Server For Data Entry

[forskare]

I have a client who is using the server for most of his data entry. I've spent a few hours reviewing many, many posts on network optimizing and found some on this subject. The references to this say, although it will work, it's a baaaaad idea to run the app this way. However, I've not found the specifics why it's baaaaaad.

Is it because there are issues with parent and child records getting mixed up? Would someone please take a moment to enlighten me.

Thanks,

kenn

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Server For Data Entry


Ken,

There are probably several different concerns. For me, the prospect of a server crash is enough to say 'no thanks'.

Have you ever experienced a system crash with Windows? For most of us it's a fairly constant fact of life.

If your server is being used as a regular workstation, and your customer crashes Windows while using Norton Systemworks, Corel WordPerfect, or something else altogether, it has the potential to wreak havoc on your database. At minimum, it shuts everyone on the network out of Alpha Five until the workstation is rebooted and network connections re-established. Depending on what's going on when the 'server' crashes your client may have to rebuild, restore, and reindex, just to get going again. The impact of a 'server' crash will be felt throughout the office.

If my client insisted on doing this I would recommend to the client (in writing) that the server 'work station' be used only for Alpha Five activities. Nothing else at any time.

-- tom

[forskare]

RE: Server For Data Entry

Tom,

The client has a server and 2 or 3 nodes and the full version of 4.5 so runtime is not a factor.

Last year, he had a flat file database and had problems with it on the network and tells me that he didn't like to use network optimize as he had fewer problems.

I deisgned a relational databse for him and it works fine on a stand alone but when he uses it on the network, the child and parent records appear to get mismatched or at least all mixed up. I've found some posts with similar problems. I'm not sure how he's got it set up so will have to discuss this with him tonight.

I'been doing a wee bit of research this afternoon so I've become a bit more knowledgable as well.

Thanks for your very valued input.

kenn

[Peter.Wayne]

RE: Server For Data Entry

Although in principle I agree with Tom, in practice in my office we have always sued the server as a workstation. As a general houseekeeping measure, I try to reboot the server once every week or every other week, but sometimes it is as rarely done as once a month. In the course of a day I may run Word, Wordperfect, and Quattro Pro in addition to Alpha Five under Windows 98. These applications have not caused the server to hang.
- Peter

[forskare]

RE: Server For Data Entry

Peter,

Thank you for your reply. I'm sure we'll have an interesting discussion.

kenn

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Server For Data Entry

Personally, nearly all of my users use the server as a workstation. The real issues are the size of the network and how the application works. If the network is large with many nodes, then a dedicated server makes sense. Otherwise, some users just can't/won't justify the expense. Dedicating a computer as a server in a 5 computer network to their thinking reduces capacity by 20%.

Another issue Tom mentions is what happens if the server crashes. Depending on how intense the server is used for other processes, this could be a real issue. Any database can be resource intensive. If the server is also running programs that require heavy resource use (like graphics programs), this could lead to disaster. If the server is lightly used or primarily used for A5 access, this may not be a concern.

How well the application is designed for network use may come into play. Normally, it is good practice to only open tables when you must. If many tables are left open on a number of nodes and something crashes the network, then index corruption, lost memos, etc are certainly possible.

The big question is how mission critical is the network. If a server going down will stop critical business operations, dedicate a high quality server. If it just seriously annoying, a non-dedicated server may be just fine.

Jerry

[russ Boehle]

RE: Server For Data Entry

My experience is that is makes sense to have a separate server, especially since serving files, which is all that is necessary for alpha, is not very processor intensive. We still use a pentium 166 with 128 meg ram for A4v6 and it works fine. The point here is you can use any old junk machine to serve files and not have to worry about some other app hanging the machine. We run nt4 and rarely have to reboot. I have put ALL other servers on separate machines so when our email server hangs (which it does often) I can reboot it without taking down the whole network. Ditto on our communications server which is primarily a fax and modem sharing server. All of these machines are older ones that have long been depreciated and have low cost. We even have an old 486sx25 that runs our voice mail and has been for years, we never reboot it.
I feel that the modular setup is helpful and the cost of running some of these older machines is very low, just electricity.
The main thing I think you need is a fast network, 100 meg ethernet works well.

Russ

[Thomas Henkel]

RE: Server For Data Entry

If my 2 cents counts, I agree with Russ. We keep our servers isolated by application. We have 10 servers in house, each of which serves a specific task. Our server room is protected, and the servers are dedicated to serving. Granted, most Alpha shops aren't this big, but for al our size (250+ nodes) we have not had any real server issues. Another plus is that at night, when all the users go home, applications can be run on the server for clean-up and maintenance purposes.

Tom