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SIMS - How to contact support (URGENT)

enbiggen

By enbiggen
in MIS Systems

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Koldov

Koldov

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, DarkMaster said:

see you next Thursday 

 

FTFY... I was going to say 'Tuesday' but I guess Thursday works as well... 🤣

 

Just now, DarkMaster said:

should we schedule it to run on a Thursday morning @ 8:05

 

If it checks at 07:00, I guess any time after that and before the first person logs in would do it. 🤔

  • Haha 2
DrCheese

DrCheese

Posted
Posted

lol, so the patch that ESS offically released essentially likely did the same as the unofficial patch above? (Push the date forward a week?)

 

Top quality software 😛

David44

David44

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, DrCheese said:

lol, so the patch that ESS offically released essentially likely did the same as the unofficial patch above? (Push the date forward a week?)

 

Top quality software 😛

Yes, download the patch from the link provided earlier in this thread (https://s3dl.ess-solus.co.uk/SIMS_Sims.net_1.24.54.1.pkg). It's a .pkg file but it's actually a zip file. Unzip it and find a single .sql file that does the same as has been posted today by other users. The difference is, when you run the patch it will probably perform a backup and kick users out of SIMS for no good reason.

The annoying part of the whole thing is that no one from Parent Pay is explaining what the issue is. Is there a server that the SIMS client checks against that has an issue? Do they expect it to be resolved by next week so when the eligibility check runs in 7 days it will be fine? Did they have the same expectation last week? Is this something that has been demanded by SIMS marketing to push schools towards SIMS Next Gen and/or SIMS Connected?

ThrowawaySims

ThrowawaySims

Posted
Posted (edited)
14 minutes ago, DrCheese said:

lol, so the patch that ESS offically released essentially likely did the same as the unofficial patch above? (Push the date forward a week?)

 

Top quality software 😛

Other way around - I stripped out the important bit from the official patch last week, which sets that field to be the previous day. I have no idea why this makes the problem vanish. I did try re-running the patch from last week today but when I logged into Sims after I still had the same error pop on login. I assumed that maybe the applicable version of Sims which is checked for was no longer passing so went in to the db and started poking.

Edited by ThrowawaySims
ThrowawaySims

ThrowawaySims

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, David44 said:

Is there a server that the SIMS client checks against that has an issue?

 

I don't know the state of the URL from before last week, but currently the check runs against https://licenses.sims.co.uk/api/Entitlement/ which is showing "No HTTP resource was found that matches the request URI 'https://licenses.sims.co.uk/api/Entitlement/'." - looks like a problem on that endpoint.

  • Like 1
David44

David44

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, ThrowawaySims said:

 

I don't know the state of the URL from before last week, but currently the check runs against https://licenses.sims.co.uk/api/Entitlement/ which is showing "No HTTP resource was found that matches the request URI 'https://licenses.sims.co.uk/api/Entitlement/'." - looks like a problem on that endpoint.

It's possible it would respond differently if a POST request was sent to it rather than a GET request. However, as the certificate for the site was issued on Tuesday of this week, I would guess that https://licenses.sims.co.uk/api/Entitlement/ is pointing to a server that was set up about then with a plan to have it ready by today and they missed the deadline.

  • Like 1
ThrowawaySims

ThrowawaySims

Posted
Posted (edited)
22 minutes ago, David44 said:

It's possible it would respond differently if a POST request was sent to it rather than a GET request. However, as the certificate for the site was issued on Tuesday of this week, I would guess that https://licenses.sims.co.uk/api/Entitlement/ is pointing to a server that was set up about then with a plan to have it ready by today and they missed the deadline.

I tried a POST but got the same thing returned. It's likely I just don't have the required parameters in the URL.

 

Good spot on the SSL cert. The https://licenses.sims.co.uk/ domain has been accessible since at least March 2024 but the plans may have been to have it working by now, then again the cert may have just renewed at that time coincidentally.

 

This is edging into you are not allowed to do this territory but I'll take a deeper look at some point and try and figure out the API, see if it's functional at all. The actual endpoint the server (or client?) hits may be buried further in with this generic error showing up when you navigate to a partialy correct path. Poking at Sims' spaghettiness isn't the most fun thing to do of an evening however... :classic_laugh:

Edited by ThrowawaySims
JRA

JRA

Posted
Posted

No odd messages this morning, let the thing run overnight as mentioned here - ( @BKGarry you'd be proud of me I done a snapshot first!)

 

See you all next Thursday!

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
synaesthesia

synaesthesia

Posted
Posted
23 hours ago, JRA said:

From their renewal email:

 

Yeah maybe not huh.

 

Fifty.

MILLION.

 

 

I honestly have to question if any company would have actually plumbed in 80 million over 2 years into their sinking ship? Do they honestly believe they will claw that back? (outside of legal fees of course).

At this point they could rebrand under the name Oceangate without any sense of irony...

sunny88

sunny88

Posted
Posted

Error was still happening this morning for one school. They report the patch didn't resolve it. Then they report it fixed itself at 7.15am.

 

Have another School that still has it for FMS today 

knelmes

knelmes

Posted
Posted
On 22/05/2025 at 13:22, ThrowawaySims said:

Other way around - I stripped out the important bit from the official patch last week, which sets that field to be the previous day. I have no idea why this makes the problem vanish. I did try re-running the patch from last week today but when I logged into Sims after I still had the same error pop on login. I assumed that maybe the applicable version of Sims which is checked for was no longer passing so went in to the db and started poking.

What I think is happening is that it checks for the entitlement once every day. Every time someone starts SIMS the client checks the last checked date and if it isn't set to today, it does the check and updates the date, stopping later clients from checking with the entitlement service.

If the entitlement server is down (as appears to have happened the last 2 Thursdays), SIMS sets the last checked date and assumes you're not licensed for the day. 

The patch sets the last checked date to yesterday, forcing the first client opened after running it to check the entitlement again. As long as the server is working at that point, it'll see you're licensed, set the date to today and it won't check until tomorrow.

This is why leaving it overnight worked, because they'd sorted the server during the day yesterday.

 

I assume the cutoff is actually about 7am, which explains why people opening it early on Thursday didn't get the message and those opening early today did, until it rolled over.

 

This is all just educated guessing though.

  • Like 1
sunny88

sunny88

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, knelmes said:

What I think is happening is that it checks for the entitlement once every day. Every time someone starts SIMS the client checks the last checked date and if it isn't set to today, it does the check and updates the date, stopping later clients from checking with the entitlement service.

If the entitlement server is down (as appears to have happened the last 2 Thursdays), SIMS sets the last checked date and assumes you're not licensed for the day. 

The patch sets the last checked date to yesterday, forcing the first client opened after running it to check the entitlement again. As long as the server is working at that point, it'll see you're licensed, set the date to today and it won't check until tomorrow.

This is why leaving it overnight worked, because they'd sorted the server during the day yesterday.

 

I assume the cutoff is actually about 7am, which explains why people opening it early on Thursday didn't get the message and those opening early today did, until it rolled over.

 

This is all just educated guessing though.

Seems right, One of our schools logged in at 6 am and got the error. After 7am it was fine. Ideally the server needs to stay up every thursday 

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