deano Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 The school I look after is CC3 and we use SIMS. We originally used Bromcom but we moved from them to start a trial for the council on SIMS Learning Gateway. At the moment, the behaviour is not accesible as a web part which means we have not had any behaviour reporting since September. We were hoping to see the web part introduced in october but now we have been told it has been put back until September 2010. The school wants to install SIMS into each classroom to use lesson monitor and continue to use SLG for marksheets. My problem is that I currently have the admin server setup with a trust relationship and each workstation that currently requires SIMS for admin, has the member of staff set as priveledged user. My thoughts are to map an S drive using RMMC to the admin server, create a shortcut to the sims app when installed on each workstation manually, add each staff member to the trust relationship so they use the share and they should be able to run. Does this sound correct? Or is there an easier altenative that somebody has implemented?
Edu-IT Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 As long as users have access to the correct drives, won't running SIMSPERM solve the permissions issues? Are the laptops built as CC3 or standalone?
Cache Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 Don't RM also provide the SIMS updates as CC3 packages? I never used SIMS and CC3 together so never looked at the updates on the support pages, but it might be worth checking out?
synaesthesia Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 Install on each workstation, make sure the permissions are correct, manually add the domain username as a local administrator or power user to ensure updates apply correctly and bob's your uncle. Very little to it. Add a usertype to CC3 for MIS users to ensure correct mapping of the S drive and relevant permissions also. 1
meastaugh1 Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 As others have already said, RM provide SIMS packages; these are essentially wrappers for the usual Capita-provided installers. You should not need to assign local administrators or priviliged user rights to SIMS users. RM include a writeccess.ini in their SIMS infrastructure package which should assign the necessary rights to perform client updates. You may just need to ensure that your SIMS users belong to the Magement Information System group and there is a software restriction policy exception to allow users to execute the installers on the SIMS server: you would create a path rule to allow executables to be run from "\\simsserver\sims\*"
meastaugh1 Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 Add a usertype to CC3 for MIS users to ensure correct mapping of the S drive and relevant permissions also. You can map a drive in RMMC without changing the usertype. The standard usertype just means the S: (or whatever letter) drive is hidden, but is still mapped so SIMS can access it, it's just hidden from the user (ie explorer). 1
morganw Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 My thoughts are to map an S drive using RMMC to the admin server, create a shortcut to the sims app when installed on each workstation manually, add each staff member to the trust relationship so they use the share and they should be able to run. You actually don't need to provide to the S: drive for SIMS to run, but the 'normal' practice is to access your connect.ini file through that mapping (so if you ever need to point at a different sql database you just update the file on the server). When SIMS is running all data goes through the sql connection so you do not have to give write access to the S: drive. The only exception i've encountered is that if you have people using Nova-T4 then you'll have to give them write access to the S: drive (be careful what else they can get to on the same mapping). Technically Nova-T4 isn't supported and shouldn't be being used, but everyone here can't use anything else (apparently). As far as I know RM don't supply SIMS updates (otherwise i'd be using them). I've also tried various scripts / wrapper to deploy the SIMS client remotely but have encountered niggles with the infrastructure going on. I also can't get the simsperm batch file to run correctly as I can't get SubInACL to work at all, but if you can use it and avoid making staff CC3 'privileged users' then that would be the way to go to help preserve your workstation setup. The new Solus3 deployment and update system should be out in a few months, hopefully that will make everything less of a nightmare to install and update.
morganw Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 As others have already said, RM provide SIMS packages; these are essentially wrappers for the usual Capita-provided installers. Will check this out our local SIMS support team have never mentioned this, thanks.
meastaugh1 Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 Will check this out our local SIMS support team have never mentioned this, thanks. Np, if you have access to RM's support site, the link is: http://www.rm.com/Support/GeneralDownload.asp?cref=DWN1567504 As you upgrade SIMS, you can just drop the simsapplicationsetup.exe (and the rest) into the appropriate package folder for future client installation. This also gives you the option of reallocating once you've upgraded so SIMS client installations update when the computers start up (via WOL?) so users don't have to wait for for the update when they click the shortcut. Although, I haven't been doing this recently since Capita have improved (made quicker) the SOLUS client update. 1
Edu-IT Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 Ah, I never thought of updating the files in the share. Usually I just assign the older package we have and let it update itself. Nice tip! Thanks.
matt40k Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 Other way maybe getting a Windows 2008 terminal server and using Remote Apps. RM packages seem to be the best way to deploy SIMS without having to worry about user permissions on CC3.
morganw Posted January 25, 2010 Posted January 25, 2010 Anyone found a way of stopping the Visual Basic Redist installer from asking for a reboot? It's set to install quietly but it doesnt.
