Hydra Foundation - | Installing an Exercise from another Hydra Suite | Supporting Experts

"Really good session and very valuable learning. The interaction via Ipad is brilliant. Would love to run it more often and remotely and maybe even use it as part of PNAC selection. "
– Delegate – Senior Command Course

"In addition to specific learning points I feel I'm growing in confidence to be able to challenge the norm and introduce more emotion into how I consider things eg my suggestions to the "what matters" map of instinct and understanding what matters to others. I've always held these views but I feel they have been diluted over the years"
– Delegate – Senior Command Course

"The last day and a half has been a really valuable learning experience. The debates about what is a critical incident and the map about considerations will be something I have to refer to next time I have a difficult case or gold to run. I also think the honestly around the use of the NDM was refreshing and renewed my confidence. I had begun to feel constrained by having to apply a model over my decision making"
– Delegate – Senior Command Course

"I suppose that the thinking time afforded to me by this course has allowed me the really scrutinise my own values insofar as they relate to strategic thinking and some of the operational decision making exercises that we've done. How do I now develop my thinking and leadership style as I move towards the next chapter of my career remains a key challenge for the next few weeks"
– Delegate – Senior Command Course

"He session has reinforced the importance of doing the right thing. This is a powerful argument if you really understand your values and ethics."
– Delegate – Senior Command Course

"It provides the platform to challenge and express views when others around your are focused on targets or issues that are not adding value to public service."
– Delegate – Senior Command Course

"The day flew by. It was interesting and stimulating. The speaker obviously had years of experience and it showed. It was very good to meet Social Workers, Health and Education in a slightly informal situation to see how differently they approach situations. "
– Delegate – Senior Command Course

"The IT system is an excellent tool to create a mock situation. It has really given me the opportunity to project myself at the strategic level. At the same time, the exercise has showed me the difference of sensibility to the events between English and French point of view."
– Delegate – Senior Command Course

"Don't be afraid to tell the truth, stick to your own personal values and admit when you get things wrong. Demonstrate this to your staff and allow them to make mistakes, it is the learning that is important."
– Delegate – Senior Command Course

"I personally gained a lot from observing Jonathan's facilitative style and being coached in the methodology of Hydra facilitation with special emphasis on 'not bursting the bubble'. The Hydra client end of the exercises was a really useful experience as was being in the facilitators chair in the control room and analysing the logs."
– Delegate – Senior Command Course

"I would advise all school leaders to go on training such as this and would even like to suggest that my borough runs training such as this for all agencies within the Borough. On arriving back to school this training has certainly had an impact.
– Delegate – Senior Command Course

Installing an Exercise from another Hydra Suite

Overview

When you receive an exercise from another Hydra Suite you should find a number of files and folder for different computers. As a general rule you will find:-

An exercise folder which contains the media such as video, audio, etc (Sometimes called client files)
An MDB database which contains the firing code
The document feeds for the communicator
General exercise support materials such as the running grid etc.

This guide will help you to install and then configure the exercise to run on your Hydra Suite.

Installing the client files

On all the Hydra Computers, copy the client files into the exercises folder held on each computer. This is the location which your existing Hydra exercises are located.. The client files should contain the folders such as Video, Audio, msc, syndicate.inf etc.

Installing the Document Feeds

On the Communicator computer, copy the Paperfeed Documents into the MSC folder of the exercise. These papefeed documents are the word documents that are sent into the the syndcates via the printer.

Adding the Firing Database

Locate the Access folder on the C drive of the Hydra Server computer. Copy into this folder the firing database. This will be the file called <name of exercise>.MDB

Setting up the Network Paths & Printers

Probably the most tricky bit of configuring an exercise is setting the correct file paths. To do this highlight the exercise in the right hand side of the Event Server software and select Modify from the menu. The select View Syndicates.

In the first section you now need to set the Network and Printer paths. To find out the correct network path you can use Windows File Explorer, once you have located the correct paths then you can copy and past or retype this path.

As a general rule the network path should look something:-

\\Syndicate1\c\exercises\<Name of your exercise here>\

The printer path should look soemthing like:-

\\Syndicate1\Synd1Printer

The Common Path should always show as z:\, the Course path as c:\access\ and the the Resources Path should be the location of the exercise as a local file path, for example:-

c:\exercises\<name of your exercise here>\

Updating Syndicate Names

On each of the Syndicte computers you will need to update the Syndicate.inf file to ensure that each one is unique. The easiest way to do this is copy across from the same computer a syndicate.inf file from an exercise that is known to work. You can then edit the first line to change the label that will be displayed in the top lefthand corner of the client.

If you are wanting to have a client for use in the plenary area then you should configure the Plenary as Syndicate 6 and make this active when setting up the network paths and printers.