Discover Installation For use with SIMS Autumn 2014 (version 7.160)

Transcription

1 Discover Installation For use with SIMS Autumn 2014 (version 7.160) Please check the Server & Workstation Requirements carefully before beginning! School IT Systems Support Herts for Learning Ltd SROB220, Robertson House, Six Hills Way, Stevenage, Herts, SG1 2FQ Doc Ref Error! Unknown document property name.1498 Published December 2014 School IT Systems Support (SITSS) Herts for Learning Ltd, 2014 Technical Support Centre Accredited by the Learning and Performance Institute (formerly, the Institute of IT Training) RM Approved Support Partner Fully accredited by Capita SIMS for proven quality of SIMS support

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3 CONTENTS Server and Workstation Requirements for Discover Installation... 1 Downloading the Discover Autumn 2014 files... 2 Installing SIMS Discover at the server... 3 Installing SIMS Discover at the SERVER and the Workstations... 8 Initial Data Transfer from SIMS to Discover Potential Transfer Progress Messages and what they Mean Transfer Offset Panel Checking the Discover Transfer Service is running Reviewing the Discover Warehouse Service Log File Logging into Discover from within SIMS Backing up Discover Doc Ref S1498

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5 Discover is a Capita product that enables schools to analyse their SIMS data and display the results in a variety of graphical formats. It does this by extracting data from the schools SIMS SQL database on a regular basis into a data warehouse database. This document explains the pre-requisites and process for installing Discover, to ensure proper operation and acceptable performance in your school. These notes assume that the Discover database is installed onto the same SQL Server instance as the SIMS database. Server and Workstation Requirements for Discover Installation Server requirements: Sims Autumn 2014 release (version 7.160). SQL Server 2008 or 2012 Standard Edition or above AND SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 Microsoft.net Framework v 4 Extended this has been a requirement to run SIMS.net since Summer 2011 so should already be present on your database server. The Discover database requires at least 50MB Free disk space on the server. The Discover Transaction log requires at least 100MB Free disk space on the server. The ability to take and maintain regular backups of the whole system (Discover and Sims) Target Operating Systems - Servers: The following operating systems are recommended for use with Discover to ensure satisfactory performance and optimal graphical display in both 32 bit and 64 bit versions: Windows Server 2008 SP2 or later Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2012 As Windows Server 2003 support ended in Autumn 2013, do not install Discover on this version. Workstation requirements: Sims Autumn 2014 release (version 7.160). Microsoft.net Framework v 4 Extended this has been a requirement to run SIMS.net since Summer 2011 and so should already present on your workstation, unless you are in the process of building a new station. CPU with a Core Duo 2.4 GHz or a higher specification processor. A dedicated graphics card with appropriate drivers installed. (Note it is suggested that a CPU with a integrated chipset is not used to run Discover) At least 4GB of memory. Doc Ref S1498 Installing SIMS Discover 1 of 19

6 Target Operating Systems - Workstations: The following operating systems are recommended for use with Discover to ensure satisfactory performance and optimal graphical display in both 32 bit and 64 bit versions: Windows 7 or Windows 8 Professional The Discover database requires at least 50MB space on the server. The Discover Transaction log requires at least 100MB space on the server. The ability to take and maintain regular backups of the whole system (Discover and Sims) Pre-Implementation Checks: Ensure you have a copy of the Discover Installation Files. Check Server and Workstation requirements as above. You will need to know the name and location of the SQL Server Instance:. You will need to know the SA password: Please note: you must ensure that you arrange to carry out the Discover installation at a time when the use of SIMS is not required by school staff, as it may be necessary to reboot the database server and/or workstation(s) during the installation. Downloading the Discover Autumn 2014 files We have made the installation files available on the SITSS website at the following location: You will need to download the password-protected archive containing the upgrade files from the grid website and unzip its contents to a folder accessible to all stations that need to be upgraded. In many schools this will be most conveniently located on the database server S: drive, so create a folder S:\DiscoverInstalls, if this does not already exist. Note: You should remove any folders containing installers for older versions of Discover. At the SIMS database server, logged in as Administrator, navigate to the location above and scroll down to the Documents for Download heading. The Discover Installation files have been zipped and are password protected. If you are using 7-zip, please see the downloading & using 7zip.pdf on the same webpage. Right click on the Discover_Autumn_2014_v7.160files.zip and use Save As.. to save the file to a convenient location on the S: drive. Open your Zip File Software Package to Extract the file to the folder S:\DiscoverInstalls. This ensures you are able to access the files from the workstations when running the Client install. 2 of 19 Installing SIMS Discover Doc Ref S1498

