JRA

Hi all, We've had a few "No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it" come in, and the number grow with each update when I try to reinstall the agents from the SOLUS 3 console. Gotta do something about it now. No duplicate DNS entries I can see, flushdns on the SIMS server doesn't solve it, and our support have said the only way they've solved it is manually uninstall the agent from clients, bounce them, remove them in the solus 3 console and then re-add them again. Wondered if I could script any bit of that easily. Or if anyone's experienced the same as me and solved it do chime in! It sure is a pest. Thanks all.

Folks that's all been lovely and thank you all loads. However, I've been overruled by leadership who want "a company to come in and just do it" rather than let me get creative. However however, I'll type up what I was thinking and how I would have gone about it had I gotten my own way. I was in a situation where I'd wanted to use our old analogue/BNC cameras along with an IP system and, as pointed out above, you can convert BNC cameras to IP (sorta) ALTHOUGH I wasn't gonna do it that way. You see, you can convert the signals to RTSP (realtime streaming protocol) with something like this, connected to your network: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302791315621?hash=item467fc4d0a5:g:RLEAAOSwroxfcYw2 Admittedly that won't give each camera an IP address (boohoo) but it WILL give each camera an RTSP feed. This is the thing you want. Something like Maxpro NVR software will record cameras from RTSP streams as well as IP cameras. You can find out which RTSP streams your manufacturer/device of choice spits out from eg the following: https://www.getscw.com/decoding/rtsp So, that integrates the old ones. As they pop or people get sick of the old-school footage looking like lego men walking around at 2fps you can replace them with IP cameras and can even use the old coax cable with something like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/iaacctv-IP-Camera-Extender-over-Coax-RG59-PAIR-upto-220M-HD-IP-CCTV-DVR-NVR/153582800020?hash=item23c23f8c94:g:oUsAAOSwhXZdPMGG (Some of the older EduGeekers will recall we used to use coax for networking back in the day!) So anyway, that's how the back of my envelope looked in case this helps or even dissuades anyone from this in the future. Thanks everyone.

Thanks for the info all, still been chewing away at this one. With the banks of Axis decoders, do you get an IP address for each camera or does it serve as a "bank" of cameras attached to each one? If I had multiple 1u Axis decoders, can I view all the cameras from one instance of the software or do I need to address multiple "banks"? Or can I even group cameras into, well, groups myself irrespective of the hardware decoder any older BNC camera is plugged into? I guess I'm asking "how does that work?" lol. Thanks much for any help. I'm getting there but penny not quite dropped yet.

There is yes, at least from memory yes OR you can stick all the folders into another folder higher up. I think you need the "import export tools" for Thunderbird to do so from memory, which is very intuitive to work with and can spit them out as plan text files for readability and with a little .html index at the top for folder browsing. You'll see all that anyways it's quite lovely. I *would* give you a little better on that but annoyingly lost my Ubuntu machine to a power cut since November and not set Thunderbird up again for the old SAR business sorry. :/

Thanks both that all looks promising! What do you use for viewing and recording stuff? Axis I remember of old, but we're talking 2008 era lol. Is there software you use to view them as banks of cameras or no? Cheers muchly.

Hi everyone, I'm looking to change lots about our CCTV. Although not everything, just some things. We have a system where cameras are cabled back with coax/BNC cables to half a dozen servers around the place. I'd like to keep those in place and go non-IP with whatever comes in. Is anyone else running anything like that and have anything/anyone you could recommend? Thanks much one and all.

SO SO strange you know that's EXACTLY the same thing the pig that flew past my window said.

Does look aight and thanks for the suggestion. I wonder about data processing agreements etc but I'm sure if (and I say this through very gritted teeth) SLT DON'T DUMP IT ON MY PLATE MIDDAY FRIDAY TO BE READY MONDAY MORNING (sorry for shouting they hurt my feelings and stole another weekend) and you had the luxury of time that'd be good and whizzy. Cheers.

It's simple, bit "quick and dirty" but you got just what you need from it - route out directly with no faff. Two thumbs up job done.

Thanks all. Well yes it is midnight and yes I am still at it BUT I have it cracked in the way I want. In short, Google Forms form with a multiple-choice question (where each answer is one of the available 5 minute slots of the day. Yes I manually type in all 60-odd) and Form Ranger set up to limit responses to 5 pupils for each slot. They log in to Google which keeps them unique. Form Ranger is a PIGLET to set up but this video helps a bit: Just remember you might not have the same column AND the part he tells you is "really important" and then talks some nonsense about values over isn't actually that important - just give it a name. Done. I need to go to bed. Thank you all so so much though. Felt good to know I wasn't alone for another weekender!

