Bringing SIMS on-premise

[leegcvcc]

A late call, but looking to bring it home! It will possibly help the schools' stress, if not mine.

 

We have been hosted for years and I never looked after SIMS then, so I have no idea where to start other than spin up a VM for it.

 

Does anyone have any documents for installing SIMS on a new server, installing some version of SQL, then restoring via a backup.bak file?

 

Anything would help in this darkest hour....

 

Many thanks in anticipation.

[3s-gtech]

Even if this is the right thing for the school, and you have no way out of the contract, I would implore you not to do this.

 

Let some other poor mug try, perhaps.

 

You need an SQL Server license, unless the DB is small. Plus CALs as required. You need to maintain that under the SIMS roadmap. You need to manage SOLUS3 and updates, which was always a right hassle even when you get it to be stable.

 

You also have that data to backup, protect, maintain and stress when it breaks.

 

If someone told me to do this, I’d sub-contract it or run.

[Ditto]

As above and some massive GDPR concerns. Can you add more detail on what problem you are trying to solve, someone here may have a better suggestion?

[psydii]

Counter point: running sims on prem its not that hard. Is the installation documentation on the ess support site these days? Do an install, then restore from the backup using the ess tools? Do you have a backup of the Document Storage Server?

 

Here is a brain dump of things:

 

Use FQDNs for everything. This requires AD DNS and DHCP to all be correctly setup and working well together. Stale DNS records will give you a very bad couple of days three times a year.

 

SQL advice:

32GB ram at least. Set SQL server to use total ram - 4Gb (or 8Gb if you have enough)

6 cores is enough - SIMS does not seem to make good use of them, though it has got better at it over the last five years.

FAST cores is what matters, though again as long as they are fairly modern (<3yrs) you can be pretty sure they are fast enough. (though if you are spec'ing a new box just for sims - let the vendor know its for an SQL app that values clock speed over core count)

 

SSDs for all the disks. RAID 10 for all the things server grade SSDs are fast enough. If you have a SAN you might not have a choice as to the underlying resiliency.

 

Have the database(s) and log files on a separate volumes to Windows, have the SIMS share on another volume, the Document Storage folders can be on this same volume.

Make sure you have three times the space on your database and log file volumes as the current size of the database.

Monitor all volumes for space and add more, do maintenance when they a start to fill up.

Schedule the ESS performance/re indexing patches to run at the correct cadence. (to be determined by how you use sims across the school)

 

SOLUS can serve its files from the same volume as the sims share.

 

Windows/Domain Security:

Do not use a domain admin account to install anything!

Follow the SQL Server best practices for administration accounts.

Configure SQL server for kerberos authentication

 

Have a specific domain account that is used when pushing out the clients it should not be a domain administrator. Use a GPO to add this account to local administrators of your client workstations (but not your servers!). Take steps to protect this account (Make it a member of Protected Account group, rotate its password each month, disable when not in use), it will also need to be a member of a group that can access the sims share (see next block)

 

On the volume where the SIMS share resides, remove USERS from the ACL, replace it with Local_SIMS_Users "Read Only" and Local_SIMS_Administrators "Full Control" (two local groups you have created on the sims server), on the domain server create a Universal Groups called sims_users, add all staff and the account that will be used to install sims onto clients to that.

Also you will need to create a sims_administrators group, add the data team and timetabler to that,

then back on the sims server add the DOMAIN\sims_users and _administrators groups to the matching Local_SIMS_ groups.

 

On the SIMS Share, remove EVERYONE READ WRITE, and add Local_SIMS_Users Read Only.

On the SIMS Share, and add Local_SIMS_Administrators Read Write.

 

There is a census related folder in the SIMS share, you'll want to break inheritance on that folder and remove the _users group's access and grant the census team RW. You should use the pattern above to create a census group (unless its the same set of people that make up the the _administrators group, in which case just use that).

 

This allows you to better protect the SIMS share from prying eyes.

 

 

You will also need to configure the client firewall to allow communication between clients and the sims server as per the ESS documentation. If you haven;t done this before, it can take some playing around with to understand and get it right. Do not say "to hell with it" and turn of the firewall or throw in an any:any:all rule. Also there are some things in the ESS document about resetting permissions on the credential store - this should not be necessary if you haven't broken your clients through some poor administrative decisions.

 

You may find you need to tweak the client timeout settings in the connect.ini - some activities (particularly around timetable updates, marksheet updates/reports and bulk attendance changes) can lock enough of the database that other clients start crashing - upping the timeout value mitigates this.

 

Final thought for now: push sims updates during the school day - schedule half a day where sims will be unavailable and you can be sure all the computers will be powered on. Overnight, or in the holidays you are just guaranteeing sever days of pain when staff come back in. Much better to just have a maintenance window during a school day.

[Ditto]

As above and some massive GDPR concerns. Can you add more detail on what problem you are trying to solve, someone here may have a better suggestion?

I suspect my apologies are needed - I interpreted this as on your own premises - i.e. working things out on a copy at home! If it is purely going from hosted to on-site, then I've have a very different perspective.

[PotNoodleTech]

I think the decision has kinda been taken out of your hands anyway - ESS have been literaly forcing schools to move from on prem to connected over the last 2 years. The chances of them allowing you to bring it back on prem and then giving you any future support are approximatly nil.

