[AccessD] Virtualization

Rocky,

  He's talking about two different things I believe:

1. Virtualization, which is hosting more then one OS on one physical server.
This is not a dual boot situation, but OS's running concurrently each
thinking they are the only OS running on the box.  For Access running under
this, there is no difference to what you do now.

2. Running with thin clients - Terminal Services or Citrix.  Citrix actually
runs on top of TS, but it's superior.  Client printers and drives map
seamlessly, where with TS it printers are a royal pain (the printer driver
for each client printer needs to be installed on the server). It also has
it's own communications protocol that's faster then RDP (Remote Desktop
Protocol).  Supposedly TS in Server 2008 picked up a lot of features and
works better then Citrix, but I haven't seen it myself yet.

  Here running Access is a different ball of wax.  The best approach is to
have each user with their own mapped drive and install the FE to that.  The
reason for that is in a TS or Citrix session, the "C" drive is the same for
everyone.  If you did nothing, everyone would point to the same FE.

  The other issue is references.  If you have a library database your using,
your probably going to need to change it.  Again, the reference might be
something like:

  C:\Program Files\MyApp\MyLib.MDA

  and you'll end up with the same issue of everyone pointing to the same
MDA.

  Last is Office itself.  Doesn't work too well under TS.  For Office 2000,
there is a special transform file required to install it.  This transform
file turns off a lot of features.  2003 is a little better in that you don't
need the transform file, because it just simply turns off all the problem
features automatically<g>. So they never really fixed anything. Don't know
about A2007.

  Last, Citrix has something called an "Isolation install" where you can
isolate an app on a per user basis.  If this works like it's supposed to,
then you could do a standard install of Office and your apps for each user.
Looked to be a pain to setup though and I haven't tried it as yet.  It was
meant for legacy apps, so who knows what would happen with office.

Jim. 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Rocky Smolin at
Beach Access Software
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 1:42 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: [AccessD] Virtualization

 D ear List:

 
I had a dealer in Belgium note that virtualization is a big buzz word now
and wondered how E-Z-MRP would do in that environment.  I wrote back that I
didn't know what aspect of virtualization he was thinking of in regard to
E-Z-MRP.  So he wrote back:
 
"Re per virtualization... I'm just wondering, as I read E-Z-MRP can be setup
as 'client-server', if the program is installed on a server, if there is a
possibility to use thin clients to act as 'clients' and further, if the
application can be installed on a Citrix server and be distributed and
accessed as a 'published application'."
 
E-Z-MRP is a straightforward FE/BE app with an mde on the front end and an
mdb on the back end.
 
How does this fare under Citrix?  It would seem to be OK under a thin client
setup except that it seems to me that would mean a lot more traffic over the
wire.  
 
What should I tell him?
 
MTIA
 
Rocky
 



	
	
 

Rocky Smolin

Beach Access Software

858-259-4334

www.e-z-mrp.com <http://www.e-z-mrp.com/> 

www.bchacc.com <http://www.bchacc.com/> 

 

 

 
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