[sims] SIMS Autumn (Winter) 2013

[creese]

It's Phil's Christmas gift to us. A worry free month.

[vikpaw]

...And a token ring to find them

[superfletch]

I've applied it on the capita test school databases - it went through fine (on SOLUS 3.6.94 in SQL 2012 on Server 08R2) - to be honest you'd expect it to be OK on those!!

 

Seems stable on our XP clients.

The new documentation centre is nice.

The improvements to "Homepage group configuration" look worth a shot if your SIMS Server is still suffering memory issues since the homepage changes.

The small change to the wording at the top of a new Census return is nice, includes the year as well as term.

Fileset 150 auto imported OK

Discover seems no different but I note you can copy graphs and rename the legend on user defined graphs.

 

Overall - it's looking good to me... ...so far.

Edited December 3, 2013 by superfletch

[creese]

I've applied it on the capita test school databases - it went through fine (on SOLUS 3.6.94 in SQL 2012 on Server 08R2)

 

.

 

That doesn't count. For a mention in dispatches it has to be live data. ;-)

[superfletch]

Yeah - my edit came a bit late...

[nsimmo]

I think i may be the poor sap that has to install it on server 2003 im hoping someone will do it first to see if it works.

[Sheridan]

I'm hoping it will work on Server 2003 as well, only because thats what our Citrix remote access system is still running on (for the time being anyway!)

 

Nearly every other client has been upgraded to Windows 7 so they should be ok, even so I think I'll hang fire until the January inset days to do the upgrade!

[matt40k]

I think it'll be wise if @PhilNeal confirms that 2003\XP is going to work, otherwise the first MS security release after 2003\XP is dropped by Microsoft we're going to see a hack and a list of schools who's vulnerable. I'm sure no-one would be stupid enough to target schools specifically, but idiots are unpredictable and I'd, personally, rather not make it easy for them.

[zag]

I want to use solus3 for the first time to do this upgrade but which version do I install?

 

Confused...

 

[Rawns]

I want to use solus3 for the first time to do this upgrade but which version do I install?

 

Confused...

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21875[/ATTACH]

 

SIMS 2013 Autumn (7.154.21).

 

It will automatically include the SIMS Database 2013 Autumn as part of the rollout. Why Capita release them in two separate packages though I don't know. Why would anyone want to upgrade the SIMS database only?

Edited December 6, 2013 by Rawns

[Rawns]

Out of curiosity, I'm wondering why those running Server 2003 have not upgraded before now? Capita announced it's end of support for it (and XP) two years ago.

 

I can understand taking a risk with running the clients still on XP, but is running the SIMS Autumn upgrade on your 2003 server a bit too risky? While Capita say nothing has been introduced to break it on XP/Server 2003, what happens if it does break SIMS?

[nsimmo]

I only taken over running of the school recently the previous company was rather a let down and Im trying to get a new server put in asap but im tied up with red tape.

[matt40k]

@Rawns ideal world, you upgrade every 3 years, real world, not always that easy. If your school is closing, like a Middle school in a LA that is going to a two-tier system, I doubt you'll want to spend money on a new server. Personally Capita need to physically restrict the upgrade working on unsupported systems so you MUST run a supported system and you can't run into trouble such as running on critical with sensitive data on a insecure system and get hacked. I doubt Capita have the balls to do it. This is the only way you're going to get everyone upgrade in time. You'll be surprised how fast you can cut throw the red tape when you have the census looming which is going to be used to work out the schools budget!

[creese]

[h=2]SIMS 2013 Autumn release - Please Read[/h]SIMS 2013 Autumn Release.

Following its release on the 29th November, an issue has been discovered with the SIMS 2013 Autumn release

 

• PLASC return for Wales. A small amount of Validation error codes have incorrect text.
  

We are currently looking at resolving this issue in an updated version of the SIMS 2013 Autumn release and would recommend that if you are a school in Wales, you delay any plans to update to this release until the new version is available. Schools in England or Northern Ireland are unaffected by these issues and can either choose to apply the current version or the updated revision when it is available.