[Aprice]

Probably not the answer you want, but I'd suggest you're efforts are better spent on migrating elsewhere.

[TheCookieMonster]

Just make sure the school understand the risks of taking this on internally. You're setting all this up and then, say, you leave for whatever reason. Where does that leave them?

[Boredguy]

Just make sure the school understand the risks of taking this on internally. You're setting all this up and then, say, you leave for whatever reason. Where does that leave them?

In the same boat as all the rest of us schools who still run SIMS on their own kit and not up at ESS's data centre?

[jthompson]

As much as SIMS has a direction of travel, hosted to on-prem isn't it, so support from ESS is going to be pointedly reluctant I should think. I'm fairly sure that you'll need their support to achieve it, though, especially if you've not looked after a SIMS server before.

 

Personally, I can't think of anything I'd want to take on less than a SIMS server. Bringing email back on-prem is probably the only thing that beats it!

[SIMS_Customer_Support]

Think my previous response has disappeared but @Leegvcvvc, happy to support if you still need any guidance on moving to on prem.

[DWilson1997]

We're just moving our database back on prem (we were with SCOMIS) and the final move back is scheduled for next week. I would recommend getting your support company to do the SQL install, setting of SA passwords, SOLUS etc - we paid our SIMS support company to do this. They have allowed us to do testing to stress test it all works before the final pass.

 

The latest technical roadmap is here

 

We had the added complexity of having to deploy a remote desktop solution to access SIMS, which we also outsourced.

 

Also, don't forget about things like SchoolComms, A2C which all need migrating too!

Edited February 13, 2025 by DWilson1997

[dmj]

We're just moving our database back on prem (we were with SCOMIS) and the final move back is scheduled for next week. I would recommend getting your support company to do the SQL install, setting of SA passwords, SOLUS etc - we paid SCOMIS to do this. They have allowed us to do testing to stress test it all works before the final pass.

 

third parties can't do this without breaching ESS's T+C ; you're not allowed to give them access to the database..

[Boredguy]

third parties can't do this without breaching ESS's T+C ; you're not allowed to give them access to the database..

 

Errr thats if your migrating between different MIS platforms, this is likely using DBAttach to put their SIMS DB from the Remote datacentre that ESS ran straight back into a local SIMS server as it would have been before the school went to Remote hosted. Thats certainly how I've read the thread.

 

Now if it was SIMS to Bromcom/Arbour then you would be correct based on their current standpoint (cause who in their right minds would move from one of those modern MIS systems back to SIMS!)

[DWilson1997]

Errr thats if your migrating between different MIS platforms, this is likely using DBAttach to put their SIMS DB from the Remote datacentre that ESS ran straight back into a local SIMS server as it would have been before the school went to Remote hosted. Thats certainly how I've read the thread.

 

Now if it was SIMS to Bromcom/Arbour then you would be correct based on their current standpoint (cause who in their right minds would move from one of those modern MIS systems back to SIMS!)

This is my understanding too.

[PotNoodleTech]

Problem is over the last 2+ years ESS have been trying to regain control of the databases so any contract you signed in the last 3 years to go to SIMS online you would have signed away your rights to continue ownership of the sql database.

 

Get out the T&C of your last 3 year contract and have a read.

[DWilson1997]

From ESS:

 

If your SIMS and/or FMS software is currently hosted by Scomis, to continue accessing this software after 31 March 2025, you can either:

• move to SIMS Connected, ParentPay Group’s secure cloud hosting solution for SIMS and FMS; or

• host SIMS and/or FMS on server(s) installed at your school (“On-premise SIMS/FMS”).

[dmj]

This is my understanding too.

 

I'd dig out the license agreement and check whether you are allowed to share ESS's 'intellectual property' with third parties if they are NOT doing a migration.

What I read explicitly called it out as a breach of the license https://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/236561-ess-trying-make-harder-migrate-away-sims-2.html#post2025255

[DWilson1997]

I'd dig out the license agreement and check whether you are allowed to share ESS's 'intellectual property' with third parties if they are NOT doing a migration.

What I read explicitly called it out as a breach of the license https://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/236561-ess-trying-make-harder-migrate-away-sims-2.html#post2025255

 

If you are sharing it with a 3rd party then yes it is a breach of T&C's.

[psydii]

I think any vendor would have a hard time getting a general "contractors may not use our product while they work for you" clause to fly.

[dmj]

I think any vendor would have a hard time getting a general "contractors may not use our product while they work for you" clause to fly.

 

That's why everyone was so shocked that the CMA didn't seem to bat an eyelid when ESS put it in their contracts.

[psydii]

So supply teachers (long term, inducted, GDPR trained contractors) can’t use sims now?

[dmj]

So supply teachers (long term, inducted, GDPR trained contractors) can’t use sims now?

 

That was my understanding. I'm not a lawyer, but what's in the contract is legally binding. No matter how stupid it is.

[dmj]

I mean if someone can pull out an up to date license agreement where it says you are allowed to give third parties access to SIMS then perhaps we can clear this up.

[PotNoodleTech]

I mean if someone can pull out an up to date license agreement where it says you are allowed to give third parties access to SIMS then perhaps we can clear this up.

 

I mean who cares. It's just another nail in the coffin for moving away from SIMS to a decent modern cloud provider. If your still clinging on to that good old windows 95 interface for grim death then....well that's your fault really.