Advice needed on working on Sims Databases

[Kyle]

Please bear with me on this, I work a lot in Sims but only front end not back end. I have been asked to do some work on some of our primary feeder schools. It will be paid overtime which i dont mind doing on a few weekends to get some money for xmas. I need to update several data fields in sims such as parental info and student info, I cant get into the schools at weekends and have no external login access. Can i take a copy of the database to work on and then copy it back. I have encrypted laptop and have permission from the schools to access their data.

Now my problem is i have no idea how to copy database for me to work on or even if my idea can be done. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions that could help me out?

[ChrisH]

If it is not a procedure you are familiar with, I would think seriously before heading down this road given the potential for disaster.

[round2it]

you dont need the hastle

sims learning gateway?

[matt40k]

You would have to deattach the database last thing, copy to your encrypted laptop, attach it, then work on it, then deattach it, the copy back first thing.

Personally, I wouldn't. I would run a mile. If they want you to work over the weekend, they need to put up for some sort of remote access solution.

[vikpaw]

logmein access to a workstation or server even but best not to use server, though it's probably a workstation anyway.
much safer that way, no need to move the db file and should work as quick.

in theory, you could work on multiple schools at once this way, without any overhead of working on a dataset on your local machine.

also, when you say backend, you wont be allowed to go hacking around in the db, you can still only use the front end tools to update those fields. perhaps some bulk update routine or housekeeping routines, depending on what info you want to put in.

[GREED]

Kyle

I agree with all my friends above on this one. By doing this you are shutting access to SIMS down for the whole time you have the database (as any changes made before you reattach the database would be lost). Work on the live system rather than your own copy. There is no problem technically (I did it on more than one occasion), but the hassle and potential risk (copying databases to and fro... na!).

[Kyle]

After reading this lot :-(

Remote login requested.

Thanks All

[apeo]

If you were allowed, you could have just created update queries but this isnt allowed by Capita (AFAIK). Technically those who own the data (i.e. the school) can do what ever they want with their database but if anything goes wrong or Capita find out then they wont support you/them.

So annoying, I've had many situations where a bulk update would be useful but no way to do it.

[GREED]

If you were allowed, you could have just created update queries but this isnt allowed by Capita (AFAIK). Technically those who own the data (i.e. the school) can do what ever they want with their database but if anything goes wrong or Capita find out then they wont support you/them.

So annoying, I've had many situations where a bulk update would be useful but no way to do it.

They will support, it just costs. Years ago I was investigating using SQL replication as a backup. Unknown to me Capita didn't support it, and when it came to an update it failed, indirectly because of this. Capita had to take out FMS database away to repair.

[vikpaw]

If you were allowed, you could have just created update queries but this isnt allowed by Capita (AFAIK). Technically those who own the data (i.e. the school) can do what ever they want with their database but if anything goes wrong or Capita find out then they wont support you/them.

So annoying, I've had many situations where a bulk update would be useful but no way to do it.

Ask your support team, ideally if it's Capita, it's easier, but i've had approval (in theory) to have some bulk routines run. If it's a simple sql script, they just need a developer to check it over to make sure it wont break anything, and say for example, updating a field also makes any other knock changes that it should. It's worth it even if you have to pay for it, because of the time it saves. Please note, i haven't done these (yet) but in theory it was allowed, i just need to raise a supportcall.

They are right not to support you doing a hack, but if you get their approval / get them to do it for you, that should be fine. I don't see why they don't do custom additions, they just have to charge sometimes, depending on what it is, and how much extra work it is for them. It's not much different to them having to write a site specific patch for when things go wrong, except it's hopefully a lot less urgent.

[apeo]

@Greed: Yeah I meant they wont support under current support contract and there would be an additional charge, which is likely to be very expensive.

@vikpaw: Good advise mate, i will bear that in mind next time i have a bulk update.