SIMS.net on Workstation support

[DSAGEY]

Hi,

 

I have recetly upgraded our computers to Windows 10, but had to be done by a clean install. We have 2 servers a curriculum and admin.

 

The office staff and their computers are fine and SIMS works, as it is on their server.

 

I also had SIMS.net on my computer - but on the curriculum server, I have tried following these steps (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/50e965eae4b0e6a1b5e24274/t/55fbfebce4b069a519961aec/1442578108247/SIMS%2BWorkstation%2BInstall.pdf) but it doesn't seem to work.

 

I need to get 1 computer from the Curriculum server to talk to the admin server for me to access the relevant files. It's still all setup on SOLUS 3 for that computer name and everything but it just doesn't seem to like it.

 

I'd be very gratful for any help.

 

Thank you

Edited August 27, 2019 by DSAGEY

[DrBeaker]

Ours is all on the same network pretty much. We don't have a curriculum v admin network which I understand used to be the case with RM stuff. What is the network setup like? A Vanilla network?

 

We've got Windows 10 Education and on the few we've rolled out for teachers, we don't have any issues with deploying SIMs from SOLUS3. It installs fine and I've had none reported to me.

 

Have you done an upgrade or a fresh install of W10? Do you have SIMs support?

[DSAGEY]

To be honest with you this was all setup way before I joined. I had nothing to do with the Admin network just the curriculum, until recently. However it was setup we can access certain things from the admin network such as the Printer. SOLUS is mapped onto the curriciulum network.

 

There has got to be something that I'm not doing right.

 

Windows 10 was a fresh install so everything was wiped, simply because our computers wouldn't upgrade otherwise. As for support, we did have support from Capita but I now believe it has moved to Ergo, who supports our servers. I contacted them few weeks back but not heard anything so I thought I'd post on here.

[DrBeaker]

To be honest with you this was all setup way before I joined. I had nothing to do with the Admin network just the curriculum, until recently. However it was setup we can access certain things from the admin network such as the Printer. SOLUS is mapped onto the curriciulum network.

 

There has got to be something that I'm not doing right.

 

Windows 10 was a fresh install so everything was wiped, simply because our computers wouldn't upgrade otherwise. As for support, we did have support from Capita but I now believe it has moved to Ergo, who supports our servers. I contacted them few weeks back but not heard anything so I thought I'd post on here.

 

 

Could be a few different things e.g.

Permissions on the server?

VLANs?

Can you ping or trace route to the SIMs server?

 

Who supports the network? Just yourself?

 

After a few weeks of no support from SIMs I'd get that escalated and complain about the lack of support.

[DSAGEY]

Could be a few different things e.g.

Permissions on the server?

VLANs?

Can you ping or trace route to the SIMs server?

 

Who supports the network? Just yourself?

 

After a few weeks of no support from SIMs I'd get that escalated and complain about the lack of support.

Thanks for all your help. contacted Ergo again & they told me to get in touch with Capita - who is now looking into the issue.

[DrBeaker]

Thanks for all your help. contacted Ergo again & they told me to get in touch with Capita - who is now looking into the issue.

 

Let us know what it was in the end?

[dapaulio]

Wow takes me back to the early days when we had an admin and curriculum domain.

If you are sharing a printer across servers than it must only be a permission issue.

Have you got a mapped drives S: for sims on the curriculum workstation?

Sims won’t load without access to the servers connect.ini located within your S:\sims.

You can Check your workstation connect.ini located in %programfiles%\sims\sims. Net. The file contents will state whether it redirect (to your s: drive) or details your sims server database

[DSAGEY]

Wow takes me back to the early days when we had an admin and curriculum domain.

If you are sharing a printer across servers than it must only be a permission issue.

Have you got a mapped drives S: for sims on the curriculum workstation?

Sims won’t load without access to the servers connect.ini located within your S:\sims.

You can Check your workstation connect.ini located in %programfiles%\sims\sims. Net. The file contents will state whether it redirect (to your s: drive) or details your sims server database

Life would be a lot easier I guess just having 1 server. The Head wants them separate though.

