How to get your SIMS server ready for a GroupCall migration: Requirements, actions & best practice

This article is designed for schools who are migrating to Arbor from SIMs using the GroupCall API. It details some checks and actions we recommend you undertake before your migration to Arbor, and details a series of recommended minimum requirements for your SIMS server to ensure your migration goes smoothly. 

Why is this important

Arbor migrates your data via GroupCall's 'Xporter on demand' (XoD). This means that data is transferred via API as the GroupCall 'end point' is connected to SIMs. The speed in which data can transfer from one system to another is directly linked to the specifications listed in this help centre article. If your server does not meet any of these minimum requirements, it's important to contact your Digital Onboarding team or Customer Onboarding manager to discuss next steps as soon as possible. 

Our recommended actions before your migration

• Where possible, we recommend you share the following information with your Digital Onboarding team or Customer Onboarding Manger as soon as possible before your migration, if your school's SIMS server does not meet any of the recommended minimum requirements outlined in this document. We will use this information to assess if any further actions are required to make your migration a success.
  • Size of SIMS database
  • Size of DMS
  • Location of Server: On-site, off-site (managed), cloud hosted (not by SIMS)
  • Version of SQL Server in use
  • Available memory on SIMS database and DMS (if separate)
  • Allocated RAM
• Turn off automatic updates before migration: If your server’s Windows updates are scheduled to run automatically, please turn off automatic updates during your migration, as these will likely trigger the server to reboot which will stop the migration and require us to restart from the beginning of the last migrating resource, losing progress made.
• Ensure firewalls and web filters allow access: Ensure that firewalls and web filters allow access to GroupCall URLs on ports 80 and 443, including specific entries like *.groupcall.com/* and *.groupcall.co.uk/* (Whitelisting).
• Install XoD: The Xporter software must be installed on the same server as the school's Management Information System (MIS), such as SIMS.
• Ensure XoD is running at all times: The GroupCall Xporter service must be running on the server at all times during your migration.
• Provide emergency contact details: Please ensure that you have provided us with your primary IT representative’s contact details. This person should be available during your migration to make technical adjustments to your SIMS server should there be a problem with your migration.

Minimum Server Specifications

The below information outlines the minimum requirements your server should try to meet for your migration to complete successfully. We have found that schools that do not meet one or more of these requirements often experience disruption and delays to their migration. We have also included additional recommendations to aid in a successful migration. If your SIMS document management server is located on a different server to your main SIMS database, ensure the same minimum requirements are met. 

Minimum Requirements

• Your server must have a minimum of 15% of the total disk space as free space. E.g. If your SIMS database uses 100GB of disk space on your server, ensure you have at least 15GB of additional free space, totaling 115GB (100GB used by your SIMS database and 15GB free disk space).
  • It may be necessary to further increase your school’s available memory during your migration if we experience server-time outs, so ensure there is surplus available to increase if required.
  • Best practice: Where possible, we recommend that schools have 40% of the total server disk space as free space.  E.g. If your SIMS database uses 100GB of disk space on your server, best practice would dictate you have at least 40GB of additional free space, totaling 140GB (100GB used by your SIMS database and GB free disk space).
• SIMS recommend that your server should should have a minimum of 8GB or higher (16GB+ recommended for optimum performance in Secondary schools) of RAM for SIMS to perform as intended. We have found that schools that meet this requirement have a faster migration with fewer disruptions. Schools with RAM less than 4GB frequently struggle to complete a migration without disruption or delay. If a virtual server is in use, this should be statically assigned memory, not dynamically.
• Your server must have a stable network connection for a successful migration. Upload speeds of 10Mbps or greater are recommended. Your server should be connected to the internet via an ethernet connection. If this is not the case, please make your Arbor onboarding contact aware.
• Your server must be switched on and connected to the network 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during your migration. Should your server turn off or lose connection to the network, your migration will stop.
• Prior to the installation of the Xporter Software, your server must have .NET Framework 4.6.2 or later installed, with 3.5 Service Pack 1 also recommended.
• The oldest version of Windows Server you should have installed is Windows Server 2016 (unless otherwise specified by SIMS).
• The oldest version of SQL Server you should have installed is SQL Server 2016 (unless otherwise specified by SIMS).
• Quad Core processor or higher is recommended for optimum performance. A minimum of four v-cores should be assigned to virtual servers.

Other recommendations

The following are recommendations that we suggest large secondary schools, local authorities or Trusts consider performing ahead of their migration.

• Where possible, we recommend that any unnecessary scheduled jobs are reduced or temporarily suspended on your server during your migration. Example: Weekly indexing tasks or the scheduled transfer of information between non-essential systems. Please do not suspend your regular server back-ups or terminate scheduled jobs between core systems that could cause disruption to your school.
• Prior to your migration, review any recent expensive queries on your server's SQL activity monitor and where possible, aim to prevent or reduce these.
• Review un-optimised database queries and where possible, perform query optimisation to improve database performance and ensure data is retrieved and processed efficiently.