Manually updating SIMS installs

[MattMitchell]

I seem to be missing something here!

 

Many people keep on mentioning the difficulty of having to update all SIMS client workstations by hand each time there's an upgrade, but I've never seen this to be an issue.

 

We use the SIMSPERM.BAT script here, and on running pulsar.exe (not SIMSLoad strangely), SIMS checks at startup to see if there's a new client and installs it if it does. SIMS *does* have its issues and limitations, but a need to update client machines doesn't seem to be one of them.

 

Why do people complaining that it is?

[DrCheese]

It used to have a really stupid "cancel" button during any upgrades, which impatient staff would click midway through an installation process that would totally screw up the SIMS client, sometimes requiring a manual reinstall of SIMS. That alone drove us up the wall!

 

Now that's gone it doesn't bother me so much, we've always used the "simsperm" way of doing it.

Tho I can see the arguments for a better way of managing SIMS deployment, i.e remote installing onto a PC without SIMS installed (via MSI or other app) or the ability to update machines without having staff logon to a PC, allowing IT to easily update clients in batches without staff hammering the SIMS server all at once the day after an upgrade.

[MrEprise]

It used to have a really stupid "cancel" button during any upgrades, which impatient staff would click midway through an installation process that would totally screw up the SIMS client, sometimes requiring a manual reinstall of SIMS. That alone drove us up the wall!

 

Luckily, we've not had that problem since our Staff do know that if they clicked Cancel, they would never be able to do their registers. Especially since if they did, they also know it wouldn't get sorted for a while (we're usually quite busy the morning after a SIMS upgrade, sorting out other failed client updates.)

 

Something which is frustrating about when SIMS does its client update (which it seems to do fine as far as we know,) on our 2 exams PCs, when our exams people login, it does the update which appears to run okay, but for some reason something doesn't update properly since when they login to SIMS then open Exams Organiser, it comes up with an "Automation Error" message which forces the program to close, which means we have to go up and reinstall SIMS for them every single time we do an upgrade.

 

Both SCOMIS and Capita weren't much help, both suggesting that it might be a permissions issue - maybe simsperm doesn't quite give limited users the required permissions for Exams Organiser which I might believe if it wasn't for the fact that even when logged in as Administrator (for the client update as well as opening Exams Org) it still occasionally happens.

 

Other than that, while we don't have too much of a issue with auto client updates, I can certainly see why many others might be experiencing problems with it.

[Sylv3r]

Luckily, we've not had that problem since our Staff do know that if they clicked Cancel, they would never be able to do their registers. Especially since if they did, they also know it wouldn't get sorted for a while (we're usually quite busy the morning after a SIMS upgrade, sorting out other failed client updates.)

 

Something which is frustrating about when SIMS does its client update (which it seems to do fine as far as we know,) on our 2 exams PCs, when our exams people login, it does the update which appears to run okay, but for some reason something doesn't update properly since when they login to SIMS then open Exams Organiser, it comes up with an "Automation Error" message which forces the program to close, which means we have to go up and reinstall SIMS for them every single time we do an upgrade.

 

Both SCOMIS and Capita weren't much help, both suggesting that it might be a permissions issue - maybe simsperm doesn't quite give limited users the required permissions for Exams Organiser which I might believe if it wasn't for the fact that even when logged in as Administrator (for the client update as well as opening Exams Org) it still occasionally happens.

 

Other than that, while we don't have too much of a issue with auto client updates, I can certainly see why many others might be experiencing problems with it.

 

I have the same issue with our exam users - usually logging on as administrator and running exams organiser then logging off and letting the standard user logon fixes the issue so its deffintly a permission issue. If you find a fix i'd appreciate it.

 

Cheers

[MrEprise]

I'll admit now that i'm being a bit hard on Scomis since they also suggested running the client update as administrator (which as I said above fails every once in a blue moon as admin, but perhaps thinking about it, could have something to do with VirusScan, as this has caused a handful of SIMS issues within the past year or so), however they are still as stumped as we are.

 

If we (or Scomis) do find a fix, I'll be sure to post it on here - unless someone beats me to it.

[vikpaw]

Never had a major problem. Don't use simsperm.bat either, permissions are set up by the network manager such that updates usually occur without hassle. Sometimes users have issues because their homedrive is not mapped correctly or other silly things which have knock on effects for SIMS.

 

At my old place we used to manually upgrade key machines as part of the post upgrade testing process. The Exams machine was one of them, as was the timetabler's PC. We don't use Exams here

 

At least there shouldn't be too long to worry now, as i think Autumn release when it comes arrives with SOLUS 3 and automated updates from a fixed location on the server. I tested the Beta release and it was pretty awesome except networking issues caused the Control PC to not see all client PCs, but where it worked, it was quick and efficient and worked hidden in the background.

 

Personally can't wait for it as one of the biggest complaints we have is the time it takes to run the morning after upgrade. The most common excuse for not doing registers!

[matt40k]

SOLUS 3 will only work on a domain, currently, the only way to get it work on a peer-to-peer setup is to manually install the client. Like vikpaw, it works pretty well. It just can't do FMS, yet.

 

If your not going to use SOLUS3, you'll need to create a group policy and give the users enough access rights. The exams officer will need power users or local admin rights so that Exams can install the bits correctly. (Exams etc has some lecacy COM bits which needs more rights to install).

[Disease]

Well when I run simsperm.bat it throws up an error everytime, so I am left in limbo with some updating and some not.

 

The error it throws is : "SubInAcl is not a recognised internal or external command........"

 

Anyone have any idea why?

[Sarconia]

Well when I run simsperm.bat it throws up an error everytime, so I am left in limbo with some updating and some not.

 

The error it throws is : "SubInAcl is not a recognised internal or external command........"

 

Anyone have any idea why?

 

 

Is SubInAcl.exe and the signature file which goes with it subinacl.exe.signature present in your Setups folder?

 

I had that error a while ago and found that niether of those files were present so simsperm.bat wouldn't run.

[Disease]

Thanks Sarconia, was missing the signature file, now I need to find a way to run this on every machine using group policy with th params I need.