[sims] What do Capita mean when they 'release' a patch?

[Meldrew]

Hiya.

 

I've been following the progress of what is now the consolidated Patch 22159 for a while, keen to apply it as soon as it possible as its needed for exams, so yesterday, 10am, the following update is posted:

 

"Our escalation team have now passed the consolidated patch 22159 and this will be released in the next hour. I apologise for the delay in getting this out and hope applying this as a consolidated patch rather than many separate patches will save you time. Thank you to all the customers that have patiently waited for the issues to be addressed and hope your exams download day and subsequent analysis of the results goes smoothly."

 

So I'm checking for updates in SOLUS3 every hour (we don't get support from an LEA, we're direct to Capita) but nothing's appearing, so eventually I raise a ticket yesterday as I assume there's a problem. They reply fairly quickly to say that they have emailed the escalation team on my behalf"

 

This morning, I get a bulk email from Capita (nothing to do with my ticket) saying:

 

"...The patch is available to be run on SOLUS 3, so in order to access this Patch please log a case to the SIMS Service Desk."

 

So what exactly does 'release' mean? This isn't the first time I've come across something similar, where it is implied that a patch is accessible, but I have to raise a ticket to actually get it. Am I missing something?

 

Meldrew

[Steve21]

Its based on your LEA/Desk normally as to whether they're auto released or requested. If they want to hold back one etc. (Remember support contact wise it's not "Capita" as one entity)

 

Ours appeared automatically, but at other places had to request them.

 

Steve

[Boredguy]

Our Solus 3 service downloades patches automatically from midnight til 9pm, and duely pulled down patch 22159 yesterday lunchtime.

If you do not have Solus 3 set to automatically download patches, you can manually click the "Check for Updates" button and it will see if any are available.

 

If you still do not get the patch, call your local Capita Support Team and they will e-mail you the patch file for you to deploy via dbupgrade

[Meldrew]

Ours is set to automatically download and I was clicking check for updates every hour too. I guess in future I'll just request it anyway.

 

Thanks for the replies.

 

Meldrew

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

In this context what Capita mean by 'release a patch' is that they have initiated the process where by it is uploaded to their distribution server. That doesn't mean they have necessarily authroised it for any customers. Exactly what get authorised to whom and when, is more unclear.

[PhilNeal]

We release patches to support units. Support units release to schools where they feel it is required - most patches affect only a handful of schools so units don't want to inconvenience schools unnecessarily.

 

Capita's own supported schools are handled similarly so although the escalation team have released a patch it doesn't automatically flow to schools.

[minimoo]

At the risk of upsetting @PhilNeal (although i'm sure he'll take it on the chin )

 

As an answer to "What do Capita mean when they 'release' a patch?", I'd like to offer "The 24 hour countdown period to the withdrawl for re-release has started" - although I must say - and Phil touches on it in his sensible response - Capita generally release a lot fewer releases then they were doing 5-10 years ago, which is probably a good thing.

 

And just so you guys are aware - capita have withdrawn the patch, and released a new version to fix an edge case with U grades in some circumstances:

 

UPDATE 16/08/16 19:30

We have withdrawn Exams Summer 2016 Consolidated Patch 22159 and replaced this with Exams Summer 2016 Consolidated Patch Version 2 (22188) as there was an improvement we needed to make to Issue 3 (U Grades as A Level). The point calculations are performing correctly, but how they are displayed in some of the reports is confusing. The PI Summary and Detail reports are displaying the correct L3 entry values, but the Edit PI Screen and the PI Full report are not. Version 2 of this consolidated patch corrects this. If you have applied 22159 (Consolidated patch version 1) and your school has no students who have achieved a U Grade at A Level where an A2 qualification with the same discount code has also been taken with a higher grade, then there will be no need to apply the updated consolidated patch. This patch has been made available on SOLUS3 to all SIMS Support Teams and schools who are licenced directly with Capita SIMS.

[Chockster]

...and patch 22188 has shown no sign at all of appearing in Solus for us. Exams patching for SIMS has become farcical.

 

I've got an exams officer who knows 22188 has been released, and is asking why I've not applied it. I've got a ticket open, a plea for a manual download in a forum post on MyAccount and I'm clicking on "check for updates" in solus every five minutes. What can I say to her? It's making her most stressful day of the year even more of a hassle.

[minimoo]

The only change for the patch seemed to be if someone gets a U in an AS/A2 and has a higher grade with a similar qualification - I'm not even sure thats a scenario we could hit (as we only do AS/A2 levels and no btec's etc) - so I'm not sure if that means that we'd basically need to enter a student for A2 Biology and A2 Science, and have them get a U in one, and a grade in the other. In any case, given that hopefully very few students have got a U - if results go well, it would be 0! It might be worth checking if you are unlucky enough to need it for analysis to be correct first... Also, given it's a reporting issue not a calculation issue, it also feels like something minor and easily worked around.

[Chockster]

I'm just hoping that some of the 22159 issues don't hit us. While it's unlikely, this is the sort of thing that worries our exams and data people. Fingers crossed!

[caffrey]

I'm getting 503's connecting to the CCS update server, is it down ?

[Steve21]

Aye taking minutes to refresh (not 503'ing yet though here)

 

Steve

[synaesthesia]

CCS update server isn't behaving well here, no chance of getting this patch down any time soon! All well and good having extended service desk hours during exam results times but perhaps something with a little more grunt when you know everyone will be hammering Solus at the same time might help too!

[minimoo]

time to log a case and ask for the patch to be emailed out i guess :/

[CAM]

I've been told by my support unit that the patch is available and they are trying to authorise it, but Capita's servers have crashed and this is stopping distribution. Until then, OCR AS Results are not pulling through to the Results Broadsheet in Exams Organiser (A2 Level seems fine and working normally).

[Steve21]

Just popped up for us

 

Steve

[Meldrew]

We release patches to support units. Support units release to schools where they feel it is required - most patches affect only a handful of schools so units don't want to inconvenience schools unnecessarily.

 

Capita's own supported schools are handled similarly so although the escalation team have released a patch it doesn't automatically flow to schools.

 

Thanks @PhilNeal. I know I'd find it useful when a patch is 'released' would be for the notice to state that you may need to request this from your SIMS support provider.

 

On a slight tangent, I have to say, that whenever I do raise a ticket in myaccount, I'm always impressed with the speed it is responded to and the advice given, so my thanks.

 

Meldrew