Koldov

Just in case anyone with similar issues come across this thread, more info here: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/231705-help-sims-fms-discover-migration-fail.html#post1986452 With Discover there two ways of doing it; 1.) Using the 'Discover.Backup.GUi.exe' to backup the Discover data on the old server, then install a new blank Discover database on the new server and use the DiscoverBackupGui to restore the Discover data from the backup file. (Note this is a Discover backup, not an SQL Backup.) 2.) Or using SQL management studio to attach/restore the existing database on to the new server, and then using the Discover installer to run 'advanced' setup and just install the Discover services. Although when using the existing db via the SQL studio method, you need to clear out the Discover database users and use the Discover CMD line tools to re-sync the user logins. (Not ideal if you're not familiar with SQL Server)

True, I do not wish to demean a fellow professional, we are the first to say our skills are worth the money... I've always thought it was a 'big' thing, it's why I've avoided it for so long, I just thought after quite a few years in the job and with most posts on here saying "it's easy run the installer copy a couple of files move the database - working SIMS on new server"... I guess everything is easy when you know how... maybe they just leave out all the prep work, the things that did go wrong and of course different set-ups create less/more/different issues. The fact that our servers won't even open the .hta menu for the installer being fairly unique I guess... Well, it would appear that the Capita/ESS 'Migration Utility' seems to have taken care of the log-ins (or some code has been run to inject them), as I can log in on the new server and they all appear in 'SQL Management Studio'. I've decided to go with a fresh SOLUS as ours is a bit messy, with constant stalled downloads and needing to do pretty much the same amount of work moving it to a server with a new name I think. That's the thing, although it's probably the easiest, most comprehensive and least likely to break, the last time we had a Capita engineer do the migration (about 8 years ago) he just copied the entire S:\ SIMSROOT folder onto the new server, which I guess is OK, but of course even then it had been running so long it was a complete mess, so it just transferred the mess... I wanted a bit of a fresh start without the years of failed installs, patches, incorrect folder paths, software and add-ons we don't even use... I found this later on when I had been searching for the dbAttach.exe, it appears I had been using a very, very old version (1.22.220) and it doesn't have the Backup/Restore option at the bottom. Then I found the newer one (1.63.23.0) afterwards... Seriously this is all great, thanks! Where were you two weeks ago... Well, yes it is a VM... and no I hadn't taken a snapshot before I started... I guess as I said above I really thought it wasn't going to be a major disaster (PPP on my part), further compounded by the fact that I also remembered I hadn't even added it to any backup schedule (because as yet it wasn't really doing anything).

Although I have mentioned the fact that as it is such a dumping ground without any real 'proper' structure, nobody can actually be sure what data is actually stored on there (I'm presuming ignorance is no excuse)...

Can anyone give me chapter & verse on this (although a truncated version would be appreciated - my audience has a limited attention span when these things are mentioned)... Photo/Video of a person in a 'public place' (if schools are classed as such a thing) etc...

I've tried a few from the interwebs, but would rather have one from a trusted source... There are a couple of issues due to a file server share migration messing with the dates. As you can see 'Date accessed' and 'Date created' are very recent unfortunately, but most older files still have 'Date modified' intact. I thought this might be 'LastWriteTime' but whether it isn't or the script I found couldn't transverse the multiple layers of folder depth I don't know, but it didn't return these files... I don't mind changing the script to point to the top level folder each time, but hopefully not each sub-folder (as some have extremely long paths). N.B. Just for clarity I have to do a presentation to SLT on Monday about the issue with the staff drive (and others), just being a free for all dumping ground and would like to have some sort of list of files to highlight the problem.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Been banging my head against our SIMS server for nearly 2 weeks now, but finally I'm 99% of the way to getting it migrated over... However, SOLUS is installed on the new Server 2019 VM and all up to date and there is 1 SIMS client (actually it's the server), but after downloading an update/patch/Fileset and selecting it, the DEPLOY button never goes green. Anyone had this before, or knows what the problem is? There does seem to be an issue with permissions somewhere as I had to grant extra permissions to the 'REPOSITORY' folder because it wouldn't even extract at first...

Thanks, had a bit of a nightmare with the whole thing... http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/231705-help-sims-fms-discover-migration-fail.html ...so the project is shelved for now, but I'll keep it in mind for the next time I attempt it!

