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Put together in HTML as part of Richards Techy Pages How can Duncan and Richard use 2 computers with various databases, clients data and applications without causing conflict in a testing / support environment. Dynamics Lab The Great Plains Lab consists of two computers, one is configured as a workstation and the other as server, they are both on the network and should be accessible from anywhere within the internal organisation. The Lab has a 10/100 passive hub and is linked / daisy chained to the eBusiness / ERS lab's 10/100 passive hub, this in turn connects to the 100 megabit switch on our floor which is part of the internal network. Access to the server "Betty " is achieved using PCAnywhere to control the desktop (seldom used) or using ODBC to the SQL database engine. The SQL database is often remotely managed using isqlw and Enterprise manager from the desktop of my own laptop. The usual method of driving the workstation "TommyBoy" is with PCAnywhere, although access to selected areas of the file system is available through a number of network accessible shares. Note: there is no installation of the SQL database engine or the Great Plains application on my laptop, this does make my laptop easier to re image. How do we use them TommyBoy has only Great Plains application software installed, Betty has only the database Engines MS-SQL and Btrieve installed so these 2 machines need to operate together. Note: All references to Btrieve also apply to Pervasive SQL. Usually both machines are logged onto to the Novell Directory Services (NDS) network (read �internal network�) with the same login as more than one concurrent login to NDS is allowed. A login is important here to allow access to internal print queues as well as to the vast store of updates and service packs on the internal network file system. Logging in also allows for the automatic updating of virus signatures on both of these machines. The various installs of Dynamics / eEnterprise are done into path C:\Program Files\Dynamics\Ver x.x db where x.x is the version number and db is the database type. In the start menu each flavour of Dynamics and eEnterprise is installed into �Start menu\programs\Dynamics\Vx.x db� using the same naming convention as the application folder. Each �Ver x.x db� application folder is shared with a name the same or similar to the folder name. This share allows the changing or updating of the files in the application folders. Betty is the location where the data for the various versions are kept in every instance. Clients Data There are 2 major roles the Great Plains Lab is used for. The first is to research new software / customisations or test functionality specifically relating to a client. The second is to pilot or test an upgrade to establish the kinds of problems and solutions before arriving on site. Before testing can start we arrange a copy of the clients database from the Ctree / Btrieve or SQL database in the following formats:
It is also important that when we do pilot or test work that it is done with the same application used by the client, so the Dynamics / eEnterprise application folder from a workstation is also included. Onsite the choice of which workstation the copy is made from can be determined by the role of the user of the workstation. Usually the CFO (read �bean counter�) has a superset of all the Dexterity and additional products loaded for the role with the financial management of the organisation. It is very worthwhile to study the Dynamics.set (launch file) on a number of workstations to establish which one is best to take a copy of. Also when looking at the launch file a quick check for the location of the forms and reports dictionaries is useful as we will most likely want to ferret these out if they are not residing in the local Dynamics folder. Now with the database and application files together in one place a CD is burnt which we arrange to be sent in to our office. With the size of databases application growing it can become impossible to fit the files onto a CD without compression. The SQL database usually compresses heaps as does the larger Dynamics application files like the Dynamics.dic. Over the years of working with clients we have built a wee library of various revisions of there data and applications. Since a lot of our SQL data is extracted from CD, there is little merit holding separate backups of clients data apart from that kept on CD. Therefore few backups except those for jobs in progress are kept in the folder d:\Mssql7\backups or anywhere else on Betty, to save space the backup folder is compressed. O.k. lets look at what we do with the clients data and application files to be able to use them in the lab environment. I will assume Version 5.5 eEnterprise, SQL 7.0 and Binary sort order for the explanation below. TommyBoy
Betty
Back � July 2001 Richard Prior |