[sims] Deployment of SIMs

[Geoff]

It IS good to see those companies posting, but you have got to be honest that that particular post was a bit of a joke - i.e. saying that you would need admin rights to use an MSI, when SIMS needs you to be an admin in the first place, but also when the MSI would be deployed to a non logged on PC anyway.

 

Indeed, having Captia employees expose their ignorance of how MSI's and Application deployment works doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. Especially when it's the very thing we want them to support.

[GrumbleDook]

I second that emotion (I wonder if anyone recognises the reference?). Having capita team members on here allows us a better insight into how and why they do things the way they do.

 

For official requests we should all be putting our comments in their support site, or going through our own county SIMS teams.

 

If you are making an official Change Request please try to use your usual channels. They are bought and paid for so you might as well make use of them. Also remember that some local teams may have tweaks in place that are specific to your region depending on how much they get deep down and dirty with it all.

 

By all means please continue to raise and discuss points on here as it does make a difference.

[ajbritton]

Here's another good one to vote for...

 

Remove ""Cancel"" option on SIMS Upgrade screens

[Geoff]

This one caught my eye too.

[eejit]

This one caught my eye too.

 

Nice one. I tried to vote but got:

Change Requests

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a000d'

Type mismatch: 'clng'

/user/changerequests.asp, line 683 

 

I will avoid another rant though as I may upset some people.

[Guest Guest]

You need to be a local admin to run SIMS anyway

 

Whats difficult about making it work for non-admins? And more to the point why on earth would i let *ANY* teacher have admin rights over their pc? You simply cant do it; if they decide to bypass your proxy and look at child porn how are you going to know and how are you going to stop them when you have given them full control of their pc?

 

BTW i totally agree with your post.

 

 

Whats the problem capita? I, a lowly it technician in a school getting payed peanuts, can manage to package up software into MSIs. Why cant a multi-million£££ company manage to do it?

 

Why so many updates? Why one a month? How about you try and get things right the first time and save me having to go round 100+ PCs every month fixing last months "fix"*

 

*But if you fix the auto-update or make MSIs you can do as many updates as you like.

[eejit]

j17sparky, thanks for the support

 

Power Admin is the minimum that SIMS will run on, but sometimes that fails too even when you run the scripts to alter permissions on folders locally and only local Admin will work. To be fair to Capita though, it's my local borough who tell us to run as local admins, and they do it by default - not even bothering with Power Users.

 

You may have a different setup/modules that allow you to run with different user rights.

[eejit]

Why so many updates? Why one a month? How about you try and get things right the first time and save me having to go round 100+ PCs every month fixing last months "fix"*

 

One a month? I dream of one a month. Did you get caught with the June upgrade fiasco?

End of June was wasted with "both" of those.

[Ravening_Wolf]

Just to ensure maximum coverage, I feel duty bound to post this link and politely request every SIMS user reading this thread to vote for the change request for an MSI installer.

 

I bet Gordon Brown wishes voting was this easy and fun!

[Guest Guest]

Just to ensure maximum coverage, I feel duty bound to post this link and politely request every SIMS user reading this thread to vote for the change request for an MSI installer.

 

I bet Gordon Brown wishes voting was this easy and fun!

 

 

I will... once im registered in 24-48hours

[GrumbleDook]

The only machines we have an issue with are those with satellite Nova setups that also have the main SIMS.net on too ... which is just one machine (and I still think some of that is the user that has it ... but let's not get into that!)

 

We had an issue with the "What's New" pop up on one machine due to Adobe Reader being updated the same day and not being run before hand (that horrible adobe agreement you get on first run is a pain unless you package it).

 

Previous to that ... I think it was about 18 months ago ... and that was someone pressing cancel part way through and buggering things up.

 

I can't really complain about the updates ... the local Capita team generally iron out any faults ... and we also play the same 'wait and see' tactics we do with MS updates (which are also monthly) ... we watch for a week and wait to see what issues arise and then react accordingly. We do similar with Apple updates too. All part of patch management.

[Optimus]

This is the autoit script i created to install sims, i modified it from the batch file.

 

The users cannot move the mouse or use the keyboard so they cannot cancel it and if you add it to you gpo as a start up script it will run and install if they pc screws up.

 

 

 

This works fine for me, and i dont need to worry if a machine gets rebuilt.

 

Tom

 

This script looks great! but... how do I run it!?

 

Just copy and paste into text editor then rename to script.bat and add to GP?

 

Thanks for and pointers!

[TheScarfedOne]

The link for change request for MSI installers... CR 0809-395377

 

http://support.capitaes.co.uk/ChangeRequest/DetailChangeRequest.aspx?id=%c3%98%c3%9a%c3%92%c3%96%c3%a8%c3%a6%c3%8c%c3%9f%c3%a5%c3%9d%c3%92

[tomscaper]

This script looks great! but... how do I run it!?

