(mail and post)

Hi, Rafael,

It was good to see you at our CUIP/NSP meeting last week. Thanks for contributing so helpfully to the discussion!

The main immediate thing to say about those 5-digit unit numbers is, No, there is no reason to go around renaming all the already-installed computers.  

The naming scheme has been extended, rather than just replaced, and both kinds of school "unit" number can be used in that slot of the naming scheme.  As long as the computer is being handled correctly by ITS tools that check the name, we can consider that a satisfactory outcome.  Probably the most important consideration along those lines -- we need the current school-specific Techco password to be working. As long as that is okay, I wouldn't worry further about the names and new numbers.

 Thanks,

  ==Mitch

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As background, these 5-digit numbers have been around for a long time, but weren't used in tech contexts.  Starting last year, they began creeping into tech contexts, in places where we would expect the more-familiar (to those involved with CPS tech)  4-digit Unit Numbers.:

 * Used in network names for new Tech-XL delivered/installed computers last year:

 * Now also used by the Rename wizard that comes from the Schoolname-ADM01 site Windows Maintenance Page

 * In INSTR Active Directory, used in the name of some Groups of school-based student and staff accounts

  * In schools which received the E-Rate expansion of the wi-fi networking, if they did not retain the old CPS-wide SSID and WEP key, the new (WPA-encrypted) network SSID contans that 5-digit number

  * The standalone release key for CPS Enterprise Deep Freeze typically was set up with a passwrd containing the 4-digit unit number.  At one school which has the updated Deep Freeze version on the installer program downloadable from the Schoolname-ADM01, when we re-installed DF on  a reimaged computer, the standalone DF release responded not to the password allthe other computers recognized, but to a version with the 5-digit number replacing the 4-digit unit number. 

I've only seen speculation on why this has been changing.  One explanation is that the 5-digit numbers are a little better in themselves, as they are somewhat finer-grained and can distinguish different authorities for a given building.  Another is that (since these were originally the Oracle Financial school id's) the change of tech numbering is to facilitate folding together the financial tracking and technology tracking.