[sims] Sims Connected

[3s-gtech]

I should also mention the 90 day enforced password change, which IME then breaks and locks the user out, and the password reset doesn’t work as it asks random security questions which the user didn’t set.

 

My users are starting to hit the 90 day mark.

 

I have a second admin account to get myself back in.

[jthompson]

Some useful pointers in this tread. We're considering moving from on-prem to SIMS Connected, and want to make sure that we have as many of our ducks in a row as possible.

 

We're expecting sign-ins to involve a bit of waiting (our on-prem SIMS is not exactly speedy to launch as it is) but we'd like to get a sense if we can of whaat other schools' experiences have been like. How many of you have found it 'good enough', I suppose is what I'm asking.

 

Would anyone be able to clarify a couple of technical bits for me?

 

1. In terms of using commandreporter (part of the SIMS client installation) on an on-prem server, how is that instance of the SIMS client installed? Do ESS provide a simple installer which is then conifgured manually to connect to the hosted database (via VPN)? We absolutely want to retain the option to run commandreporter from Windows scheduled tasks on an on-prem server. It sounds from earlier posts as if that's possible, but I just wanted to be clear on how the client can be installed.
   
2. Secondly, the SIMS ID documentation talks a lot about Google and SSO, but that's all about using SIMS ID as the identity provider to SSO into Google accounts. We would want it the other way around: having SIMS ID sign in automatically based on the current Google account. We don't want SIMS ID mananging Google account provisioning, and we'd prefer to not require staff to have SIMS ID credentials on top of their Google credentials. Does anyone know if SIMS ID can but configured in this way?
   
3. 
   

[3s-gtech]

1. They alter the SIMS.ini and connect.ini - SIMS installed on the TPC then just runs through the VPN. No issues with CommandReporter - I run it all the time. Much quicker than the RDP client. They'll install that instance of SIMS if needed.

2. In the SIMS ID preferences is this:

 

You can add additional domain names for your site. These may be set against specific User Types. This allows the generation of usernames with different domains based on user type. This supports sites that have staff on one email domain and students on a different email domain.

 

Please note:

 

 

• Domains must be unique
  
• Domains must be in a recognised Domain-name.Domain-Suffix pattern e.g. Name.sch.uk or Name.org
  
• You cannot remove a domain that is in use within SIMS ID, these domains are greyed out
  
• Changes will not be saved until they are committed using the 'Save' button
  

 

I haven't tried to use this for actual auth - I don't think it does allow external auth at all - which is crazy but predictable. We went from SSO with onsite to separate logins!

[vikpaw]

Interesting. We’re got two schools on it and I really like the UX. Not heard of any major issues so far.