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Each morning begins the same with frantic emails telling me that staff can't access or get into registers and some waiting ages for screens to load. Then after the registration time the MIS comes to life and is usable again. I've used process explorer to monitor the server but the cpu barely peaks above 70% , the network and disk don't particularly go mad at registration times and yet the performance greatly suffers. We installed 15.1 of eportal/facility recently in hope that it resolves the performance but instead brought new problems of events being blank whilst keeping the same performance issues. We're not exactly a huge school but does anyone have eportal not slowdown to absolute crawl at registration time? I've followed their tech sheet for the problems: ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Below are links to guides to enhance the performance of ePortal. Please run through each of these articles one by one if you are experiencing performance problems. Before making any modifications please ensure that you have taken a back up of Facility Admin and made a copy of the ‘ePortal’ folder (usually located in C:\Facility\ePortal\Webapps, assuming a default install) to ensure you have a back up copy of the current configuration settings. Checking the Server Details Check the current server specification - intel xeon 1.9ghz 4gb ram Available disk space on server -10gigs on all disks free Size of audittrail and transaction Log -cleared at half term Check for multiple installs of ePortal -none Check for open ports -nothing has changed Conflicts with other software -no new software except eportal updates Check the regional settings -england gmt Scheduled task for an overnight stop/start of eportal -yup we have 2 batch files Check network communication between SQL and ePortal servers (if separate) -they aren't separate Force network speed for adapters and switches -haven't tried yet, not sure if applicable Monitor disk usage -yes and it doesn't seem intense but what measurements should i compare too? Disabling Microsoft Group Policy to troubleshoot poor ePortal performance -really don't want to have to do that SQL server priority boost setting -not done yet ePortal Configuration Settings Check the contents of the webapps folder -removed old files today Changing configuration files for roll call/registration -done Comment out alerts and behaviour bitlets Updating/Removing Data in Admin Reduce number of Admin users -not sure if we have too many but we try to restrict this Check number of users with BMFULL access Set behaviour alerts to expire -i am looking into this at the moment, but we are debating whether we will lose important information Remove all expired messages Regards Paul ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Is anyone else having Eportal issues of slowdown? have you resolved yours? if so please help me.

We have completed the CMIS 14.1 upgrade on Friday 16th May. After the upgrade office staff have been unable to generate UPN. The following error message appears when trying to generate a UPN "all available serial numbers have been used". I have contacted Link2ict and they have said that there are large gaps between the numbers that are being allocated. Has anybody had a problem like this before? Everytime we do an upgrade we have had slight problems that we have managed to resolve, but nothing like this.

Hi, can anyone point me in the direction of a tutorial for writing Cmis form reports? Im trying to create attendance certificates for 100% attendance - I have a list report that when its run gives me just the students with 100% attendance, Id like to create a form from that list. There is a form 'Wise Up On Attendance letter' report that does something similar but it generates the form on attendance % so it will generate forms for children who are not 100% - ive tried taking out the other AttLevel = but generates blank reports for the children who do not have AttLevel = 5

Can anyone tell me if they are supporting SERCO in Primary Schools and if so, how well it works? I am particularly interested in comparing SERCO functionality and ease of use to SIMS.net. Thank you.

Hi , Is anyone using School Pupil Tracker (web based app) and cmis ? We have problems with new senco and EAL data not overwriting the old when we extract a CTF file and import into School Pupil Tracker . Any help appreciated.

Had this email this morning : Good Morning, After much consideration and discussion, an opportunity for Serco Learning to move to Advanced Computer Software (ACS) has arisen that makes sound business sense for both parties and for customers. Serco Learning is a fantastic software business and there is opportunity over the coming years to grow further and build on the significant investments recently made in our portfolio. The sale has now been agreed, and will be complete by 31st December 2012. We firmly believe that ACS was the right choice and is well placed to develop this business, as they have a similar portfolio of businesses and a track record of developing and growing software-based companies. Serco Learning will become part of ACS’s Advanced Business Solutions division. Advanced Business Solutions focuses on Public Sector and Enterprise, and has a strong track record in providing back office software and services, in particular to Local Government, Health and Education. Right now it is business as usual and we are ensuring that you continue to receive the same excellent service over the coming months. Both Serco and ACS have proven track records for ensuring a successful and seamless transition for this type of activity, helping to minimise disruption to staff, customers, partners, and other stakeholders. Please contact your Account Manager if you require further information. Kind regards, Mohamad Djahanbakhsh Managing Director, Serco Learning

Does anyone know if you can create custom reports on behaviour management in CMIS? For example being able to create a report showing total positives/negatives per student stuff like that? Ta

One of my summer jobs (lucky me) is moving FacilityCMIS and ePortal onto a new virtual 2k8R2 server from the creaking heap of crap that it currently sits on. FirstLine has no guides on installing from scratch, conveniently, and support didn't have any either when I asked... So: is it just a case of going through as if it's an upgrade? Install SQL Server, configure IIS as per the guide, then install Facility & ePortal and import data from the existing server? As well as copy over various XML files etc. Any gotchas I should be aware of? Anything in particular I need to test to destruction? We don't use behaviour, DocStore or SMS, just Facility & ePortal (inc. API). No LEA support. I've done upgrades for the last three years so I'm familiar with that process, but this is the first time I've started from fresh.