Thanks all for the suggestions, sorry for the late reply... I had a bit of a nightmare with Robocopy's 'infamous' MIR switch... (don't use it to copy anything to a drive with any other files/folders on... ask me how I know)... In the end I waited for half-term I did a full back-up and then also copied the whole thing off to a USB using an old school piece of software, I'd forgotten about 'File Server Migration Wizard' form MS (which took about 8 hours)... but it keeps all the share permissions and copies them all back (which took another 8 hours). Then I wiped the drive, made a smaller partition and put it all back.... It's a little more complicated than that as I had to deal with a few hundred 'long file path' files and other things, but it worked out OK in the end.... However.... I had the bright idea of painstakingly going through the vast majority of the folders and removing stuff from previous years (2017 videos of school play etc.) and I might have been a little brutal, but I looked if the last accessed date was over 2 years and moved about 140GB worth of 'stuff' off to the new 'Archive' partition... Year group folders that have the same thing and put into new folders (slightly modified) going back to 2016!!!! What a mistake! Since they came back I've had nothing but moaning from admin and SLT about how they were going to use photos from 2010 and planning from 2014 and a folder that I've been informed isn't used anymore but there are some resources they might need... I mean, I do get it (I've got usb drives full of folders of stuff that I will probably never use again), but what a pain... backups are huge, everything takes forever to move about on the server and nobody will ever look at 90% of this stuff again! Trouble is, it would take weeks/months to dissect every file in every folder and decide what to keep, I'd like to give them access to it, but I know they'll just copy everything back, so in the end I walked out of the office and said I'll just move everything back myself... Well, that was at least 3 nights worth of work down the drain...

Thanks all, sorry for the late reply... Great suggestions all, I have put the script on the USB drive. So in the end I used: $PSScriptRoot\

I'd finally worked up enough courage to attempt this over the half-term, going by posts on here it seemed a relatively simple and straight forward process... and it was a complete disaster! I created a 2019 VM and installed SQL server 2016. I used the Capita/ESS migration utility 'SQLMigration.exe' which did what I thought was going to be the hard/scary part quite painlessly (although it didn't do everything that was advertised - 'application setup, set backup folder, scheduled task move, connect.ini and sims.ini not changed' - but it might not do that to a different server, or it might have been my fault for not ticking a box somewhere). But it detached the db from SQL 2012 on the old server and I copied onto the new server and it then attached it to SQL 2016 on the new server. I ran SIMS – Summer 2013.ISO, but a notepad file opened and nothing happened, then I expanded the ISO and ran SIMSINST.exe and nothing happened... I mean nothing! There was a 'SIMSinstaller 32-bit' application hanging in 'Task Manager' and also a notepad file which when 'force closed' produced some sort of error about SQL, but no errors in 'Application' or 'System' in 'Event Viewer'. I have to admit here that our security is a bit 'block all and ask questions later' and I've found a few installers that open notepad instead of doing what it's supposed to (file types for a lot of scripts are associated with 'notepad'exe' - VBScript / Windows Scripting Host (WSH) script. 'cscript', JavaScript blocked etc.) which is what these old installers might need. Anyway, I thought I'd got round it by right clicking the 'install.exe' and choosing 'install'... I honestly lost track of all the things I tried, but running all the installers I could find and then running the SIMS client also produced... nothing! No sign-in, no error, just hanging... I have to say I haven't had to install SIMS for over 10 years thanks to SOLUS, but I did a fair amount of research and reading of post on here and the consensus seems to be: OLD SERVER run the 'migration utility' (or go dbAttach if you're old school), stop SQL NEW SERVER run SIMSINT.exe, copy over some folders, run the migration utility/dbattach again and that's all there is to it... NEW SIMS SERVER! If it really is that 'simple' I thought I should be able to accomplish that at my level, save the school anywhere between £500 - £900 and add a feather to my C.V. We had it migrated once by Capita about 9 years ago and I couldn't really see what the engineer was doing, obviously there was a lot of script running and folder/ file copying and it felt a bit uncomfortable in our small server room (cupboard) to be standing over his shoulder... I'd also rather have a reasonably 'fresh' SIMS server, so I'm reluctant to copy over too much (ours is a beast with many, many years of previous install, migrations and errors in folder structure that I'd like to forget about - like SIMSROOT\SIMS$\sims\sims\sims\setups... - obviously the installers are WIN95 or DOS based, not too clever and create folders even when pointed to the right folder). I won't go into the fact that I couldn't find any way to install Discover (no installer, but cannot attach DB until you do), or get SOLUS to install at all... or that it went so wrong I had to try and get everything back on the old server last thing on Friday but finding the 'migration Utility' isn't backwards compatible and dbAttach can't see '.bak' files! Luckily I managed to get in through SQL Management Studio, eventually locate the db in the MSSQL folder and reattach it, but it was a one of those possibly career ending moments I think... especially considering the way budgets are these days I'm on thin ice anyway I think.. Needless to say, for once I'm quite glad everyone is in today and I can go back to 'changing toners' and 'turning it off and on again'.....

