Part 1

I recently attended the Learning Gateway Conference in Birmingham. One of the many excellent presenters was Dave Coleman who works at Twynham School.

His presentation was about using Windows Media Services with SharePoint to publish digital media to your students etc. After such an excellent presentation it made me go back to my School and have a go.

We had been using Windows Media Services for a while but only by publishing separate web pages for each piece of media with an embedded media player. So I decided to start from scratch with the following setup:

• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Media Services for Server 2008

If you want to use Windows Media Services with Server 2008 you will need to download the install package as Server 2008 does not come with Media Services like Windows 2003 Server did.

The end result is shown in the following set of screenshots.

So now students can view digital media just by clicking on a link from within our Learning Gateway.

The technology behind this is very simple to put into effect and Part 2 of this blog series will show you how it was done.

Apple Mac’s and Active Directory

Along with a lot of Schools we have started to implement Apple Mac’s into our domain. Lets face it when it comes to video, audio and graphics they are the best. In the later versions of OS X joining an iMac or Mac Mini to your Active Directory domain is simple but locking down the Mac’s is not so simple. We trialled a number of software solutions that to be honest didn’t meet our needs and in some cases didn’t work at all – especially with Windows 2008 domains.

So we started trawling Google and Bing and found numerous sites with information, what this blog is going to do is amalgamate all the information we found into one, hopefully, simple guide.

If you follow this guide then you should reach the same point we have, with our Mac clients allowing AD logins but authenticating against a Mac server to give all the users the same dock, applications and system settings.

Hardware

You obviously already have some Mac clients, whether they be iMac’s, Mac Minis or MacBooks.

To make this work you are also going to need a Max Server or XServe as Mac like to call them. You need this to control the docks etc, it also works well for being a file server for the Mac’s and those very large movie files rather than clog up your very nice Windows server.

Our setup

• 22 iMac’s – For media
• 16 Mac Minis – For Music
• 1 Xserve
• Windows 2008 Domain

I am going to do this in steps – that’s how we managed to get it working. I am going to assume your Xserve is setup and running as a standalone server, not joined to the domain – if it isn’t then you need to revert any settings you have made back to there original settings.

Step 1 – Make your XServe a Open Directory master.

To do this go to Server Admin | Services and put a tick in the Open Directory check box and click Save

You should now see this screen (If you can’t see the Open Directory option on the right than click on the triangle next to server name)

Click on the Open Directory option on the right

Click Change and set your server as an Open Directory Master

Create an administrator user for the Open Directory

Click Continue on the last screen and you have finished

 

Step 2 – LDAP Settings

Now click on the LDAP tab – your screen should look similar to this

The search base should be the same as your Active Directory domain

You can now close the Server Admin Window

 

Step 3 – Join your Mac Server to your Active Directory domain

On your Mac server open Utilities | Directory Utility

Click Show Advanced

Click on Services

Put a tick in the Active Directory option and click Apply

Double click the Active Directory option

Enter the Active Directory domain that you want to bind the Mac server to and click Bind

When prompted enter an Active Directory administrator username and password

If you get a popup window about joining a Kerberos realm, you can ignore it

 

Step 4 – Create a managed group

Open Workgroup Manager – You should see this window

You need to make sure Workgroup Manager is viewing your LDAP directory and authenticated

To authenticate click on the padlock on the right hand side of the Workgroup Manager screen and enter your Open Directory administrator username and password

Click on the Groups icon and then click on the New Group button

Create a group for the users you want to manage on your Mac clients and click Save

Now click on the members tab and then click on the + button.

An extra screen will now pop out to the right of the Workgroup Manager window

In the pop out window change the directory to your Active Directory by clicking on the small globe in the top left corner

You should now see a list of all your Active Directory users

You can now add individual users or groups to the managed group you have just created by dragging and dropping or double clicking

Click Save when you are finished

 

Step 4 – User Preferences

We now have a group we can manage the preferences for

To do this make sure the group you want to mange is highlighted and click on the Preferences button

You will now see this window

From this screen you can set all of the options that you wish to manage.

 

Step 5 – Set the users dock

As an example I am going to go through removing some of the icons from the dock and adding one so that a user gets exactly the dock you want them to.

