beeswax Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 That's a red herring. Primary schools are supported by their LEA/RBC 'IT support' centre/team/guy. However it is unlikely that a lot of them have a AD domain based network. More likely they have a peer to peer type network. ...until you become a managed service. In our area the plans seem to be for a central server farm with AD across the whole LEA, from primary to further education. You'll be given a username and password in reception and carry that through your time in education.
PhilNeal Posted July 24, 2007 Author Posted July 24, 2007 Beeswax is absolutely right that LA wide AD are being created. If my memory servers me correctly, we did try using MSI a few years ago and found that staff had insufficient rights in schools to apply them.
meastaugh1 Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 They don't have permission to run the current update either, hence simsperm.bat. I'm sure someone will correct me, but couldn't you set it in local policy (for unmanaged computers) to always install windows installer with elevated (system) rights?
ajbritton Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 Yes, it is possible to allow Windows Installer to have elevated rights. If the MSI were digitally signed, then this would be very easy.
TechMonkey Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 @psydii: I'd also like to stop the installer apparently installing the manuals... as nobody here ever reads them... I don't even know where they are stored locally. This is a very good idea. There aren't even any links I can find to them. If people want something they go to the SIMS manager or if they are desperate to read the manual they could go to him/us for a copy. Along with that, can anyone explain the hundreds of files that are skipped in the installation, even in a brand new clean install?!
Heebeejeebee Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 @psydii: I'd also like to stop the installer apparently installing the manuals... as nobody here ever reads them... I don't even know where they are stored locally. This is a very good idea. There aren't even any links I can find to them. If people want something they go to the SIMS manager or if they are desperate to read the manual they could go to him/us for a copy. Along with that, can anyone explain the hundreds of files that are skipped in the installation, even in a brand new clean install?! I concur. Why read a manual when we're at the end of the phone . Some of the manual links don't work on our system anyway. At most you need a central, server based store of manuals that gets updated if needed. HBJB
logonui Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 The main reason we would like an msi is purely for new machine builds, if it is a choice between installing all software automatically during the os install or doing things manually i would rather save the time and let the msi do all the work. Especially when we have 100 odd staff machines to deploy to
User3204 Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 If you look through any Microsoft software, there is usually a setup.exe (to run), but the installer will just then run the MSI. Alternatiely it is possible, to wrap an .EXE around an .MSI, as this is what Sun do to their Java clients, to deploy the java updates, the instructions given are run the setup EXE file and the MSI and associated files are then dumped in the Temp folder - which I then deploy using the AD Group Policies. If you were to do something similar, then people with the know-how could do this, but no-one else would ever know. I too find life easier deploying installations..... I have deployed 15 different apps onto a new image this PM, whilst I wasn't even in the same room, I'd hate to have to upgrade Encarta/Office any other way.
Ravening_Wolf Posted September 12, 2007 Posted September 12, 2007 I'm worried that this topic is being quietly forgotten. Please do register your desire for a SIMS MSI installer here. Thanks!
meastaugh1 Posted September 12, 2007 Posted September 12, 2007 Maybe Phil could give us an update on what Capita are doing with this at the moment? Having recently applied the August update, I'm reminded how much of a nightmare the client SOLUS can be.
SwedishChef Posted September 20, 2007 Posted September 20, 2007 I found this link here and spoke to the guy who wrote it today, it can still be used. This might help.....as long as they dont change they way they deploy it ;-) http://www.schooltechnician.co.uk/knowledge_base/sims/sims_workstation_msi_for_network_deployment.html
TechMonkey Posted September 20, 2007 Posted September 20, 2007 This is the way we currently do it. It isn't a full install though, it just installs the solus component so that when a user goes to run sims on a brand new machine/install it pulls down the newest versions and is ready to run. It's not perfect but is better than nothing and we have scripted a way to run solus remotely so that can be run if we do a whole batch of machines.
Ravening_Wolf Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 Bump! Please do register your desire for a SIMS MSI installer here. Thanks!
ajbritton Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 It looks to me as if the MSI request is now at the top of the list so I guess we shouldn't have to wait to much longer...
ajbritton Posted June 27, 2008 Posted June 27, 2008 A colleague who attended last weeks SIMS annual conference informs me that a new deployment mechanism for SIMS is coming soon. It will be based on an MSI 'agent' which will presumably be deployable by GP. There will also be what sounds like a 'push' feature allowing specific workstations to be targeted. I don't know if there is anything concrete posted on the Capita SIMS website, but assuming they are not fibbing at the conference, it looks like we won. Yay! Well done all you geeks and thanks to Phil for listening. The proof of the pudding of course...
jrubinstein Posted June 28, 2008 Posted June 28, 2008 The answer to Phil's question is given further up the forum. Those of us with over 300 machines to run will probably be using one of a number of network management systems. We use config manager, but I note other methods are mentioned elsewhere. These systems allow an update to be scheduled to happen and the machines to be booted using wake on lan so that the entire upgrade can take place out of school hours and considerably diminish the impact on staff. We have put sims on all workstations but denied student access so the initial install is no longer an issue for us, but we could be more secure and better controlled if an msi was available so that only staff machines had the system installed.
Popular Post PhilNeal Posted June 29, 2008 Author Popular Post Posted June 29, 2008 We will be looking for volunteers to field trial the new system in the autumn term so that it can be released in the first quarter of 2009. The deployment engine is using MSI. Changes to the EXEs can be patched which means that upgrades will be much faster. It will include notification to people using SIMS that they have to get out and allow you to throw them off too. 6
SteveLaw Posted May 7, 2009 Posted May 7, 2009 (edited) Is there any further news on this? We are due to switch to SIMS (for all staff) in September and I could really do with an automated roll-out mechanism. ANyone here who got a trial version? Any feedback? (I can find nothing about an MSI on SupportNet...) Edited May 7, 2009 by SteveLaw
adhutton Posted May 7, 2009 Posted May 7, 2009 Is there any further news on this? We are due to switch to SIMS (for all staff) in September and I could really do with an automated roll-out mechanism. ANyone here who got a trial version? Any feedback? (I can find nothing about an MSI on SupportNet...) Yes please, we need and MSI version as manual SIMS updates are a real PITA! Andrew
matt40k Posted May 7, 2009 Posted May 7, 2009 Tis been canned. Ask about SOLUS 3. Sounds much nice, still waiting a list of features in stone.
jcollings Posted May 7, 2009 Posted May 7, 2009 SIMS and MSI? Pigs will fly... Well if swine flu and bird flu mix there's every chance of that!
matt40k Posted May 7, 2009 Posted May 7, 2009 SIMS and MSI? Pigs will fly... Assuming what I've heard is correct about SOLUS 3, I think you're think .msi are rubbish.
Hecate Posted May 11, 2009 Posted May 11, 2009 We get round the upgrade problem by using a startup script which runs SIMSLoad when the computer is switched on. We also run a script which switches all the computers required for registration on at 8:00am so if there has been an upgrade it has been run by the time the teachers logon for registration. Maybe I'm just lucky but I can't remember the last time I had to upgrade a workstation manually after a server update
Quackers Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 Last post was well over a year ago, can anybody tell me if there is finally a Group Policy deployable MSI available from Capita?
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now