superfletch

mb2k01 & Witch I hope I haven't upset you by my previous post on here? Absolutely not... ...just felt it was worth replying with my 2p opinion I can see your reasons RE Point 7, Would I be right in thinking that if a Moodle implementation elsewhere within the 15 SWGfL LA's sorted out SIF integration between Moodle and Merlin (or for arguments sake Moodle and Sharepoint on a more general level) then under the Moodle Development process this could conceivably become a module or plugin for Moodle? What I'm getting at is only one implementation would need to get it sorted before the others could use what they had done. I think is is a bit unfair to say every single Moodle administrator would have to personally investigate some form of Merlin / Moodle interaction given that Merlin isn't mandatory for any school. However I agree with your comment that Witch cited whereby a wholescale solution across each LA or the grid would have been the way to go. Being my boat - we can't win whatever we picked as the VLE solution no one would have liked!!

I believe they can reapply early next year but I don't know when. EDIT - Possibly as early as Jan? Can't say for sure why it was rejected. EDIT - A lare part of the reason for rejection is likely to be the recent OfSTED for the Childrens Services department and the fact that as an authority Cornwall really needs to be concentrating on Safeguarding at the moment and getting that sorted.

One more vote for the connect.ini with the friendly database names in. It has one other problem which is people not knowing which sims database they need to run. As long as that is clear then any workstation with SIMS .net (at the right version) should be capable of connecting to any SIMS database. The other option is creating separate connect.ini files on a network share for the local one to redirect to. Nowhere near as neat or nice.

From the OP he is talking about the boxes themselves - not the ambient room temperature... "i have a widget on my mac that monitors them" AND "the boxes are running at 43* - 47*C" Otherwise he'd say, "I have a thermometer in the room and..."

EDIT - Should have read the last post - Sorry. See supportnet resource 16120. "Windows Server 2008 R2 is not supported. We are currently investigating this Operating System and will announce our intended date for supporting it in due course"

Hiya, I've been using Merlin a little while now and although my first impressions weren't great I'm actually now getting to quite like it. Initially I didn't like the simplicity of the built in site designer and felt that using Merlin was clunky. Having got used to it, I actually now feel the simplicity of the site builder is genuinely helpful given that the target audience for it is teachers and TA's who don't have the skills or the time to learn how to make snazzy websites. When you listen to their feedback I'd guess it is 80% positive. I think Primary Schools will take it on board a lot more than Secondaries. Certainly to start with as it provides them with something they actually need (and mostly don't yet have) at nil or low cost. Sadly I think it has arrived a little too late for most of the Secondary schools who have already implemented their own solutions in the form of a VLE or CMS. To address some of the issues raised here (seeing I was also at the training session mentioned): SIMS Integration not yet complete, and unable to give a timescale. Unable to manually change usernames (family name changes or staff marriage etc) Limits on amount of users able to create - only increased by logging a support call with SWGfL Limits on diskspace only lifted after a support call and long wait for SWGfL No area in bulk upload for automatic creation of usernames! (Usernames must conform to one of the Merlin presets, if not, you will have to manually create or force users to remember yet another unique username! Other than the primary/secondary transition project, we were also interested in looking at Merlin to address the Parental Engagement (Online reporting etc) issue... ... Again, following this training, those features look much further away and even potentially unlikely. Moodle authentication / integration was one of the key things promised early on, although stressed that it wasn't yet ready. Following the comments from the person leading the training, I am not sure that Merlin and Moodle will ever integrate! Now being trialled successfully in a number of schools - expect SIF rollout to begin from Spring Term. Initially the "Groupcall" SIF agent will be available. Capita, RM, Pearson and others have all released SIF agents but each will need to undergo testing and approval at SWGfL. This can be done in one of two ways - Merge the old account with a new one (reconcile) or CR to SWGfL. Perhaps this wasn't clear at the training. Limit has been increased by SWGfL (secondaries has gone from 500 to 800) and a further increase is still only one phone call away. I only have a problem with the "long wait for SWGfL" bit here, that is your perception. SWGfL have a dedicated Merlin branch of their phone system and a vested interest in having Merlin work, it will be done quickly. I agree, this is rubbish you should be able to specify the username within the bulk upload. This Q went back to SWGfL last week at a regional meeting where they said the school concerned should contact them with what they need and it can (USUALLY) be added into the predefined list either for your site or if appropriate the whole grid. I'd mail this info to you but it looks like I'd be wasting my time. Merlin WILL address PE and Online reporting in whatever way SWGfL choose. It will be done using MIS integration and needs to be done right to ensure the MIS data is good and there are no nasty slip ups. The SWGfL insist that it will happen, it will be trialled from Spring next year and SWGfL will take their time to make sure it is right. I wasn't privvy to the conversations where this was promised so perhaps I'm being unfair here as I don't have the background. Seeing Merlin is SIF compliant then surely it is each and every Moodle implementation that needs to sort their house out and find an appropriate solution to meeting the SIF?

Ask them, Can't see it being a problem.

I haven't got proof on the DCSF changing the guidelines but I had heard that to be the case too. The data doesn't have to be presented specifically through SLG, it needs to be presented through something SIF compliant. I'd have thought the data displayed to parents etc would be updated via SIF at regular intervals, the interval would depend on what data was being displayed - perhaps in real time, daily, weekly or monthly, essentially it would be updated however often is appropriate for what is being displayed. Using SIF shouldn't hammer the SIMS Server as it will just query for the data now and then. If SLG is used and hosted at the school then I think it draws direct from the SQL but don't quote me on that. This would increase usage on the SIMS Server. I believe migrating to SQL 2008 will allow you to tell the Server to use more cores.