We apologise for the inconvenience that this might cause and thank you for your patience while we work through these issues and their resolution. I will post a confirmed date for the updated Autumn release within the next couple of days.

Please feel free to email me directly if you have any particular concerns or questions at[email protected]

Regards,

Jonathan Wood

SIMS Product Manager (Technical and Releases)

[nsimmo]

If any one is interested it works fine on server 2003 completed the install over the holidays and tested on multiple machines first day back and everything still seems fine.

[Sheridan]

If any one is interested it works fine on server 2003 completed the install over the holidays and tested on multiple machines first day back and everything still seems fine.

 

Cheers for the feedback, I'll need to run it on one 2003 system for a few months until its replaced!

[MrWu]

Hi guys,

 

Happy new year!

 

I'm looking to leapfrog to Autumn 2 (We still on summer 2) we have inTouch, NovaT6 Discover and perfromance module as well)

 

I have the avalible updates listed:

 

 

I must admit I'm a bit confused by all the choices:

 

a) Presume I need to update Solus to 3.6 first (We are running 3.5 at the moment) - does it need users to be logged off SIMS for this?

b) Then straight update to Autumn 2 (it will automatically update Autumn 2013 with this?)

c) Then Discover (after all PCs are on Solus 3.6)

d) Then manaully update inTouch

 

Does this sound right?

 

Cheers as always

[Rawns]

Hi guys,

 

Happy new year!

 

I'm looking to leapfrog to Autumn 2 (We still on summer 2) we have inTouch, NovaT6 Discover and perfromance module as well)

 

I have the avalible updates listed:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]22205[/ATTACH]

 

I must admit I'm a bit confused by all the choices:

 

a) Presume I need to update Solus to 3.6 first (We are running 3.5 at the moment) - does it need users to be logged off SIMS for this?

b) Then straight update to Autumn 2 (it will automatically update Autumn 2013 with this?)

c) Then Discover (after all PCs are on Solus 3.6)

d) Then manaully update inTouch

 

Does this sound right?

 

Cheers as always

 

Sounds spot on. SOLUS3 is stand alone co can be upgraded without causing interference to SIMS, FMS or Discover.

[zag]

Whats the "Solus 3 auto deployment" patch?

 

Also why do I have the solus 3.6.94.0 upgrade listed when I already have it installed?

Edited January 7, 2014 by zag

[Rawns]

Whats the "Solus 3 auto deployment" patch?

 

It's aimed at sites that have SOLUS3 auto deployment enabled. When Capita released SOLUS 3.6, the 'auto deploy' functionality was broken in it meaning you had to manually kick off the upgrade to 3.6. The patch fixed the SOLUS 3.5 deployment service so that you could auto-deploy the 3.6 upgrade.

[MrWu]

Hi

 

Is the Autumn upgrade also essential for the upcoming census next week?

 

Cheers

[ChrisH]

Hi

 

Is the Autumn upgrade also essential for the upcoming census next week?

 

Cheers

 

Yes it is.

[Rawns]

Hi

 

Is the Autumn upgrade also essential for the upcoming census next week?

 

Cheers

 

Yep, it has the latest fileset which contains all the updated validation rules required for an accurate census.

[Seb1780]

Yep, it has the latest fileset which contains all the updated validation rules required for an accurate census.

 

LOL - that's the best joke I've heard this year.

 

 

Now awaiting another fileset to correct all the problems in the current one.

[MrWu]

Right, full steam ahead for tomorrow:

 

Just a Sanity check (ref attached Screen Shot)

 

1) I am on Summer V2 at the moment, I just need to deploy Autumn 2 and it should do the rest (Discover for example)

2) I don't need to deploy SOLUS 3.6 yet (I am on SOLUS 3.5 works ok and I'm using SQL 2008 R2)

3) InTouch I update manually afterwards

 

Capita apparently said some sites had excessive memory usage after Autumn 2 update that stops inTouch working...we shall see.

 

Incidiently do you guys do a backup of SIMS, Discover DB via SQL management Studio before an update? I used to also do snapshots on hyper-V but wondering whether that is OTT...