FAQs – Early Adopters – Technical Support

General Technical Support

I'm the network administrator at my district. Is there anything that IT needs to do to set up for PEIMS?

Work with your source system vendors to ensure that your PEIMS data is extracted in the Texas Education Data Standards (TEDS) compliant XML format. Refer to the Technical Resources and Deployment pages of the TSDS website for more information.

What internet browsers are supported?

Internet Explorer 9 and below, and Safari.

Will LEAs have ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) level access to their EDW or studentGPS® Dashboards database tables, or possibly Oracle SQL access?

This functionality is scheduled for Phase Two of the TSDS Project.

Will the ESC Tech Champions have this ODBC access for support purposes?

The LEA will have to grant this access to the ESC Champion.

Will there be access for testing purposes prior to the 10/01/2013 and 02/01/2014 rollouts?

No.

Staging Area

When will we get the specifications and requirements for the LEA staging area server?

TEA will publish the technical requirements for the Local Staging Area in the July 1, 2013 release of the Texas Education Data Standards (TEDS). These technical requirements will also be published on the TSDS website by June 15, 2013. See the Technical Resources pages. The hardware/software requirements are:

Operating System: Windows XP or above, 32 bit
Processor speed: 2 GHz
Memory: 2 GB
Disk space: 15 GB

Must districts provide a dedicated server to upload data, or can they utilize an existing server that serves other functions?

The server need not be dedicated, but must accommodate the memory and disk storage requirements listed above.

If the school district does not have a hosted SIS will it need an additional server to store the SIS information or will it be independently hosted?

The ESC can host the Local Staging Area server just as they host the SIS data server, providing they choose to use the Data Transmission Utility (DTU). The ESC would have to run a separate DTU for the district.

It is also possible for the district or ESC to load the files manually through the website.

Will the Validation Tool reside on the staging server at the district?

The Validation Tool will reside at the district. The utility is small enough to reside on a single desktop computer.

TIMS Support System

Will LEA support personnel use TEAL to access the ticket system?

Yes. TEA Login (TEAL) is the security system to access all TSDS products.

How does TIMS capture the email/campus info if there is not a TIMS login?

TIMS captures the required information based on your TEA Login (TEAL) login information. Since you need to log in to the TSDS portal that gives access to TIMS via TEAL, the necessary information required by TIMS is gathered based on the data associated with your TEAL account.

Will LEAs receive an email notification when new TIMS tickets have been entered?

No. The person who entered the ticket will be able to view their open tickets. There is a monitoring mechanism for the people responsible for resolving the tickets.

How do I 'View my incidents' in TIMS if I don't have a TIMS login?

When you log in into TSDS Portal via TEAL, the necessary information identifying you will be passed into the Portal and allow you to view your incidents.

Will TIMS replace emails sent from TEA to the ESCs and LEAs? Such emails report system outages.

No. However, system outages will be announced in the Notifications area on the main TSDS Portal landing page.

Do we only use TIMS for TSDS applications or would we use it for Legacy PEIMS?

Currently, TIMS is only being implemented for TSDS applications.

ESC Support

Will the ESC Regions be ready for early adopter schools to extract data, and if so by what date?

The ESC Regions are aware of the early adopter rollout dates and are prepared to support the early adopter districts.

So if the district wants to do the TSDS but does not want to pay for the support from the ESC, do they have to do so if they still want to use the TSDS?

LEAs can make their own decisions regarding training and support.

Will the technical support team have state assessment data templates available for districts to load?

The current model is for all assessment data to be loaded by the LEA in the TEDS compliant XML format.

You stated that the ESC will be charging a support cost. When I asked about that of TEA, they stated there would never be a cost to the district. Yet in the presentation, they just stated that there will be a cost TO BE DETERMINED! That is opposite of what TEA representatives stated in all the presentations as well as the email I sent specifically addressing this issue.

We apologize for the confusion. TEA is providing all of its support and training free of cost. ESCs are legally separate and autonomous entities that TEA does not have the legal right to control. Having said that, ESCs are free to charge or not charge for their training and support.

Do the early adopter schools have to pay their ESCs for training?

LEAs should ask their ESC for pricing information.

Can the LEAs elect to attend the ESC Champion training?

The TSDS training model is defined as TEA training the ESC Champions, and the ESC Champions training the LEA Stewards.

LPRs

What is an LPR? I thought the seven LEAs were pilot districts, is that true?

LPR means "limited production release". Seven school districts were chosen as pilot LEAs, using a Region 10-hosted student dashboard system. The early adopters, including the 7 LPRs, will be using the studentGPS® Dashboards on a TEA-hosted platform.