[sims] Is SOLUS 3 pretty much impossible to avoid at this stage?

[matt40k]

If it works...

 

At this stage, harsh as that sounds if it doesn't work*, it's to do with your setup - ie DNS, firewall or s3 not configured correctly.

 

* except that auto-deploy bug? and when Capita servers goes down.

Edited September 16, 2013 by matt40k
UPDATED the exception list :p

[Sam_Brown]

K. I don't mean to come across as being overly negative about it! Especially when I've not had much hands on experience myself. I'll shut up now and let someone else talk!

[matt40k]

I think that's the biggest problem, you don't have the time to learn something that you'll setup and pretty much forget about, I was talking a mate and he said he'll most likely hire a contractor in to setup SCCM. Same thing applies for S3.

[Rawns]

In some cases, it doesn't work correctly. We've had a few primary schools that failed to apply the SIMS Summer upgrade, yet for some reason, the database was upgraded and left on 3.61.901 so all clients had the usual 'incompatable database' message. In the end, we re-deployed the Summer upgrade, SOLUS3 saw the database was updated and did not include it in the list of targets to upgrade. That's a SOLUS3 issue, not a setup issue.

[matt40k]

And that's why I never trusted auto-deployment

 

Sure Capita would "love" to know why it didn't rollback correctly

Just a thought, are these schools old kit? Could it be a timeout issue? So S3 timeout and killed it, but it's just ignored it and carried on upgrading the db

[Cache]

From an LA perspective, SOLUS3 is AWFUL for patches as there is no easy way to re-deploy the same patch twice. For example the classic 'Reindex database' patch that fixes most things. You release it to a school, if they have auto-deploy set up, it will get applied during the upgrade schedule. If they need that patch again later down the line, you have to manually connect up and reschedule a deployment of it. In SOLUS2, we just reauthorised in Schools Manager and job done.

 

Do you find this works?

 

I had to redeploy the btec exams patch this summer which is supposed to be an OnDemand patch I think (has [OD] in the patch name in Solus3) and Solus3 rather helpfully told me that the patch had already been deployed and wouldn't redeploy it no matter what I tried as there was no redeploy link next to it.

 

Had to call up and ask for the patch to be emailed across and rerun it using dbupgrade.

 

I wouldn't trust Solus3 to apply a SIMS upgrade while I wasn't there, one major bad experience and it's scarred me for life. I do schedule and leave to run early in the morning Solus3 and Discover updates.

 

I do like the fact that now if a deployment time's out when a machine is offline, it will reschedule the deployment. I dislike the fact that it only tries the schedule once per day (which is useless because obviously I need to retry it ASAP).

Edited September 16, 2013 by Cache

[PhilNeal]

I think it should try again a few more times. The fear was it could get into a loop.

[Cache]

I can udnerstand the reason behind preventing a loop, however it is definitiely only running once per day for me:

2013-09-16 12:30:35.0174|Error|DsLog not open when attempting to write: 2013-09-16 12:30:35.0174|ds|Info|Deployment timeout (30 minutes) exceeded for agent sh-off-01.school.kirkbystephengrammar.local!|Execute() 
2013-09-16 12:30:35.0174|Info|Agent sh-off-01.school.kirkbystephengrammar.local has responded 
2013-09-16 12:30:35.0174|Debug|Pending|Pending deployment id 147 for sh-off-01.school.kirkbystephengrammar.local (7c33ab47-5761-4173-8449-c3ecd337cc9e) was not successful and will be queued again 
2013-09-16 12:30:35.0344|Debug|Pending|Setting pending deployment 147 as INACTIVE for sh-off-01.school.kirkbystephengrammar.local (7c33ab47-5761-4173-8449-c3ecd337cc9e) 
2013-09-16 12:30:35.0464|Debug|Pending|No pending deployments found for sh-off-01.school.kirkbystephengrammar.local (7c33ab47-5761-4173-8449-c3ecd337cc9e)
2013-09-16 12:39:40.4980|Info|Agent SH-OFF-01 was shut down. 
2013-09-16 12:40:14.8574|Info|Agent SH-OFF-01 woke up. 
2013-09-16 12:40:14.8804|Debug|Processing Agent notification for Agent guid 7c33ab47-5761-4173-8449-c3ecd337cc9e 
2013-09-16 12:40:14.9274|Debug|Validating target version info received from agent 7c33ab47-5761-4173-8449-c3ecd337cc9e 
2013-09-16 12:40:14.9274|Debug|Original number of target version info DTO's = 0. Distinct number of  target version info DTO's = 0 
2013-09-16 12:40:14.9274|Debug|Validated number of target version info DTO's = 0 
2013-09-16 12:40:14.9274|Debug|Verifying target version info received from agent 7c33ab47-5761-4173-8449-c3ecd337cc9e 
2013-09-16 12:40:14.9464|Debug|Pending|No pending deployments found for sh-off-01.school.kirkbystephengrammar.local (7c33ab47-5761-4173-8449-c3ecd337cc9e) 
*SNIP*
2013-09-16 19:42:35.8032|Info|Agent SH-OFF-01 woke up. 
2013-09-16 19:42:35.8592|Debug|Processing Agent notification for Agent guid 7c33ab47-5761-4173-8449-c3ecd337cc9e 
2013-09-16 19:42:35.9432|Debug|Validating target version info received from agent 7c33ab47-5761-4173-8449-c3ecd337cc9e 
2013-09-16 19:42:35.9432|Debug|Original number of target version info DTO's = 0. Distinct number of  target version info DTO's = 0 
2013-09-16 19:42:35.9432|Debug|Validated number of target version info DTO's = 0 
2013-09-16 19:42:35.9432|Debug|Verifying target version info received from agent 7c33ab47-5761-4173-8449-c3ecd337cc9e 
2013-09-16 19:42:35.9672|Debug|Pending|No pending deployments found for sh-off-01.school.kirkbystephengrammar.local (7c33ab47-5761-4173-8449-c3ecd337cc9e) 