7 Installing SIMS Discover at the server As you are installing Discover from files already stored on the server s hard disk, browse to the location holding the installation files and double-click the AutoRun.exe application through Windows Explorer. If one or more Opening File Security Warning messages appear, click Run to continue and display the SIMS Discover Autumn 2014 release welcome screen: Click the Install Discover Server button - if an Opening File Security Warning message appears, click Run to continue and display the initial page of the Discover Server Setup wizard. Click Accept to accept the licensing terms for Windows Installer 4.5, SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 and/or the Microsoft.Net Framework 4 if prompted to do. The installation will automatically install any needed components and, as described above, may request one or more reboots, before reaching the Discover Server Setup screen, At the Discover Server Setup screen, after reading the advice, click the Next button to display the Installation Mode page. Doc Ref S1498 Installing SIMS Discover 3 of 19

8 Select the Advanced Installation option. First, click Install Discover Database Select the SQL Server authentication radio button. Enter the user name sa here. Enter the schools sa user password here. Enter the SQL Server instance name, in this example: SITSSDB2\SIMS2008 and the Database name, Discover. Click the Next button to display the Verify Ready page. 4 of 19 Installing SIMS Discover Doc Ref S1498

9 Click Install. The system displays a screen letting you know that the Discover Database is being installed A screen appears telling you that the Discover database setup has completed. Click Finish. Click the Install Discover Server button and click Run or Next as required until you reach the Installation Mode screen again. As before select the Advanced Installation option. Click Install Discover Services. Doc Ref S1498 Installing SIMS Discover 5 of 19

10 The Discover Database screen appears you should supply the same connection details you used when installing the database earlier. Then click Next. Next the installer prompts you for connection details for your SIMS database. Select the SQL Server authentication radio button. Enter the user name sa here. Enter the schools sa user password here. Enter the SQL Server instance name, in this example: SITSSDB2\SIMS2008 and the Database name (e.g. sims). Click the Next button. Use the dropdown to select the built-in Network Service account to run the scheduled Data Transfer from SIMS to Discover Then click Next. 6 of 19 Installing SIMS Discover Doc Ref S1498

11 Use the dropdown to select the built-in Network Service account to run the scheduled Group Synchronisation between SIMS and Discover. Then click Next. You can use this screen to set the times at which the scheduled tasks that carry out the Data Transfer and Group Synchronisation will run each night. We recommend that you choose a time after midnight - you may wish to pick a time after backups etc have completed, for example. Then click Next. The next screen allows you to set the installation folder for the Discover Services schools with database servers will generally prefer to locate this on the D: drive (e.g. D:\SIMS- SP\Discover Services). If you have an office master or other server with just a C drive, choose C:\SIMS-SP\Discover Services. Navigate to the path appropriate to your school. Then click Next. At the Verify Ready screen click Install. The installer will display a screen showing you that it is installing the Discover services. When the installation completes, click Finish. Doc Ref S1498 Installing SIMS Discover 7 of 19

12 Installing SIMS Discover at the SERVER and the Workstations You MUST now also install the Discover client components at your database server, as these allow you to carry out an initial transfer process that copies the SIMS data from the selected SIMS database into the newly created Discover database at the server and also to subsequently run Discover at the server. To install the Discover Client on a workstation you need to be logged on to the workstation as a user with administrator permissions. If the workstation does not already have the.net 4 Framework already installed, this will be installed as part of the process. Using Windows Explorer, browse to the location holding the installation files and double-click the AutoRun.exe application (if the station is running Windows 7, you may need instead to right click on the AutoRun.exe file and select RunAs..administrator) to display the SIMS Discover Autumn 2014 release welcome screen: Click the Install Discover Client button to display the initial page of the SIMS Discover Client setup wizard. If you receive one or more Opening file Security Warnings click Run to continue with the installation. The installation will automatically install any necessary components and may request one or more reboots, before reaching the Discover Client Setup screen as shown. Click the Next button to display the Discover Database Setup page 8 of 19 Installing SIMS Discover Doc Ref S1498

13 Enter the name of the SQL Server instance and the name of the Discover Database that you specified when installing the Discover Server. Click the Next button to display the SIMS Database Setup page. Enter the name of the SQL Server instance and the name of the SIMS Database that you specified when installing the Discover Server. Click the Next button to display the Destination Folder page The path to Install SIMS Discover Client to field is populated automatically and is unlikely to need changing at stations. At the server we suggest you change this path to D:\SIMS-SP\SIMS\Discover client, so this will be located with your SIMS installation. (Click the Change button to display the Change destination folder page, if required, navigate to an alternative location, and click the OK button to return to the Destination Folder page.) Click the Next button to display the Ready to install SIMS Discover Client page. Doc Ref S1498 Installing SIMS Discover 9 of 19

