The Knox County School District provides file servers at both the district and school sites to facilitate curriculum, communication, and the management of data. 

1. General Information regarding District Server Platforms

Knox County Schools will establish network server platforms to provide services and disseminate information to district sites and to the community at large. 

1. Web Server – The district will provide server space for hosting departmental web sites. The Communications department will have the responsibility for management of the District Web Server. Final decisions regarding information posted to the District Web Server will lie with the Communications Supervisor. The Instructional Technology department will provide direct support for update and maintenance of the District Web Server. To facilitate a consistent point of contact with the district, individual departments should not attempt to establish and maintain individual web servers or establish a web presence through another service provider or agency. 
2. File Servers – The district will establish appropriate server platforms for the distribution and communication of approved functions and services. Departments that wish to host applications over the district internet should coordinate services through the Instructional Technology department. 
3. Administrative Servers – Servers that provide and maintain administrative services will be deployed, updated, and maintained by the Information System department. These services include but are not limited to Student Information Systems, Food Service Systems, Payroll Systems, and other similar functions. 
4. Intranet Servers – Intranet services will be deployed and coordinated by the district network team. Individual departments shall not establish communication systems outside of the district intranet or e-mail system without consultation with the district network team and written approval by the Supervisor of Instructional Technology and the Supervisor of Information Systems. 
5. Other Servers – In special circumstances, the decision may be made to establish an additional server presence to manage specialized tasks of limited scope. Examples of this type of server might include departmental servers to handle sensitive, confidential data localized to only one site. These servers should not support district-wide access. The administration and maintenance responsibilities associated with these servers will be defined when the service platform is established. 

 2. General information regarding School Server Platforms  

Each school in Knox County has a minimum of three network servers: a web server, a curriculum server, and a library server. Some sites may house additional servers called lab servers dedicated to a single curriculum area or program function. As suggested by the names, each server is intended to perform a different function. 

1. Web Server – There are only two approved uses for the school Web server - hosting the school’s official web site, and hosting an internal web site. The primary use of the school’s web server is to house the school’s official web site. This site should be maintained by a designated staff member who will oversee its update and maintenance. 
   1. School Intranet – The Curriculum server will house an intranet web site. This intranet should be       the learning grounds for students and teachers to explore web site design. 
   2. This site is not to be shared with the general public but serves as an area where the techniques of      proper gathering, formatting, evaluation, and presentation of ideas are refined. 
   3. Students from different grade levels across different subject areas are encouraged to work  together on projects that are then shared through links on this internal site. 
      More information regarding web services and procedures may be found in the Departmental and School Web Pages Guidelines. 
2. Curriculum Server – The Curriculum Server is one of the most important elements in the local area network of each school site. There are two primary functions of the curriculum server: 
   1. Network / Site Licensed Curriculum Software – Networkable software should reside on the       curriculum server. For example, those schools owning a site/network license for a product such as      Classworks should deploy it via the Curriculum server: 
   2. Dedicated File Storage Space – The school curriculum server houses instructional network       software and serves as a location where instructional material or projects may be stored. The       curriculum server provides storage space to house documents created by students and staff so that they are accessible from any computer in the school. 
3. Library server – Local library servers perform functions which support and extend media functions at the campus.
   1. Circulation and Catalog System – The school library server should house the school library's  catalog and circulation system.
   2. Library Support and Curriculum Systems – The library server may also include Accelerated  Reader and other software related to the function or services of the school library. For more information about materials that are appropriate for deployment via the library servers, contact Library Support Services. 
4. Lab Servers – Lab servers are units dedicated to the delivery of curriculum and/or management services of limited scope. These will typically be deployed to either facilitate the delivery of a particular program across the site or to facilitate effective dissemination of materials in a laboratory setting. The deployment of Lab Servers must be approved by the Supervisor of Instructional Technology and the deployment coordinated with the Knox County Schools Network Team Leader. 

3. Electronic Mail Services 

The Knox County School District in cooperation with the State of Tennessee Department of Education provides internet and e-mail services through a state approved contractor. The e-mail system specified above is the official e-mail communications system for the Knox County School District. 

1. As long as these services are outsourced, the Knox County School District will not establish or maintain an e-mail server. 
2. Individual departments are not to establish or maintain e-mail servers for the purpose of providing accounts to staff members. 
3. Schools are not to establish or maintain e-mail servers for the purpose of providing accounts for staff members. 
4. The establishment of e-mail servers for the purpose of hosting student e-mail services except student-toteacher systems included in some integrated curriculum systems is prohibited. 
5. The proposed deployment of any e-mail service must be approved by both the Supervisor of Instructional Technology and the Supervisor of Communications. 

More information regarding e-mail may be found in the Knox County Electronic Mail Guidelines. 

4. Server Platform 

Servers will be deployed to match the school or departmental workstation selection at the time of deployment. Schools are encouraged to be deliberate in selecting and/or changing computer platforms in that a change in direction may cause a significant reduction of network services if a compatible server platform cannot be deployed. 

The Knox County Schools Network Team supports two server platforms. These platforms have been selected to meet the needs of both the Macintosh OS and Microsoft Windows workstation environments. All principals, department heads, and building technology contacts are strongly encouraged to coordinate the purchase of new servers with the Instructional Technology department's Network Team. The following actions may occur should a server be purchased with operating systems not currently supported by the Network Team of the Instructional Technology Department: 

1. The server may be reformatted to a currently supported server operating system.
2. The server may not be placed on or will be removed from the network.
3. In extreme circumstances, the server may be removed from the site until such time as a suitable use can be found for the hardware. Exceptions to the above procedure should be sought prior to purchase. If previous approval from the District Network Administrator has not been granted in writing, additional costs for software, installation, or support services may be charged to the department or school responsible for the purchase. 

5. Passwords 

Administrator level passwords must be registered with the District Network Administrator for all servers connected to the district network. The District Network Administrator should be notified anytime passwords are changed. Servers without registered passwords will be disconnected from the network.