[sims] SIM.ini problem - cannot be located or is incomplete

[marsdenprimary]

Hi,

 

We are upgrading our admin system machines here at school and instead of forking out over £1000 for Oneconnect to come in and upgrade them from XP to Windows 7, I thought i'd do it myself.

 

All gone well except installing SIMS and FMS!

 

SIMS is on our server.

 

Gone into our S: drive, sims setups, found the SIMSInst file but that doesn't work- it says the 'Infrastructure is missing' so i tried the SIMS Application setup. All went well but on launching it, it says: The SIMS.ini file cannot be located or is incomplete which means the system cannot be automatically updated.

 

What is going wrong? Help very much appreciated!

 

xx

[GREED]

I don't know if that has been fixed but back in the day there were permission issues with the local SIMS folders on the PC on W7, could be your first port of call. Of course, make sure the sims.ini file is there in the first place!

[marsdenprimary]

I don't know if that has been fixed but back in the day there were permission issues with the local SIMS folders on the PC on W7, could be your first port of call. Of course, make sure the sims.ini file is there in the first place!

 

What do you suggest i do re permissions? I've found the connect.ini file but it doesn't do anything.

[GREED]

Open it up in wordpad, you'll see the text there. If you have not seen this before it won't mean much, so might be worth copy/paste onto here for people to diagnose.

 

With the permissions, all users need to be able to read to the folder/file. at least.

[GREED]

I am hoping someone with more recent knowledge can jump in soon too!

[Rawns]

Usually means the SIMSInfrastructureSetup.exe is missing form the S:\SIMS\Setups folder as SIMSInst,exe calls other installers.

 

As for the SIMS.INI, that gets created in C:\WINDOWS when you run SIMSInst.exe. As thats not working, the SIMS.INI may not exist/be incomplete. Running SIMS will check for upgrades and use the SIMS.INI to locate the setups folder. If it's missing, it may not run. You can manually create your own with the following to get it working: (Save as SIMS.INI to C:\WINDOWS)

 

[setup]
SIMSDotNetDirectory=C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net
Folder=SIMS Applications
SIMSSetupsDirectory=D:\SIMSAREA\SIMS\Setups
SIMSDirectory=S:\SIMS

 

Use the local path for the setups folder on the server. Once done, try SIMSInst.exe again and it should pick up everything. Failing that, just run SIMS and it can install any missing bits (like the SIMS Manuals)

Edited January 24, 2013 by Rawns

[marsdenprimary]

Usually means the SIMSInfrastructureSetup.exe is missing form the S:\SIMS\Setups folder as SIMSInst,exe calls other installers.

 

Definitely there- it's not missing... :/

[MYK-IT]

Yes, as mentioned install using SIMSInst.exe

 

sims.ini is usually located in C:\Windows directory. It may have not been created either due to permissions or UAC being enabled.

I have just manually copied it over from a known working computer in the past.

 

SIMSperm command was used in the past to setup the permissions correctly.

[bandgeekmafia78]

Try running sims with elevated administrator privelages - its a checkbox on the 'compatability' tab of sims.net properties.

[Rawns]

Try running sims with elevated administrator privelages - its a checkbox on the 'compatability' tab of sims.net properties.

 

Or for Win 7, right-click and Run as Administrator.

[bandgeekmafia78]

Or for Win 7, right-click and Run as Administrator.

 

That too.

[marsdenprimary]

Usually means the SIMSInfrastructureSetup.exe is missing form the S:\SIMS\Setups folder as SIMSInst,exe calls other installers.

 

As for the SIMS.INI, that gets created in C:\WINDOWS when you run SIMSInst.exe. As thats not working, the SIMS.INI may not exist/be incomplete. Running SIMS will check for upgrades and use the SIMS.INI to locate the setups folder. If it's missing, it may not run. You can manually create your own with the following to get it working: (Save as SIMS.INI to C:\WINDOWS)

 

[setup]
SIMSDotNetDirectory=C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net
Folder=SIMS Applications
SIMSSetupsDirectory=D:\SIMSAREA\SIMS\Setups
SIMSDirectory=S:\SIMS

 

Use the local path for the setups folder on the server. Once done, try SIMSInst.exe again and it should pick up everything. Failing that, just run SIMS and it can install any missing bits (like the SIMS Manuals)

 

Looks like this worked, installed everything etc... restarted- no SIMS in start menu or in C: drive... very bizarre! Doing it again...