Cheers Steve! Blissfully unaware this was a thing you could do in 365 - we don't have that here (Google School) and whilst I think forms could probably achieve the same/similar I'd put that on my emergency plan B to attack tomorrow, if I don't get "my way" in the mean time. That's handy to know though so ta!

Oh boy this landed on my desk midday Friday. To be ready for Monday?? No chance obviously, but I will knock something together eventually. Or buy something. Definitely need to run this by the collective wisdom of the fellow EduGeek Saturday crew. Currently lost in options, none of which I'm sure quite fit the bill but might. What we need is: - Kids book a covid test online. So, make a basic site/Wordpress and host it, SSL cert etc... - 5 minute slots available, and five slots on the go at one time (so imagine the lessons of the day broken up into 5 minute slots, and 5 students can book any one slot before that slot is full.) - Students can't be allowed to see the names of other students who have booked anything, but should be able to see when slots are unavailable if booked out. - Have to restrict this by year groups, but can be a "soft" restriction (as in staff can "sanity check" a spreadsheet of things. - Staff on a back end somewhere need something vaguely friendly to look at. If it can spit out a spreadsheet then ace, if it can't then at least kinda "something." At the moment I have a Wordpress site thrown together and I'm looking at the (conservatively) BILLION appointment booking services available. They're all great but goodness complex! And an investment in time to see if they actually deliver everything I need. I DO wonder if it's feasible to knock up something in PHP etc... Or rather would be for someone cleverer than me, I myself couldn't! If anyone has any freeform thinking etc on it then let me know? Any advice or pointers or even just a thought or idea would be wonderfl. If I arrive at a BEAUTIFUL solution then I'll stick it up here - and then sell it to the govt for a ZILLION pounds.

You got VLANS there or no? If so can you let traffic for one VLAN directly out in the firewall? That way when SLT love this event so much that they have them weekly from now on (inevitable?) can always just plug some ports in on the back end to your "just goes in and out" VLAN.

Oh boy, I would say so but Python is a mystery to me. It'd probably come out super but I fundamentally don't know it. I couldn't take it apart and tinker if it went, well, "funny" in future. But thanks HUGELY though. Also, dear diary... Today I got little done BUT it seems like the BIG one (making email groups for "teachers of %student%") will be getting done first. I have gotten SIMS to barf out this one: (attached) Redacted info (you might be able to notice btw) but we got columns! Kid's name, kid's UPN, staff code of mentor in column 3 (don't need that anymore tbh) and column 4 staff codes of all their teaching staff! With this one specifically then I gotta figure out how to make: - An AD group with the email address "[email protected]" but the actual name of "Teachers of John Smith" if it's not already there. If it is ofc update the members. - Bung the staff who teach the kids into it with Powershell or VB (not fussy) but not the kid themselves.UPNS of kids are in AD in the "Office" field and Staff Codes are in AD in the "Initials" field. I'm going to ponder this. By my reckoning I'm 1/3 of the way through 1/4 of the "project" and I deserve a curry lol. Thanks everyone for sticking around also.

Had a rummage, it does for all the world seem like MOST of the universe creates SIMS accounts for staff and students and then based off reports of what's in SIMS makes up AD accounts and there it all goes. I do seem to be the only one doing it the wrong way 'round... maybe stuck in my ways but I like being able to create AD accounts first and then send the list of emails to the admin team once I know I'm doing John Smith as jsmith1 or jsmith2 depending on how many John/Jane/Julius Smiths I've got in the school. Regardless of admissions process though, I'd still like this running as a standalone thing. Getting there with my SIMS reports still, should be kinda fun to fumble through in fact! Thanks everyone for reading and once I knock something together I'll share it.

Eagerly downloaded for a look and a tinker thanks muchly for that one!

You're a gent Mr Norphy thank you. I'm just going to have an experiment for the rest of today. Well, experiment and coffee. Whatever goes on, and understanding of one of three bits won't be a hindrance! The bits being export from SIMS, mash things into shape, import into AD. again too.