But in the FAQs: We recommend that both the SIMS and Discover SQL migrations are performed at the same time. If these are performed on the same machine then the SQL Migration utility will also reconnect the Discover services to the newly moved databases. If the Discover database is migrated on its own to a SQL Instance that already contains the migrated SIMS database, it will be possible for the migration utility to configure the Discover services to point to that database automatically.

Part way through the migration of SIMS to a new server and trying to do the Discover database. Gives me the error that 'Service SIMSDiscoverDataTransferService was not found on computer', so I read back on the 'Additional Notes for Discover Migrations' and find that I have to install Discover before I can migrate the database... From the Migration Utility notes: "Use the SIMS SQL 2016 Migration Utility to attach the migrated SIMS database to the SQL 2016 Instance first (do not attach the Discover database at the same time). This is because the Discover installation requires the details of the SIMS server to be added in." Then it says: Install Discover on the new SQL 2016 server (this can be carried out using SOLUS3 or your usual method). Please refer to the Discover Typical Installation Guide for details. Well, I haven't even got round to dealing with SOLUS yet and I don't have a 'usual method' as this is the first time I've had to do Discover in about 8 years... in fact I think Capita added it when we used them to migrate the last server. Also, the 'Discover Typical Installation Guide' just runs through as if setting it up from new... Anyway, I spent ages looking for a Discover installer and think I have the right one now (ServerSetup.exe) however when I run it the first thing it wants me to do is create a 'new' Discover database.... That can't be right can it? In the notes it says nothing about the Discover installation being done with a blank database and then being overwritten with the migration utility so how does it work?

Thanks for that, I appreciate it. More basic questions I'm afraid... I'm feeling more out of my depth with each one... and I'm not sure if I'm asking the 'right' ones... Where it applies the "BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS" as the SQL System Administrator account, I presume is this an account for managing the instance/database and that it isn't the 'traditional' SA account that is for SIMS? Only we have the SIMS SA one configured in the 'original' system and I don't want to overwrite or lock it out once it's all migrated. So in the password section am I adding the 'BUILTIN' Windows/Domain administrator password or the SIMS 'SA' password...?

I'm trying to get a VM up and running for a SIMS migration and want SQL installed on it first, unfortunately (as with most things) I haven't got a clue what I'm doing in enough detail and I've never really messed about with SQL & databases before... Running the SQL setup and I've got to 'Instance Configuration' but it's asking me to 'Specify the name and instance ID for the instance of the SQL server'. Do I change it from 'Default' to be a 'Named Instance' like 'SIMS2016' or something...? "IMPORTANT NOTES: Unlike previous SQL Migration Utilities, the SIMS SQL 2016 Migration Utility does not include Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Express edition. Before migrating your SIMS, FMS and Discover databases to SQL Server 2016, you must first install Microsoft SQL Server 2016 or Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Express and create a SIMS Instance (SQL Server 2019 | Microsoft). The SQL 2012/2014 Database Server will remain available for all non-SIMS/FMS/Discover purposes during the entire migration process." So do I create an 'Instance' (SIMS2016) and then attach a database to it....? Normally I'd research/muck around until I find a solution, but I don't really want to mess up SIMS... The other option is waiting to see what (if anything) the SIMS migration tool installs, as there is some confusion even in their own documentation about whether it installs SQL Express or not... we are quite small (3 form entry) Junior School and so might be able to get away with 'Express' if performance isn't degraded. I don't want to be troubleshooting extra SIMS issues because of that after migration as I'm sure I'll have enough to worry about. Plus it means we can drop SQL licences and CALS (?). "IMPORTANT NOTE: Unlike previous SQL Migration Utilities, the SIMS SQL 2016 Migration Utility does not include Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Express edition. Before migrating your SIMS, FMS and Discover databases to SQL Server 2016, you must first install Microsoft SQL Server" But within the download of the 'Migration Utility' there is a file called... 'SQLServer2016-SSEI-Expr'... which ties in with the documentation further along which states: "This process will optionally install and configure a SQL Server 2016 Express Database Server Instance to act as a host for SIMS and to migrate the existing SIMS, FMS and Discover databases from the SQL 2012/2014 host to SQL 2016 Express (or full SQL 2016)."

