SL_Thing

Im having this issue with random staff, on latest version of edge and chrome, on v3.4.3, Edge we get a blank screen for search engines (only random people and then sometimes it works), chrome not a problem and that's one the latest. We are very new to LS filter, and have only ever been on agent v3.4.3 Got a ticket with LS, and they said that the agent needs updating, when it's one the latest.

Not much, mine isnt SSM related, CPU is bouncing around at normalish levels. They have now recommended (and done so) switching the compatibility mode to 2022 and then running which i will need to do the reindex and update stats.

At my last school i did a summer migration, all went fairly straight forward and this was a week before I left. Timetable will go in, as long as it's SIMS prior with all the right dates etc it will come across. Back in 2022 you couldnt then export the timetable out of Arbor to Timetabler, but I believe by now that should be the case. Timetabler also should be very easy for your timetable team to work as it was written by the guy that originally wrote Nova so shares some ways f doing things, might look different but should operate in much the same way. Just got to avoid the 'how is it done in SIMS mentality', and instead use the knowledge of what you are doing to do the job (not sure if im explaining that well 🙂 ).

Current update, they have tested our DB on there VTE system, surprise no performance issues (well it is probably stacked to the hilt with cpu and fast storage), the powerbi reports we run only take 1h20m for them as opposed to 3-5hrs, before SQL 2022 it was 1hr30m for us on the same server (yes the other SQL2012 service has been disabled) Ive been through this with the same size db and SQL2016 5 years ago at my last school and nothing could be done, that was how SIMS is was the outcome. Current thing ive been given to try is to detach the db and re-attach, cant see that helping.

That is very interesting, we are having real bad performance issues with SIMS and even though it is set, the first thing they checked was if SQL 2022 was set to 2012 compatibility mode, they still bark about it on the support docs for performance. The joys of SIMS, the sooner i can get the powers to move to Arbor the better.

Im assuming FMS still looks like the old 16bit commodore 64 looking program, no web portals for staff to raise PO's etc?

That's a shame, Arbor has a finance package too.

I cant believe schools still used FMS, my last school ditched FMS years ago for Corero Res32000 (but must have changed now to Civica Finance, they did for HR.Payrol), we changed back then as they couldn't cope with academies. We currently pay nearly 20k for SIMS and all its bits on prem (went up 2.5k this year), to chuck it to hosted I believe it is another 10k or so, and its just a VM in azure, cannot do trusted logons, and runs even slower due to the resources they dont give it. If I won the lottery today, i'd buy Arbor myself. We need to do a server refresh on our hyperv cluster by feb, we can offload most of it, but if we keep SIMS going, we will need the redundancy im comfortable with, the SSD storage I want, and enough ram to keep RDP allive for use outside of the school. If i dont have to do that, we can save a mega fortune, especially at current pricing for hardware.

Yep, done all that, seems the CU25 update for 2022 has helped to some degree, the db backup only took 21 minutes and not 50m. At my last school it got so bad we had a meeting with Arbor, then put an order in without looking at much else. Ours was so bad, similar sized db of 80gb (50% is intouch, and SIMS answer to that is delete the communications after a certain date, but we need to keep them), and that was on SQL2016. It is truly getting bad, and ESS know it, hence why they are now forcing next gen from mid June. I have other stuff going on in my personal life which is giving me high bp and anxiety, I was fine most of last week till this didn't go to plan, now headaches etc. I only experienced the setup of Arbor and a few weeks of using it, but that few months in total from start to finish was a breeze, and it just works, fast. Even SIMS Next gen takes time to load!! Oh the joys. Fingers crossed ESS get back to me today (they should be pay the posh support, not through choice, we weren't allowed to get rid of it as contract renewal without giving them enough notice, surprise surprise)

I wont ever recommend Bromcom, partly due to the what seems like a lot of outages at mainly key times, and also some of the other past things if you look. Arbor for me, did the migration at my last school and it was a dream, things just worked, quickly, and you rarely hear of any downtime, ive only heard once in 4 years, and that was resolved very quickly. I am hoping that the current fun is enough to make my current school think a bit more about moving.

We are having the same issue with migrating to SQL2022 (from 2012, previous network managers to me had not done anything as my last school we did SQL2016 a long time ago). Tried all the usual patches, and the advice on this page with MXDOP etc, still makes not much difference. Takes 50ish minutes to run a backup, last night when we finished the update stats patch, it took nearly an hour to unlock the database. I really wish i could convince the powers to move to Abor, it is much much better. arghhhhh

I didn't even know Arbor did it without a third party as i have been a long term salamander user for nearly 10 years, back when it was a man in a shed operation so would be keeping it regardless. Arbor in my mind is the best choice above all, just got to look at the stats, within 12 months it will over take SIMS market share which is crazy given that years ago SIMS was nearly 95% back in the day. You can do google classroom without a third party if youre already syncing user and class groups to your AD, there are ways and means. Looks like Arbor are selling third party google integration, it isn't native to the product and there website does show that it is a paid for extra.

A lot use Salamander for all that onboarding of users etc which it can do Microsoft SDS on 365 and Google Classroom provisioning, if you use them or Locker for automated onboarding of users/groups etc then it would be able to do this for you.

Took two weeks to get a response from our account manager!!!

seems odd, I did a Arbor migration in 2022, staff and student photos came across, as well as all the documents and DMS stuff, all were part of the SQL dump and the DMS copy that was uploaded to them. Don't remember having any issues with doctors etc, the only thing that didn't come across was assessment, that had to be extracted from SIMS and uploaded in to a format that Arbor uses for assessment as the way SIMS and Arbor treat assessment is too different for them to migrate through the SQL dump from SIMS. IGNORE ME, saw you were coming from Bromcom not SIMS haha, SIMS its only really assessment