PowerSchool Student Information System
Released January 2016 Document Owner: Documentation Services This edition applies to Release 9.2.1 of the PowerSchool software, and to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions or updates. The data and names used to illustrate the reports and screen images may include names of individuals, companies, brands, and products. All of the data and names are fictitious; any similarities to actual names are entirely coincidental. PowerSchool is a trademark, in the U.S. and/or other countries, of PowerSchool Group, LLC or its affiliate(s). Copyright 2016 PowerSchool Group, LLC or its affiliates. All rights reserved. All trademarks are either owned or licensed by PowerSchool Group, LLC or its affiliates. Other brands and names are the property of their respective owners.
Contents Resolved Issues... 4 Installation Notes... 6 NOTICE: Increased Installation Time Upgrading Oracle for PowerSchool 9.2.1... 6 Important Information on Load Balancers... 6 Client Workstation Impact... 6 Important Installation Reminders... 7 Upgrade Paths... 7 PowerSchool System Requirements... 8 PowerSchool Com ponents... 8 Documentation... 9 State and Provincial Reporting... 10 Known Issues... 10 Page and File Changes... 11 Contents 3
Resolved Issues Issue Attendance Lock Errors Connection leak when using Pearson SuccessNet Secure Tester Disabling Attendance Not Working Duplicate Grades Hosted Customers Unable to Restart PowerSchool and ReportWorks Manually Schedule Student Errors Powerqueries Containing Database Extension Tables May Result in an Error PowerTeacher Standalone and Schedule Engine Description In certain instances, deadlock conditions may occur that could result in Attendance Lock errors impacting PowerSchool performance. This issue is now resolved. ESC-16653 When a Student with LDAP enabled logins in to Pearson SuccessNet using the Secure Tester application a connection leak occurs. This issue is now resolved. PSR-20088 Attendance appears in PowerSchool Mobile and the PowerSchool Student and Parent portal even though the Attendance Disabled checkbox on the Parent/Student Access page in PowerSchool is selected. This issue is now resolved. ESC-16817 The Transcript object may repeat single grades multiple times. This issue is now resolved. ESC-16409 PowerSchool and ReportWorks are not restarting for hosted customers even though the Restart the OLTP tomcat service (includes PowerSchool) and Restart the OLAP tomcat service (includes ReportWorks) checkboxes on the Reset Server page in PowerSchool are selected. This issue is now resolved. PSR-20040 Using the Manually Schedule Student function may result in a HTTP 500 NullPointerException error. This issue is now resolved. ESC-16672 An error occurs when a PowerQuery contains a database extension table that does not include the table s foreign key in the SQL. This issue is now resolved. PSR-20062 The bundled version of Java in the PowerTeacher Standalone and Schedule Engine applications has been updated to Java 8u66. Resolved Issues 4
Issue Quick Lookup access results in HTTP 500 Quick Lookup Not Displaying Grades at District Level When SIF is Enabled Connection Leak When Editing Sections Description In certain conditions viewing the Quick Lookup results in a HTTP 500. This issue is now resolved. ESC-16859 Grades do not appear on the Quick Lookup page in PowerSchool when accessed at the district level. This issue is now resolved. ESC-16801 A connection leak occurs when editing sections where SIF is enabled. This issue is now resolved. ESC-16886 Resolved Issues 5
Installation Notes You must be running PowerSchool 8.0.x or greater in order to upgrade to PowerSchool 9.2.1. See the installation note below for information on required State Reporting installers. The installer setup files for this release are available for download from PowerSource. NOTICE: Increased Installation Time Upgrading Oracle for PowerSchool 9.2.1 PowerSchool 9.2.1 requires an upgrade to your Oracle database. This upgrade includes patches to Oracle and the installation of Oracle Application Express to support the new Enterprise Reporting feature. These upgrades will require a longer installation time than a typical update, so plan accordingly. The Oracle Jobs Installer may take one to two additional hours to complete than a typical update. If previous database installations have taken three hours, this installation may take as long as five hours to complete. If you are currently running PowerSchool 8.3.x, this upgrade time can take additional time in order to apply additional database upgrades included in previous 9.x releases, and you should allow up to one full day to apply the 9.2.1 upgrade. In addition, the database installation requires up to 6 GB of temporary disk space while the installation occurs and patches are applied. An additional 1 GB is required after installation for the database patches. Note: This notice does not apply if you have already upgraded to PS 9.2 (DB and application). Important Information on Load Balancers Self-hosted customers utilizing load balancers with older firmware versions may have to upgrade the load balancer firmware prior to upgrading to PowerSchool 9.2.1. This update was released in PowerSchool 9.0.2. Client Workstation Impact On January 20, 2016, Oracle announced the release of a critical Java SE patch update 8u71 containing security fixes for recently identified vulnerabilities. If you utilize the older launch method (Java webstart) of PowerTeacher Gradebook and have not yet upgraded to Java 8u71, we strongly encourage an immediate upgrade to this new version of Java client on all laptops and desktops to ensure your PowerSchool Installat ion Notes 6