Sorry for the basic questions (but genuine... interested as I haven't done mine yet through GPO): Is it a user or computer GPO? Do you know the GPO is applying/has run (manually starting GPUpdate /force or 'Group Policy Update' from the server)? What does Event Viewer say about it (if anything)? Your config has a lot of repetition, is that a copy paste error?

TL;DR - What can I put in the code to make it pull files from the USB, regardless of drive letter...? I've tried looking for an answer but can't seem to ask the right question for Google (or the answer I do get is for a complicated situation)... But what I need is relatively simple (I hope)... I have a USB which obviously changes drive letter depending on what computer it is plugged into. I'm trying to copy multiple files from the USB with a click (or two), unfortunately they are referenced in the script by the letter of the USB. Actually there's two very simple 'scripts', a 'copy to' and a 'copy from', but the 'copy to' the USB script is OK as the originating computer never changes drive letters and the paths to the various files remain constant. However, the files need to be distributed to various other computers (they are not networked) and these have different hardware meaning the USB drive letter changes. So if I had the lines: Copy-Item "G:\FolderA\Folder1\Very_Important_File_1.vip" -Destination "C:\Users\Admin\Desktop" -Force Copy-Item "G:\FolderB\Folder2\Very_Important_File_2.vip" -Destination "C:\Users\Admin\Desktop" -Force Copy-Item "G:\FolderC\Folder3\Very_Important_File_3.vip" -Destination "C:\Users\Admin\Desktop" -Force Copy-Item "G:\FolderD\Folder4\Very_Important_File_4.vip" -Destination "C:\Users\Admin\Desktop" -Force What can I put in the script to refence the USB instead of 'G:' (obviously this works fine if the computer the USB is plugged into assigns G: but fails if it's anything else).

Well, that's me busy for the next couple of hours! Yes, I can see now drilling down gives me this... "APs that detected this Rogue - AP Name: AP6485.d019.5a68 / SSID - AndroidAP C16B" That AP is in a classroom, but they've got quite a range, so doubtful I can narrow it down too much (in the middle of school though so probably not a passing car/bus/member of the public... unless it was a parent... or a child before they had to hand their phones in this morning )... Hmmm, thinking about it now, I can see this is going to get me nowhere fast....

Doing a bit of work on the Wireless and noticed a page on the WLC (Cisco 5508) with details of 'Rogue APs' (Unclassified Rogue APs)... Should I be doing something about these? Three are another school nearby (redacted) and I guess a few neighbouring houses going by the VM, TalkTalk and BT SSIDs (I've even seen a local bus Wi-Fi occasionally). There are one or two Hotspots (even one with a phone name just popped up and disappeared), a TP-Link and a few 'unknown' which may be an issue. On the WLC I can select them and have 3 options (Remove, Contain, Alert) and they are all currently set to 'Alert'. I presume 'Remove' just removes them (like whack-a-mole) and they'll be back on the next broadcast and 'Alert' just alerts...? Can I block them from the network with 'Contain'? Hopefully they aren't actually 'on' the network as in using our SSIDs, but how can I tell if they are somehow 'on' the network at all?

Well, that was a lot of effort scrolling and doing copy/paste (which PUTTY didn't seem to like, also I forgot right click was paste like in PS not 'open a sub menu' luckily I wasn't doing any configuration)... But I now have a spreadsheet with all the relevant info... Thanks! EDIT: DHCP is on the core switch, not the DC, don't know why... I guess they thought it was a good idea at the time (not had any major problems though, just a pain when you need to manage - which is rare to be honest).

