matt40k

Not sure about InTouch beyond it needs more RAM on the clients. Personally I prefer SchoolComms which isn't as hungry. SLG, self-hosted, you need a separate server \ SQL server.

I think you're missing my point @pcstru, if you where the cloud provider, wouldn't you want to be paid something? Also, I'm not sure a MIS supplier would also be looking to sell it's user base either, the administrator would, they'll be cutting up what little is left to pay their creditors. I don't the administrators job has to conflict with doing the right thing, especially when it makes business sense.

I can't image cloud service providers run at 100% capacity, I'm pretty sure they could stomach a customer (MIS Supplier) going into liquidation and I'm pretty sure they'd happy renting it out directly for a few months. If the administration went to another MIS supplier and went, hey, fancy being our preferred new MIS supplier? Well just cover the hosting costs for a few months I'll bet you'll have a quite a few jump at the offer. The issue with be those few months of migrating away with little to no support - but this problems exists now with non-cloud products. You have to remember 2e2 is a bit different to a MIS supplier. For starts, no cloud provider would want to be all over the news as the ones that shutdown schools because of a bit of cash.

Don't. Use the Capita installer, it installs Express, which is free. This will mean you won't end up with large bill from Microsoft and added complexity come install time. The school will need to purchase a SQL 2012 Standard license, if they need it, see - Should I purchase Full SQL or is Express enough? – Matt Smith. If they do need it, then download the ISO, mount it, then select the upgrade edition, it's a 5 min job.

First up, you'll get a better response in MIS section. Have you seen this: What is the MIS Survey? | Eduware Consulting - @GREED has sent out questionnaires to all the various MIS players so you can find out about more then just one other player, also he's followed on from this - http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/76154-something-keep-eye-dfe-9.html#post1157347 - where we looked at FOI responses from the DfE with regards what MIS systems people used in England for the School Census - Market Statistics | Eduware Consulting - the spreadsheet towards the bottom lists the school and what MIS they used. It should then give you a good list of actual end-users. Just a observation, I see your a network manager, are you talking from a technical point of view? Just based on the feedback from the #simsinspire conference, it seems to be a bit polar (even after taking it with a huge pinch of salt). Don't get me wrong if you can get a like for like replacement and save 14-18k, great, that's an extra person. Just not sure you maybe doing it for the right reasons. Don't get me wrong, I think you have a point, I blogged about the fact the great strength is also Capita greatest weakness, they can't implement the new SQL 2012 features until everyone has migrated, they can't do proper agile development as they can only do 3 releases a year - end result, they have 1,057,outstanding change request (with positive feedback) since last year.

The really frustrating thing about it is the amount of time we've wasted talking about it vs the half and hour it would take to code it in, heck, waste an afternoon on dbattach and you could get it to restore SOLUS3 and Discover databases as well!

Ah, then that's right. Not 100% sure how RBUSS\Attix 5 works, I just know it needs it set to FULL and it uses dbattach to backup and your LA has a dashboard to check the status of all the backups. It checks for diff at a bit level of the .bak file backup and then backups only those changes. If you set it to SIMPLE it sends the whole thing rather then just the changes, same thing if you compress (ie zip) it, so just leave it and it does it's magic. Clearly whoever made it is very clear and has some deep understanding of MS-SQL backup format - it really does just work. The password problem is prob what I detailed above, might be worth reseting the sysman password on that backup copy you restored just to confirm - also undo any changes you may have done.

Do you have Attix 5 \ RedStor \ RBUSS installed? That needs it to be FULL.

This is a valid point and the problem exists today with Capita. If we take Furlong (Schoolbase) - at random, based on the information they provide in response to your survey - http://eduwareconsulting.co.uk/what_is_the_mis_survey/furlong/ - I know they use Rackspace (UK). I know Rackspace and I know it wouldn't be too difficult to negotiate something to allow the servers to keep running. I know, again, based on the responses from the survey, it wouldn't be too difficult to migrate to a.n.other MIS system. Ideally if you where doing it at scale (ie more then just a few schools) you'd broker a official deal with Rackspace and Furlong so if the dreaded day came, at least Rackspace already knows who you are and there is a proper process in place to follow. Also you'd have maybe a.n.other recommend MIS supplier or at least a backup MIS supplier -someone you know can migrate you quickly if need be. Far as I see, they are just as no more risky then Capita. PS: Cheers @GREED for pulling the data together - made that really quick and easy!

