[sims] MIS migration, what happens to SIMS?

[Koldov]

Just wanted to know the best way to deal with SIMS/FMS once an MIS migration happens?

 

We are on-prem, but I don't want to just turn the server off... I imagine there might be things we will need to refer back to (our finance dept. is getting nervous about losing access), how do I mothball it but keep it accessible somehow etc. Obviously it needs to be secure, do you delete 99% of the users, do you remove things like SOLUS, how do you remove SIMS from all the computers (as I understand there is no uninstaller)... Do you limit SQL connections somehow?

 

I take it ESS haven't found a way to nuke the SIMS server or make it inoperable somehow after a certain date, when they get confirmation you won't be renewing your contract?

 

So many questions!

 

As I'm sure quite a few of us are going through this soon, or have already done it, if anyone has got a step by step checklist, that would be great!

Edited March 5, 2025 by Koldov

[JRA]

Is it a VM or hardware?

[Koldov]

Yeah I made it a VM a few years ago... am I sensing a 'turn it off and back on when needed' coming? Edited March 5, 2025 by Koldov

[JRA]

Likely what I'd do tbh. Just fire that up and log them in as-and-when and keep backing it up. As for removing the clients not sure, might see if I could script it in some fashion.

[PotNoodleTech]

VM - keep off disable the network card in it remove from domain make sure you got a couple of local admin accounts accessible and then keep it.

 

It's probalby against the T&C's of cancelling your contract mind.....

[ThomL]

It's probalby against the T&C's of cancelling your contract mind.....

 

Unfortunately so - Customer obligations on expiry of an ESS software agreement V0.2 29 January 2024:

[mikes]

We are moving to Arbor Easter, my plan was just to shut down the VM but keep it on our storage for a while. Maybe keep it for a year and then get rid of it. We used to use Lysol and I did a similar thing and forgot to delete it, and we had an SAR (or some other request for Lysol data, can't remember) so I had to power it back up again to try and get data off of it but after the 5 years or so we couldn't get into Lysol any more - not sure if something went wrong with it or our U/P knowledge was outdated.

 

Thing is not sure how much of the data transfers from SIMS to Arbor and isn't there a legal requirement to keep some data? I can keep a copy of the sims DB in backup but that would be useless without the server itself so maybe I'll archive off the server VM as a file and keep that on backup?

But yes when we go live on Arbor I'll prob shut down our SIMS server after a month or so - luckily for us our LEA are doing it so they'll hopefully instruct me. As for the clients not going to worry about that. Might re-image the laptops in summer anyway for Win 11 rather than WSUS it so that would get rid of it

[Quark]

We are moving to Arbor Easter, my plan was just to shut down the VM but keep it on our storage for a while. Maybe keep it for a year and then get rid of it. We used to use Lysol and I did a similar thing and forgot to delete it, and we had an SAR (or some other request for Lysol data, can't remember) so I had to power it back up again to try and get data off of it but after the 5 years or so we couldn't get into Lysol any more - not sure if something went wrong with it or our U/P knowledge was outdated.

 

Thing is not sure how much of the data transfers from SIMS to Arbor and isn't there a legal requirement to keep some data? I can keep a copy of the sims DB in backup but that would be useless without the server itself so maybe I'll archive off the server VM as a file and keep that on backup?

But yes when we go live on Arbor I'll prob shut down our SIMS server after a month or so - luckily for us our LEA are doing it so they'll hopefully instruct me. As for the clients not going to worry about that. Might re-image the laptops in summer anyway for Win 11 rather than WSUS it so that would get rid of it

 

We're keeping a copy of the SIMS backup in the cloud, just for data retention purposes. We were reassured everything should come over to Arbor, so this is really just a backup for us. In the interim, SIMS told us that we could access the software for everything other than the census which is in this article. https://customer.support-ess.com/csm?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0051049&sys_kb_id=5cc2a109fb9d961085b6f92abeefdc0b&spa=1

[hallamke]

We moved to Arbor in summer 2023 and in August last year migrated from RM CC4 to a vanilla network on Hyper-V.

 

As part of the decommissioning process I exported the old SIMS server and its associated virtual disks to a portable hard drive. On building my new workstation I installed VMWare Workstation (our CC4 network was VMWare) and imported the server and disks on to a separate SSD. I can now spin this up when needed.

 

So far my testing has proved successful in accessing the various parts of SIMS without issue. Networking has been disabled on the VM so no indirect access / Internet access is possible. Whether SIMS remains accessible come the end of our ESS Contract I've no idea as its valid till late April.

 

I've only had course to access the old SIMS data once since 2023 and that was for Options data. The remaining requests the data was already in Arbor

[Aprice]

As others have said, contractually it appears you're obligated to delete it.

[DBR99]

We were remote hosted with SCOMIS and migrated to Arbor in October - I got SCOMIS to help me create an on premise virtual with all 3 of our schools databases on it for reference (actually only used briefly by our Finance/HR staff for legacy reports and sorting staff contracts and payscales which didn't migrate into Arbor well.) Of course our Finance/HR staff would prefer to keep everything forever - don't they always!

 

But as others have said, under the ESS T&C's you have to delete all instances, databases and backups on expiry of you final licence. To remain compliant and legal we'll be doing that on March 31st and it's finally goodbye to SIMS and the ESS/Parentpay group in general. After 12 Years of SIMS, do I miss it - Nope!