Hopefully a quick question with an easy answer... TL;DR - How do I find if a VLAN is set to use DHCP We run an old network of CISCO switches but I don't have a lot to do with them as they were set up managed before I started and now the support contract has been downgraded to 'break/fix' only and no support on the config side of things. It was setup so that the switches provide the DHCP function, but I have noticed that on a particular VLAN that no I.P.s are given out from DHCP but everything works if I set a static I.P. (other VLANs give out DHCP addresses OK). The main core switch room has the following and I guess was pretty standard for the time (11+ years ago): 5508 WLC 3750 Master - this has server, printer, admin desktop + access VLAN - TRUNK connections 3750 Member - this has WAP network connections 2960 - this has curriculum PC connections (classrooms) 2960 - this has curriculum PC connections (ICT suiite) We have other 2960 switches in other parts of the building which have fibre runs back to the core. Did a little research and then I used PUTTY to TELNET into the 3750 (would this be the correct switch?) and used the commands: show ip dhcp binding show ip dhcp server statistics show ip dhcp pool On the last command I got the error: 3750#show ip dhcp pool ^ % Invalid input detected at '^' marker. I am thinking I might have to specify a 'pool' name, but I don't know what they are (unless they are the VLAN names?). I got as far as finding out this might mean DHCP isn't configured (but I think it must be) so now I'm stuck as the other commands all returned statistics... What I'd like is to get the following info from the switch: 1. What VLANs are configured (something like VLAN 10, VLAN 20, VLAN 30) 2. For each VLAN what is the range/scope/pool of DHCP I.P. (VLAN 10 = 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.128, VLAN 20 = 192.168.0.129 - 192.168.0.253) 3. Is DHCP configured on each VLAN or not (VLAN 10 DHCP = YES, VLAN 80 DHCP = NO) 4. Also I believe the first 10 I.P.s in each VLAN are reserved for static assignment (out of the range/scope of DHCP pool) so some way to verify that would be good.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001hzb3/panorama-is-the-cloud-damaging-the-planet Discussing the environmental impact of moving all your services into the cloud...? As well as everyone's cat photos of course...

Oooops yeah, sorry! December 2022 & January 2023... Of course I'm going on school year...

Yeah, jury is still out for me on PIV... Bit like reading an Amazon review where 10 people love it and it's the best thing ever and does exactly what it's supposed to, then 10 people hate it, it's useless and doesn't work very well. There are other factors as well (installation costs, running costs, needs house not to be airtight, PIV needs a heater or not run in winter)... We've got it mostly under control now with radiator moves and although it also isn't recommended by some, due again heating up a lot of cold (although drier) air, is purge ventilation (upstairs windows for 3 minutes in the morning). With everything done so far we've gone from above 70% relative humidity to just above 50% most days. Then there's dMEV - "dMEV systems comply with existing regulations and are recommended as a solution in the forthcoming Future Homes consultation document (PIV isn't)"* https://www.zehnder.co.uk/blogarticles/why-dmev-preferable-piv * Not sure if that's true as it was written by a dMEV manufacturer... We changed the bathroom fan to an Envirovent trickle fan with boost switch for when we shower (it is supposed to kick in automatically, but I thought it took too long so fitted a switch).

No, they are the figures from this year so far... Typically they have been much lower, since we had a new condensing boiler a couple of years ago. However, I also had a much stricter thermostat regime with the new boiler until this year (the old one was just timer, a couple of hours in the morning and a few in the evening). Long story, but I basically had the heating off during the day and night. Morning and evenings I had the thermostat in the living room (and near the radiator) so it was turning off pretty quick once the room we were in was warm enough. However, we were doing some renovation (new glass in windows and radiators moved to under the windows from internal walls) and found damp/condensation on the floorboards near the outside walls, wallpaper peeling and a little bit of mould growing behind wardrobes/drawers etc. So although I had been saving money on one hand, the bedrooms were slowly getting cold and damp (condensation on the windows was terrible too). Anyway, we had a surveyor round and he basically said 2 things.... ventilation needs to be improved (after I'd just spent ages re-doing the seals for the windows and putting a new loft hatch in to stop draughts) and 18c minimum in all rooms all the time (just my luck when heating is costing double). I've read a lot about radiators being/not being on outside walls/under windows and having a good external to internal airflow and I know it loses money heating up outside walls and losses through vents. But the outside walls do need to be warm to prevent cold/damp and dry air from outside needs to replace moist air from inside. ...and floors and walls... Yes, sounds like you've got a lot of work cut out for you. Is it a rented flat or can you do whatever improvements you need?