NorthernSands Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 Thanks for that, Sivadam. I love FAQs about technical stuff, written by somebody who is either non-technical themselves, or doesn't know how to write techie stuff for non techies: Will Discover run on any laptop or PC? No, it requires a 2Gb PC with a separate graphics chip or a graphics card. 2 Gigabit? I'm sure that's actually meant to be 2GB (GigaByte, world of difference there), and I'm also sure that's refering to the amount of RAM that said PC/laptop needs, rather than, say, the HDD size. That answer raises more questions than it answers. Still, at least they've lowered the RAM required by half.
vikpaw Posted April 13, 2011 Posted April 13, 2011 IT'S OUT AND AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD GO FORTH AND PROPAGATE. Just be warned there is a recommendation to install a patch (15588) to ensure data is clean.
TechMonkey Posted April 13, 2011 Posted April 13, 2011 For anyone that was testing or is using it can you report back how much extra strain this puts on the DB? Ours is absolutely chugging as it is (reports taking an age, registers timing out) so I don't really want to add this if it adds a whole lot more load. We have new hardware in the plan to try and mask the problem but that isn't going to be this week!
vikpaw Posted April 13, 2011 Posted April 13, 2011 @TechMonkey - it's a separate db, so in theory i think you can put it on a different machine, at least different instance. Not sure how the two communicate. I wouldn't add anything until you get the house in order first, else you're just throwing another variable in there unnecessarily.
NorthernSands Posted April 13, 2011 Posted April 13, 2011 That's an interesting point, Vik, re. putting the Discover DB on a different server. I guess it could even run on SQL Express?! Having gone through the installation for the beta, I see no reason why that couldn't be the case. As far as I can tell, Discover communicates with SIMS through local user accounts that are 'trusted' in SIMS, much like GroupCall etc do.
TechMonkey Posted April 13, 2011 Posted April 13, 2011 Ta Vik, would prefer it if SIMS would get their house in order first but I doubt that will happen any time soon so we will just have to throw hardware at it.
NorthernSands Posted April 13, 2011 Posted April 13, 2011 @TechMonkey - New hardware may not be the solution. I know a school that had a load of bad packets flying around the network and slowed everything down and would freeze the switches eventually. Instead of finding out exactly what the problem was, they replaced hardware to make it all faster. All it did was freeze the switches even quicker! Post a new thread, if you like, and we can all offer advice about where to go (if it's your bag). 1
TechMonkey Posted April 13, 2011 Posted April 13, 2011 Ta for the advice, I don't think it is entirely the hardware at fault as everything started slowing down after an update and when we were allowed to run housekeeping routines it would speed up again but we are no longer allowed to run them as they sometimes delete random data. Part of our plan is a full network health check anyway so anything like that should be highlighted. The hardware is getting on though so it is going to happen but I think it shouldn't be necessary for the current issues, it is bad programming & utilisation. I may start a thread next week once I've got through the little jobs list on SQL server optimisation to see if we have missed anything.
vikpaw Posted April 13, 2011 Posted April 13, 2011 (edited) @TechMonkey I didn't mean SIMS get it's house in order, i meant you do it! Start a thread or continue an old one, there are a few. The re-index patch could help, plus i just found a simple firewall rule that cut 20 secs off the login time! There are so many little things that could go awry before even adding Discover to the mix. Just thinking that if you put DISCOVER on a different server, you could either allow access to it remotely, or even put up a couple of VM clients to connect to it. Thus bypassing the client hardware spec' limitations. Edited April 13, 2011 by vikpaw clarity
TechMonkey Posted April 13, 2011 Posted April 13, 2011 @TechMonkey I didn't mean SIMS get it's house in order, i meant you do it! I know you did, that's why I suggested SIMS should do it first so we don't have to pander to oddities, hacks and patches. The re-indexing patch has been applied numerous times, but why in a modern computing environment should we have to chuck out users to manually run a routine to tidy up a developers mess? Why is this not part of the standard housekeeping? Why do users not get informed about a time out issue with a sensible error and then the option to retry, rather than a crash with no information on what just happened meaning the staff have wasted their time and don't even know it? Why are unable to run the only thing that actually temporarily solved our issue? Sorry I know the answer to that one, because it sometimes randomly deleted data. Why would it do that!!?! Why with so many people showing that their SIMS installs have slowed down perceptibly over the last few updates is guidance or a fix not being provided? I have participated and followed many of the threads and it seems completely random what works and what doesn't for different sites. We are just about holding our own with it at the moment, hence me asking if it added a new load as I don't want to add more issues. Sorry, turned into a bit of a rant but I'm getting tired of pandering to developers, companies and service providers that we are paying for the privilege to bend over backwards for them. 1
PhilNeal Posted April 17, 2011 Posted April 17, 2011 TechMonkey. If you'd like to drop me a PM, I'd be happy to send out one of our architects to investigate. You may have an environmental problem or it could be that there are issues emerging in your school that we need to understand and fix.
matt40k Posted April 18, 2011 Author Posted April 18, 2011 I've got a call logged with the helpdesk to remove the old audit stuff, I don't need nearly a GB of information about how people changed there password back in 2007.
TechMonkey Posted April 19, 2011 Posted April 19, 2011 TechMonkey. If you'd like to drop me a PM, I'd be happy to send out one of our architects to investigate. You may have an environmental problem or it could be that there are issues emerging in your school that we need to understand and fix. Thanks Phil. We have just put Spring release on so we will see how that runs the first week everyone comes back and then I'll get back to you.
matt40k Posted April 20, 2011 Author Posted April 20, 2011 Would highly recommend deploying Discover via SOLUS3.
NorthernSands Posted April 26, 2011 Posted April 26, 2011 We're not using SOLUS3 just yet (I have a potential new 'school' to add to our existing SIMS box and that may well have a bearing). I have, though, installed Discover on the server and my workstation. Seeing as we're not a UK State school, there are no pre-setup assessment charts. Looks like I'll have to RTFM, and I'm not rolling it out until I've done that! Still, despite some annoying quirks, it's looking good.
Sivadam Posted April 26, 2011 Posted April 26, 2011 (edited) That's ok if SOLUS3 works for you - it didn't for us! Edited April 26, 2011 by Sivadam
Sylv3r Posted April 26, 2011 Posted April 26, 2011 Where are people getting the installs for Solus 3 and Discover? Our SIMS support is via the LA - do I need to contact them?
apeo Posted May 3, 2011 Posted May 3, 2011 I think a news item came up on the SupportNet site that allowed you to download the ISO of Discover but I cant seem to find it. Is the ISO still available on SupportNet? 1
apeo Posted May 3, 2011 Posted May 3, 2011 Still there. Dated 14th April. LOL Thanks.. im being dumb clearly. I clicked on Capita news, thinking it would be in the default list but nope not there (only shows the last 5). I then searched for Discover but it didnt show up. Just tried searching with nothing in the search box and hey presto theres the news item.
creese Posted May 3, 2011 Posted May 3, 2011 LOL Thanks.. im being dumb clearly. I clicked on Capita news, thinking it would be in the default list but nope not there (only shows the last 5). I then searched for Discover but it didnt show up. Just tried searching with nothing in the search box and hey presto theres the news item. Most of my items are set to show the Max. No. 1
apeo Posted May 3, 2011 Posted May 3, 2011 Most of my items are set to show the Max. No. Ok now im blind... where do you set that? EDIT: Never mind just found it in options.
creese Posted May 3, 2011 Posted May 3, 2011 Ok now im blind... where do you set that? EDIT: Never mind just found it in options. No good telling you it is in My Profile and Display then...
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