ACS have just been bought by private equity firm Vista. Hungry Advanced Computer Software gets swallowed for £725m • The Channel

Hi, I'm new here and very new to CMIS, so allow me to introduce myself. I am a developer by trade who has is currently involved in helping my employer to decide upon a VLE. Currently the options are FROG, in-house or a combination of the two. One part that I am currently considering is the ability to read from our MIS - CMIS. further to this I want to be able to write back to it - it's only SQL database after all. My question is this; does anyone have or know of any documentation on the data structure or have any advice on writing information to the database? All help will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks nathj

Does anyone know if it is possible to get a report from Facility in text format which lists all students followed by the names (or staff codes, or email addresses, etc) of all their teachers, please? e.g Joe Bloggs, Mr Apple, Ms Banana, Mrs Cherry, Mr Durian, Mr Elderberry, Mrs Fig, Mr Grape Jane Smith, Mr Alpha, Mr Bravo, Mrs Charlie, Ms Delta, Mrs Echo, Mr Foxtrot, Mr Golf etc etc

Hi Looking through the old comments, no-one seems to have asked recently whether CMIS can be automatically backed up. The IT Department back up the server, but have told me that CMIS still needs backing up from within the system daily. This is getting to be a pain so any help in automating this would be appreciated! Thanks K

I hear Progresso has failed badly in Birmingham, with none of the three sample school being able to adopt it at all. I hear the one that did try and go live has erm, well died. Is this hearsay and gossip, or is this product really not ready at all? Is it that Birmingham are not managing it properly? Who knows. If you do, let us all know please, I'd hate to be recommending a dead duck to my school. Thanks John

I have written a lot of php scripts that interface with the facility SQL database, however with Progresso looming I need to convert them over to using the Facility API. Serco have given me access to it and a "Developers Manual" which looks more like a spec sheet. I have got the API service working however I am having problems working out what my XML requests should look like to the server. At the moment I am trying to simply pull a list of students off, I have got this xml so far, but believe it is very wrong. Any one else got this working?

Hello again How hard or complicated is it to migrate CMIS over to a new server..then migrate the database and then set up the users I have been waiting for weeks for our support to turn up to no avail. Ta John

Really odd one here, any ideas people? Better explain the current scenario Windows 7 user makes a change to data (in this case bank reconciliation) and hits store. Windows 7 user closes the window where they made the changes and immediatly opens it again. Changes are not displayed even after a database refresh/system restart/turned off overnight etc. (All other Windows 7 users cannot also see the change) All Windows XP users can see the changes made (by the Windows 7 user). Really got me stumped here Serco are remoting in today to have a look at the problem but apparently we are the only school that has reported this issue.

I'm trying to fish some information out of the audittrail table via sql. Actions taken by a user in Eportal to be precise. However this table returns the ePortal username value eg. sta001aff (UserRespon in AUDITTRAIL). Does anyone know of a table that might contain this username value alongside the staff ID? I'm wanting to return the staff name as part of my query rather than having to look at the resource passwords list in Facility. I've looked in RESPASSWORDS and can see that has an encrypted value PwdData that is linked to the staff ID. Knowing my luck the username is scrambled in that. Anyone managed to find what I'm after in the maze of Facility tables?

Have been following Progresso's development quite closely. Were due to go live a couple of times, saw data in their transition environment earlier in the year and we panicked it was so bad! We pulled the plug on our migration and it is currently TBC as far as we're concerned. Had a call today from our Serco rep to tell us that they are not going to migrate any more schools over to Progresso (from Facility) this year because there have been so many problems. Talking to a colleague via SSAT and they've told me the same story and that they are considering dropping Serco completely and going to Aspen or Integris. Can anyone else share good or bad stories of their Progresso migrations (or build up to failed ones), that could help us and others make a considered decision with all of the info please? Thanks Simon

I am looking to change the name and IP of our Serco server. I need to change the ip that points to the database. Can anyone tell me how this is done? Thanks Kai

Hi Everyone Just been thrown into the deep end, im having to manage CMIS while one of my work mates is away, only thing is he doesnt seem to have any manuals or any usernames and passwords lying arround, and as this is long term it could be interesting. If anyone could email me some manuals for CMIS, well im not sure exactically which ones i need, we are licensed for Booking System, Examination Scheduling, Student Fitting, and Planning matrices. So any for these and the basic how to set it up, and get it running would be useful If people are willing to email me some, pm me and ill provide my email address.

Hi, Does anyone know if there is a way of automating/scripting a Facility backup rather than having to do it manually through the CMIS interface? Is a SQL backup sufficient? Thanks very much.

We have just noticed missing entries on the Cloud School output files. Our internal reports show the correct entries, however the output files are missing whole groups. Anyone else with the same issue?

Well, the problem is pretty well described in the title! Has anyone come across this before? Dusted off Facility a couple of weeks ago to work through the year 9 options and now I find a feature that has worked fine for years just does nothing. We no longer have Facility support and Progresso doesn't have an options module.

We are in need of installing a 4th instance of eportal and as we have run out of servers to install it on I was wondering if its possible to install more than one instance per server? I know IIS6/7/7.5 and Apache well enough. I wish eportal was not an exe you kicked off. I like doing things manually some times, especially when it comes to web apps. Anyone done this before?