 

Just copy and paste into text editor then rename to script.bat and add to GP?

 

Thanks for and pointers!

 

You need to use the Autoit program here compile it to exe and you can then add it to cp on startup.

 

It wont work as a batch file.

[CyberDrac]

On a related note which anyone googling the error message "SIMS.ini Problem" to get to this page may need to know ... teachers or indeed anyone else who needs to use/autoupdate SIMS on a CC3 system using their packages will need to be a member of "??? Management Information Systems". Permissions have been built into the RM supplied packages to allow them to access certain files and folders.

SIMS / FMS include a mechanism for the applications to update themselves. This is

implemented by programs called SIMSLoad.exe and FMSLoad.exe respectively that

run each time the user starts one of the following applications:

SIMS .net

SIMS Lesson Monitor

SIMS Web Integrator

SIMS FMS Module

When they run, SIMSLoad.exe and FMSLoad.exe show a splash screen “Upgrading

SIMS workstation”) while they check the versions of the setup programs on the

server in S:\SIMS\Setups and S:\SIMS\Setups\FMS respectively against the versions

recorded in the files SIMSLoad.ini and FMSLoad.ini on the workstation and run any

updated setups that are detected.

MIS users have permission to update the following areas on the workstation to allow

this to work:

The file C:\Windows\SIMS.ini

The folder C:\Program Files\SIMS and all sub-folders

The registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\CLASSES and all sub-keys

The RM packages include settings to grant write access to the relevant areas for

users in the “Management Information System” group.

Note: Also see the section “Software Restrictions policy modification for

SIMSLoad/FMSLoad”.

There is no automatic upgrade process for SIMS Infrastructure. This must be

delivered to workstation via the installation of a package. Capita does not support uninstallation

of the infrastructure; removing the infrastructure package will execute

another install.

[soapyfish]

An updated link to the "Command Line Use of SIMS Installers.pdf"

 

http://www.capita-cs.co.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/SOLUS/Command%20Line%20Use%20of%20SIMS%20Installers.pdf

[irsprint84]

After seeing someone post some information in another post I created this .bat script and put it in a GPO Startup Script

 

@ECHO OFF

REM --- Check for an existing installation of Sims.net

if exist "C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net\SOLUS.exe" goto _End

 

@ECHO OFF

 

"\\simsserver\simsroot\SIMS\Setups\SIMSApplicationSetup.exe" /S {QuietMode} [sIMSDotNetDirectory]="C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net"

REM --- End of the script

:_End

Edited January 6, 2011 by irsprint84

[bandgeekmafia78]

I heard that later this year you will be able to remotely install SIMS.net from your Server in a similar way to how you may do with Anti Virus software.

[Sivadam]

I heard that later this year you will be able to remotely install SIMS.net from your Server in a similar way to how you may do with Anti Virus software.

That is probably a reference to SOLUS 3.2.74 which is now available!

Edited January 6, 2011 by Sivadam

[irsprint84]

Where can I get solus 3 from? cant see it in usual places

[Sivadam]

Maybe you need to contact your Support Desk.

We have been informed that we should uninstall the Field Trial Version of SOLUS3.2 and install the new release. My Technical colleague does that bit!

[Theblacksheep]

Been a bit late the the SIMS 7.136 update so heres what we did to update our locked down PCs:

 

1) Copied updated SIMSAMPARKSetup, SIMSManualSetup, SIMSApplicationSetup out from SIMS into another folder.

2) Created a new SCCM package called SIMS 7.136 and copied the files into the SCCM package, updated the DP.

3) Created the programs for each of these with the /s command.

4) Created a TaskSequence that referenced these programs in order.

5) Created a SIMS 7.136 collection with teacher laptops and desktops in.

6) Advertised SIMS 7.136 task sequence to the SIMS 7.136 collection.

7) Wait till install finishes.

8) Run SIMS.

 

As the package automatically runs as admin it runs and updates the files for you as it mimics the update process but without the UAC/admin annoyance. UAC is still on the teacher laptops (domain, non admins), they are just users with permissions over the SIMS folder.

 

We think FMS can be updated the same way. Will try.

[creese]

Where can I get solus 3 from? cant see it in usual places

 

I've just installed it on an XP machine to test it.

 

Type Solus 3 into Supportnet and all documentation is there for download. Just follow it through carefully.

 

Shout if there are any problems.

[ehartley7]

You might find this useful.

 

Is there any chance you could try reattaching this PDF please? it says it's corrupt every time I download it?

 

Thanks a lot

[matt40k]

What PDF?