 

As it turns out, something had corrupted the Solus3 install, not sure what, but the packagedeployer just keeps crashing on the client. Eventually found out I can manually upgrade them using the the exported Solus3 Agent installer.

 

Could well be because it's a Solus3 update and happy if it's something to do with my install, but just curious how many times it should reattempt before failing?

Edited September 16, 2013 by Cache

[PhilNeal]

At the moment it tries once per day. I agree with you that it should try harder!!

[Cache]

Sorry, misread your first post Phil, hopefully the next update can increase it's retries then.

 

Thanks!

[Rawns]

Do you find this works?

 

I had to redeploy the btec exams patch this summer which is supposed to be an OnDemand patch I think (has [OD] in the patch name in Solus3) and Solus3 rather helpfully told me that the patch had already been deployed and wouldn't redeploy it no matter what I tried as there was no redeploy link next to it.

 

Had to call up and ask for the patch to be emailed across and rerun it using dbupgrade.

 

I wouldn't trust Solus3 to apply a SIMS upgrade while I wasn't there, one major bad experience and it's scarred me for life. I do schedule and leave to run early in the morning Solus3 and Discover updates.

 

I do like the fact that now if a deployment time's out when a machine is offline, it will reschedule the deployment. I dislike the fact that it only tries the schedule once per day (which is useless because obviously I need to retry it ASAP).

 

The applying of auto-deployable patches? Or re-authorising patches in in schools manager for application via SOLUS2?

[Stuart_C]

We had a number or problems when we first installed it, the most serious/anoying being that the one agent that went wrong was the one on the server (different GUID on the client and in the server DB). However having said that the version I am currently running (3.5 something or other) has been pretty good. To the extent where I have actually dared to run my SIMS update's overnight when no-one is in! And it's actually worked prety will. There are a few failures, most down to early risers getting in and opening SIMS before it's updates and anoying it (or the Head having his computer on all night) or when the PC is off at the wall and I can't WOL it.

 

Re-delpoying the update usually fixes these OK so on the whole it's actually OK. My only real issue is it not deploying the components to run Option/Nova autonatically!!!

[Cache]

The applying of auto-deployable patches? Or re-authorising patches in in schools manager for application via SOLUS2?

 

I meant redeploying patches which have already been deployed once by Solus3 (sorry).

[jayemm]

I don't often find myself saying this but here goes... Solus 3 is one of the few things that has come out of capita in recent years that does exactly what it says on the tin and just works.

 

Over summer we have scrapped two old domains and started using a single completely different one. Decided at the same time to move SIMS to server 2012 and SQL 2012 at the same time. Migrating sims and FMS was an actual nightmare and nit and not as simple as it was in the past for numerous reasons. Really wasn't looking forward to installing configuring and using solus 3 but didn't want to install sims on each machine individually.

 

Installed solus 3 in a a breeze with instructions that were very good including the details of what ports it uses. Our sims/FMS solus server and client machines all have windows firewall on and it works a treat. Makes it much easier for us as we install sims on all 700 desktops.

 

I do know that not all places have the same experience we do, one school had a nightmare with it, another set I tup to download and apply updates automatically rather than schedule.

 

I love the fact that I can just add a computer to the sims workstation group and leave it to it.