Cheers muchly both. Yeah that's my "break glass" thing but it's about £1k for that. And I'd rather (however ugly) get it done in a way that's transparent and I have control over. What I don't get with Salamander's offerings (although does seem to be good) is the control I'd want. Maybe in future I need something else doing, or someone just sticking into %group% after the fact. If I've done it myself it's a little easier to get stuck into modifying. I would VERY much enjoy your scripts yes please. Yes that's one gag indeed. Another one is spitting the right stuff out of SIMS. And I do want a spreadsheet for each one? as in, one for: Each mentor group (kids + teacher) Each class (kids + teacher) Each groups that's "teachers of %student%" Each group that'd be "teachers of %year%" Something tells me probably so... I don't know what the easiest way would be from a Powershell (or VB) point of view for getting these things into AD. But I'm not entirely sure and I've actually made less progress taking things apart this week. But meh, gotta learn some way or another! How would you be going about the AD import bit if you were doing this yourself? Separate .csv for each group of the four "modules" above? I wouldn't even really mind phases that just knocked up the groups kinda independent of each other; that is with separate SIMS reports and everything. Just not sure on the best way to go about it. But I'd sacrifice a lot of "efficiency" for "transparency" of it. By which I mean "I can see what it's doing at every step" thoroughly beats "it's slick and graceful."

That's the one yes. I mean, it works (worked) and was ok at the time but it's not as transparent in terms of gubbins as I'd like at all. Developed "quirks" over the years and it's time for something else now.

Hello all, Well we've had MIS2AD here for a little while (Python thingy that exports SIMS classes groups, mentor groups, teachers of %student% and teachers of %year% to AD groups for email) and it's starting to get a bit dog-eared. Having a crack at re-writing it and get a little way along, then tend to scrap what I've done and begin again. Time to knock this one out. What I want is essentially it to be spreadsheet-based, as in once a day (in the small hours) it'll: - Export stuff from SIMS, one spreadsheet for each of the four. - Tinker with each spreadsheet where necessary. - Maybe export something from AD also and marry that up. - Create groups and email addresses in an OU of AD if they don't already exist, amend them if they do. We don't have reliable email addresses in SIMS but we DO have reliable UPNs in AD (Office field) , so I'd look to "key" students to this. We also have staff codes from SIMS as initials in AD (initials field) so there's that to "key" the staff to. Of the four "parts" above I've got the SIMS report necessary (on my last stab at it at least) to export the staff with their codes and the students with their UPNs and reg groups into two separate spreadsheets, which I think will form the foundation of a LOT of things, but which at least for the moment forms the basis of something. In moving further though, as VERY MUCH a PowerShell n00b and no veteran of these things, how would you yourself tackle this? I don't necessarily mean write all four of them for me (unless you want to lol!) But it'd be an extremely useful utility to have in the arsenal... Plus I like spreadsheets rather than variables in memory as I can look at them at the various stages if anything's going wrong in future and dissect a little easier. Anybody feel like musing with me over the coming weeks? Needless to say I'll post up what I mash together and if it works at the end then we can all nab it I suppose! Thanks for reading, whoever you are out there!

Goodness just read this. Must say I am a fan of Cunninghams and they've been really good. Had my odd moments with mostly the sQuid side of things, but Cunninghams do fine. Even recommended them of late.

Just wondered if anyone had anything as exotic as a bog-standard .msi or way of deploying this. Bought four licenses but it seems literally impossible to ship this out without signing up to an Adobe Cloud iCustomer Portal Experience Control Panel or whatever the hell and not just buy program > deploy program. Has anyone done this and just got it to work nice? Getting a lil cross with it, might need a tea...

Thank you all so much. It got late but I go the Ubuntu setup to work in the end. I will come back to this and try to get the Windows side of things more sustainable. Thank you all SO much. That was a horrible weekend.

Thanks for this Steve. Ok, this is good to know. A lot of weight is given here amongst SMT to precedent, so if another school's done %it% then %it% is usually considered ok for us. If it gets then into the small hours of Monday morning and I've just got nothing then that's what I shall do. Image with out image, software on it, over to you kids. I'd imagine it needs to come back in for the sake of KMS or are people MAK-ing these? People who don't have some whizzy VPN situation that I certainly don't I mean... But thank you all so much. Tough times for us all I'm sure.

Thanks so much. This has spiralled so horribly. Saturday afternoon and I'm just lost at sea still. Monday AM this (whatever "this" will even turn out to be) has to be working adn I have to be able to support it.