MAJOR Promissor issues!

[googlemad]

We've just run a Promissor session in a computer suite, this is the first time we've used this suite for testing although we have used other rooms without issue (Deep Freeze).

 

The issues in no particular order:

 

"Error 5209:Cannot load SitePersistence.dll to verify Administrator version number. Please contact Promissor customer support."

 

One machine logged out a user mid test

 

On many machines one answer or an image would not appear, but once 'Previous' and then 'Next' was clicked the missing stuff would appear.

 

Disk space low/Invalid data path messages even though they had a connection to the correct data path folder and there is certainly enough disk space!

 

The only thing I can think of that is different is this suite uses Zen and dynamic user profiles which lock the hard drive down so nothing can be written to C:\ unless the folder is in the policy exclusion list. Could the Promissor folder need adding to the exclusions list?

 

Help!

[jcollings]

I would say it should. It's a while since I did our install but I know we needed to let students write to the c drive.

[ranj]

Yes you would need to add %programfiles\promissor folder so that students have full persmission to write to the folder

 

you also need to ensure that the latest version of flash player is installed on the client machines otherwise you will get issues with images not appearing whilst doing the test and other random image problems.

[googlemad]

Right I've added the Promissor folder to the Zen File Rights list with 'Full Control' so that should be that sorted (Since all previous rooms have been Deep Freeze I automatically assumed I would only have to give the Full Control permissions on each local machine rather than a central entry in Zen).

 

I think Flash is fairly up to date (Certainly more recent than other rooms!).

 

I've asked the Exams manager to book a few mock tests, will Edexcel provide those fairly easily?

[cookie_monster]

Yes they will i booked and ran a mock test only about an hour ago.

[CyberNerd]

I've asked the Exams manager to book a few mock tests, will Edexcel provide those fairly easily?

 

Yes, but sometimes they use a different version of the mock than they do for the actual exam. We tried the mock and it worked fine, but on trying a full exam we had a lot of disappointed students. Edexcel were no help.

[cookie_monster]

@ CyberNerd: Yep i think carp is the word you're looking for

[googlemad]

Right.

 

Got two demo tests, they ran fine with the entry in Zen. But then 7 ran fine yesterday too ;-)

 

Just a question...I have limited access to the Promissor server but I did peek at the Promissor share and noticed the local server Edexcel account we have (We have a matching Edexcel account on Novell so they link together) has full share permissions but is not in the 'Security' list. Is this anything to worry about or not?

[stokesfc]

The dll issue definatley sounds like a write issue on C:\Program Files\Promissor\ some temporary files are written here during the test.

 

As mentioned check the version of flash installed on the machines and don't rely on the demo test. We always run a proper demo test as a mock user randomly answering the questions on 2-3 machines in each room.

 

There can also be issues with the shared folder if you are getting the Invalid Data Path message, check all the permissions to that folder. We set up a special test user with Calc and Net access disabled which all machines are logged on with, that way we only needed to set up permissions for 1 user.

 

One final thing is to check the number of concurrent connections allowed to the shared folder, by default this 'should' be unlimited but we found that it was actually set at 10 users. Once we manually set it to 100 we were fine.

 

Are you using XP or Server 2003 on the reception machine? I would recommend using Server 2003 just on a standard base unit.

[googlemad]

The dll issue definatley sounds like a write issue on C:\Program Files\Promissor\ some temporary files are written here during the test.

 

As mentioned check the version of flash installed on the machines and don't rely on the demo test. We always run a proper demo test as a mock user randomly answering the questions on 2-3 machines in each room.

 

There can also be issues with the shared folder if you are getting the Invalid Data Path message, check all the permissions to that folder. We set up a special test user with Calc and Net access disabled which all machines are logged on with, that way we only needed to set up permissions for 1 user.

 

One final thing is to check the number of concurrent connections allowed to the shared folder, by default this 'should' be unlimited but we found that it was actually set at 10 users. Once we manually set it to 100 we were fine.

 

Are you using XP or Server 2003 on the reception machine? I would recommend using Server 2003 just on a standard base unit.

 

Well I visited the room on Friday and using the Edexcel Novell account (Since it creates a local profile of the same name) logged in to every workstation simultaneously then ran the Promissor client without any issues (Certainly up to the login screen) so it now seems fine.

 

Will try and get some 'real mock tests' booked.

 

The server is actually Windows 2000 Server (!) - Like I say I'm not directly involved with servers but the concurrent users must be higher than 10 due to the fact I logged in the 20 machines on Friday (Plus we have no issues with other classrooms using Deep Freeze).

 

Just hoping everything runs to plan this time round as it is really cruel to students who have been revving up for exams to be turned away!

[stokesfc]

I think it should be ok with Server 2000 too, as long is all flash is up to date there shouldnt be any issues once logged in, errors normally occur before the test is logged in unless the definition files are corrupted, but the reception server should warn you. We have run close to 50 tests simultaneously and its been ok. Its defo worth doing the testing before hand. We have a set procedure for verifying, unlocking the tests 30 minutes before they start, and issue the students with a log in slip once they have been ID Checked.

 

We only really took the following steps:

1. Install ESM Server on Server

2. Set up Share and permissions to location of definition files

3. Created a path rule to allow read write access to C:\Program Files\Promissor

 

Daft I know but also worth checking the version of Administrator and ESM is the latest, depending on how you deploy the package. If its done manaually some machine can easily be missed with updates, the old version of administrator talking to an updated ESM Server will cause issues.

Edited May 19, 2008 by stokesfc

[Corky]

Did you sort out "Error 5209:Cannot load SitePersistence.dll". We are having the same problem even running the software as an administrator.

[googlemad]

Did you sort out "Error 5209:Cannot load SitePersistence.dll". We are having the same problem even running the software as an administrator.

