ncwise North Carolina Window of Information on Student Education
ncwise | 9.1 Upgrade Guide | As of Wednesday morning, Nov. 21, eSIS 9.1 is available to all NC WISE users. The eSIS 8.0.6 to 9.1 upgrade was the first major system upgrade in more than two years. The eSIS release incorporates numerous fixes, strengthens security measures and allows key new enhancements such as Teacher Assistant and Qualification, NC Graduate Analysis, Career Development Plan enhancements and Diploma Maintenance. As part of this upgrade, the entire infrastructure including all Database, Form Servers and Reporting Servers were upgraded from Oracle 9i to 10g. Although no data was lost during the upgrade, schools were encouraged to maintain manual records for attendance, grades, etc., for the school days during that time. This information can now be entered into the system. From the user perspective, eSIS 9.1 should appear very similar to the current version while offering a range of new functionalities. The NC WISE/SIMS Service Desk will stand ready to assist users. User documentation has been posted on the NC WISE website and can be referenced via the following link: http://www.ncwise.org/eSIScategories.html . Please note that over the first few days you should expect to see performance differences due to JInitiator downloads across the network and high volume in various areas, as we expect a very high user load while everyone plays "catch up" with their data entry and reporting. We will also be monitoring the system to evaluate and characterize the production activity to tune the new environment as we had done in the past to the 8.0.6 version. If you have any other questions, please contact the NC WISE/SIMS Service Desk at (919) 807-4357 or e-mail sis_support@dpi.state.nc.us . In addition, the NC WISE team thanks everyone involved in this effort statewide for your support on this important project. |
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| Pre-upgrade Preparation | NC WISE will be unavailable during the upgrade, so online school records and other documents will be inaccessible also. To retain access to that information, schools are urged to download or print selected documents that may be required for school business or emergencies. They may include: • Student rosters, |
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| Post-upgrade Preparation | While NC WISE is unavailable, schools should keep manual records of routinely logged information. By doing so, schools can ensure that data will be accessible to key in as soon as NC WISE is available, with a minimum of disruption. Those records may include: • Attendance, As noted earlier, the list above is not all inclusive and should be augmented by other information or reports that each LEA requires to function during the period NC WISE is unavailable. Overall, a softcopy copy download is preferred over large print jobs, but when the download file is complete be sure to check that the files are accessible, can be opened, are readable, and are stored in a secure location. Please be sure to have your preparations ready ahead of the scheduled downtime as any processes running after 5 p.m. on Nov. 16 will be terminated with the shutdown. The NC WISE team appreciates your understanding and support as we move toward completion of this important project. |
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| 9.1 and Workstations | It is important that all workstations that use NC WISE meet the required specifications. Those specifications can be reviewed here. NCDPI realizes that a number of computers in the state still use older operating systems such as Windows 98. Once Microsoft terminated support for Windows 98, Oracle and aal followed by dropping Windows 98 support in subsequent product releases. While users are presently able to run NC WISE on Windows 98 machines, the upgrade from eSIS 8.0.6 to eSIS 9.1 represents a significant increase in functionality, utilizing new post-Windows 98 service components and an increase in processing speed to run it. Those who currently use a Windows 98 machine to access NC WISE, MUST upgrade to a Windows 2000 or XP machine to use NC WISE after the 9.1 upgrade (see supported environments attachment for specifics). The upgraded machine/operating system requirements only apply to machines that will access NC WISE. We do encourage LEAs and charter schools to upgrade non-NC WISE systems to more powerful computers when it is fiscally possible. Computers that take advantage of current technology allow teachers and administrators to enhance instructional and school management capabilities. For LEAs that currently can’t upgrade their Windows 98 systems, a workaround/option is to swap the NC WISE Windows 98 machine with an existing Windows 2000 or XP machine until such time that a machine upgrade/replacement can be done. Under no circumstances should a machine used for accessing NC WISE be upgraded to or replaced by a machine running VISTA, as it is not supported at this time. NC WISE Macintosh users should note that as of April 2007, aal updated their machine configuration requirements for the Macintosh. The new supported configuration is also included in the supported environment attachment to this letter. Macintosh NC WISE users should verify that their environments will meet these updated requirements to use NC WISE after the eSIS 9.1 upgrade. |
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| New Workstation Purchases | We want to caution all NC WISE users against purchasing new
computers with the VISTA operating system. At the discretion of the LEA,
hybrid operating platforms are OK with the qualification that any
machines slated for use by NC WISE CANNOT use VISTA; whereas,
operational needs that DO NOT require the use of NC WISE, but are
compatible with VISTA are OK. We are working with aal to provide VISTA compatibility as soon as possible, but their final assessment is based on Oracle certification that is still pending. |
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| Other Software Upgrades | A few LEAs have performed their own limited testing with IE 7 and
Office 2007 and found that eSIS is NOT compatible if both are loaded on
a desktop. This same group tested Adobe Acrobat 8 with eSIS and found
that Acrobat 8 does work. Once again, based on the LEAs' initial and
informal test results, and based on the fact that aal has not yet
certified IE 7, Office 2007 and VISTA, NCDPI strongly advises any LEA, charter school or individuals who use eSIS at home to NOT upgrade to IE 7 and VISTA at this time. |
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