SIMS December Update Fails Gaaahh!!

[Heebeejeebee]

I've had this problem before but this time the recommended solutions don't work.

 

The problem is that during the update (which crawls along) I get the error "SimsApplicationSetup.exe is in use and cannot be installed". I have deleted the SOLUS downloads folder (the one with loads of numbers) and re-downloaded quite a few times now to no avail.

 

I have also made sure that there is no AV software running during the update (Capita's advice) and turned off the diskeeper service in case it was that. No joy.

 

It also borks SIMS and forces me to restore each time it goes wrong so each attempt is taking ages to do.

 

Any ideas?

 

Cheers

 

HBJB

[Gatt]

Not what I was wanting to hear as our SIMS Server was getting upgraded overnight

[kingswood]

I will tell our SIMS bod about that one...and just before the Census return too!!

[GrumbleDook]

I did ours last Thursday ... and have had no problems whatsoever.

 

All of my outstanding issues (Course Manager not allowign the right people to see the right marksheets, AM7 not converting AM6 individual student reports properly and crashing out when over 15 users are accessing it via a terminal server) have been resolved and I have not seen any new issues ... or rather I have not had a phone call from Stephen to say it has all gone pear-shaped and I need to remotely connect in to try and fix stuff.

[pete]

Worked fine here.

 

Try upgrading from the CD Image http://www.capitasolus.co.uk/CDImage/dec06upd.zip - it's saved us grief with flaky downloads.

[Heebeejeebee]

Nice link. I'll give it a go.

 

Thanks

 

HBJB

[Heebeejeebee]

or rather I have not had a phone call from Stephen to say it has all gone pear-shaped and I need to remotely connect in to try and fix stuff.

 

Probably should be a new thread, but what do you use to remote in to your network. I need something here pretty desperately.

 

HBJB

[bossman]

I too have upgraded just before christmas (wanted to be different and take a real risk), no problems here and it's an RMCC3 network (not that i have any qualms about this).

[GrumbleDook]

or rather I have not had a phone call from Stephen to say it has all gone pear-shaped and I need to remotely connect in to try and fix stuff.

 

Probably should be a new thread, but what do you use to remote in to your network. I need something here pretty desperately.

 

HBJB

 

Definitely another thread .. but 2 options ... VPN via our firewall (Firebox X700 from Watchguard) or over RDP over the internet (yes .. I know that there is so much that could go wrong ... but it works and it can be secured later once we have sufficient eveidence it is heavily used ... which it now is.)

[Heebeejeebee]

Update:

 

I've tried the CD version still no joy - same error. I then restarted the server (again) and made a copy of the SimsApplicationSetup.exe to make sure it was not locked. All of this was done with the server disconnected from the network and after a restart.

 

After running the SOLUS from the CD again I let it bomb out and tried again immediately. It told me I had to apply updates in order to continue. Bingo I though - I'm getting somewhere. It managed to do the DB upgrades and proceeded to install the Dec. update. Then it bombed again. WFT!!

 

Capita are no help because they've not even answered my case to my satisfaction yet. Their only suggestion was to re-boot the server (like I didn't try that!!) and after telling me that POS they closed the case. Naturally I re-opened it but I think they're ignoring me now.

 

Utter bollocks!

 

I'm now restoring the system yet again.

 

Dinner's in the cat once more.

 

HBJB

[eejit]

We've managed to apply the update BUT internal SIMS backup take over an hour now - when they used to be about 15 mins. Very, very odd. :?

[siuko]

Well I had a problem with the December update in the fact that as always its hard to tell whether anyone is on the system or not - and its difficult finding an easy way to disconnect them all.

 

I tried a solus download and install... approx 230mb as I was still on 7.82

 

And I kept getting a message saying that one version 0f a file wasnt the correct one and wouldnt allow the install or the database updates to proceed.

