PARS - Anyone Set This Up?

[JRA]

Just been called with "Oh by the way over the summer could you get PARS up and running?"

 

Dear sweet lord I've got a busy enough summer as it is, and then on the last day of term this lands...

 

Can any kind individual out there give me a swift run-down of what's involved? Do I need any especially beefy servers to get it running? Is it best asking Jenny Urey (who frequents these parts I see) about all this? We did have a demo here, which they scheduled during my holiday last week.

 

Bless you for reading. :/

[kathabell]

PARS isn't too onerous to set up. We run it on a separate server to SIMS which has IIS installed, but it isn't a major load on the server. As I recall the hardest part of the installation was getting our smtp relay working so that we could mail out to parents - and that wasn't down to TASC, it was issues with our firewall. The installation instructions on their support site are fairly comprehensive and easy to follow, the TASC Wiki is also useful. We originally bought PARS via our LEA and I was very happy when we moved our support direct to TASC. It will take an hour or two, but I find their support services very helpful and their response time can be very rapid. But surely you've been given info on what PARS permissions your staff are to have and how they are hoping to use it? Which features are you going to use - registration, mailing out, txt, detentions...? I remember there was significant input from SLT on HOW they were going to use PARS! Perhaps you could ask who is going to be your contact during the hols Good luck!

[JRA]

Thanks for that katahbell. I think they realised it'd be an 'ask' over the holidays, but I've need of much clarification on it it seems.

 

Did you/your own school team set it up or did TASC do the donkey work?

 

Cheers muchly for the answer.

[Shadow_Walker]

Like kathabell said you really need input from SLT for permissions of what staff and admin office will need.

 

In terms of set up we have it set up on a virtual server with 16gb ram 4 cores etc. You will have to do the donkey work but tasc support is great so never any issues. We have just installed INSIGHT from them and had some problems with the server but within 2 minutes of putting a ticket on the helpdesk they rang me to help sort it.

 

EDIT: The server setup is not the main time consumer its setting up the permissions and then opening up each area like external contacting, registers, detentions, behaviour. At my place SLT decide what they want opening up and how they would like it to work and then i set it up like that.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Shadow_Walker

[Edu-IT]

As others have said, the initial install is pretty simple. Just run through a setup and a few button clicks. If you're doing the configuration, that will take the time, and it'll be helpful to have your data manager/slt on hand to answer the specifics relating to permissions, behaviour, attendance. It's not something you should have to make the decisions on yourself.

 

Backup your SIMS database prior to install

[JRA]

Hmmm, not had the happiest time of it. Their support are good though.

 

Is anyone else running PARS and Insight on the same server?

[2ilent8cho]

Hmmm, not had the happiest time of it. Their support are good though.

 

Is anyone else running PARS and Insight on the same server?

 

Yes, one installed on IIS in /PARS other in /INSIGHT was straight forward to install.

[JRA]

STILL not up and running - it *seems* I can have one or the other, as it *seems* they argue over sims/connect.inis working or not.

 

Their support guys are indeed trying, but this is becoming a big hassle.

 

Has anyone out there or anyone you know of NOT had an easy time of setting it up, and does this ring any bells? Could certainly do with a pointer/war story or two.

 

Tbh I think the way to go is having a dedicated IIS server VM just for it, but they're not recommending that at this stage.

[zebulunn]

Our PARS runs from our IIS server and is not a dedicated solution. It runs from C:\inetpub\wwwroot\PARS_APPLICATION.

It should not be that complicated to warrant a new VM for it.

 

We have an install of SIMS to the IIS server by solus agent.

Our connect.ini in c:\windows has 'SIMSDotNetDirectory=c:\program files\sims\sims .net'

The PARS database is on the SIMS server.

 

I didn't personally set it up, but since my previous boss didn't complain about it I can only assume it went smoothly with TASC support.

[JRA]

Well, looks like we're almost (if not fully) there - support is indeed good, something related to the network service (IIS site runs as this) having permissions to some odds and sods.

 

To be fair, I didn't think we'd sort it and I'd knocked up another VM in case, but all credit to them, they got us working. I'll see how that 'beds in' before I rest too easy, but looks to be ok!

[zebulunn]

Now for configuration...

As previously mentioned in the thread, it is best practise to have a senior leader of some sort at this stage.

At our school we have the Head of Behaviour who 'leads' the PARS implementation. They were helped through the configuration process by TASC.

My minor role is to change the configuration as necessary and apply permissions to users.