14 Click the Install button to begin the installation process. A progress screen appears, showing you that the SIMS Discover Client is being installed When the installation is complete, click the Finish button to close the SIMS Discover Client Setup wizard Note: The SIMS Discover Server Setup wizard creates the Discover database and the catalogue entries for the predefined graphs provided. Please refer to the SIMS Discover User Guide for further information regarding the predefined graphs that are available in Discover. This is available from the Discover Document Centre (by clicking on the question mark symbol in the top right corner of the Discover Welcome Screen and selecting Handbooks, followed by Performance and Analysis from the menu bar. However, before any graphs can be displayed, an initial data transfer needs to be carried out as detailed in the next section of this document. 10 of 19 Installing SIMS Discover Doc Ref S1498

15 Initial Data Transfer from SIMS to Discover As noted earlier, the installation you have done so far does not trigger the initial Transfer process that copies the SIMS data from the selected SIMS database into the newly created Discover database. The initial Transfer process must be run manually from within the SIMS Discover Administration Utility. You will be unable to log into Discover until the initial Transfer process has been run. To run the SIMS Discover Administration Utility, click the Start button and select (All) Programs SIMS Applications Discover Administration Utility. A login screen will appear as shown below, login as a user who has SIMS System Manager rights: The Administration Utility will open maximised on your screen as shown below. Click on the Start a data transfer option. Doc Ref S1498 Installing SIMS Discover 11 of 19

16 Click on Current Year to highlight it and then click Next. NOTE: After upgrading, Discover continues to work with the current academic year s data. The data transfer routine MUST be run on the Current Year first. If data for a previous year is required, the manual data transfer process can be repeated, selecting Last Year and 2 Years Ago from the Administration utility. Check that the displayed details are correct for the instance/database you want to transfer and click on the Confirm button. 12 of 19 Installing SIMS Discover Doc Ref S1498

17 NOTE: If this screen does not display correctly, you may need to adjust the size of the window. The Administration Utility automatically opens as full screen, but by clicking on the restore down icon in the top right hand corner of the window and changing the window to a different size, the text will display correctly with a scroll bar along the bottom. The Administration Utility will initiate the transfer of data and display the Managing Data Transfers screen. To view the progress of a transfer, click on View Transfers. Details of the most recent transfer for each academic year will be displayed, as shown on the next page. You will need to click on the Refresh Status button to update this display. The Progress column will show the current status of a transfer initially Transfer requested - waiting for service, changing to Transfer started while a transfer of data is in progress and Transfer succeeded when complete. Doc Ref S1498 Installing SIMS Discover 13 of 19

18 If data from previous years is required, repeat the transfer process as described, selecting Last Year and/or 2 Years Ago. These can either be transferred in turn, or selected together. If both are selected together, the data transfers will be carried out one after the other. However, the transfer for the current year should be manually triggered first, as previously described. Potential Transfer Progress Messages and what they Mean Message Displayed Occurrence Message Meaning Transfer requested, waiting for service Transfer started Transfer succeeded Transfer failed, will try again in N seconds Transfer failed, see log file for details After a scheduled task or you request The SIMS Discover Data a Transfer manually. Transfer service is pending. After the SIMS Discover Data The Transfer process is Transfer service actually picks up the underway. request and has started a Transfer. After a Transfer has completed The Transfer process was successfully. successful. After a Transfer has completed with The Transfer process tries to an error (typically N is 60 seconds for run on five consecutive default settings). attempts. After final attempt (usually 5), the Please see the Reviewing the transfer has completed with an error. Discover Warehouse Log File section below 14 of 19 Installing SIMS Discover Doc Ref S1498

19 Transfer Offset Panel It is possible to specify the number of hours, either before or after the preset data transfer time, defining the effective date of data transferred from SIMS to the Discover database. It is possible to offset the Time (h) by up to +12 or -12 hours from the original preset time. IMPORTANT NOTE: The Discover installer installs both scheduled tasks that carry out the data transfer between SIMS and Discover to run at 01:00. If these times are not satisfactory, you will need to alter their scheduled time in Windows Task Scheduler. However, it is strongly recommended that transfer routines are not set to run at 12 midnight as group memberships within SIMS generally change at this time. The transfer is always run at the time specified in the scheduled task, but the effective date for all queries is the current date and time at the point of execution with the offset number of hours added to that (either positive or negative). For example: A scheduled task run at 01.00, with a transfer offset of 0 is actually run at 01.00, and all dated queries use the same day when viewing dated memberships. A scheduled task run at 23.00, with transfer offset of 2 is actually run at 23.00, but all dated queries use the next day when viewing dated memberships. If another backup routine is still running at the time you have scheduled your SIMS Discover data transfer tasks to run, the routine attempts to run on five consecutive occasions with an interval of one minute between each attempt. If it is still not possible for the routine to run, an error is logged in the Discover.Warehouse.Service.log for your information. When run automatically, the data transfer runs as the Network service on your server machine and the location of the log file is located in varies depending on which version of the Windows operating system you are running: On computers running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, it can be found in: C:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\LocalSettings\Application Data\Discover On computers running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 or 2012, it can be found in: C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Discover Note: when browsing to one of these paths in Windows, you may find that a part of the path is not visible to you (for example the NetworkService or AppData folder may not be visible). In that case you will need to click into the address bar and type the name of the invisible folder directly at the end of the address, followed by <return> to display the folder s contents: Doc Ref S1498 Installing SIMS Discover 15 of 19