 

I tried restarting the sql service etc and tried making sure no one was using sims (although often when I'm certain no one is, it still shows some as connected)

 

What i eventually did (after searching the crappy sims site for sometime was found this bit of info for making certain that no one is connected - I also deleted the temp downloaded setup folders and allowed them to be downloaded again)

 

1. Stop the SQL Service.

 

2. Click on Start | Run | Type SVRNETCN

 

3. Disable the enabled network protocols. This will prevent any connections from any other machine.

 

3. Start the SQL Server Service.

 

The only slight drawback is that you have to have sims also installed as a workstation on the server itself - but for me making sure NO ONE could connect at all made my install go ahead smoothly once the download had completed....

 

You think they would make such a useful utilty more public knowledge consider the number of 'how do I disconnect all users when upgrading' posts hehe!

 

PS. If you use this remember to reverese the procedure afterwards.... stop sql... re-enable protocols... start sql etc

[kingswood]

No real problems here with the update- several clients failed to auto-update and so were out of sync with the server, but running the install manually fixed them first time. Quite a good update for us for the second month in a row really.

[dezt]

I have a problem when I run the update, it won't backup the database, it locks it but fails when the backup tries to run. This happened last night when I was the only person in the school and I had killed all the connections to the sims database.

 

Does anyone know how to make the database backup ok?

[apeo]

Have to ask this.. its not a space issue is it?

[thom]

I have a different problem with it.

Half way through the client update it says there is not enough space on the S:\ drive.

However both the clients and sims server have gigs of free space.

Is it talking about some virtual allocated space for the update?

[jrubinstein]

We've run the december upgrade with no issues - issues I've had in the past have been.

 

1. Space - running a sims database backup in the sims system module brings down the transaction log size nicely.

2. Users in the system - always there. I download the update, then connect later and use dbupgrade which allows me to chuck users out - done over the weekend.

3. I run replication of tables over our network - some upgrades require me to take these replications off.

[dezt]

@apeo Yes it was, the backup goes on the c: drive rather than the s: drive.

 

C: had 500mb free, S: had 100Gb free, great idea, lets use the 500mb drive.

 

Sorted now

[dezt]

@thom - I had a similar problem and found that the s: drive wasn't mapping correctly. Check that out.

 

dezt

[thom]

@dezt - I don't quite follow what you mean? I run the updates from a shortcut on the S drive so i was definately connected.

What should I be checking?

[NetworkGeezer]

It definitely sounds like a permissions issue. For the ugrade SOLUS needs to be able to store updates in S:\SIMS\Setups and apply patches to the various setup.exe files

 

If you have read-only access to S:\SIMS\Setups as most staff probably do now that all the client exceutables are on c:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS. Net, then SOLUS will think that you have no space on the S: drive.

[thom]

After checking I see that Everyone has modify rights on most subfolders if not all of them, including the Setups folder

[dezt]

@thom When we run the client upgrade we just open sims .net on a workstation and let it check for upgrades, this then talks to the s: drive and runs the upgrade.

 

the only time i've come accross a message saying something about s: it wasn't there because it hadn't mapped.

 

Maybe i've misunderstood you, have you run the december upgrade and are now upgrading all your workstations?

[thom]

We have run the update on the server.

Most of the clients updated automatically but a couple have come up with this error. I ended up hitting "Ignore" and setup carried on. Everything seems to be OK but it could cause problems in the future

[Heebeejeebee]

Update:

 

At long last I've managed to get the December update applied. This is only because I persevered and did it the hard and very long winded way, plus I had to get a copy of a working SIMS setups folder that was already on the Dec. update.

 

I don't think SIMS would have helped me any further if we hadn't been forced to apply patch 9664 which requires that you be on the Dec. update. They had closed my case with the message "find a utility that lists open files and see who has it in use". (BTW this was done and it still said that no locks were on the file).

 

Anyway I had to ignore the fact that the file was in use and continue with the update as far as I could, then wait for it to bork out and run the SOLUS from the CD release (not the online version). This told me that some updates needed to finish. I had to make a note of them and use DBUpgrade to do these since the SOLUS fell over again. I then copied the SimsApplicationUpdate.exe (the file that was causing the problems) and the signature file from the folder of the already updated SIMS (supplied by capita) into the setups folder on the server and it worked. Yay !! About bloody time!

 

HBJB