googlemad Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 Has anyone here fully integrated their MIS with their network system so that when a new student is enrolled / put on the MIS system they are automatically created a network login at the same time? Not exporting data into a CSV file! Obviously this would involve enrolment staff having extra access to AD etc but it would be a lot more streamlined than a huge text file every morning!
plexer Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 Doesn't have to be that way I'd favour an automatic integrated system rather than giving someone eleveated access. Ben
jcollings Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 These guys (SystemHOST | Extra-ordinary IT outsourcing) wrote us a utility called SimSync. This creates AD accounts automatically when students and staff join. It also disables them when they leave on SIMS. It runs over night for us but I can't see any reason why it couldn't run more often. Perhaps worth giving them a call.
Davit2005 Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 (edited) Set this up at last place. This may not be suitable for your enviroment but it worked in ours. A MS Database to pull from the MIS system database, manipulate and export the needed data as csv's. Use something like dovestones that will also create user and home areas from the csv's that were exported. Task scheduler can be used to open the database (set the database to autorun) and create additional tasks to run Dovestones command line interfaces to use the exported csv's to update AD. Just test, test and test on a test OU. What puts you off having csv files? Edited January 27, 2012 by Davit2005
mavhc Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 sims2ad - VBScript that reads a Capita SIMS database, or Excel file, compares to Active Directory, and add/removes/changes users as needed. Multiple site aware - Google Project Hosting is a script I part wrote, enables, disables, moves between sites from sims for pupils, or excel file for staff, easy enough to alter to do staff from sims if you wanted.
vikpaw Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 Most MISes i spoke to say that they are able to integrate. Certainly since they can do single sign on. So it should be possible to write a routine to push the new users into AD. Which one do you use @googlemad ? It would really only be semi-automatic, so a script / routine that runs overnight. But could in theory be triggered on-demand. I would want it to run as a different user, on the server, so you don't need to give elevated rights to the end user. For example with SIMS in order to use their SLG (sharepoint/VLE type product) they have a service called ADP, which is active directory provisioning that is scheduled to run overnight. Most routines will most likely need some intermediate step, be it csv or a direct read into another db. ADP stores it's own list in a table in the db. I would recommend @rpwillis from SalamanderSoft who can do all kinds of integration with various MIS, moodle, sharepoint, especially if you don't fancy hacking around the dbs or with code yourself.
plexer Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 Seems salamandersoft have it covered: SalamanderSoft Limited - Salamander Active Directory Don't know about pricing though Ben
penfold_99 Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 sims2ad - VBScript that reads a Capita SIMS database, or Excel file, compares to Active Directory, and add/removes/changes users as needed. Multiple site aware - Google Project Hosting is a script I part wrote, enables, disables, moves between sites from sims for pupils, or excel file for staff, easy enough to alter to do staff from sims if you wanted. I see the script i wrote has found a new home.
penfold_99 Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 Has anyone here fully integrated their MIS with their network system so that when a new student is enrolled / put on the MIS system they are automatically created a network login at the same time? Not exporting data into a CSV file! Obviously this would involve enrolment staff having extra access to AD etc but it would be a lot more streamlined than a huge text file every morning! There are SIF based applications that can do this and integrating with office365 and Google Apps.
penfold_99 Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 These guys (SystemHOST | Extra-ordinary IT outsourcing) wrote us a utility called SimSync. This creates AD accounts automatically when students and staff join. It also disables them when they leave on SIMS. It runs over night for us but I can't see any reason why it couldn't run more often. Perhaps worth giving them a call. I have have looked at their site but didn't come across it. Know any rough costs?
limbo Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 We achieved this a few years ago. A script runs on a schedule (we have found overnight is frequently enough) and goes through the MIS data on the SQL server cross referencing each student against an MSAccess table. Any students / staff who do not have an entry in the MSAccess table have a new AD account, home drive, email address, canteen card number, library card reference etc. generated. It works just as well with a single new student mid term as it does with our 300 strong new intake in September. The interim MSAccess DB saves having to record information in the MIS and seems more efficient that having to check AD - it also gave us the opportunity to do a snap shot when we first started so that it didn't generate everyone a new account.
