SIMS Upgrades and Permissions

[Richie1972]

Does anyone know if it's possible to get the SIMS upgrades to run via a startup script?

I'm looking to take staff out of the local admins group and prevent them installing software.

I was thinking that, as the startup scripts runs at admin level, it could perform the updates, then i could have the users just going straight into sims instead of via the update program (pulsar?)

 

If this would work would it also work for PARS.net, which we are rolling out in the near future?

 

Thanks

[ConTheITGuy]

I've asked similar before - I believe that if you just assign full control to the SIMS and PARS folders in Program Files, they will be able to perform the upgrades. This definitley works for PARS.net - still need to check for SIMS.

 

 

Andy

[ChrisH]

That seems to work the majority of the time occasionaly I have had to log on as admin for it to work properly but not very often.

[_Bob_]

This works most of the time but PARS.net occasionally decides to update your MS Office components. The only of doing this AFAIK is to login as admin.

[apeo]

If you wanna do it by startup script still and stop sims from looking for updates before it loads, here is how you do it:

 

Change the teachers shortcut to "C:\program files\sims\sims .net\pulsar.exe"

 

The current shortcut has Simsload.exe before pulsar.exe (simsload is what checks for updates.)

 

To get it to automatically upgrade during computer startup, create a script that will run the following:

 

\\simsserver\sims\sims\setups\simsapplicationsetup.exe /s

\\simsserver\sims\sims\setups\simsmanualsetup.exe /s

\\simsserver\sims\sims\setups\SIMSAMPARKSetup.exe /s

 

The /s switch does a silent install which i found using different switch combination as capita claimed there wasnt a switch.

[Richie1972]

Thanks a lot for the replies, they're just what I'm looking for

[WildernIT]

I'm having the opposite problem - for some reason SIMS upgrades have to be done manually on our network, the SIMS shortcut points to 'Pulsar.exe' and running SIMSLoad doesn't seem to do anything... am I right in thinking that SIMSLoad *should* check for updates and then actually run SIMS if none are found? Is there something missing from sims.ini that I should be looking for?

[Guest wesleyw]

Yeah that's right it should check your server setups directory for updates install them if there are any then run SIMS .NET afterwards

 

Wes

[wesleyw]

Yeah that's right it should check your server setups directory for updates install them if there are any then run SIMS .NET afterwards

 

Wes

[WildernIT]

Yeah that's right it should check your server setups directory for updates install them if there are any then run SIMS .NET afterwards

 

Wes

So if it's not, does this mean there's a critical part of sims.ini missing?

 

I have some machines where it's working fine and some (most) where it isn't... time to do a bit of comaprison I think.

 

Thanks!

[wesleyw]

Simsload.ini located in c:\program fiels\sims\sims .net\ should look a little like this:

 

[LastChecked]

SIMSAmparkSetup=1.526.3.0

SIMSApplicationSetup=1.528.12.0

SIMSApplicationSetupLastChecked=11:15

SIMSManualSetupLastChecked=11:15

SIMSAMPARKSetupLastChecked=11:15

 

or

 

[LastChecked]

SIMSApplicationSetup=1.528.12.0

SIMSManualSetup=1.528.7.0

SIMSApplicationSetupLastChecked=14:16

SIMSManualSetupLastChecked=14:16

SIMSAmparkSetup=1.526.3.0

SIMSAMPARKSetupLastChecked=14:16

 

The latter being a file from a newly updated one and the first being from an old install that hasn't run SIMS for quite some time!

 

Wes

[WildernIT]

[LastChecked]

SIMSApplicationSetup=1.528.12.0

SIMSManualSetup=1.528.7.0

SIMSApplicationSetupLastChecked=14:16

SIMSManualSetupLastChecked=14:16

SIMSAmparkSetup=1.526.3.0

SIMSAMPARKSetupLastChecked=14:16

 

The latter being a file from a newly updated one and the first being from an old install that hasn't run SIMS for quite some time!

Hmm... both my working and my non-working machines have sims.ini files that look like this. What else does SIMSLoad look for that could potentially be different between the two machines... anything in the registry?

[WildernIT]

Got the bastard!

 

Turns out the problem was due to our domain being renamed almost two years ago, still some hangers-on referencing the old domain.

 

In C:\Windows, in the SIMS.ini file:

 

"SIMSSetupsDirectory=\\\dfs\SIMS\Setups"

 

was still set to look at our old domain, thus thwarting the whole upgrade procedure.

 

Many thanks to the posters who've posted SIMS technical guides in various threads here, wouldn't have found out about this without them!

[NetworkGeezer]

S:\SIMS\Setups\SIMSPerm.bat anyone?

[Gatt]

Getting a lot of problems with the recent (friday?) update - taking anywhere from 30 mins to 2&half hours to install

Some PC's end up with an I/O error half way through installation of the upgrade..

 

A quick solution I have is when a PC has upgraded, i make a ZIP file of the SIMS.net folder on the C: drive and slap it on a USB key, then extract it onto a PC that fails to update - works a treat - till the next update

 

Unfortunately our staff PC's are on our LEA's domain so no way to amend the startup scripts

 

Also anyway to stop it from installing the manuals? their huge and noone uses them...

[NetworkGeezer]

Hope you've sorted out the machine that's gonna do PLASC, Craig.

[Gatt]

forgive my ignorance - PLASC?

 

Our SIMS server (like all staff stuff) is controlled by Salford LEA which means i have virtually bugger all control

 

We are looking at the implications of splitting from them with regards to the network - cos its getting ridiculous now with them (5 days to unblock a website!! and 2-3 for a password reset )

[apeo]

Also anyway to stop it from installing the manuals? their huge and noone uses them...

 

If you are running simsload then I dont think there is anyway to stop the installation of manuals. If you also have little or no control over startup scripts then its going to make it more difficult for a workaround. One way is to enter the latest version of manuals in simsload.ini then somehow copy this to all machines but you are going to have to do this every time theres an upgrade. Ive not tested this so Im not 100% sure it would work :?. If you can use startup scripts then i would change the sims shortcut directly to pulsar and have a startup script install sims. Hope that helps

[woody]

I've found that Sophos AV running in the background can be detrimental to the SIMS upgrade service. If you have it running on a PC and that PC is slow to load or upgrade sims, just stop the sophos AV service while the upgrade runs. Watch the difference!

[Gatt]

we havent got sophos - think its OfficeScan (Trend?) which we cant disable cos of the LEA - building a good case to break away ftrom them!!

 

Having probs today with SIMS, but again think its LEA related (batch files not running to map shares, etc)

[woody]

If this is the way your LEA controls IT in schools, it sounds like they have some serious issues!

[beeswax]

I've found that Sophos AV running in the background can be detrimental to the SIMS upgrade service. If you have it running on a PC and that PC is slow to load or upgrade sims, just stop the sophos AV service while the upgrade runs. Watch the difference!

 

running sophos av here and so far haven't had any upgrade probs reported.

[beeswax]

(5 days to unblock a website!! and 2-3 for a password reset )

 

5 days? they must be employing more staff then. lol