[AccessD] Microsoft Office through TermServer or Citrix server

Jim Dettman jimdettman at verizon.net
Sat Jan 17 08:10:24 CST 2009


<< How does the licensing work?>>

  You still need a license for each user of Office unless your using the
runtime to distribute the app.  You need a CAL (Client Access License) for
each remote user of Terminal Services.  See the following:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/terminalservices/def
ault.mspx

  3rd item down in the highlights section.

<<Is there a better way to deploy Office?>>

 For remote users, without re-writing the app to a true client/server setup,
no.  However I do like to run Citrix on top of Terminal Services.
Management is much easier and client printers map automatically where they
do not with TS (you need to manually install the driver on the server for
each client printer used).  Also with Citrix, you can have users run the app
or desktop through a web browser (ie. Access Essentials).  Really makes it
easy.  You don't have to worry about VPN setups or anything.  They can sit
down at any computer that has an Internet connection and use the app.

  Citrix also uses its own protocol for communications which reduces
bandwidth somewhat over RDP.

  From what I've heard, Server 2008 has come a long way with TS and now
rivals Citrix, but I have not had a chance to play with it.

<<Costs, licensing or additional concerns? >>

  You need a fairly hefty server memory wise to run lots of users, but
memory is cheap now a days.

  Only other concern is one of configuration, especially within your app.
With Office, depending on the version and the server OS, you may need a
special install file and some features will not be available (ie. with
Windows Server 2000 and Office 2000, some of the Wizards are disabled).

  Beyond that, distribution of you own app needs to be done via a mapped
drive to an individual folder for each user.  Under TS/Citrix, "C" drive is
the same for everyone.

  Where you really can get caught is on references and it's not obvious.
For example, if you have a bar coding DLL and it is referenced as
"C:\....\myDLL.dll", then all users end up sharing the same copy.  That may
or may not be a problem.  You can work around this easily enough, but it
then means keeping two versions of the app or remembering to change the
references each time your deploy to TS.  If you don't use external DLL's or
library DB's, then this is not a concern.

HTH,
Jim.


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Lawrence
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 10:47 PM
To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues';
accessd at databaseadvisors.com; dba-ot at databaseadvisors.com;
dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: [AccessD] Microsoft Office through TermServer or Citrix server

Hi All:

Sorry for the general broadcast but...
 
Would anyone have recommendations managing MS Office through client services
(TermServer, Citrix server or SharePoint etc)? How does the licensing work?
Is there a better way to deploy Office? Costs, licensing or additional
concerns?  

TIA
Jim 

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