Do we actually need SOLUS3 client on all the workstations?

[AJWhite1970]

Interesting debate running in my office at the moment so I thought I'd throw this out for some opinions.

 

We are currently finishing the gold build for Windows 10 and the question was raised for how to install SOLUS3 for the staff and IWB PC's. My argument is that SOLUS3 isn't really needed on all the workstations at all, if we just maintain a central shared folder with the latest client files on it (ie manually updated after SOLUS updates an Admin PC in my office) then the workstations can run a quick fastcopy script, update the c: sims.net folder and away they go. This also makes major upgrades go faster as you only need to update the server and one admin PC. My deputy however feels that by not installing SOLUS on all the workstations bad things will inevitably happen further down the line.

 

So what are your thoughts, is SOLUS an overcomplicated solution to SIMS workstation upgrades that can be dropped or should we continue to roll it out to all staff and teaching PC's? There is no debate about removing it from the SIMS server btw, this is just workstations we are talking about

 

Andrew

[Steve21]

You'll run into a lot of issues I'd say. How do you deploy the 999 patches required at workstation level each time they break something in an update? How do you allow users to install something like Discover without manually deploying it again? How do you know the latest versions actually have been deployed successfully?

 

Seems like a lot of potentially added issues for just having a client installed.

 

Steve

[mrwoberts]

Do you mean copying the contents from your ProgramFiles folder, to the repository, then copying those (changed) files to each client?

I do like the idea, but I'd agree that it seems a bit too risky, and potentially a lot of work to address the following...

 

Are there any registry entries you'd need to copy?

What would you do if the app was open on the client pc, would you reschedule an update?

How about if for whatever reason the client was shutdown/sleeped ;-) when the copying was taking place, would that break your install?

Do you have a system to be able to tell who has/hasn't got the latest version?

 

If I think of anything else I'll post.

[Joanne]

I think Solus improves the update experience for SIMS. I deploy it through the agent jobby on the server. It installs all by itself and if you reimage a machine but give it the same AD name, I think it will re-install it (might be wrong there).

 

I'd definitely use Solus. I think there might be a bigger picture that we can't see.

[5tu]

... jobby ....

 

Pfffft!!

Edited May 10, 2016 by gybe78

[Banjo]

We have dozens of schools without Solus 3 agents on the workstations. The servers update via Solus 3 and the workstations update the same way as Solus 2. The weak link in the chain is Solus 3 on the MIS servers, not simsload on the workstations that can be relied upon. The Solus3 agents on the servers think they have downloaded and upgraded to the latest version or have run the patch - when in fact they haven't.

[AJWhite1970]

It's a hypothetical debate at the moment as it's not critical for the gold build as we could install SOLUS3 at any time however...

 

It's a PIA having to have nearly 200 PC's plus laptops on for a major upgrade so I'm just thinking of easier ways to do it. Interesting reply from @Banjo though, I'm glad I'm not the only one having these crazy thoughts

 

Thanks for all the input, interested in any other views

Andrew

[bobsmith]

I've only ever used SOLUS 3, but I've found that after the initial installation it's been so simple to manage.

 

Updates just need to be manually released once you've updated your SIMS server and the clients sort themselves out.

[Cazale]

Sounds like a plan. SOLUS (and SIMs in general) is horrible, buggy, terrible, ill thought out, software that borders on the offensive.

 

Having it run on as few computers as possible sounds like a good idea!

[Banjo]

It's a hypothetical debate at the moment as it's not critical for the gold build as we could install SOLUS3 at any time however...

 

It's a PIA having to have nearly 200 PC's plus laptops on for a major upgrade so I'm just thinking of easier ways to do it. Interesting reply from @Banjo though, I'm glad I'm not the only one having these crazy thoughts

 

Thanks for all the input, interested in any other views

Andrew

 

Forgot to add, we also have mixed mode schools. Some workstations will have Solus 3 agents on them and others just use simsload.

[splattthecat]

We are using SOLUS3 on servers and clients here. It works reasonably well, and allows workstation patches, like the recent one to fix an issue with detentions, to be deployed to clients easily. SOLUS3 has become much more reliable than it was in the early days, when it was a PITA, and we have relatively few issues upgrading 250+ schools. (Still not quite as reliable as SOLUS2 was for us, but SOLUS3 does more than SOLUS2 did!)

[ThatBoringBloke]

I only have the agent installed on around 15 pc's here. All of the Admin ones and ones that Run FMS / Discover.

 

Following a successful update to these clients I copy a working copy of the C:\Program Files\SIMS\Sims .net folder to a shared area and script an installation onto all of the other PC's.

 

Never had any problems.

[superfletch]

This landed up as a pretty big topic in the end so I've posted a link to the section that covered this. Take a look at the post it goes to and maybe the next few afterwards...

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/166696-any-solus-3-gotchas-4.html#post1438292

Edited May 12, 2016 by superfletch