SIMS 7.171 and Macros

[AngryITGuy]

We have Macros for all Office applications set to 'Disable All except digitally signed macros' and with SIMS 7.168 we ran in to an issue with individual reports in assessment manager. This was eventually resolved by installing patch 21751.

 

Since upgrading to 2016 Autumn Release 7.172 the issue has reoccurred but nothing has changed in group policy to alter the Office Security settings.

 

I've tried to apply patch 21751 and it just sits in Solus with a status of in progress.

 

Has anyone else come across this since installing the Autumn release, is there a different patch I need to apply? Couldn't find anything on Capitas website.

[psydii]

Was the error that the macros embedded by sims were signed with an expired certificate by any chance?

[minimoo]

in terms of: "I've tried to apply patch 21751 and it just sits in Solus with a status of in progress." - I had an issue where 5 patches (22432/22407/22396/22431/22404) got stuck in the inprogress state which I logged as 1611-3561668, and I cleared them to a failed state myself. Sims support asked if I needed their generic patch to make them failed, and then to redownload the patches and redeploy. I wasn't able to do that as we'd updated to the autumn release by the time they asked us to do that so the patches didn't need deploying anymore. So please log the issue... I suspect there's a chance in this case however that it may be because 21751 does not apply to the latest release.

 

In terms of the macro's - I'll need to check properly tomorrow, but it looks like the files aren't digitally signed anymore to me. If that is the case, i'll log a case tomorrow unless @PhilNeal knows if it's a known regression? @AngryITGuy do you have a case number I can reference if I do log a case, to make the helpdesk's life easier?

[AngryITGuy]

Was the error that the macros embedded by sims were signed with an expired certificate by any chance?

 

The error message is 'the macro can't be found or has been disabled because of your Macro security settings'

 

Enabling Macros fixes this issue but that's not ideal and like I've said it all worked fine prior to the Autumn 2016 update.

[howartp]

The error message is 'the macro can't be found or has been disabled because of your Macro security settings'

 

Enabling Macros fixes this issue but that's not ideal and like I've said it all worked fine prior to the Autumn 2016 update.

 

Ditto.

[AngryITGuy]

@AngryITGuy do you have a case number I can reference if I do log a case, to make the helpdesk's life easier?

 

It's currently logged with our LEA MIS Team and as a temporary workaround I have enabled the Macros (actually not configured the GPO for Word) for the one member of staff running the reports.

[jslate1980]

Guessing both Johns haven't come back with anything yet?

[Greg]

This is a known problem, the Macros are not signed again.

 

We found it in testing and Capita have reproduced it and are working on a fix

[Paul_Featherstone]

To address this issue, patch 22479 can be applied to your SIMS system if it has been upgraded to the Autumn 2016 release of the software. 21751 was a version of the same patch but for an earlier version of SIMS.

The root cause to this issue has been addressed and will be fixed in the Spring 2017 release of the software.

[minimoo]

@Paul_Featherstone I've applied 22479 tonight after being sent it on Thursday last week - first opportunity i've had when school has been quiet. I've just gone back to the helpdesk that i'm getting same (1612-3575119) after applying the patch.

 

So I guess the obvious question is are others finding the patch works?

[Paul_Featherstone]

Our escalation team have made some changes to patch 22479 and a new patch 22587 has replaced it.

[minimoo]

@Paul_Featherstone Whats the current status of 22587 ? I've had the patch emailed to me by support, received an email from solus that it's available - and as I thought i'd use solus to deploy - it is currently showing up as having been withdrawn from solus. No email from support as to whether the patch they sent should not be applied, and nothing on sims my account. Would it be feasible to get a hot topic going on "my account" that lists patches and any issues/urgency as to whether to apply them?

[minimoo]

It seems 22599 is now the latest patch number for this

[Paul_Featherstone]

@minimoo - Thanks for posting the latest patch number, you beat me to it! Patch 22587 was withdrawn as it was not backward compatible with some versions of Office. 22599 is the current patch. In respect to a Hot Topic on MyAccount, this has been discussed internally a number of times and we continue to review this idea on a periodical basis.

[cullingsh]

We're on hosted SIMS and have run in to this problem. After bad advise from Capita Support advising to check permissions to the SIMS folder on the C drive (er hello, it's hosted SIMS so we don't have one of those) and advising the person looking at the case of the 22599 patch, we are struggling to get it applied.

 

Apparently the first available date for installation is the 20th. Fat lot of good! We expect patches to be applied much quicker than this as it is stopping us from using the product, and the patch does already exist...not like it has to be developed first.

 

So unhappy with support in various areas of SIMS especially on anything hosted!

[minimoo]

I'm actually somewhat surprised by your comments cullingsh - I've noticed that I seem to be getting more notifications about patches from solus 3 recently, and i'd assumed that was partly because capita were patching their hosted environment(s)

[cullingsh]

I have a foot in both camps. I have one high school with a local install and one with a hosted install. The local install has had lots of patches come through on SOLUS recently, without having to request each and every patch, which is nice.

 

The hosted system, we have no notification of what is going on, if patches that affect everyone are applied or not.

 

On a plus note, after numerous telephone calls and emails, the patch was applied this evening and tested ok.

[minimoo]

@Paul_Featherstone Hi Paul - we've just done the Summer release, and have macro's not running again. I've just logged a case with support - is the macro's thing an issue again in the new release?

[howartp]

We've had the same since Spring 17 release, if not Autumn release.

 

I didn't notice the patches referred to above so I've not installed any; we're on Summer now and still problem.

[Paul_Featherstone]

Hi @minimoo, not aware of any new issues through the service desk or the Capita MyAccount forums at this time. Suggest a call is placed to your SIMS Support Team and encourage it to be investigated and escalated.