SIMS.net access and data extraction

[BLMSkaarjIce]

Hello,

 

Usually i'm pretty good to find solutions online without annoying others, but this is puzzling me a lot.

The school changed last year from SIMS.net to Arbor but time to time they keep logging in to get historical information.

 

Now, when the school staff try to authenticate SIMS is loading endlessly and never actually open SIMS.

 

There is a way to verify if is a licence problem?

 

Is it possible to extract the data in a CTF extraction file from the db without accessing SIMS?

 

 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2025 by BLMSkaarjIce

[PotNoodleTech]

Sadly due to copyrighty intelectual property legal stuff - when you moved from SIMS to Arbor you surrendered the right to access SIMS on that day.

 

Your gonna need some REALLY good lawyers to get anywhere with fighting that.

 

Is the SIMS server in your server room or is it sims connected online?

[BLMSkaarjIce]

Hi,

The SIMS server is a local one in the server room.

Do you think there is any hope of retrieving the data from the database somehow?

[PotNoodleTech]

I don't know - if the server was left connected to the internet then it's posssible ESS could have disabled it remotely whoch reduces your chances significantly.

[mikes]

SkaarjIce  an old unreal fan?  🙂   A school I know has moved from Sims to Arbor earlier this year, the SIMS server was remotely disabled by the LEA, so you might have to speak to them - this one had a disabled SQL database though I'm not sure how the LEA did it, it was reversible.  I also know a school kept a copy of their SIMS VM without Ethernet enabled which still works to this day. But they are likely breaching the licensing as others have said. Have you checked make sure there are no broken drive maps or anything the copy of SIMS on the server might be relying on?

[Koldov]

Our bursar needed some financial information the day after I switched our SIMS server off...

 

We weren't quite out of contract, but I had shut down the VM and disabled its network as we had already migrated.

 

Anyway, I wasn't going to fire it up and attach it to the network and I'd already started removing all the client installs and SOLUS entries.

 

I did however allow them to use my computer after I used RDP to the host and used a Hyper-V Virtual Machine Connection to the SIMS VM as it had SIMS and FMS client software on.

 

 

Afterwards I deleted the SIMS server VM....

 

Honest...

 

I did...

Edited June 24, 2025 by Koldov

[BLMSkaarjIce]

Yes, I loved Unreal back in the days... well, this MIS server is still connected to the network. No 

Then probably yes, it has been disabled, but I was expecting a significant message and not just an endless loading until pulsar.exe will not responds.

 

For me looks like suddenly it cannot connect anymore

 

the sims.ini looks correct to me:

[Setup]
SIMSDirectory=\\myserver\sims
SIMSSetupsDirectory=\\myserver\sims\Setups

Folder=SIMS Applications
SIMSSQLAppsDirectory=D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL13.SIMS2016\MSSQL\Binn
SIMSDiscoverDirectory=C:\Program Files (x86)\SIMS\Discover Client\
[LastChecked]
SIMSInfrastructureSetup=1.674.1.0
[FMSSQL]
FMSSQLAppsDirectory=D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL13.SIMS2016\MSSQL\Binn

 

The connect.ini looks ok for me:

[SIMSConnection]
ServerName=myserverip\sims2016
DatabaseName=SIMS
CommandTimeout=6000000
ServerType=SIMSSQL
DatabaseMode=OnLine
[SimsDatabases]
FriendlyName0=site1
Server0=myserverip\sims2016
DatabaseName0=SIMS
DatabaseMode0=OnLine
FriendlyName1=site2
Server1=myserverip\sims2012
DatabaseName1=SIMS
DatabaseMode1=OnLine
[SIMSOffline]
PreviousRedirect=
PreviousServerName=myserverip\sims2016
PreviousDatabaseName=SIMS
PreviousDatabaseMode=OnLine

 

Where can I find logs to see what the sims.net client?

 

 

 

 

Edited June 24, 2025 by BLMSkaarjIce

[mikes]

What do you mean by the sims.net client?   also have you checked in Services to see if the SQL services are running or disabled ?

[mavhc]

restart the sql server in single user mode and add a user with SA rights, then check sql logs etc. All the data will still be there. Finance stuff in FMS though?

[BLMSkaarjIce]

Sims.net installed on the client device.

Yes, i tried to restart the SQL

From SQL studio I can see the tables and the data is there but I cannot present this to the client.

 

I choose to follow Koldov example... I told the school that if they wont access and support to get in contact with ESS to get proper licence.

 

I feel defeated because I could not solve the issue, but I think is the right things to do in the best interest of the school.

 

Thank you guys!