sdc Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 Seems salamandersoft have it covered: SalamanderSoft Limited - Salamander Active Directory Don't know about pricing though Ben We use this very effectively; pricing is good in my opinion for what the software does. 1
GREED Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 (edited) With SIMS, and granted is 2 years since my last use of it, used ADPT to do just this. It was the provisioning tool that bolted into SLG? Anyone back me on that? Edited January 28, 2012 by vikpaw sneaky advertising
vikpaw Posted January 28, 2012 Posted January 28, 2012 (edited) Seems salamandersoft have it covered: SalamanderSoft Limited - Salamander Active Directory Don't know about pricing though Ben It's reasonable and depending on what you want doing can be flexible, and everything is customised to suit the environment, it's not like you're buying a boxed product. With SIMS, and granted is 2 years since my last use of it, used ADPT to do just this. It was the provisioning tool that bolted into SLG? Anyone back me on that? @GREED I can back you on one thing - see post 6. Edited January 28, 2012 by vikpaw
GREED Posted January 28, 2012 Posted January 28, 2012 It's reasonable and depending on what you want doing can be flexible, and everything is customised to suit the environment, it's not like you're buying a boxed product. @GREED I can back you on one thing - see post 6. D'oh missed that bit totally! To be fair I would have expected you to have mentioned that mate
vikpaw Posted January 28, 2012 Posted January 28, 2012 If anyone is interested, Capita's ADP is available as a standalone product even if you don't want to use SLG, but why you would pay to have yourself tied down to a limited format for creating usernames, and not be able to use the admission number is beyond me.
GREED Posted January 28, 2012 Posted January 28, 2012 If anyone is interested, Capita's ADP is available as a standalone product even if you don't want to use SLG, but why you would pay to have yourself tied down to a limited format for creating usernames, and not be able to use the admission number is beyond me. Can't be much to adapt it to pull any student field in to the scripts it uses. I'd say build a provisioning script oneself... If it were easier to get at the sims tables... Our school messed with that with some good successes, with the stumbling block being getting at the tables. Even had it disabling accounts if they 'left' out testing database.
mavhc Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 I see the script i wrote has found a new home. Yeah, lots of new features, probably mostly only of interest to me running 4 buildings with users transferred between them, still not bothered making it read an xml report instead of raw sql access though. Added lots of comments too :-)
matt40k Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 I'd recommend @rpwillis from SalamanderSoft. I did put a propose forward to have it as part of our admin build but it didn't happen. Shame as it's a great tool. Not sure why you would want to force little kids to remember admission numbers however @vikpaw!! Each onto their own!
vikpaw Posted January 31, 2012 Posted January 31, 2012 I'd recommend @rpwillis from SalamanderSoft. I did put a propose forward to have it as part of our admin build but it didn't happen. Shame as it's a great tool. Not sure why you would want to force little kids to remember admission numbers however @vikpaw !! Each onto their own! @rpwillis did a load of work for me yesterday @matt40k - it's not so onerous, i almost insisted on the change when i got here, as it used to be in the old format of yeargroup.lastname.firstinitial or something and had to be changed each year, then if you autocreate and there are too many Alis or Muhammads, then you take another letter, or add a number and it was a mess. Now, it's the same for 18 years, or more, and is usually a simple 4 digit number i.e. <2digit prefix><1234>. it's printed on their ID cards, in their planners, it's the library barcode, and teachers can see it in the registers if they forget. It was easier to make that change than it was to get teachers used to using Office 2010! I think of it as building skills for the future as remembering a 4-digit pin is going to be a main part of their life. In fact here, we have 6 digit pins so it's even more accurate in reality
matt40k Posted January 31, 2012 Posted January 31, 2012 Ah k, could see how 100's of Muhammads might put a spanner in the works
mavhc Posted January 31, 2012 Posted January 31, 2012 I went with year of birth, first name, initial of surname, and then add 1, 2, 3 on the end if duplicates exist. 96JoeB
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