20 Note: the Discover.Warehouse.Service.log file is only written to if there is a problem with the transfer a successful transfer is not explicitly recorded in the log file. Checking the Discover Transfer Service is running If the Transfer process fails to initiate after several minutes, you can check that the SIMS Discover Data Transfer service is running. This needs to be done on the Server: From the Control Panel on the server that is running the SIMS Discover Data Transfer service, select the Administrative Tools icon and click on Services to display the Services (Local) page. Scroll down the page until you locate the details of the SIMS Discover Data Transfer service. The Status of this service should be shown as Started If this is not the case, highlight the name of the service and click on Start the service in the left-hand column of the Services (Local) page. The selected service should now be started. The Transfer process will initiate when the service is running and no further action is required. 16 of 19 Installing SIMS Discover Doc Ref S1498

21 Reviewing the Discover Warehouse Service Log File The transfer process creates a log file called Discover.Warehouse.Service.log. This log file details any issues identified in the data during the transfer process and also acts as an audit log for any usage or error messages that may occur whilst using Discover. There is a utility that allows you to view this logfile this can be found in the folder where the Discover client is installed. At stations this will generally be C:\Program Files\SIMS\Discover Client; the utility is called Discover.log.Viewer.exe. However this utility does not automatically determine for itself where the log file is located you must use the File button to browse for and locate the log file for yourself: As noted earlier, the location of this file varies depending on which version of the Windows operating system you are running: On computers running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, it can be found in: C:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\LocalSettings\Application Data\Discover On computers running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 or 2012, it can be found in: C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Discover Note: when browsing to one of these paths in Windows, you may find that a part of the path is not visible to you (for example the NetworkService or AppData folder may not be visible). In that case you will need to click into the address bar and type the name of the invisible folder directly at the end of the address, followed by <return> to display the folder s contents: Note: the Discover.Warehouse.Service.log file is only written to if there is a problem with the transfer a successful transfer is not explicitly recorded in the log file. Doc Ref S1498 Installing SIMS Discover 17 of 19

22 Logging into Discover from within SIMS Discover can be accessed via either of the following routes: Using Discover is out of the scope of this document and is documented thoroughly in Capita documentation, but a quick test that it is working correctly might be to select the Attendance icon, move your mouse over (for example) Absence by category and drag this onto the canvas. After a short delay, the graph for the data item you selected appears on the canvas. For more details, refer to the Discover User Guide, available from the Discover Document Centre (by clicking on the question mark symbol in the top right corner of the Discover Welcome Screen and selecting Handbooks from the menu, followed by Performance and Analysis. 18 of 19 Installing SIMS Discover Doc Ref S1498

23 Backing up Discover Generally, Database Servers will have been set up in the past with a script called MIS Data Backup.cmd which, when run, creates on disk backups (in the Backup folder of the SIMS SQL Server 2008 or 2012 instance) of your SIMS databases and FMS databases (for those schools who use FMS). A scheduled task is set up to run nightly to create these backup files, which can then be sent to tape backup for example. Typically you can find this script in D:\sims-sp or D:\sims-sp\Tidy SIMS SQL Backups. It is possible to add the Discover database to this script by adding the following lines to the bottom of the script: REM REM ** Create backup of Discover SQL db using /PATH ** REM ** Please remember to edit the command to reflect the ** REM ** correct server name, instance name, username, ** REM ** password and database name. ** REM "D:\Sims-Sp\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SIMS2008\MSSQL\Binn\Discover.Backup.Console.exe" /Operation=Backup /Server=SITSSDB2\SIMS2008 /Database=Discover /Username=sa /Password=SQLBossnnnn# /BackupFilename="D:\Sims-Sp\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SIMS2008\MSSQL\BACKUP\Discover_%date:~-4,4%%date:~- 7,2%%date:~0,2%_%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%%time:~6,2%.dbk" You will need to modify this to reflect the name of your database server machine (in this example SITSSDB2), your school s sa password (which will be different from SQLBossnnn# shown in the example); and if your SQL Server installation is not in D:\sims-sp you will have to modify the paths from those shown. Note: the /PATH variable is required in order to create a unique file name that includes the data and time in the same way that SIMS and FMS backups do. Doc Ref S1498 Installing SIMS Discover 19 of 19