morganw Posted January 25, 2010 Posted January 25, 2010 Yes, it's this file... http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7B9BA261-7A9C-43E7-9117-F673077FFB3C&displaylang=en ...and i cant get it to stay silent, 9/10 times when scripted it's asks for a reboot. Oddly when I manually install the Sims Infrastructure 9/10 I don't get asked for a reboot, but sometimes I do. Even the RM CC3 package instructions say you will possible have to click 'NO' to continue after installing the runtime. Pretty much defeats the idea of a remote deployment if I have to be there.
meastaugh1 Posted January 25, 2010 Posted January 25, 2010 I've not come across this before. If you install the VB6 redistributable beforehand, does the Infrastrucutre installer still attempt to install it and consequently prompt for a reboot?
morganw Posted January 25, 2010 Posted January 25, 2010 Yes, the infrastructure installer will always run it even if it's just been run and it's been installed / rebooted. I also get errors when logging in on a non-admin account afterwards (just for that first logon) giving a Windows Update error for two vb6 runtime components.
matt40k Posted January 25, 2010 Posted January 25, 2010 What version is your SIMSInfrastructureSetup.EXE and your simsinst.exe?
morganw Posted January 25, 2010 Posted January 25, 2010 The latest ones from the Autumn 2009 update I presume, i'm calling them directly from the MIS server so they are definitely current.
matt40k Posted January 25, 2010 Posted January 25, 2010 SIMSINST doesn't get updated (yet) via SOLUS, so it's prob out of date. SIMSINF will also be out of date, unless you've downloaded the latest CCS inf packages via SOLUS (Autumn Update).
Edu-IT Posted January 25, 2010 Posted January 25, 2010 I didn't have this problem using the supplied SIMS packages from RM...?
morganw Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 Where can I get the updated files from? Our local support team operate their own scripting system on top of the solus update system, but I think it only uses the solus updates and adds some scheduling. With regard to the CC3 packages how do you get them to install in order? The first time I tried most of them failed because of dependencies, and the CC3 installer doesn't automatically re-order or retry. So I would have to allocate one package at a time in the correct order? Or am I meant to use the early / late install groups with them?
superfletch Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 (edited) Hi Morgan, I'm only quoting several of your threads cause I know you and cause you're asking the interesting questions here: You actually don't need to provide to the S: drive for SIMS to run, but the 'normal' practice is to access your connect.ini file through that mapping Some, but not all others will need access as S: also holds the default paths for accessing CTFs, Census / Workforce Census Returns, Exams Basedata and FSM files. Will check this out our local SIMS support team have never mentioned this, thanks. That's wierd, we all did the CC3 and CC4 courses and made it clear to the instructor that SIMS was the MIS for all our schools and one of our biggest support commitments. I'm sure we asked the trainer if there were packages or even blueprints for the SIMS updates and we were told "no". Anyone found a way of stopping the Visual Basic Redist installer from asking for a reboot? It's set to install quietly but it doesnt. This is poor/inconsistent code from MS. Could you call it from a batch file as a shutdown script? That way someone will restart the PC for you even if it is stuck. Alternatively use something like AutoIt to call it then wait til the promt box appears and at that point tell it to reboot. Not sure that the syntax I've put here would be right - I'd have to check the help file. ***AutoIt*** RunWait("\\servername\sharename\VB6.0-KB290887-X86.exe /q") IF ProcessExists("name_of_installers_exit_GUI.exe") then Shutdown(5) Else Processwait("name_of_installers_exit_GUI.exe") Shutdown(5) ***/AutoIt*** I didn't have this problem using the supplied SIMS packages from RM...? Where do you go on RM.com to get them? I've not come across this before. If you install the VB6 redistributable beforehand, does the Infrastrucutre installer still attempt to install it and consequently prompt for a reboot? REPLY Yes, the infrastructure installer will always run it even if it's just been run and it's been installed / rebooted. I also get errors when logging in on a non-admin account afterwards (just for that first logon) giving a Windows Update error for two vb6 runtime components. Surprised at that, fairly poor coding from Capita. Kind of makes the running it silently and independent of the rest of the infrastructure question obsolete. All they need to do is check for the existence of a couple of Reg Keys before calling it/not calling it. Makes me sad. :-( Is this part of the SIMS Infrastructure? Yeah. Edited January 27, 2010 by superfletch Add stuff 1
meastaugh1 Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 Where do you go on RM.com to get them? Np, if you have access to RM's support site, the link is: http://www.rm.com/Support/GeneralDownload.asp?cref=DWN1567504 1
superfletch Posted January 27, 2010 Posted January 27, 2010 Np, if you have access to RM's support site, the link is: http://www.rm.com/Support/GeneralDownload.asp?cref=DWN1567504 Nice one - thanks, I guess the packages won't force a restart cause they are already rolled up into MSI's. I'm off to see if the RM site includes packages for the infrastructure.
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