KS3 Tests being chucked out.

[Ste_Harve]

We've been running the KS3 practice tests recently and every now and then it will chuck a user out of the test section. This only seems to happen when we've got a couple of classes on it at one go.

Once they have been chucked out they are left with a black screen with the desktop icons but no start menu.

Also the DPS won't let another user log in. It comes up with one tab asking for a username and password. I enter my details and then it's ok. Will give you the normal logon screen, when a different person logs on it says there is an uncompleted test and won't let them no. I've tried the gudies and they are no use. The interface for recovery is different from what we get.

Has anyone had any similar problems? And any ways to cure them?

Many Thanks

Ste

[beeswax]

my head of ICT forwarded an email from RM to me. the following extract may be of help.

"3. Network connections

The performance of the KS3 ICT test software depends on the speed of your
school's network connections and the amount of activity across your LAN.
As advised in the Installation and Technical Guide, for optimum
performance of the software, it is recommended that you use switched
network connections (no hubs) to allow each workstation its maximum
available bandwidth.

During test sessions, the level of traffic from the DPS workstations to
the APS will be high. The number of pupils that can take the test
simultaneously depends upon the available bandwidth and level of traffic
on your network. If you encounter frequent lost connections between DPS
workstations and the APS we would advise you to plan sessions for no more
than 60 pupils at a time.

Where possible you should try to minimise the number of other
applications that will be running on both the server and the workstations
used for the test during the test window. For example, reschedule
backups and anti virus scans to times when tests are not being taken."

hope it helps.
beeswax

[Ste_Harve]

That's sound advice. We're running a fully switched network. True 1Gbps Backbone and all clients are connected at 100Mbp/s.

We are struggling to run with 40 clients before other testees are being chucked out of the computers.

Has anyone any ideas on ways to decrease the problem? Would a dedicated server help?

[Nij.UK]

Ive had this problem happen a few times, cause ive been running the tests this week, the max pupils we have working on them at any one time is 30... when this happens, ive closed the student session using Test Administrator rights, and then restarted the machine and when the student logs back onto the network the DPS starts them off where they were last..

i understand this adds time to the session.

[steve]

Oh b*gger we've been planning 170 users at a time!

Not had any problems with 60 on at a time though, more testing I reckon...

[russdev]

Oh b*gger we've been planning 170 users at a time!

Not had any problems with 60 on at a time though, more testing I reckon...

no way....

170 god tech nightmare

russ

[_Bob_]

Has anyone been running this on workstations with firefox as the default browser?

[ticker]

I’ve had a similar problem running the tests with a group of 30 computers at least one of the computers will either just freeze and I’ll have to restart the computer and then get the student to log back in and resume the test. or when they have finished the test and the DPS is closing and sending the data to the APS at least one of the computers will again freeze and I’ll have to shut it down from the flight deck, and this is total random, happens every session on no particular student or computer.

[Nij.UK]

170 in one go, that is going to be a nightmare! i would recommend not to go down that path...

I think i recieved an email to say that the test wont work with Firefox or I.E 7

[Chafftech]

We recently ran with 120 in one go, followed by 90. I had about 5 crashes attributed to QCA software. I have found out that RM Auditor interferes with the APS postgres database, so I have switched off RMC3iengine on the APS server to see if this helps.

It does add 2 minutes to the test when they crash out, best to pause that students test as soon as you know it's crashed / frozen.

I will be running 120 and 90 again tomorrow but will stagger it 10 min apart for each 30.

[tosca925]

We ran if for 135 on tuesday, we had planned to do the two test test one after another witha 10 minute gap inbetween. The first test with 130 we had only two problems and that was due to hardware.

But on the second test we had slow network problems when all the data from the first tests was still being written back to the server. It took ages for some to log in and the staff using the flight deck had the flight deck 'not responding' for around 20 mins then it cam back to life.

We know now this is a data transfer issue at the end of 135 users data going to the server.

We have 270 in year 9 so we are now going to do it over 4 days. half theyear one day will do test 1 and the other half next day, the jalf the year will do test 2 and then the other half, this way we should have very little problems.

We do install th esoftware on extra pc incase we have hard ware issues, and when we use a room we always leave 2 spare machines in case. We are lucky that nearly 500 of our pc's are more than good enough to run it.

[davidT]

A problem we had with the practice test is stations not allowing students to log on because a test is still unfinished on that station due to a previous crash. The solution is to delete the files in C:\pf\qcatesting\dps\backup and the C:\pf\qcatesting\dps\upload\ibpset folders. (from memory)
This solve the prob but I suppose with the real summative tests if we do this the student willnot get any result (apart from being fed up with the whole process)!
Tomorrow we plan two classes to do both parts, on class of 30 at a time.

[russdev]

yer please dont do that as they would lose there test...

if need to get student data backup phone rm as there are solutions etc

Russ