implementation remains safe and secure. If you have already updated to Java 8u71, no further action is needed when upgrading to PowerSchool 9.2.1. Important Installation Reminders The database must be in an idle state for the install to successfully apply. Shut down PowerSchool services and ensure that no other connections are allowed to the database during installation. IF YOU ARE PERFORMING AN UPGRADE FROM A PREVIOUS FEATURE RELEASE - (for example, from 8.x) the time to complete the upgrade can be substantial, depending on the version you are upgrading from, and the size of your database. PowerSchool recommends you schedule your upgrade during a time that will have the least impact to PowerSchool users. Upgrade Paths If you are upgrading from PowerSchool 9.x you will need: PowerSchool 9.2.1 Application Installer Database Scripts Updater 12.1.0.2 Note: This includes the latest Oracle security fixes. If you are upgrading from PowerSchool 8.x you will need: State Reporting Installer version o o 15.6.2 or greater for Tennessee 15.6.0 or greater for all other states and provinces PowerSchool Database 12.1.0.2 for use with PowerSchool 9.2.1 Installer (PowerSource > Downloads > PowerSchool Database > PowerSchool Database 12.1.0.2) PowerSchool 9.2.1 Application Installer If you are performing a new installation, you will need: PowerSchool Database 12.1.0.2 Installer for use with PowerSchool 9.2.1 (PowerSource > Downloads > PowerSchool Database > PowerSchool Database 12.1.0.2) PowerSchool 9.2.1 Application Installer Installat ion Notes 7
Note: PowerSchool 9.2.1 does not support upgrading from PowerSchool 7.x. If your district is using PowerSchool 7.x, you must upgrade to PowerSchool 8.x before upgrading to PowerSchool 9.2.1. For more information, see the Installation Guide for PowerSchool 9.x available on PowerSource. Note: If Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) is enabled on your system, an update to the latest SIF adapter is required. Consult the latest SIF documentation for information on updating to the latest SIF version. The PowerSchool Application Installer is available at Support > Downloads > PowerSchool > PowerSchool Installers > PowerSchool 9.2.1> PowerSchool Application [version] installer. The PowerSchool Database Installer is available at Support > Downloads > PowerSchool > PowerSchool Database > PowerSchool Database 12.1.0.2 > PowerSchool Database [version]. The State Reporting Installers are available at Support > Downloads > PowerSchool > State Reporting Installers. Use the PowerSchool installer to manage your PowerSchool deployment. It installs the database and application for a specific server, and it configures per-server settings such as database and web server ports, passwords, and file paths. PowerSchool System Requirements If this is the first time you are installing PowerSchool, review the PowerSchool 9.x Hardware and Software Requirements and the Installation Guide for PowerSchool 9.x, available on PowerSource, before installing this version of PowerSchool. The Hardware and Software Requirements are updated periodically, and contain information on supported software and browser versions for a release. Review this document before installing updates to PowerSchool. General Recommendation PowerSchool strongly recommends that you check to make sure Transport Layer Security (TLS)/Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is enabled on your PowerSchool server to ensure all data passed between your server and end users/powerschool Technical Support remains secure and private. If TLS/SSL is not enabled, data moving between your server and end users is unencrypted. For more information on implementing TLS/SSL, see Knowledgebase article 8476 available on PowerSource. PowerSchool Components PowerSchool is comprised of several software components, each versioned independently from one another. This allows for greater flexibility of component updates as new features and bug fixes become available. Some updates may include dependencies between Installat ion Notes 8
components. These dependencies will be communicated and built in to the component update installers to prevent PowerSchool from being configured incorrectly. The following table identifies the version number for each PowerSchool component for this release: Component Version Number 9.2 9.2.1 PowerSchool Server 9.2.0.0 9.2.1.0 PowerTeacher Gradebook 2.8.0.5 2.8.0.6 ReportWorks 1.5.1.15 1.5.1.15 PowerScheduler 3.0.2 3.0.2 Oracle 12.1.0.2 patch 7 12.1.0.2 Schoolnet 16.1 16.1 State Reporting 15.12.1 16.1.0 Report SDK 1.16.1 1.17.1 Java 1.8u51 1.8u51 Documentation Be sure to check out the updated online help. Assistance is just a click away! PowerSchool 9.2.1 Documentation on PowerSource Location Support > Documentation > PowerSchool > Release Notes > PowerSchool Release Notes > PowerSchool 9.x > PowerSchool 9.2.1 Title PowerSchool 9.2.1 Release Notes Documentation 9
State and Provincial Reporting State Reporting Platform A checkbox now appears next to each subreport listed on a single "parent" report page providing you with the ability to select only those subreports you want to run. PSSR-116934 Known Issues The following are known issues. When in using the projection parameter with an extension and a wildcard, the PowerQuery will respond with an error message. Below is an example of a problem request: POST /ws/schema/query/com.powerschool.query.myquery { "projection" : "studentcorefields.*;students.*" } Work around: Request this as an extension as follows: POST /ws/schema/query/com.powerschool.query.myquery?extensions=studentcorefields State an d Provinc ial Reporting 10
Page and File Changes The following is a list of web_root file changes. If you manage your own customized built-in PowerSchool files, review the list for new, updated, and deleted files. If you use an image server and there were changes in the web_root/images or web_root/scripts directories, be sure to update these directories on your image server. Note: This list now includes all files that changed under web_root. This change was made in response to requests from our customers. Key: + = New page = Changed page - = Removed page web_root/admin/powerschedule/white.html web_root/guardian/attendance.html web_root/guardian/attendancedates.html web_root/guardian/attendancedatesall.html web_root/guardian/home.html web_root/images/css/less/main.less web_root/subs/home.html web_root/wildcards/att_quicklookmeet_guardian.txt Page and File Changes 11