MkII Posted May 18, 2007 Posted May 18, 2007 Just had the day from hell: LEA support thought it'd be a nice surprise for us to walk into the new version this morning. As he knows, most of our teacher desktop PCs are set to run SIMS from a shortcut to pulsar.exe and not simsload.exe, to cut down on user inconvenience. We're asked to start work at 9am, which I don't like as I like to start the day ahead of myself, not behind. For some reason I logged into the admin server and saw exactly what had been going on. The May release has a bug Capita are aware of apparently: The home page daily registration form is broken - registration period was missing, and teachers couldn't take registers - the solution is to click on the clock/ take register icon So I spent all day getting everyone working I wouldn't mind but I'd only told the LEA support guy on Wednesday that I'd just noticed some clients hadn't taken the last update, so I anticipated problems.
steve Posted May 18, 2007 Posted May 18, 2007 I've come across that issue too during my testing of the May release - one of the main reasons I'll probably hold out till the june update. Don't you just love it when the LA decide to make huge changes without any warning what so ever? We lost our email the other week after the central mail relay was "upgraded".
NetworkGeezer Posted May 18, 2007 Posted May 18, 2007 @Mark Wow he updated during Census week. That's brave.
localzuk Posted May 18, 2007 Posted May 18, 2007 We get loads of warning down here - a week until the auto update script will grab the new update whether we want it or not.
MkII Posted May 18, 2007 Author Posted May 18, 2007 To give him his due, he's usually great about it, our updates are usually weeks late too - not that we've ever minded that. Porblem is, he has a new toy - he's just got the auto update to take..
DMcCoy Posted May 18, 2007 Posted May 18, 2007 Some of us HAD to upgrade because of the census. And the damn thing still doesn't work No patch for a silly 1770 error which is fatal and occurs if you have any students 19 or over. It was fixed in december, but the wonderful version control seems to have brought it back. No fix yet. I've spent days working on sims this week, it seems to just get worse and worse. Oh, and they broke the Bromcom link again in the May update so now I have no contact or addresses on Bromcom either. MIS hell! Oh, and I don't have local LEA team now. I can thank capita for that one too :/
Guest kerrymoralee9280 Posted May 19, 2007 Posted May 19, 2007 We had to install this too last week, and have been told there is no patch until the June release....... SWEET!
MkII Posted May 19, 2007 Author Posted May 19, 2007 Yes - we're told that too Kerry - tho' our guy is pressing for an interim fix. It's such an annoyance for all the staff every lesson.
zag Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 Just don't do the smaller monthly updates, they are pointless and tend to cause so many more problems than they ever fix.
localzuk Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 Woo! The auto-update failed in spectacular style here... I don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.
bishopsgarthstockton Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 sims is been installed on all the teaching machines in the school this summer. Is the any training i can do, i.e. a book
localzuk Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 By teaching machines do you mean all the staff machines? With regards to a book, I haven't found one yet...
NetworkGeezer Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 sims is been installed on all the teaching machines in the school this summer. Is the any training i can do, i.e. a book I believe there's one by some guy called Dante
apeo Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 sims is been installed on all the teaching machines in the school this summer. Is the any training i can do, i.e. a book Er you could try the pdf that come with sims, its pretty much what you learn if you go on a course anyway. Training for basic use is done in house here.
bishopsgarthstockton Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 sims is been installed on all the teaching machines in the school this summer. Is the any training i can do, i.e. a book Er you could try the pdf that come with sims, its pretty much what you learn if you go on a course anyway. Training for basic use is done in house here. would you be able to email the .pdf document to me please?
NetworkGeezer Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 Kev Just look for PDFs in the SIMS.net folder f the of the client PC Consider joining support.net ansd search documentation there. The solus site has release notes for last few software releases.
DSapseid Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 I have been told to expect our SIMS May update this week as our lea gets the update from Capita and tests it and does someother stuff with it then puts it up for download But after seeing these post i might well try and put it off although i have got one member of staff asking when its going to be done as she needs it for the census or something i dont really pay attention. As soon as i here the word SIMS i turn off and just keep nodding. I then refer them to one of members of staff who spends all day everday just in sims! Who will normally then log a call with our SIMS helpdesk. Dan
bishopsgarthstockton Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 Sims is getting installed on 39 teaching machines in the summer holidays. Im not looking forward to all the problems we are gonna have..... rubishnes
localzuk Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 I have been told to expect our SIMS May update this week as our lea gets the update from Capita and tests it and does someother stuff with it then puts it up for download But after seeing these post i might well try and put it off although i have got one member of staff asking when its going to be done as she needs it for the census or something i dont really pay attention. As soon as i here the word SIMS i turn off and just keep nodding. I then refer them to one of members of staff who spends all day everday just in sims! Who will normally then log a call with our SIMS helpdesk. Dan That is the exact same thing I do. I am not expected to know the insides of sims - just that it updates and runs.
MkII Posted May 21, 2007 Author Posted May 21, 2007 There was a PDF to introduce the new interface that was quite simple - I'll look it up for you. Most of our staff can't read tho'... we had the provided training that comes wih lesson monitor and supplemented this ourselves with some inset training - y'know - the usual stuff - a powerpoint presentation talking about it very briefly, plus open sessions where staff could have a play with a test system. Only a handful turned up, plus all of the LSAs who've never had to use it since.
the.damon Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 I have been told to expect our SIMS May update this week as our lea gets the update from Capita and tests it and does someother stuff with it then puts it up for download That should be standard practice across all LA's. Would you rather be the guinea pig that receives all the problems people have reported? I control updates for an LA and i always hold back on approving updates for a week or so to judge the reliability. If a school specifically requires the update then of course it will be approved for them but LA's only hold back because they are trying to protect their users.
TechMonkey Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 Yep I liked the fact that we got the bug notification for the Registration time line before we got the update. Gotta love those SIMS testers. Oh we also loved the forced PDF that opens first time a user logs on with the whats updated guff. Apparently LEAs voted this option in. When we replied that it maybe great for the LEA to know, it was a pain for every teacher to get that coming up when they were trying to register first lesson. That doesn't matter as LEAs voted it in. GAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! @localzuk: You're updater script can I ask what it does and how it failed. We had a very basic Beyondexec script that shoudl have worked through every teachers computer, starts SIMSLoad to get the update and thats it. Before it needed no user intervention, could be run at the logon screen remotely and was wonderful. This time it would not work at all. Running the shortcut forced it to work but our script just wouldn't. Wondered if it was related.
localzuk Posted May 21, 2007 Posted May 21, 2007 @localzuk: You're updater script can I ask what it does and how it failed. We had a very basic Beyondexec script that shoudl have worked through every teachers computer, starts SIMSLoad to get the update and thats it. Before it needed no user intervention, could be run at the logon screen remotely and was wonderful. This time it would not work at all. Running the shortcut forced it to work but our script just wouldn't. Wondered if it was related. The reason it failed was because the SQL server had gone loopy and someone was still logged into sims at 5am in the morning... The script is pretty basic, it downloads the updates and runs them. Nothing fancy really. The workstations update themselves automatically via simsload.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now