XIA Automation

Sample configuration to create student and staff accounts

The following sample configuration can be used in XIA Automation v3 as a basis for the provision of staff and student user accounts within a school environment. The configuration matches practices designed for use by a number of schools and support organizations within the UK, however, can be configured to meet individual educational requirements.

View how to disable staff accounts in XIA Automation v3.

Active Directory Structure

The Active Directory structure is configured, starting with the creation of a School Site Organizational Unit which branches into Staff and Pupils OUs - which is subsequently subdivided into intake years. The use of Intake Years allows for students remain in a single location in Active Directory, unlike using for example Year 8, Year 9 etc which would involve moving the student account every school year.

Active Directory layout

Student users

Student users are created with a username First Initial | Surname | Intake year - for example dsweeny10.

  • Made a member of a group for their intake year
  • A default password of Passw0rd is configured
  • Assigned the login script pupils.bat
Student user
  • Home space is created for the student in the directory D:\homes\intakeyear\username
  • The directory is shared granting a share permission of Everyone : Full Control
  • NTFS Permissions are set giving Staff and Administrators full control, and the student Modify permission
Student home
  • Within the configuration, it is also possible to mailbox enable the account within Microsoft Exchange by enabling and configuring the Mailbox Enable Account task
Student mail enable
  • Finally, it is possible to configure the Send Email task to send an email alert when a provision completes successfully.

Staff Accounts

Staff users are created with a username of First Initial | Surname example jcopella. If this username already exists a numeric value is appended, for example jcopella1.

  • Made a member of the Staff group, which is created if it does not exist
  • A default password of Enterpr1se! is configured
  • Assigned the login script staff.bat
Staff user
  • Home space is created for the staff member in the directory D:\homes\staff\username
  • The directory is shared granting a share permission of Everyone : Full Control
  • NTFS Permissions are set giving the user, SYSTEM and Administrators full control
  • As with student accounts, it is possible to configure a mailbox enable task as well as email alerting for when staff users are created or updated