forkies

We were told to upgrade direct to 2014SQL from 2008R2 SQL. We did the migration over half term and when staff came back on Monday it was unbelievably slow. Whenever going into "Take Register" sims took about 40 seconds to 2 mins to load, same with assessment. After using dbattach to unattach the DB and run it back through the migration tool it worked well for about 2 hours and then same thing. Our LA Sims support said there was no known issues or slowness, I ended up having to restore our 2008R2 SQL and manually reinput all attendance marks from Monday!!!!!! I think I will just go to 2012SQL until these slowness issues are resolved. I stayed until midnight on Monday trying every which way of migrating from 2008 to 2014 but everytime it ended in disaster. I was so annoyed as per usual we got the blame! I would strongly recommend moving to SQL2014 on a test database and checking thoroughly that it works before moving your live database over.

Thanks, I have got the reindexing patch deployed to us. I will run it on the new server when we fully migrate over half term.

Hi all, Looking for some insight/advice. We have recently bought a new server to replace our existing ESXi 4.1 host which hosts our Sims server. Currently esxi 4.1 2008r2 with 2008r2 SQL, 4 core cpu, 24GB ram, 10K drives. 2 x NICs in load balance. migrating to esxi 5.5u2 2012 with 2014 SQL, 8 core cpu, 32GB ram, SSD data store (correctly configured in esxi) and a 10k data store for OS, 2 x NICs in load balance. VM swap file is on SSD datastore. Page file is configured as per MS guidelines. I have put the docserver on the ssd data drive too. However it is still slower then the current server? Running general reports it is about a second slower, SQL is showing barely any usage. I have tried changing everything about the config of the server and where everything is stored included putting the OS on the SSDs but nothing is making it the same speed as our existing server. Is there something I am missing or something that might speed it up? We are migrating for real over half term, I know the speed isn't that noticeable but I would of at least expect a server of this spec to be the same as the old one! Maybe something to do with it being SQL 2014? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

You'd be surprised how many schools use standard instead of lszh.

Out of interest how much are companies quoting for this type of work? Are you only doing admin cabling or Uplinks or computer rooms too? Would be interesting to get a ballpark figure and how many cables you are getting redone if you don't mind sharing? I assume CAT5e is what you are replacing it with not CAT6 and the low smoke stuff? Just interested as we currently do all our cabling but some of it could do with redoing from a very long time ago.

Here is the updated one, I have checked. The first one still allowed them to print were as this one just gives them a message and stops the print job. /* * * Warn and deny users when printing other than A4 or A3 * */ function printJobHook(inputs, actions) { /* * Edit the settings below according to your policy and environment. */ // Paper size that is allowed var ALLOWED_PAPER_SIZE = [ 'A4', 'A3', 'outbind://' ]; if (!inputs.job.isAnalysisComplete) { // No job details yet so return. return; } var message; var response; if (ALLOWED_PAPER_SIZE.indexOf(inputs.job.paperSizeName) == -1) { var response = actions.client.promptOK( "This print job is not A4 or A3" + ". You must resend this in A4 or A3 page size.", {"dialogTitle" : "Wrong paper size", "dialogDesc" : "Check your paper size"}); if (response == "OK" || response == "TIMEOUT") { // User did not respond, cancel the job and exit script. actions.job.cancel(); return; } } }

Thats the one, sorry didn't check before I submitted.

Try this: /* * * Warn and deny users when printing other than A4 or A3 * */ function printJobHook(inputs, actions) { /* * Edit the settings below according to your policy and environment. */ // Paper size that is allowed var ALLOWED_PAPER_SIZE = [ 'A4', 'A3', 'outbind://' ]; if (!inputs.job.isAnalysisComplete) { // No job details yet so return. return; } var message; var response; if (inputs.job.paperSizeName(ALLOWED_PAPER_SIZE)) { var response = actions.client.promptPrintCancel( "This print job is not A4 or A3" + ". You must resend this in A4 or A3 page size.", {"dialogTitle" : "Wrong paper size", "dialogDesc" : "Check your paper size"}); if (response == "CANCEL" || response == "TIMEOUT") { // User did not respond, cancel the job and exit script. actions.job.cancel(); return; } } }

Thanks got the zip open, now to migrate...

Thanks for all the replies. I think I will have a look at the Ubiquiti gear as it may come in useful for other applications.