Please correct me if I am wrong here... I'd definately like to be wrong. Sadly this is a little more difficult, SIMS Reports can do the job but it would have to come out as one ID card per page as the SIMS Report to a mailmerge document will not support photographs. The normal RTF or Word based reports from SIMS can pull out the data but it can't fit it into "label like" sections on a single page. If I'm wrong here please share your SIMS RptDef

Agreed, I expect the number of SIMS Users in school will increase largely in the coming years although the extent of this depends on your definition of an "average sized" primary school. Agreed - the SIMS demands will get greater on the Server but the Server doesn't have to be just for SIMS, I'd wholeheartedly agree with expecting any new Server to do a job for 5 years. This sounds like mis information or misinterpretation of advice to me as far as I am aware SQL 2008 will work on the box you described. Capita have no end date planned for support of Server 2003 at the time of writing (see attached file - end of support tab). I suspect the LA have detected that the box isn't brilliant and you'll have to replace it sooner or later anyway. If they are actively involved in supporting the school then from their point of view it would be sensible to migrate the SIMS Database to SQL 2008 at the same time as replacing the box - two birds, one stone. Again misinformation or misinterpretation here, it depends on how your LA and schools work with one another but in out LA schools are pretty much autonomous and can do what they like for hardware. What you've written here sounds like advice given for an ideal world and not a hard and fast - "you must do/buy this". I hope this is some help... SIMS_2009_Roadmap_14631.xls

I expect Cornwall College (Camborne) do it - they do most of the MS exams. They'll probably run it over half term too.

Hello, If you still haven't sold it what make/model is it? Cheers.

Given the generally better disk access speed of SSDs I can see it being really good for SIMS performance, especially thrown into a good server with the SQL set up optimised.

We use Richmond Helpdesk for every IT related request we get from schools at the LA, my personal opinion is that it is awesome. I'm not really involved extensively in its setup but it has an SQL Server backend (this rarely needs updating - perhaps once a year) with a client application as well as Web Interface. Richmond gives you so many different ways to access and navigate your calls it makes working on the helpdesk a lot easier. The Web Interface isn't so polished as the client app in my view but it will probably evolve into something much better given the way IT is moving, overall I think Richmond is fantastic. I can't comment on the cost as I don't deal with that either but overall the product is really good and well supported. There are clever alarms, buletin board and integrated remote support / email launcher modules. The reports you can get out of it are also top notch. I don't use it any more but there used to be a mobile version which ran on PDA's via GPRS (this is going back some years mind) and that worked reasonably well, I can only imagine that it has improved with 3G and so on. Get a trial of it if you can.

My Blackberry is very similar - it will scroll both ways but with a huge bias towards up. Makes navigation very difficult. Previous BB was fine for a couple of years though, I wouldn't fault them overall - great devices.

I wanted to do exactly this and found it not to be possible I had to change the date format manually. This may have changed. Doing as timzim said might help but I'm pretty sure that SIMS insists on having the date set in a particular format. I also needed the format you describe which was a non standard format for excel as well as SIMS, I needed to tell it the date format in the custom area of format cells. I also found that if I reopened the spreadsheet after editting my changes were lost, so once you have the date format set then save the report and upload it before reopening it. You could create a Macro in the document the report goes into? OR Using the SIMSReportExporter (command line util for SIMS Reports) it may be possible to pull the data out with the date setup the way timzim said. I have to admit I'm rubbish with Macros and just used format cells. EDIT Matt 40k posted after I started writing this but that sounds like a good idea.

Personally I'd have thought that is pretty well underpowered for the kind of job you describe (a DC or two) especially given the number of potential clients you quote. Unless I've misinterpereted you and this box is simply a kind of testing platform. Ultimately it might do as a member server but it depends what you want from it. Spend some cash my friend - think of the bigger picture, you want this h/w to last you years - not weeks.

Nice one.

I think the Secondary looking after the local primaries is a good thing all round - getting your SLA right is really important though. "£2000 a year for a local guy to provide them with 1 (yes one) hours support a week." Not accounting for Summer holidays: Thats £40 per week (or £40 per hour). Which probably isn't all that expensive compared to some private firms - all depends on the quality of support they get I guess.

I've been using Supportnet all day and it's been fine. Haven't touched SOLUS today though.

Try the UNC to the S:\SIMS directory instead?

The Mrs hates my computer tomfoolery so these are both in my garage which is cabled to my house. 1 x HP Proliant ML110 G5 @ 1.X Ghz + 1Gb RAM, 250 GB. Runs Ubuntu (9)? OS Webserver (Http). File Server/Storage. SFTP Server. Can be woken up over the internet (only by me). Manages RDP Sessions to the rest of the house. ------------------ 1 x Dell Poweredge 600SC @ 2.4 Ghz + 2.5 Gb RAM, 2x 500 GB. Runs Windows 7 RC Backup and Images Storage, Can be woken up (only from the LAN), Experiments ------------------ Thinking about a proper hardware firewall too rather than just using the router (just for fun).

Where does a school get the IEP License activator patch please? From Capita or from the IEP Writer (Learn How Publications) supplier? I checked supportnet but no info is immediately available and I know it isn't distributed via Schools Manager, anyone with a quick answer? TIA

That is pretty annoying actually - it seems that the eligibility dates don't pull through unless the effective on date is within that period. As far as meal eligibility True/False is concerned the effective on date will provide you with the T or F for that date only. I suppose this bit makes sense as the child could be eligible for FSM and then not eligible and then change back to being eligible so what it is reporting is true. As for the eligibility date ranges not pulling through that is rather annoying. Can I ask why you need it?

Had it sitting handy in a notepad file - must be from an older version of DBAttach I guess. Sadly I didn't have DBAttach to hand to interrogate the latest version. Good knowledge matt40k, Trusted being an SQL trusted Active Directory login of course and DMS to backup the document server.