[sims] Solus and DirectAccess

[mitchell1981]

Before we spend too much time on it, has anyone had any luck getting Sims clients to update (via Solus) when they are connected from home over DirectAccess?

 

Sims itself runs fine in this configuration but the updates don't deploy so if we do an update in the holiday, no one can access Sims until they bring their laptop in to be updated.

 

Has anyone got this to work? If so, what did you do?

 

Thanks very much.

[Atomic_Zombie]

Never tried it myself but I'm quite intrigued, Do clients that are on Direct Access show as online in SOLUS 3? Can you do 'check for update' from the SOLUS 3 Client?

[mitchell1981]

Interesting question. I've delved deeper and Solus is showing the following:

 

 

Our computers are all on the 172.16..... range, so this is showing the local IP address at home (192.168....), which I guess is why it isn't working. Weird that it still sees it as online but can't communicate with it though.

 

Edit: That is a screenshot above. It looks like a line! Click to enlarge.

Edited July 21, 2016 by mitchell1981

[Atomic_Zombie]

We have had similar (PCs able to contact server, server not able to contact PC) when the Windows Firewall is not configured correctly, however it's clear this time it's because of the IP address mismatch. it looks as though the SOLUS client can clearly see the SOLUS sever through DA as you would expect, however the client is passing it's non-DA IP (192.168 etc.) to the SOLUS server,which of course it cannot use. What happens if you try and ping the PC? does it try the 192 address too? or the DA IP (it's been a while since I've used it, it uses IP6 doesn't it?). Unless someone else has got this working, it might be worth logging with Capita as a change request.

[ItsOggy]

If the user manually hits check for updates on the client side, would be interesting to know if it pulls it down.

[tri_94]

Hi there

 

Did anyone get anywhere on deploying sims or updates over direct access?

 

Thanks

[Squelch]

Hello, same as the post above, did anyone manage to get this working? Edited July 19, 2019 by Squelch
typo

[markwilfan]

Make sure that register with DNS is ticked within the vpn ip settings. We use alwayson VPN instead of direct access and this does the trick.

 

There is a gotcha in you may need to run ipconfig /flushdns on your Sims server for it to pick up the correct IP

[Damon]

From what I understand, S3 clients connect and register their IP with the Server. They receive an online status if they are sending a heartbeat to the server at the designated intervals. However, when it comes to the S3 server sending any commands/data to the client, it queries DNS and doesn't use the registered IP from the client. This is something I complained about from the very beginning of the product, there should be a configurable hierarchy of attempts which begins with the registered IP, then DNS and so on.

 

This is why Mark's suggestion works, because the client is registered with DNS. You'll need to ensure that DNS is well managed, with regular scavenging, etc..

[markwilfan]

I'd actually considered scripting an ipconfig /flushdns to run ever minute or so but thought this was a little overkill

[Andycat]

Sorry to resurrect this, but there will be a SIMS update required soon for the exam results data, yet all our staff are remote on Direct Access (not VPN). Was it concluded that VPN was the only way to update? Our staff are only rota'd in once every 4 weeks, so this will be a major headache!

[smithson83]

Thanks for ruining my week @Andycat... Hadn't thought about SIMS yet ...

 

If anyone could shed any light on this, it would be much appreciated.

[markwilfan]

I have tested updating and pushing out Sims via always on vpn. Key thing is register DNS needs to be on the Vpn connection. I've also set a scheduled task to flush DNS on the Sims server every minute. Shouldn't be any different in da

[markwilfan]

did a little vid for our staff too https://drive.google.com/a/kingalfred.somerset.sch.uk/file/d/1MPg2Obj7ahc3aJmTvzibmIXXL7lnSWTp/view?usp=drivesdk

[smithson83]

Just had a thought, I have a laptop here with Sims installed and not used for a while. Ran it and it updated over Direct Access. Updated fine, but we use SIMsLoad not Solus3 (never seemed to work well for us)

[Andycat]

For us on DA, not VPN, SIMS told us we have to install the exe individually yesterday.

 

We lock out the network settings for teachers, they're built as domain stations like in school.

 

Big job ahead over many random bad home internet remote sessions!

[RobD]

With DA, you do need IPv6 support on either end of the communication, but the network in the middle can be IPv4. Some of our services dont support IPv6 so we had to give users VPN as well.

[MatthewL]

We found Sage hosted on a server of ours doesn't work with clients over DA, best we could do was use a RDS session and host the app. Is this a possibility for yourselves? Could be easier in the long run.

[Andycat]

We'll just remote onto the ones desperate. Most teachers have the Teacher App on an ipad too.

[RobFuller]

I couldn't get Solus working over DA, in the end I used a in-house written application which runs as a shutdown script to execute SIMSLoad.exe I get my staff to reboot there laptops to apply any SIMS release (just done the Spring 2020 update and this worked fine on nearly 200 laptops remotely! I might look at streamlining this into SCCM so I can avoid the reboot.

[jhothersall]

Would it be possible to share this?

 

Thanks

 

James

[RobFuller]

Would it be possible to share this?

 

Thanks

 

James

 

 

 

Its part of a larger bespoke program written before me, I've continued with development though recently have started using SCCM and now looking at EndPoint Manager (Cloud) as its easier to train new team members on standardised software.

 

But the SIMS updating part is fairly straight forward, there is an exe called SIMSLoad.exe within the SIMS.net folder, if you run this it performs the update for you, as its pulls the updates from the S:\SIMS\Setups folder this was the "old" method of how SIMS installed updates before Solus and is still there. All I basically do is copy the updates from the Solus Extractions folder i.e. \\solus3server.domain.com\Extraction\SIMS\SIMSApplicationSetup.exe into the Setups folder and run SIMLoad, if you have your permissions correct you don’t even need to be an admin however I run this as a shutdown script so elevated anyway. I just prompt my users to reboot there devices to get the update and done.

 

Works ok over the various internet connections fine as DA stays connected, only have the odd laptop where we need to run it again or it has totalled itself but takes a lot of pain of running it on a 100 laptops!

[jhothersall]

Would be great, if you could share this with me. Have you had any contact with Capita regarding this?

[RobFuller]

I tried talking to Capita about the DA issue but they were not interested and TBH with DA reaching end of life and being replaced with AlwaysOnVPN that can do IPV4 end to end its becoming less of an issue.

 

With regarding to pushing the update out I have also seen people use SCCM and some have some script to make this all nice and straight forward , depending on what tools you are using for application deployments?

[jhothersall]

We are planning to release the Summer 2020 update on Inset day (1st Sep) and then staff that can't get in will use a RemoteApp for Sims.net... best way we can think of so far...

 

Capita need to hurry up on a replacement for with Sims 8 !!