Following requests from SIMS Support Units, ESS have decided to extend the deadline to 1st November 2021 to allow for all schools to make the necessary changes.
We are slowly coming to the end of the road with Capita, although ESS is continuing to detach itself from Capita, by rebranding itself and to remove all references to the former owner, for the SIMS users it is business as usual. We will not see a huge impact other than to reference them as ESS and not Capita, some of our customers may have already noticed this change on our tickets.
However, one very important change is to allow URL exceptions and update SOLUS3, with the move from Capita to ESS a new URL has been hard coded in a new release of SOLUS 3 software. This will affect all SOLUS 3 users.
What Will Schools Need to Do?
School’s IT support will need to ensure that they have changed the service URL for the SOLUS 3 platform. The work involved impacts graphics in the software and documentation through to items such as web addresses and support URLs
The old URL was: http://s3dl.capitasolus.co.uk
The new URL is: http://s3dl.ess-solus.co.uk
Your IT support will need to apply further URL exceptions.
External
For SOLUS3 to function correctly the below two endpoints will need to be whitelisted.
Endpoints http://s3ws.ess-solus.co.uk/packageserverservice.svc
Ports TCP 80 (HTTP)
Internal
Ports
SOLUS 3 Deployment Service – TCP 52965 (inbound and outbound)
SOLUS 3 Agent – TCP 52966 (inbound and outbound)
SOLUS 3 Agent Notifier UI – TCP 8739 (inbound and outbound)
Failing to do so means that the schools will not be able to download patches and updates via SOLUS3.
The next step is to update SOLUS3 to version 3.12.59.5.
One Education will make all necessary firewall changes for schools we provide firewall service for; we will also deploy the latest version of SOLUS 3 for all schools who buy into the upgrades and patches.
For other schools, we have sent out an email to all schools with the information and guide on these changes and would recommend they are forwarded onto their IT support.
Note form Capita / ESS: Please accept our apologies for implementing this change to SOLUS3 with very little prior notification. We are reviewing our internal processes to ensure this does not happen in future.
ESS have confirmed that both URLs will remain in service until October 15th – the new URL must be accessible and version 3.12.59.5 of SOLUS software must be used to update SIMS software after this date.