Yup. Might be worth changing tack, perhaps raise it as my .ldf is rather large and let them follow the breadcrumbs.

Personally, I prefer to adding a single SATA drive to the server in secondary school that is dedicated for doing backups. Means you can do full backups in mins, also remember SQL backups can run with users still using the system. Don't get me wrong, FULL+logs have their place, the guys behind me swear by them, but they're a team of three dedicated to SQL backups, managing databases in their hundreds and are many times bigger then a schools "big" 5gb database.

Prob not, its prob this old thing that the user\pass are stored in the MASTER database and you need to run a bit of SQL to get them backed up into the SIMS database so it's included in the SIMS backup. Interestly you can, from SQL 2012 store them in the (SIMS) database, but Capita need to do this - but they can't do it until everyone is on SQL 2012!! Something I've ranted about before - I’m sorry, but SIMS8 can’t come fast enough – Matt Smith Getting back on topic, is it Attix 5? Can you logon as another user? Can you get logged on a sysman? Your making assumptions, on paper you might be correct, but in pratice... Agreed. Always worth checking, just don't start changing things we don't fully understand.

What is it they say about a little knowledge? I would suggest you don't touch it if the LA set it up and are controlling the backups. Capita recommends the SIMPLE recovery model because it's simple, every backup is a full so you just need 1 file to restore and you don't have to worry about the log file (sims.ldf) growing. If your LA has set it to full then they have either - made a mistake and need to change it to simple, or they have another program backing up and your about to mess up their backups. [Warning mode off]

Even if you have a escrow agreement and you get your access to your data and the source code. It's still not going to help you fix a bug, I'm not sure escrow agreements are the answer unless that mythical oversight agency appears.

I think @Bananas idea is the best I've heard. I know we've (me and @PhilNeal) has spoke about what @dhicks posted and we said it does negate what the cloud is all about, not worrying about infrastructure. I mean I'm sure people like RedStor would love to offer a bolt-on backup service, but having the data is one thing, being able to use it is another. I think we need to be able to not only get the data out, but get it into another product. I think that will be the key. Even if you can get at the data and get it into another MIS system pretty quick and easily, you still need to trust them to give you some notice of them going under.

Windows Trusted uses your Windows security token, which expires and auto-renews. It's safer then passing passwords as if someone gets the token, it's only valid for a few mins (15-45mins) before it expires and they have to start again. Passwords last for days. If they are a Capita partner, which I hope they are if they write back to SIMS, it shouldn't be too hard for them to do. You normally create a service account, give it access in SIMS then run the extract job as that user (via either windows service or scheduled task)

If a pupil is on the machine, logged on as the teacher, they already have access to enough information that would be a breach of data protection which would make you fail an OfSTED inspection. Quite frankly thats the end of it. Teaching Windows + L should be the key lesson, not writing an application that re-prompts the user for they Windows Network logon. If you put the launcher in the sims folder where you have given the teacher full rights to do upgrades then whats stopping them with replacing it with a less secure version? When talking about such things its often a case of should-er, would-er, could-er, didn't bother making it fully secure as it was too difficult. As for SQL authentication, I'm not a fan of having passwords, "encrypted" or not, in a SQL table. Anyway, thats just my 2p, back to OP, like @LosOjos get the third party to add support.

@theeggmaster what's the third-party tool? That's why you created a security weakness - You've basically created a man-in-the-middle vulnerability!!

I know a few schools in Suffolk have had the ports opened up for certain games, just a thought if your doing it legit (ie your not a student)

Depends, if it's a dedicated SIMS server, pretty much yes. Utter waste. With SQL, disc is often king. Have you run the reindexing patch? What size is the sims.LDF?

Ha! 1GB RAM and 1 CPU (max of 4 cores) EDIT: Like @teejay said

Out of interest, have you looked a chromecast? Just thinking £100 a pop for a Apple TV vs £30 for chromecast, times that by 40... works for IOS as well

Stupid question, you uninstalled\disabled SQL 2008? Might be worth applying the reindexing patch.

School didn't claim on the insurance? Just ask because if the insurance company paid out, they need to be thrown away else they get pretty nasty.

Schools wouldn't need it the training databases, Green Abbey \ Waters Edge would be configured differently to their own database. It's too complex \ time consuming for a partner to create a new database so it makes sense to use the training databases. Capita charge Support Teams vast sums of money for the training databases and materials, if Capita started issuing it to schools FOC, they would all be demanding a refund and throwing legal action at them.