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Hello everyone, I'd like to get some opinions on an internal tool i've worked on over the past few months. Something that surprised me when working with SIMS (on prem) was its apparent lack of audit trails for anything other than users logging in, its weird that such a vital piece of software holding such important information doesn't keep any logs of who's accessing what. So i've created a tool that does the following: - Enables you to see exactly which data/pages/profiles any user has accessed on SIMS (and when) - Enables you to see exactly what kind of edits have been made (who, what and where) - Allows audits of specific users The way it all works is actually relatively simple. An on-prem SIMS setup will have all SQL audits turned off by default, if these are turned on you can capture exactly which queries have been ran by all users. With these logs and an understanding of how the SIMS database is setup, you can create some decent audits and data visualisations. Is this tool something anyone would be interested in? I'm thinking of improving it further then open-sourcing it. I may also look into the SIMS partner route but that seems quite excessive. Does this already exist and i've wasted my time?

WOW! I didnt even know this place existed! Im so pleased to have found it! I wonder if someone could assist me? Im new to SIMS but am a software developer by trade (C# .NET). I have been given individual reports to do for students. They have many many aspects on and are all linked to record sets. In brief what I want to do is a search and replace in word to change the record set but if i do that then the bookmarks no longer work. Anyone ever come across this? Russ

Afternoon all! I've been experiencing some issues with rolling out the SOLUS 3 agent to workstations, in that out of 150 computers, the client has only installed itself on 6! The original error message we received was along the lines of 'Unable to get an IPv4 address for this agent', however the latest SOLUS 3 update was supposed to fix this. It has, to a degree, but now we're receiving the error message 'Unable to get an IP address for this agent' Has anyone else seen similar? So far I've tried installing it on computers in groups of 2, 10, and 50 to see if large deployment sizes were an issue. I've tried switching off Windows Firewall, just in case this was interfering with the install process. I've also tried installing to computers with dynamic and static IP addresses, but the same message appears. I have also pinged the name of a computer from the SIMS server and it's returning with the correct IP address of the machine. It's really odd ... I have a few test computers beside me, all running XP SP3 and fully updated, with the latest version of SIMS and Windows Firewall switched off. Yet still the SOLUS 3 deployment environment will not roll the update out to these computers due to the above error message. Just a random thought whilst typing this ... Sophos Anti-Virus wouldn't prevent the install, would it? Might just give that a try Cheers! Chris

Is anyone else not getting results pulled through from Exams Organiser to Course Manager for BTEC classes? Or is it just me? I know they aren't needed anymore but they make for a nice validation check to make sure students are in the right course.

Hi All, I have some staff needing to obtain data from another school but cannot as our version doesn't match. Now I've not upgraded as I wanted to move to SQL 2014 but lots of other things have got in the way so far this term. What I need to confirm is that SIMS will continue to work after installing Summer 2015 on SQL 2008R2, the Capita documentation suggests so. I won't hear the end of it if it doesn't work by the morning! Cheers, TomHD

Hi all Would anyone be able to advise how to backup the Solus 3 database? Backups work using the Dbattach GUI but fail when trying to run via a batch file. The same command works fine for backing up SIMS. DBATTACH.EXE /SERVER="ADMIN-SERVER\SIMS2012" /DATABASE="solus3_deployment_server" /USER="SA" /PASSWORD="SchoolPassword" /BACKUP /AUTO Thanks!

Does anyone know how to create a report within SIMS to export all the behaviour or achievement data which can be turned into a tracker? I need the behaviour or achievements points to be pulled out of SIMS and automatically create a pivot table to sort the points by type and week. Doc1.pdf

Anyone seen this when firing up ER from inside FMS? If you click OK it works fine and everything is there. Just a bit odd?

Have finished moving a school onto a shiny vanilla setup but appear to have broken SIMS in the process. Tried quite a lot so would appreciate if anyone could spot anything I may have missed. Used the updated SQL 2014 migration tool to migrate from the old 2012 backup files which was succesful. Logging onto SIMS on the server works absolutely fine. SIMS.ini and Connect.ini files appear correct in both the SIMS share and the client sims/windows directories (copied below just in case!) Ensured TCP/IP is enabled in the SQL server Permissions appear correct Sims.ini [setup] FinanceDirectory=C:\Program Files (x86)\SIMS\FMS SIMSDirectory=S:\SIMS Folder=Sims Applications NovaSatellite=C:\Program Files\SIMS\SATS SIMSDiscoverDirectory=C:\Program Files\SIMS\Discover Client\ SIMSDotNetDirectory=C:\Program Files (x86)\SIMS\SIMS .NET [LastChecked] SIMSInfrastructureSetup=5.590.5.0 connect.ini [sIMSConnection] ServerName=ServerFQDN.internal\SIMS2014 DatabaseName=sims commandtimeout=10000

Hi Our new sims system is giving our users error 0 when logging in..? I tried sysman account but still no luck... I though I'd turn here for some info? Sam

I'm just querying who should actually be able to see the PPI and LAC sections in either the student record or as the "Y" or "N" in the additional mark sheet columns. As far as I knew the teachers marksheets always showed the LAC indicator to them but for some reason it doesn't do now. I know access to updating the PPI is restricted to people with higher access but should that also be displayed to class teachers?

