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To cut a long story short, we can fix it by going into SQL Server Management studio express and making sure the Sims_init box is checked. Need to stop remote connections first and re-enable once you are done.

Can anyone tell me why thin client laptops are so expensive? Senior Team had an idea of using them but not now.

AB Tutor 6 has a lot of fixes/improvements like central policies and if you have version 5 you can upgrade at a significant discount. It's been a godsend for us.

Just found this KB72855 on FMS restore. Posted for others in case its useful. Thanks again matt40k

Thanks matt40k, On your last sentence, are you saying I need to restore FMS and Sims together?

Hi, I've been asked to perform a restore of FMS database. This is just to see that it can actually be done and has been requested by SMT. I've been in touch with a colleague who has suggested that I stop SQL, copy the ldf/mdf files and then detach the database and then reattach. We do have SQL Management Studio Express installed which seems a much easier method but I hear there are issues with usernames and passwords. Annoying there seems to be no documentation on it (from what I can see) Are there any issues I should be aware of before going ahead?

Browsing the RM forums some of the patches don't work for some, there is a manual method which is lengthy and long winded. I'm going over to ABTutor Control for staff.

This may help, sorry if it doesn't. http://cdn.procurve.com/training/Manuals/Mini-GBIC-Support-Mar2009.pdf

Hi Teejay, Thanks for that, I already have and he has a school in mind which I will propose to the senior team. They wanted me to do a broadcast in any case and I think they are wanting to see a school without any salesman present for now. It's a nervy time for them and the school was badly stung some years back. Cheers

Hi there, I'm in a lucky position in that the whole of the IT network is going to have a major overhaul. Myself and a few Senior Team staff would really appreciate a visit to a school that has undergone this kind of transformation. We are very interested in a Thin client setup with some fat clients needed for heavy duty apps. I have little knowledge on thin clients (on anything some would say ) and I would be intrigued to see how they perform in a classroom environment. We are in Cumbria so would appreciate a visit Manchester northwards and Glasgow south. Many Thanks

I also believe there is a limit on how many drivers you can have in the build process according to a top techie that helped us out.

I totally agree on both counts, unfortunately there's never any comeback when a room is trashed but that's down to SMT to sort that out. I think the general idea is to have rooms fixed to their subjects where possible, we are lucky in that we have 11 IT rooms, some IT based and others for Maths, Geography for example and some classrooms have computers in as well. I still think a booking system will be essential. Thanks for all your responses.

Hi, Are there any schools that don't use a booking system for IT rooms? My SMT are looking at ways to get rid of the booking system and make depts responsible for their own rooms. Can't really see how it would work mind. Thanks

Hi, I have been told I can completely overhaul the schools network and basically start from scratch. Does anyone have 2008 with XP clients and if they do does it present any problems, researching around it seems group policies can be the main sticking point. Those that went with Vista was it a major learning curve for staff and students? Cheers

Well ReverentCreature thats a distinct possibility, when I took over there was a 1 character password policy in place. I think there has been years of neglect shall we say. I want to rip it all out and start again.

Following on from yesterdays post and I apologise for being negative on what is a positive thread. Niggle 1 Moving users to another server, Several times I've heard how painless this is and in theory it should be, but in practice there are error messages such as 'file already exists' or whatever and reading the solution on RM it says I have to 'cut' the offending files and put them back in after the move, that'll take me months. I've tried deleting the whole work area and then moving the account but it doesn't move correctly. I still have to go in to Active Directory to correct their profile and Home directory settings. Niggle 2 Profiles. Regularly we have students with corrupt profiles, easyish to fix, reset profile in RM console and delete local profile on machine if it's there as well to make sure. Some kiddies take advantage as they have a semi admin account when that happens and cause mischief. Niggle 3 Rebuilds. We are now having to build to Windows first and then commision them afterwards. We have had the engineers spending huge amounts of time on this and they finally fixed it for one type of F-series. Trouble is we have a large vareity of computers and the build process can only accomadate a limited amount of machines. Niggle 4 RM console. This just packs up for no reason, usually a ISSreset helps but not always, touch wood it has behaved itself recently. Niggle 5 Privilaged users. This works ok but I always forget to add it to a staff machine. Niggle 6 Speed. A CC3 network is a fair bit slower on the loading and booting up sequence and on older machines it's several minutes. Unfortuntely we do have a LOT of old machines and this seems to exacerbate the problems with profiles and missed mapped drives, for example if they click on the Start button too early it can cause problems (documented on RM support as well) Niggle 7 Costs. It's jolly expensive and I'm loathe to stop the critical contracts because I don't have faith in the RM system being stable. In my previous position (vanilla) the ongoing support was a quarter of the costs for the same amount of servers. Commissioning is pretty steep as well. This has definately curtailed development of the IT systems in our school. Going CC4 will be an absolute no-no, we can't afford it. Niggle 8 Being behind the curve, not really a niggle but an observation. You need to test everything is compatable with RM first before going ahead with any plans you may have. Server 2008 ok?? Virtualisation?? I don't know. Niggle 9 Software restrictions. This is hit and miss at the best of times. It can work for many exe's like game emualtors for example but can I stop desktop screensavers like Family Guy from screenmates, no. No matter what I try it still runs. It could be me being a half-wit but why does it work for one exe and not another? I know many of the problems have workarounds and when I have time I'll try and implement some of them but why should I have to. I visit the RM support pages frequently and it seems full to the brim with articles on getting round problems. Problems that shouldn't be there. I can see how an RM network would be a great benefit to a school and I notice that many of you have managed that but I'm not in that position unfortunately and to get to that stage will take a lot of time (and maybe money), time that I don't have. I'm not advocating how great a vanilla set up is, it certainly has its problems. But I'm sure, in my case anyway, this network would have been less troublesome being vanilla.

Hi All, Thanks for your responses, I'll try and explain on the next post (going home now)but suffice to say even the engineers have had tough times sorting our problems out. I am keeping away from meddling with Active Directory and just using the RM console.

I come from a vanilla background to a CC3 network and I absolutely hate it. So many niggly things that stop you doing the most straightforward tasks. I find it flakey and unreliable. Also it has taken me a lot of time to adjust to this type of network, if it was vanilla I would have picked it up in a heartbeat. I salute those that have a stable CC3 and enjoy it, I just can't see how you can.

Just testing this at the moment, I'm very impressed, cheers

You can get 3 unfiltered IP addresses from CLEO to allow access to sites like Youtube.

Sounds like you need the sata driver at the 'Press F6 to install drivers' during the windows set up installation. Have you tried nipping into the BIOS and setting the hard drive in compatability mode, gets round the sata driver issue, performance could be lower though.

We just block IE or Firefox instead

Our school have received a fair number of laptops but only a small percentage of pupils are interested and will be getting them. What happens to the laptops sitting in storage? I can't find any literature on what should happen, send them back, use them in school? Sell them on ebay, only joking.

It was disabled months ago, I didn't get notified either. Cleo now uses the Sun Global Desktop method which you have to sign up for. This is open for school staff as well to access their desktops from home.

Hi, We are hoping to stop paying for using RM virus protect and use the LEA provided one which is Sophos. While I prefer the RM version (rebadged symantec) I can't justify the costs. Problem is we are having trouble getting the enterprise console to push out Sophos to the clients. It's being blocked somehow, we have been on the RM forums and tried the various fixes but nothing has worked. If a machine is non CC3 it works fine. Has anyone had any success with this? Thanks