 

Not tested that yet as I think it only came up after the candidate attempted to log in and we haven't done any tests since the disaster last week (Except technical mocks)

 

Follow these instructions extracted from my installation guide, may help...

 

Part 2 : Permissions

1) Browse to C:\Program Files folder

2) Right click Promissor folder and select Sharing and Security option

3) Select the Security tab (If this doesn’t show ensure Simple File Sharing is disabled from Folder Options)

4) Click the Advanced button

5) Remove tick from ‘Inherit from parent…’

6) Click remove button

7) Click Add… button

8) Type Everyone and click OK

9) Put a tick in the Allow box next to Full Control and click OK

10) Put a tick in ‘Replace permission entries…’

11) Click OK, Yes, OK

12) Close all windows and SHUT DOWN the machine

[Corky]

Did you sort out "Error 5209:Cannot load SitePersistence.dll". We are having the same problem even running the software as an administrator.

 

 

Sorted problem out. Tests worked OK on Friday but not today. Problem is where Candidates are placed on the Server end by ESM. UNC path on client machines must point to the correct UNC server folder where candidates are added. In our case

\\12114-2k3dc04\exams\construction\ESM_test_cente

[googlemad]

Sorted problem out. Tests worked OK on Friday but not today. Problem is where Candidates are placed on the Server end by ESM. UNC path on client machines must point to the correct UNC server folder where candidates are added. In our case

\\12114-2k3dc04\exams\construction\ESM_test_cente

 

Strange if they worked on Friday but not today - I'm sure the installation prompts you for the UNC path!

[Corky]

Strange if they worked on Friday but not today - I'm sure the installation prompts you for the UNC path!

 

Yes it does. Trouble was that the test accounts was placed into the Root directory of Exams.

[googlemad]

ARGH!!!

 

It all started so well today, we got in the room and every machine was loaded up to the Promissor login prompt.

 

Tests began, everything looked perfect. Then the problems...

 

Images and questions not appearing unless clicking Previous and then Next (It had the skeleton layout for the question there but nothing else)

 

Then a new error which started popping up on random user machines mid test:

 

"Error 50011 : Could not save session state"

 

Which kicked the user back to the login screen, and then after attempting login they either got lucky and got back into where they left off or they got the famous "Error 5209 : Cannnot load SitePersistence.dll".

 

These problem machines then showed the 'Low disk space' message on the client machines.

 

What is up??? Like I mentioned the tests started fine then just randomly stopped working. Luckily after much trial and error we got them all through the test but it is important this does not happen again as 3 times is taking the mick!

[stokesfc]

ARGH!!!

 

It all started so well today, we got in the room and every machine was loaded up to the Promissor login prompt.

 

Tests began, everything looked perfect. Then the problems...

 

Images and questions not appearing unless clicking Previous and then Next (It had the skeleton layout for the question there but nothing else)

 

Then a new error which started popping up on random user machines mid test:

 

"Error 50011 : Could not save session state"

 

Which kicked the user back to the login screen, and then after attempting login they either got lucky and got back into where they left off or they got the famous "Error 5209 : Cannnot load SitePersistence.dll".

 

These problem machines then showed the 'Low disk space' message on the client machines.

 

What is up??? Like I mentioned the tests started fine then just randomly stopped working. Luckily after much trial and error we got them all through the test but it is important this does not happen again as 3 times is taking the mick!

 

This is definately a permissions issue we had similar on initial install. The low disk space message is normally recieved due to the set up of permissions on the ESM Server Share (and all the folders within). We set up a user Exam and gave them full permissions over all folders. We also set a path rule for C:\Program Files\Promissor. On CC3 for a change it seems to work.

[googlemad]

That would be a interesting thing to look into, I've just realized that the exams that run fine in the Deep Freeze classrooms run under a 'pcuser' account and we set the 'edexcel' account and permissions later. But I'm fairly sure I checked that yesterday and it seemed to have full permissions (Will double check though!).

 

One candidate sat a test fine, finished before another one so we thought 'Great, we can use the working machine for the problem candidate'. Only to find the working machine had stopped working

 

I wonder if the fact the C:\ drive profile is a 'User' rather than a 'Administrator' is causing problems.

[stokesfc]

Our exams user is just a standard user but they have full control over all the relevant folders. We created the path rule, because I think that during the exam the software writes some variables into C:\Program Files\Promissor on the local machine. We were encountering similar messages at first unless we logged on as an admin user.

[googlemad]

So would it be worth me trying to create a 'workstation only' Edexcel account as a Administrator on the clients (Through the XP Users applet) and seeing if we had any joy?

 

That way the network profiles policy wouldn't kick in and we could then see if there were any problems with the testing running under 'Edexcel' as a full administrator acocunt. (Elsewhere with the Deep Freeze machines they are set up with a 'pcuser' administrator account).

[stokesfc]

I would say that would be worth a try. If it works without hitch then you will know that it is a network policy, if it doesnt you will know it will be a problem with the shared folder set up on the ESM Server.

 

If it works successfully you can always use this to get through the current batch of exams and dable a bit more when they are finished.

[googlemad]

I'll try that tomorrow then, thanks

 

Just out of interest is there a email address for Promissor support? I like to use email rather than phone as then I'm not on hold for hours and can keep a record of everything quite easily.

[stokesfc]

I use this address sometimes [email protected], they sometimes get a bit funny thought, so I claim that support have been useless, which they generall yare to be fair!

[googlemad]

I use this address sometimes [email protected], they sometimes get a bit funny thought, so I claim that support have been useless, which they generall yare to be fair!

 

Thanks for that - It ain't a server load issue that is for sure as we currently have a jam packed exam running in the Deep Freeze classroom without a single glitch!