SIMS Connected Third-Party Connectors Consolidation

[dylanm]

Hi,

 

We currently have around 6 schools with individual SIMS Connected Third-Party Connectors in place at each of the schools. We are looking to decommission the servers at each of the schools however the third-party connectors are still running on these servers.

 

We would like to consolidate all of these third-party connectors into one virtual machine/server that we can host centrally at the Trust. Does anyone know if this is supported?

 

Thanks in advanced!

[ThomL]

Interesting project.

 

I've never touched once of these servers - just the traditional SIMS server config. Is there a VPN setup on the server to connect it to the cloud infrastructure?

 

**EDIT**

A quick search of the forum suggests VPN would be used as well as this gem:

"New Third Party connectors:If you re-image or replace a machine with the TPC installed, then you'll need to log a new install with the ESS 'Professional Services Team' which will charge for each new TCP you need installing.(I think around £350-£400 per install, so worth trying to avoid re-installs if you can.)"

 

Assuming they have their cloud environment segmented you'll need several nics on the VM with each one configured with relevant VPN, some tweaking of the connect ini to connect to the different SIMS instances via the different VPNs - not even sure this can/will work to be honest. You might need multiple instances of software like Wonde installed and configured - this could also be painful. Might not need multiple VPNs depending on how this is all configured and works? Seems like it will be a pain in the arse!

 

Still think it could be an interesting project.

Edited October 28, 2024 by ThomL

[dylanm]

Interesting project.

 

I've never touched once of these servers - just the traditional SIMS server config. Is there a VPN setup on the server to connect it to the cloud infrastructure?

 

Yes - Usually have an OpenVPN client installed on the server/vm to set up the connection back to their data centre and then a funky bit of software to install the sims client. I haven't had that much experience with it but seems to be a very bouched-together solution...

[ThomL]

I threw in an edit to my post - interesting idea, good luck!

[jthompson]

My gut feeing is that you'd need/want 1 VM per school. Nothing to stop you hosting all of those centrally, I shouldn't think, but that's probably the extent of the consolidation that'd be feasible.

 

If you have any agents that need to communicate with other on-prem systems for a school (e.g. EduLink needing AD access), then that'll ad an extra layer of complication for you.