 

The admin server have the following network drives:

R: winpool

S: admindata

 

I have the admindata mapped on my machine already.

[3s-gtech]

You don’t need the S: drive or connect.ini redirection if you put the server settings from the central file into the connect.ini on the workstations. Having it that way just means you only need to update one copy when you change the server name or upgrade the database. You could just push them out using GPP instead.

[dapaulio]

You don’t need the S: drive or connect.ini redirection if you put the server settings from the central file into the connect.ini on the workstations. Having it that way just means you only need to update one copy when you change the server name or upgrade the database. You could just push them out using GPP instead.

 

That’s what I meant by my comment. Most would have a redirected connect.ini to a server share. I can see where I haven’t been clear. I was raising the awareness that the local connect.ini can have server settings that take priority over a redirected connect.ini on a server share.

[DSAGEY]

I have got the screenshot of the message I get, this is what I sent to Capita.

 

So basiclly I double click on SIMS.net it comes up and I put my username & password then I get this message.

[dapaulio]

I have never known sims errors to actually report anything useful.

I’m thinking you are missing some pre requisites!

Inside your s: is that where your sims data folder is aka simsroot?

Have installed you .net framework 4 full client.

Also Rather than using solus to deploy sims, Try installing sims using the simsinst setup files which should be located in your s: aka simsroot\sims\setups as this will include all the binaries and necessary files.

Edited August 31, 2019 by dapaulio

[DSAGEY]

I have never known sims errors to actually report anything useful.

I’m thinking you are missing some pre requisites!

Inside your s: is that where your sims data folder is aka simsroot?

Have installed you .net framework 4 full client.

Also Rather than using solus to deploy sims, Try installing sims using the simsinst setup files which should be located in your s: aka simsroot\sims\setups as this will include all the binaries and necessary files.

 

I will try that Monday, Capita set it all up on SOLUS when they came down a few years ago. SO not sure how that was installed on my machine. I'll look through the simsroot folder and rty & install.

 

It probably doesn't have Net FrameWork 4 either as I totally wiped the computer when I upgraded.

 

Thanks for your help and advice will definetly try this on Monday to see if it works.

[DrBeaker]

Seriously though dude, there's no shame in saying you don't know how to fix something and seeking support from the vendor who likely knows the software inside and out e.g. SIMS in this case.

 

I myself have rang our SIMs support team no end of times and likely asked them the same things more than once - so what? That's what they're paid for (quite well I believe). I am by myself and don't have time to troubleshoot issues they could resolve far quicker than me due to their knowledge of the system - again, so what - it's what they're paid for. It means I can get on with something else.

 

Those days of knowing every bit of software inside and out have long gone dude, be it from virtualisation to application/MIS platforms. I can bet you there's no one person who completely understands Azure/AWS services.

[dapaulio]

Seriously though dude, there's no shame in saying you don't know how to fix something and seeking support from the vendor who likely knows the software inside and out e.g. SIMS in this case.

 

I get it. In my experience not just limited to capita but especially capita posting a problem here has got me more results in a shorter time frame then capita have ever. Tbh I don’t even bother, now they log tickets through my account only.

 

OP I hope this has helped you out and don’t hesitate to continue posting problems here. Collectively we are likely to have more sims knowledge between us then the people working at capita.

 

Sorry to capita employees if any who read this but your support sucks.

[mdrabble]

If I were you, I would Grab a copy of the sims installer files from you sims sever to do a manual install on the workstation.

 

Take a copy of the connect.ini and delete the sims.net folder form program files and then reinstall sims.net manually by running simsinst.exe and the copying the connect.ini back.

 

Leave Solus as is, at that will take care of future updates.

[DSAGEY]

I contacted Capita today, they did it remotley whilst on the phone to me, they even showed me how to do it again on any other machines. All of our SIMS is done through SOLUS 3, including the office staff. I was shocked they even showed me again as usually they charge to come down to do it.