Hi Guys I have a had a nice long look on this forum but cant seem to find anything that is helpful to my situation. Anyway, a teacher at the school I work at is having a issue with SIMS he can't seem to add achievement points to more than one student, any time he selects more than one student it selects just the first one he clicks and its starting to become a issue as it becomes very time consuming. Thank you Aaron Britton

One of the school is support has sims on the admin network (again I don't touch it) and they have been having sims installed via solus 3 to class laptops. Now every now and again they get a pc it wont install to or it seems to magically disappear from a pc. KIm told that the only way to get solus3 / sims ontol the pc is to deploy it from their server but if its listed as should have solus3 and it wont install is there any way to manually install the client as im fed up of being piggy in the middle between the school and another 3rd party it firm

Hello Does anyone else battle with SIMS performance issues ? When running large reports or even adding in a staff training day to the academic year the whole SIMS system freezes whilst it carries out the task and knocks all users out of SIMS. We are a secondary school of 1500 students, Database size is 6.8GB, running on a 2 x 6 Core Server with 24GB RAM (Physical). When the task is running disk usage is minimal and CPU performance doesn't go above 5% whilst running. SIMS response is just to run the indexing patch but doesn't help. Anyone else had these kind of issues, with a solution? Thanks in advance.

It is possible to archive aspects within assessment manager? We have old records going back at least a decade or so that we do not wish to completely delete but would like to archive. I know you can archive attendance but unsure about aspects. Alternatively is it possible to backup old records that can then be held on a tape drive that can be accessed if required in the future? Many thanks

Hi all I've been assigned to roll over the year in SIMS. I've never done this before, and I don't know enough about the timetable and such to do this on my own. The previous NM did the year end so its been lumped onto me to perform it. Does anyone have any guidance about the information / staff I need to involve in order to get this done? I've downloaded the year end docs from Capita but it's not as helpful as I'd hoped. Thanks!

A new update came out today in the Apple App store for an update on the Sims Teacher app. A few of our staff have already updated and it is asking to re-associate their device with a new code. This means we're deleting their device and re-adding to get a new code. We only set these users (100 of them) up last week and now we're going to have to do it again? Is anyone else getting this?

Hello. My timetable has a query that we can't work out, so I'm wondering if anyone can advise. Attached are the screenshots of a teacher. There's nothing confidential so I haven't blurred anything. If you look at Week A, Monday session 4, on the Nova timetable you will see 9x/BBL where $CH and $JW staff are with her, and the class is in both rooms #A1A and #LRC. The same session on SIMS only shows the class in LRC. But in SIMS, if I select the session on her timetable, view the class, pick a student in the class, then view their timetable - they see BOTH classrooms. Does anyone who knows Nova and SIMS have any suggestions? I'm assured that the timetable was 'thrown over' into SIMS from NovaT at 9am this morning (I don't know if that's the official term or just what we call it here). I know SIMS pretty well, but I have never touched Nova. Peter

Hi. I'm trying to delete a couple of duplicate staff records that were created in error, but the 'Delete Staff' routine doesn't allow me to delete said records; I get a record summary, which contains the following: This staff has Database Data (1 record). It cannot be deleted. What does this mean? And is there any way it can be overriden? Thanks in advance.

Hi I am just wondering if there is a way of running Multiple SIM's instances on one PC someone mentioned you may be able run Parameters on Pulsar.exe to do this but can't find anything about this. Many thanks Steven

Good Morning All, Anyone found this error before? Just installing a new user and got this error on their machine. Many thanks, Steve

Would anyone be able to check something for me? This year (as previous two years) we have released our new year timetables to students but this year an error message shows for any that are not on roll until 1/9 - years 7s and other year new students too. Lots of VERY unhappy parents who had an email saying they could see them. Tasc say nothing has changed, but I know previously they worked for future students, so I wondered if it's something we are doing differently in Sims since last year. We have admitted out new students now, so they are not pre-admissions by the way. Doesn't work either for Year 7 students who are siblings of an older student whose parent is not new. Insight logins work, but it's just the TT page. It's a PR disaster, frustrated demanding parents have taken to the local FB group to have a moan, let alone my inbox full of email complaints. Would be really useful if I could hear they are working for another school with a similar set up. Thanks for any info.

Hi, I was wondering if anyone can help me. I need to set up a marksheet within SIMS which predicts the KS4 outcome based on the KS3 level inputted by the teacher based on min 3 levels of progress. I have thought about using a lookup table however the one I have made doesn't seem to be calculating the lookup. Any suggestions or directions in which you can point me. Thanks

Just trying to upgrade my FMS but its failing with the following errors - does anyone have any ideas? 2015-07-23 19:00:14.1219|*** 2015-07-23 19:00:14.1219|*** Starting deployment plan FMS Summer 2015 Full Release (6.164.336). 2015-07-23 19:00:14.1219|*** 2015-07-23 19:00:14.1219|*** 2015-07-23 19:00:14.1219|*** Downloading of updates to agents is being throttled at 3 concurrent downloads 2015-07-23 19:00:14.1219|*** 2015-07-23 19:00:14.1219|ds|Info|Verifying deployment plan|Execute() 2015-07-23 19:00:14.1409|ds|Info|Calling proxy for package status check|Execute() 2015-07-23 19:00:19.0589|ds|Error|The creator of this fault did not specify a Reason.|CanExecutePlan() 2015-07-23 19:00:19.0689|ds|Error|The creator of this fault did not specify a Reason.|CanExecutePlan()

I was searching for tools to sync SIMS to AD to enable creation of groups mainly. This is for further integration into GAFE. I know of Salamandersoft but its quite expensive. Searching on Edugeek I found ANB Software Homepage who make Activman. Has anyone ever used this software? It is much cheaper than anything I have seen so far. Which does make me wonder if its any good.