[chazzy2501]

The connect.ini for us is in the s drive. if you are using UAC you usually have to double map the s drive (once for regular user and one again for admin) You will also need to run the simsperm.bat on the local machine.

 

Heres a few lines from my install doc for my technician:

 

o Run the simsperm batch file from an Admin CMD.

1. Net Use S: \\dcc4505-2\sims

2. CD /d S:\sims\setups

3. Simsperm.bat dcc-sch-4505\staff

4. Check for errors “should read like: done 1213 modified 1213 failed 0 syntax 0”

o Run Sims and point to the correct connect.ini file in s:\sims

[Rawns]

Looks like this worked, installed everything etc... restarted- no SIMS in start menu or in C: drive... very bizarre! Doing it again...

 

Forgot to say in my post (but sure it's obvious anyway) ensure the values in the SIMS.INI match your own environment! That was a straight copy/paste from mine.

[vikpaw]

I was going to say the infrastructure file might be too old, but if there is one in there, run it manually would have helped.

I'd say log in as the admin account if you can.

If you runas admin then it might be why the shortcuts weren't created. I'm sure on my server only the admin account can see them.

[marsdenprimary]

I have got it working now cheers guys- here's how:

 

1. Disabled UAC

2. Used Rawn's code, altered accordingly and put it in C:\Windows (to replace the one that was already there)

3. Ran Simsinst.exe

4. Rebooted

5. Ran Simsinst.exe again

6. Rebooted

 

Awesome!

 

Just for reference is there anyway of doing all this then saving it to an image? Or would you recommend just installing it this way on each upgraded machine?

[Rawns]

I have got it working now cheers guys- here's how:

 

1. Disabled UAC

2. Used Rawn's code, altered accordingly and put it in C:\Windows (to replace the one that was already there)

3. Ran Simsinst.exe

4. Rebooted

5. Ran Simsinst.exe again

6. Rebooted

 

Awesome!

 

Just for reference is there anyway of doing all this then saving it to an image? Or would you recommend just installing it this way on each upgraded machine?

 

Are you going to be going down the SOLUS3 route any time soon?

 

When you add new workstations to SIMS or FMS channels of the SOLUS3 environment, SOLUS3 will install SIMS and FMS automatically for you if it's not installed so it could be worth leaving it out of the image.

Edited January 24, 2013 by Rawns

[marsdenprimary]

Are you going to be going down the SOLUS3 route any time soon? When you add new devices to SIMS or FMS channels of the SOLUS3 environment, SOLUS3 will install SIMS and FMS automatically if it's not installed so could be worth leaving it out of the image.

 

I don't know to be honest- haven't been told if we are... Sounds like an easy route though!

[Rawns]

I don't know to be honest- haven't been told if we are... Sounds like an easy route though!

 

If you get LA support, may be worth chatting to them about what their plans are for SOLUS3. It's a slog to set it up but when it works, it seems to work well.

[vikpaw]

You shouldn't need to run it twice, there must be something still being funny.

Anyhoo, you can defo image it. Which is fine until you next update teh server at which point they will try to upgrade on next run. If you have permissions problems, especially with whichever admin is logged in, it might fail. Worst case you run around log in as admin and upgrade them. Not the ideal solution, but it works. There are a couple of recent threads which list the specific permissions you'd need to allow, either manually or via group policy.

Or as Rawns said, see if SOLUS 3 is coming any time soon. I suspect though that you will be charged for the install by these Oneconnect guys, or are they only IT support?

[marsdenprimary]

You shouldn't need to run it twice, there must be something still being funny.

Anyhoo, you can defo image it. Which is fine until you next update teh server at which point they will try to upgrade on next run. If you have permissions problems, especially with whichever admin is logged in, it might fail. Worst case you run around log in as admin and upgrade them. Not the ideal solution, but it works. There are a couple of recent threads which list the specific permissions you'd need to allow, either manually or via group policy.

Or as Rawns said, see if SOLUS 3 is coming any time soon. I suspect though that you will be charged for the install by these Oneconnect guys, or are they only IT support?

 

Yeah they were planning on charging us over £1000 for 7 machines. No thanks!!

 

It seems to be something to do with the initial .ini files. Doing the same with FMS too. Anyway i'm slowly getting there- just copying the .ini files from working systems does the job!

[vikpaw]

Must not have the correct permission to create the files. Need to be careful as an upgrade will update sims.ini as might nova usage.