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Alpha4V8 installation in Oracle Virtual Box

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    Alpha4V8 installation in Oracle Virtual Box

    Hi.
    I have a massive Alpha 4V8 application which I can not migrate to Alpha 5 (It has dozens of tables/sets, hundreds of reports, thousands of hours invested in it).
    It's used by 4 users in North America, and I need now to allow acces to 9-10 users.

    My current solution:
    4 Windows XP computers in the basement. Each has Alpha 4V8 client installed, all use shared network drive where the databases reside. Each remote user is logging into "his" computer vi TeamViewer.

    I did not want to have 10 Windows XP computers in my basement.
    So instead I got a powerfull Windows 7 x64 computer, and installed there the Oracle VM Virtual Box package.
    In it I installed 10 virtual Windows XP machines, with each having Alpha 4V8.
    I assigned a shared folder on Windows 7 x64 main computer, which all Virtual XP computers can see.
    That's where the databases reside.
    All virtual XP can see the shared folder and it's content through Explorer.

    However Alpha 4V8 on the virtual Windows XP can see the shared folder, but can not see any of the subfolders or files in it.

    Any advice ?

    Is there any other effective way to allow 10 remote users to have simultaneouse access to the application ?
    Any advice is welsom.

    Arie

    #2
    Re: Alpha4V8 installation in Oracle Virtual Box

    Originally posted by arie515 View Post
    However Alpha 4V8 on the virtual Windows XP can see the shared folder, but can not see any of the subfolders or files in it.

    Any advice ?

    Arie
    Do you have the permissions cascading from the share folder?

    The permissions should apply to 'this folder, subfolders, and files'
    Al Buchholz
    Bookwood Systems, LTD
    Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

    Occam's Razor - KISS
    Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
    Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
    When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
    "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
    Albert Einstein

    http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Alpha4V8 installation in Oracle Virtual Box

      Originally posted by Al Buchholz View Post
      Do you have the permissions cascading from the share folder?

      The permissions should apply to 'this folder, subfolders, and files'
      I assume you are talking about "Network and Sharing Center" permissions on main Windows 7 x 64?
      Yes, I activated all permissions, for both Public and home/work sections.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Alpha4V8 installation in Oracle Virtual Box

        Originally posted by arie515 View Post
        I assume you are talking about "Network and Sharing Center" permissions on main Windows 7 x 64?
        Yes, I activated all permissions, for both Public and home/work sections.
        what about within the VM?
        Al Buchholz
        Bookwood Systems, LTD
        Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

        Occam's Razor - KISS
        Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
        Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
        When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
        "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
        Albert Einstein

        http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Alpha4V8 installation in Oracle Virtual Box

          Just found a simple (stupid ?) work around.
          Alpha did not see any files in the directory. Just in case, I still tried to open the set/database manually, though "Choose Database", "Open Database" and typed name of the set with complete path. Magic, it opened !
          So I can still use my 1993 era for many years to come, along with 10 of my remote users !

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Alpha4V8 installation in Oracle Virtual Box

            Originally posted by arie515 View Post
            Just found a simple (stupid ?) work around.
            Alpha did not see any files in the directory. Just in case, I still tried to open the set/database manually, though "Choose Database", "Open Database" and typed name of the set with complete path. Magic, it opened !
            So I can still use my 1993 era for many years to come, along with 10 of my remote users !
            not so much a work around but the adapting into the new environment. Thanks for sharing!
            Al Buchholz
            Bookwood Systems, LTD
            Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

            Occam's Razor - KISS
            Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
            Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
            When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
            "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
            Albert Einstein

            http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Alpha4V8 installation in Oracle Virtual Box

              Hi Arie (funny, that's my hebrew name as well)!

              I was having the exact same problem in virtualbox (although with a linux host OS) and found the solution:

              Have the host OS SHARE the folder where the files are and then in the guest OS map a drive to that share (i.e. "net use g: \\mainserver\alpha_files" in cmd).

              I think it's related to virtualbox somehow. I noticed that when I created a set from a client session, this set did show up in the files list (alone, without any of the other files that are stored in the same directory), which got me thinking, but I checked ownership and permission of all the files in the host and they were all the same as the newly-created set. I also know that this is something that didn't happen before I reinstalled linux in my main computer, so it's probably something in the version of virtualbox I installed this time (presumably newer). Might be fixable with some obscure setting somewhere, but I don't have time for that right now.

              Hope this helps you or someone else!

              Alex

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Alpha4V8 installation in Oracle Virtual Box

                Thanks,
                I will check on that.
                So far the solution is working fine, and the Virtualbox can support the many remote users.
                Arie

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Alpha4V8 installation in Oracle Virtual Box

                  I improved on my setup.
                  Original setup I used Oracle built in feature for shared folders, which forced the VM to look at host shared folders. It worked, but with "hickups"
                  Now I removed the "shared folders" feature, and mapped the network drive directly from the VM Windows XP.
                  Works as good as original.

                  So now I have a single server, Windows 7.
                  It's running the free Oracle VM Virtual Box manager, where I installed 10 XP machines. Each has Alpha 4V8, Multi user version, all look at the same application on a network drive.
                  I have sometimes up to 4-6 remote users, logging simultaneously into their own virtual XP, using Teamviewer.
                  Thought it might be interesting for someone.
                  Arie

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Alpha4V8 installation in Oracle Virtual Box

                    Hi,

                    Thanks for the heads-up.

                    It's amazing that we can now run 10 or more instances of a4v8 in a single computer.

                    I since set up a few instances of alpha using win7's xp mode, and it works for users, but God forbid they do something like a reindex, as it's painfully slow. I still use it on my own computer and on one of my client's workstations through virtualbox, but haven't had the need to set it up with it for the users (most of them still use XP workstations).

                    This client runs a very active business on alpha and the requirements are so "special" that it's taken several years to migrate to a client-server solution and that's still not finished. Aside from the fact that some tasks will definitely become easier with the new system, I'm not hopeful of any speed gains at the user interface level (users will now mouse around) or transactionally, but hey, it'll be a native windows system.

                    Alex


                    Originally posted by arie515 View Post
                    I improved on my setup.
                    Original setup I used Oracle built in feature for shared folders, which forced the VM to look at host shared folders. It worked, but with "hickups"
                    Now I removed the "shared folders" feature, and mapped the network drive directly from the VM Windows XP.
                    Works as good as original.

                    So now I have a single server, Windows 7.
                    It's running the free Oracle VM Virtual Box manager, where I installed 10 XP machines. Each has Alpha 4V8, Multi user version, all look at the same application on a network drive.
                    I have sometimes up to 4-6 remote users, logging simultaneously into their own virtual XP, using Teamviewer.
                    Thought it might be interesting for someone.
                    Arie

                    Comment

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