EduTech Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 Hi, I am just running the back up for us now, will be runing the update shortly so wish me luck. will let everyone know if i have any problems. hopefully there wont be!! James.
ICTNUT Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 Yes please let me know, I have just had a call from out LA SIMS team saying that unless we do this upgrade we will not be able to view the exam results They want to come in and do the upgrade for me a 7:30 am tomorrow as it requires "tweaks" :eek: Erm !
PhilNeal Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 August is an optional release for English and Welsh Schools - there is no need to upgrade to the August release to download results into SIMS. We have encoroprated some new PI calculations that were released about 3 weeks ago but the qualifications affected are not commonly taken.
matt40k Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 (edited) You can get the results, but you can't analysis them correctly as one (or more) of the exams boards change one (or more) of the formulas. Update: Yer, what Phil said Edited August 12, 2008 by matt40k Phil's too fast
FN-GM Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 Can't even run salus without getting error messages!!
EduTech Posted August 12, 2008 Author Posted August 12, 2008 Yh it was just available for us to download now so we thought why not.. we dont have any staff in so not going to effect anyone if it does break. James.
Gatt Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 On phone to our SIMS support team now to find out what the score is in Salford...
EduTech Posted August 12, 2008 Author Posted August 12, 2008 Well Just to let you all know, everything seems fine.. updated with no problems at all.. and checked and everything is working not found any bugs yet but suppose that time will come James.
jcollings Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 (edited) August is an optional release for English and Welsh Schools - there is no need to upgrade to the August release to download results into SIMS. We have encoroprated some new PI calculations that were released about 3 weeks ago but the qualifications affected are not commonly taken. As I said in another thread - it would be good if you and helpdesk were singing the same tune! When I rang the national helpdesk they said yesterday and today that it was needed for results! Anyway I have done it without any visible issues. Edited August 12, 2008 by jcollings
PhilNeal Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 JCollings, I am keen to follow up the advice that you were given. There is a news item saying that the release is optional so it is odd that you were told otherwise. Please let me have the case number.
jcollings Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 Thanks Phil. I don't have a case ref. as it was just a phone call with nothing registered for action. To give you the full story I rang yesterday having run SOLUS and not had the Aug release available and asked where it was. The guy said "there is a bug in it so it's not available yet". I asked if I needed it for A level results on Wednesday and was told yes. I was told "there is a meeting this afternoon to decide what we are doing". I went in again today and ran SOLUS and it was there. I rang helpdesk again and asked if the bug had been fixed and it was safe to install and was told it was. I again asked if it was needed and was told yes. To be honest it's not a big deal -just nice to know where we stand.
PhilNeal Posted August 12, 2008 Posted August 12, 2008 (edited) JCollings, sorry you have had conflicting info I'm glad it hasn't caused too much of an issue. Edited August 12, 2008 by PhilNeal 1
Jake Posted August 13, 2008 Posted August 13, 2008 Our LEA has pulled our solus download of the august update. Was there yesterday, but when we went to actually download it today it was gone. Contacted our LEA and they said they have had to remove it because their is a bug in it where it all messes up if its done before the exam basedata is imported , or some such thing. Cant remember the exact wording, the LEA is supposed to be sending us an email soon detailing it.
ICTNUT Posted August 13, 2008 Posted August 13, 2008 I can confirm that I have done the August Upgrade this morning and "touch wood" all seems to be OK. I was told that we had to have this for our A Level results as the Exams Organiser had to be upgraded otherwise we would not be able to do the analysis. What did make me laugh was once the upgrade was completed the Exams organiser version number was: Wait for it...... v6.66 Is this a good or bad Omen (cue music)
Kitkatninja Posted August 13, 2008 Posted August 13, 2008 We've done the August upgrade and it all seems fine, the only thing is that we can't donwload the exam results - nothing to do with Sims, the builders doing work at our site broke our fibre line to the outside world At least BT is in fixing it now -Ken
Jake Posted August 13, 2008 Posted August 13, 2008 Heres the email I got, "We have been advised this morning that before completing the SIMS .net August upgrade you need to check with the Exams Officer that the OCR Nationals Base Data has been set up for Sept 07 and the results have been entered BEFORE the August upgrade is completed. This is because the August upgrade changes the levels structure for Sept 08 and prevents the results from being entered."
Mcshammer_dj Posted August 13, 2008 Posted August 13, 2008 Heres the email I got, "We have been advised this morning that before completing the SIMS .net August upgrade you need to check with the Exams Officer that the OCR Nationals Base Data has been set up for Sept 07 and the results have been entered BEFORE the August upgrade is completed. This is because the August upgrade changes the levels structure for Sept 08 and prevents the results from being entered." This was done due to conflicting information given by Capita, typically the helpdesk were stating one thing and the specialists stated another. We are still not releasing the upgrade until schools are able to confirm that the basedata has been applied, as one of our site may have to roll back to May, apply the basedata and then upgrade again
glensc Posted August 13, 2008 Posted August 13, 2008 I got back from holiday to find our not too considerate LEA had put ther August updates on the server without letting the IT dept know, so came in to find people panicing as there were problems for us. The main one being the Exam Administrator has found all her exams doubled up, it will not let her work on them and tells her to delete one of each enty. LEA currently running a patch to hopefully fix this.
alan-d Posted August 13, 2008 Posted August 13, 2008 I can confirm that I have done the August Upgrade this morning and "touch wood" all seems to be OK. I was told that we had to have this for our A Level results as the Exams Organiser had to be upgraded otherwise we would not be able to do the analysis. They lie!!!! We didn't upgrade and everything worked fine for us, and our SMT like their statistics, analysis etc.
matt40k Posted August 13, 2008 Posted August 13, 2008 I;ve heared it's only a few of those rare exams that need the Aug'08 release, i've not heard which ones, so I can only recommend Aug'08, personally, do it, if you don't and it goes t1ts up, you know what to do, go beg to your LEA to give ya a hand Lol, no, just install Aug'08 and try again. Glad everyone's hasn't had too many problems importing. On the grand scale of things, it hasn't been too bad. Not heared of anyone ripping there hair out etc, still I guess they would still be busy Well done to anyone who rushed to install August and anyone who didn't and it worked, it might be worth getting a lottery ticket, or perhaps that should be for those you rushed to install August and it worked ok
alan-d Posted August 13, 2008 Posted August 13, 2008 It's one of those things - 50-50 choice I literally flipped a coin and it came up tails which meant I didn't install it As I said - spoke to the HT and exams officer and we all agreed to try it without the update and if it didn't work then it just meant an hour or so delay putting it on. (assuming no backup restore was needed ). Not so easy to do it the other way around From what I gather most of the effects were for NVQ type results and those in Northern Ireland.
m2d2 Posted August 15, 2008 Posted August 15, 2008 I am still deciding whether or not to apply the August release. There haven't been any real horror stories from early adopters but there's already a known issues list on support.net What's an admin to do?
Gatt Posted August 19, 2008 Posted August 19, 2008 Justy found the August update sitting on our SOLUS 2 server.. quick phone call to our SIMS guys and now waiting for them to remove it until next week!! Last thing I need is that being downloaded/applied the day the exam results come down!! If they don't remove it and I find its been applied I can see the LEA's IT Services being stormed en masse tomorrow by irate teachers, staff and NMs/Techs!!
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