[AccessD] Citrix and Access

Joe O'Connell joeo at appoli.com
Mon Feb 9 10:34:17 CST 2009


Dan,

I have worked with Access on a Citrix server for more than 10 years with
no major problems.  I am in complete agreement with everything that Jim
and Mark have given you, they have provided excellent advice and
suggestions.

For some applications another feature of Citrix that is useful is the
ability to publish the application.  Users logon anonymously and your
Access application can start automatically.  When the Access application
closes, the user is automatically logged off.  Since the users cannot
get to a desktop, they are locked out of everything except the one
application which you make available to them.  This also maximizes use
of the Citrix licenses since you can control how long users are logged
on, and log them off automatically if they are not actively using your
application.  

Joe O'Connell

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Dan Waters
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 10:06 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Citrix and Access

Hi Jim,
Hi Mark,

This is just the type of thing I was thinking I'd need to get resolved.
I
am working with my customer's IT guy who seems quite comfortable with
Citrix, so that's good.  I'll specifically ask him about mapping a
unique
path on the server to a drive letter for their terminal services
profile.

I agree with avoiding the sharing of references.  My system now uses an
AutoUpdater.mdb file that I wrote to ensure that each user automatically
pulls the latest files from the server each time they open the
application,
so all references do go to files on the C drive.  The FE.mdb,
Library.mdb,
TempTables.mdb, sound files, and one 3rd party dll file (VBA Global
Error
Handler from EverythingAccess.com), are checked for Last Modified Date
and
pulled to the client before the app is opened.  There are continuous
requests for modifications, so the FE.mdb and Library.mdb are updated
frequently.  This autoupdating is at least one scenario that we'll need
to
work through carefully.

Another is that my app pulls a recordset from the mdw file on the server
to
see how many people are logged in.  If they have 8 licenses, user 9 just
gets a message that the app is 'full', and they are then logged out.

Right now the max number of concurrent users is only 8, this may double
or
so in a couple of years.  

Thanks!
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Dettman
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 4:34 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Citrix and Access

Dan,

  Probably the biggest issue when running under Citrix is that the "C"
drive
is the same for everyone.  That's a bit of a problem where you want
everyone
to have their own FE (which you would typically would install on their C
drive).  But there is an easy workaround for that; just map a unique
path on
the server to a drive letter for their terminal services profile
(something
like X) and place the FE there.

   A little more problematic however is references.  If you open up an
FE,
you'll find all your references still pointing to C. For the most part,
if
your just using the typical references, this is not an issue.  Those
references can be shared with no problem.

  But if your using a library reference (a reference to a MDA) or some
type
of 3rd party component, then you might have issues with multiple users
all
sharing that reference.  This is in fact the reason that some of the
Wizards
in Office are not available under TS; they simply won't work when
shared.

  Unfortunately there is not easy work around for this.  You have few
choices.  You can map the same drive letter for everyone (remote user or
not) and write your app against that or you can distribute two different
versions of the app (one that runs against C and one that runs against
your
mapped drive letter).

  I've been lucky enough to only run up against this once, but when you
do
it's a pain in the butt.

  Other then that, Access works wonderfully under TS/Citrix with JET or
SQL
Server.

Jim.

   

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Dan Waters
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 4:05 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Citrix and Access

Hi Arthur,

Anything you can think of that might have been restrictive or need to
know?
I'll be switching out many users from running on their PC to using a
Citrix
window.

Glad to hear about the response time!  Was your FE linked to SQL 2000 or
were you using an OLEDB Provider?

Thanks,
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 2:45 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Citrix and Access

I have lots of experience running an Access app on Terminal Services,
and
even with 70 users it was faster for me to develop on the remote TS box
than
on my local machine at home. I was completely floored. Assuming a fast
pipe
on both ends, I think you will be very pleased with the response time.
(To
be fair, our Access back end was SQL 2000.)

hth,
Arthur
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