Technical Update

Jonathan Wood – SIMS Product Manager (Technical and Releases)

Agenda

Release Schedule

SIMS Technical Roadmap

SQL 2012 Migration

SOLUS3

SIMS 2013 Spring Release

SIMS 2013 Spring Release

News Item ID: 20730

Date: Friday 22nd March

Original release suitable for all Schools except English Primaries.

SIMS 2013 Spring 2 AMPARK Release

News Item ID: 20852

Date: Friday 5th April

Updated Spring release with the AMPARK resources for English Primaries updated.

Both will upgrade to the SIMS 2013 Summer release

Performance Issues with Spring Homepage

Timeline is causing performance issues

Patch 18148 – sets refresh to 30 mins then extra 2 mins per 20 users.

For Hosted Teams

Patch 18170 – sets refresh to 2 hours then extra 2 mins per 5 users.

A new patch will be written which will increase the performance.

Available COB Friday 3rd May or Tuesday 7th May.

Spring 2013 – Technical Changes

Technical changes

Windows 8 Support

Windows Server 2012 Support

SQL2012 Support for SIMS & FMS only

(more info in SQL2012 section)

SIMS Technical Roadmap

Updated Monday 28th January 2013

Resource ID: 17910

Fixed resource number

Updated twice a year

SIMS Technical Roadmap – existing software

System Original Last Supported Date

New Last Supported Date

Windows XP Summer 2013 Summer 2013

Windows Vista Spring 2013 Spring 2013

Windows Server 2003 Spring 2013 Summer 2013

Office 2003 Autumn 2012 Autumn 2012

Office 2007 TBA Autumn 2013

SQL Server 2008 (R1) TBA Spring 2014

SQL Server 2008 R2 TBA Summer 2014

SOLUS2 Summer 2013 Spring 2014

SIMS Technical Roadmap – New software

System Original Support Start Date New Support Start Date

SQL Server 2012 Autumn 2012 Autumn 2012 / Summer 2013

Windows 8 Spring 2013 Spring 2013

Windows Server 2012 Spring 2013 Spring 2013

Office 2010 – rewrite internal components into Office 2010

TBA(was using Office 2003 components)

Spring 2014

SQL2012

SQL 2012 supported on SIMS & FMS 2012 Autumn release onwards

Documentation provided on how to manually migrate Resource ID: 20081

Discover, SLG, SOLUS3 supported on SQL2012 on the 2013 Summer releases.

A migration utility will be provided alongside 2013 Summer release to assist with the migration.

Main Changes You install a new SQL Instance inside the migration process You can migrate a SIMS, FMS and Discover CB at same time

Selecting the data source

Installing a new SQL Instance

SQL Installation Options

Selecting SQL Databases to migrate

SOLUS

SOLUS3.5 Released March 28th Resource ID: 20830

Improvements Improved handling of releases & download

Smaller download size Will only download and distribute files it needs Improved handling of upgrades for offline machines

New Targets tab to improve visibility of software versions Improved new report for Support teams to monitor release uptake

from schools

Displaying Target versions

Selecting multiple sites

Selecting multiple updates

New Deployment History Report

SOLUS3.6

Summer 2013

• SQL2012 Support

• Including support for migrating servers

• Windows Server 2012 Support

SOLUS3 for 2013/2014

Include all SIMS software Active Directory Provisioning Service Sims Learning Gateway Partnership Xchange InTouch

Ability to release software to groups of schools.

Simplified installation process

Support for sites wanting to manage upgrade themselves