From the window shown above click on Dock

The first option you need to decide on is how you will manage the dock

• Once – When the user logs on they get your set dock the first time but they can alter / add / remove applications from the dock
• Always – The user always gets your set dock and can’t alter it

We use always

Now from the list of applications remove the ones you don’t want them to have by highlighting them and clicking on the – button

To add an Application click the + button and search your local application folder for the application you want to add (see note below)

Once you have added all the applications you want you need to decide how your set dock is going to interact with the default one on the client

Your only two options are either to merge it with the default one or not – we decide not to merge so that the users only get the dock we set

We also add the Network Home folder to the dock by clicking Network Home tick box

Adding Application Note

When you add applications to the dock they have to be installed on the machine you are running Workgroup Manager from

So as you don’t have to install your applications to the server install the Server Admin Tools onto one of your clients and run Workgroup Manager from the client, that way all the application installed on the client will be available to add to the dock

Step 6 – Setup the Mac client

You now need to setup the Mac client to speak to both your Active Directory domain and the Open Directory domain

On the Mac client open the directory utility and click on Show Advanced Settings

Click on Services

Select the Active Directory option and double click

Enter the Active Directory Domain you want to join the client to – also set any computer name etc

Click Bind and when prompted enter a domain administrator username and password

Once completed click on OK

Back in the directory utility double click on the LDAP option

You now need to create a connection to the Open Directory server

Click new

Enter the server name or IP Address (we found IP more reliable)

Once completed you should get a screen like this

Click on the box under LDAP mappings and select Open Directory server

In the search base enter the details for your Active Directory domain (e.g. dc=whhs,dc=local)

Click on OK

You now need to make sure the client searches through all the available options when logging users on

Click on Search Policy and make sure that both Active Directory and LDAP are listed (Put the LDAP option above Active Directory in the list)

Step 7 – Set client logon options

To make all this work you need to set the client to ask for a username and password

Open System Preferences | Accounts

Select Login options

Set the options that you require

To make it similar to a PC login we use the options in the picture above – this will prompt the user for their Active Directory username and password

Step 8 – Result !!

When your user now logs onto the Mac client they will get the preference that you have set

The example shown is just setting the dock but you can restrict access to applications, set proxy settings etc

You now have similar control on your Mac clients to the control you are used to on your Windows domain

Thin Client Solution

At West Hatch we have a number of fairly old computers. They will never run Vista or Windows 7.

We also have a server farm that runs Microsoft Terminal Services. The server farm serves two purposes:

Sun Ray

The Sun Ray system installed by Cutter Project uses Suns proprietary thin clients and Solaris servers to load balance between the TS Servers. Its a nice system and works very well – which coming from me is high praise (I have a historic dislike of thin client systems)

Home Access

We also use our TS farm to give home access to our students and staff. They can use the Terminal Services Web Front End or Remote Desktop Connection to access the farm and login as if they were at School.

Now back on topic –

This year we don’t have any money for new computers because we are spending over £300,000 on recabling the whole site with new Ethernet and fibre optics. We are also investing in all new HP switches and HP managed wireless. So what do we do with the old computers. The answer is AnywhereTS.

AnywhereTS is a small application that you can use to create a bootable CD that you can use to either connect directly to the TS Farm or install the software to the hard drive of the computer.

We chose the later option and installed the software onto the computers in question. A simple install that wipes the HDD and then installs the software. The next time you reboot the computer it logs directly into the TS Farm. Because we have a TS Farm we point the client at the separate software load balancer which then deals with balancing connections between the servers of the TS Farm.

Here are a few screen shots of how to create the bootable CD.

The Main Screen
Click MakeClient
We use the unmanaged option
The pro Client gives you all the USB and install options
Now set the IP settings and domain name
Sound settings
Graphics Settings
The next screen allows you to set the boot logo image. You can use one of your own.
Distribution Options
Now save the iso file

Once that’s all done, all you need to do is write the ISO file to a CD, boot from the CD and install the software to the HDD of the computer.

Once you reboot the computer will then connect to your chosen Terminal Server and the users can logon.

Byte Night 2009

As some of you may know I support the Byte Night charity that raises money for homeless youth in conjunction with Action for Children.

Once a year IT professionals sleep rough in London in order to raise awareness and obviously money for this charity. This year the event will be on the 2nd October and my wife has decided to join me.

So if your reading this and you feel you can spare a few ££ then please click on the image below to sponsor me online.

And thank you in advance.