Looking for some help. We have a gate that is pretty much 300 meters away from our building (at the back of playing field). The gate is standalone access control so we have power and poles etc. However due to recent vandalism I have been asked to install a CCTV camera looking at the gate. Now my first thought is wow thats far away. So I am thinking that I could put a camera on one of the poles as I can get power there, and have it with an internal SD card and broadcasting a secure Wifi network that if there is an incident I can drive round in the car with my laptop and connect, then pull the footage off. Does anyone have any cameras that do this, or can suggest a camera that can do this? I was looking at something like this ADS-460 SwannEye indoor & outdoor wifi security camera but not sure it would do the wifi hotspot malarky. The other option is to have a camera that connects to a wifi network, and I just take an AP down every time with me but that seems excessive and not sure it would connect straight away and that I would have to reboot it. Finally I thought I could have a camera on our building that is clear line of sight with a massive optical zoom pointing directly at the gate? We run a IP CCTV system here so any recommendations on a static camera that can see at 300M would be great. I suppose just thinking about it we could do a PTZ camera as long as it can see the 300m, I am not the one paying so not sure the budget. Thanks, Tom

Thanks for advice, just trying to jump the queue a bit. Will wait and hopefully have it soon.

Waiting seems to take very long, seems a bit stupid that they publicise the password for their 2012 migration utitlity on supportnet but for the 2014 utility it doesn't? Seems silly to me. (KB402559)

Has anyone got the password for the SQL2014 Migration zip file from the supportnet site? I have the file but no password! Thanks, Tom

We have just been setting ours up. I couldn't work out why it was constantly saying "No details found" until I rung TASC up, who are very good, and turns out the "new" data manager had only setup options in the Focus menu and not under tools-academic management menu. So now setting this up asap as the deputy head wants to show parents on Thursday how to use it for the first time!

Hi everyone, I am trying to setup a user with "Conduct Summary" showing all behaviour incidents for the whole school. This works fine on my account but on hers it forgets it every time sims is logged off. Has anyone come across this before, I have checked the group settings for homepage configuration under routines but couldn't see any conflicting information. Also I don't suppose anyone knows a way of getting a widget on the homepage showing combined number of DTs per student for the year? Thanks, Tom

If the usb is lost surely you have to unencrypt and encrypt again as someone now has the key to get in? BEK file is hidden just incase you haven't got show hidden files?

We do have a lockdown procedure signalled by the fire bell ringing a number of times. Although we don't do drills regularly. During the drill I have to stop all access to doors using our access control system and deny key cards from being used. Our SLT have radios to communicate and call for doors to be released. We also man CCTV during this. Our reception has shutters that are locked down too. However as most schools using access control know it needs to release in the event of a fire so if fire alarm is activated all the doors open anyway. Also the emergency release break glass overrides it. At least no one can get it, only out using break glass emergency release on doors. I think it is becoming more common with recent events and common threats of violence.

I wouldn't want to be the network manager there! Thought they might have fully redundant systems? I suppose until they say what the actual issue is (if they actually know) it's speculation on the cause.

I understand some heads might want this but we have been advised as DPA states as long as necessary which for us is only up to the age of 25, let's say they reach the age of 50 we are not going to get a reference request. It would surely be better to put this feature in then not have it at all, as I understand there is a housekeeping feature but it only deletes documents. At this time we have to either dedicated someone's time for a week or so a year to remove this data or put it into our data protection policy that there is insufficient means to remove this data from the MIS. Just hoping that this feature request would get some attention as would be useful!

Out of interest on Data Protection front, schools are obligated under the DPA to remove records once no longer necessary such as a standard guideline being when the student is 25 years old the student files be destroyed. However talking to Capita support it appears there is no way of bulk removing/deleting this data from sims? Surely this should be a feature to cover Data Protection on Sims?

Thanks for all the replies, I am now in contact with Capita about InTouch... Just in time as I need to look at a new texting service provider and rather one product for all then paying double for two different products.

Hi All, I am not sure if anyone will know what I am talking about as I have never seen it but have been asked by a member of SLT to get it?! Apparently in Sims.NET you can go to a student and then from sims click somewhere and get the option to email all their teachers (using outlook with exchange). Amongst various other options for emailing linked to that student/class. Does anyone know what this is? Thanks, Tom

Thanks all for your help. I have done a review of the sims permissions and removed any old permissions that people no longer require. I have advised the line manager to talk to their staff and check they know the difference between New and Search. The sims system manager 6 logs did crash every time so I didn't waste any more time.

As Sims does not change the windows caption when creating a new student or even bring up a new window there is nothing in Impero captions unfortunately. Wish Impero could log sims altogether as it is so widely used in education and sims doesn't really provide a log at all apart from who logged in and from what machine.