SIMS Validate Memberships

[BatchFile]

Heads up guys and girls:eek:

 

I just thought I'd point this out, as it took us by surprise and I hadn't heard...

 

it seems that the "Validate Memberships" routine in SIMS .Net, that runs before you can set up the promotion mapping for next year, was upgraded in the March 09 release and now may take an hour or more to run for the first time since!

 

From Supportnet:

 

KB75012 - Validate Memberships takes a long time to run after an upgrade

Created 17/11/2007

Last Updated 22/06/2009

 

Affected Products SIMS .net System Maintenance & Utilities

Notes Tools | Validate Memberships

 

Running Validate Memberships takes a long time

 

Why is this routine taking a long time to run?

 

What does it do differently than before?

 

Data has been changed since running the new Validate Memberships routine

Advice The New Validate Memberships Routine has been re-designed and now carries out a lot more checks and applies automatic fixes where it can.

 

Validate Memberships will only take a long time to run if the Academic Year has been edited or The first time this routine is run after upgrading it could take up to an hour or more to run depending on the size of the schools database.

 

Any subsequent runs can take as little time as 20 seconds.

 

We also advise to run the latest VM Patch before upgrading to ensure that the Validate memberships Routine runs the correct checks. An upgrade resets the checksums so when VM is run it doesn't check all the records.

 

Patch 11055 has been written which can be applied to the schools data so that when the Validate Memberships Routine is run it will check 1000 records at a time making the process less disruptive for the schools. This solution will be updated once the Patch is finished.

 

Validate Memberships will check every record the first time it is run and memberships that have been inactive for 400 days or more will be ignored the next time unless the membership becomes active, making it a lot quicker.

 

Validate Memberships will produce an SQL Report of the fixes it has carried out and a list of Warnings which the user will need to apply manually.

 

The Reports are written to an SQL table SIMS .net, within the SIMS .net folder there are two scripts:-

 

Validation_Fixes_Report_Concise - Automatic Fixes

Validation_Warnings_Report - List of Warnings the user must manually fix in SIMS

 

These Reports need to be run through DBDiagnose which will translate them. DBDiagnose is also available from the SIMS .net folder. If this cannot be located please contact the Service Desk and request.

 

If you do not look at the Warnings Report for the manual fixes that need to be applied and Validate Memberships is re-run, it will list the issues again until they are resolved.

[Sivadam]

This was discussed on one of the SupportNet Forums. I did point out that time would be saved if the Validate Memberships was run BEFORE doing so as part of the Pastoral Promotion.

Running it this way, though time consuming, does avoid the problem that some schools found where it was taking several hours when run during the Pastoral Promotion.

[matt40k]

Or could be ran as a scheduled task [wish]. It takes 4 hrs for me, there are a few patches you can try if it takes too long.

[BatchFile]

... and a little change to the "this might take a few minutes" message box wouldn't have hurt:rolleyes: (cue the flying pigs)

 

I'm sorted now - took about 25 mins (small school) just wanted to give everyone else a warning:)

[Sivadam]

The SupportNet Thread is: March Upgrades - Slowing Promotions Routine (22576)

First Post on 22nd April - but the solution was available before then.

There have been several posts since this on the same theme.

[Sylv3r]

We set this away here and the person in the office responsible for this said it took nearly an hour to work. 1400 students.

 

Just as well I wasn't hanging about waiting for it!

[Steve_T]

You could try taking out course memberships?