Topic: QuickBooks Pro / GifTrak -- Any Success Stories?

[rf131]

Hi Everybody,

Got an old, tired NT 4 box hosting Quickbooks and GifTrak databases that needs replacing (200 mhz mmx).  I loaded 6.0.1? (or something similar) on a test server without a problem.

The only two databases I house on the server are the above.  QuickBooks Pro (5 user) I'm not sure about the database, but GifTrak uses M$ Access files (some version of Jet).  We have a 100BT network if that makes any difference.

I'm interested in SME-Server success stories with one or both of these products.  Users will continue to use Windows for the time being.

Any hardware recommendations would be welcome; this is a 12-user domain (why bother, right?) and want to keep it simple... WS 2003 seems to be overkill for these guys, and I don't want to learn it either!  I have had it with the M$ two-year cycle learning curve!

TIA
rf131

[gippsweb]

I've got a couple of cutomers hosting their Quickbooks data file on an SME server, just map the ibay folder from the windows box and all will be well. My shop is setup the same with Quick POS and Quickbooks files on my SME server. It's only a P3 600, but does the job well with 3 pc's permanently connected, 2 internet cafe boxes and a VPN connection from home.

[ctimlin]

Just to concur with the above posting; I've set up a 5.6 system on a 300MHz box which hosts a MS Access  database which is shared from an iBay to 3x WinXP and 3 x Win98.  Has not seen a day of trouble other that being plugged out by a cleaner over a year ago.  Also used for dialup internet access (client cannot see benefit of broadband!).

[rf131]

Thanks ctimlin & gippsweb!

I "guess" by your postings that these systems were just regular desktops that were "promoted".  I guess I can look for some kind of desktop to do the same.

I tested on a spare Celeron 366 with 128MB RAM.  Not bad, but I had some old 4.3 GB Seagate drives in a RAID-1 off the on-board IDE controllers that weren't helping things.  A couple of 7200RPM 80 GB drives would probably help performance.

The only thing right now that puts me off SME-Server is the recent community problems.  I'm frankly concerned that the product may die.  I do see a lot of people out there using the product, so maybe this is a case of letting the issues sift out and being patient.  I'm not a "bleeding edge" guy either (IIABDFI!); I just pulled the plug last month on a Sun UltraServer 1 (remember those?) after eight and a half years of faithful service with no upgrades from Solaris 2.6!

Have a blessed day... rf131

[Penguinista]

SME is alive and well. The community is trying to organize itself, but in the meantime, development is active and the forums are hopping!

[rf131]

Hi, Just an update...

I have put off the testing until recently (thank the Lord that the server continues to work).

I had the user make a local copy on their pc, then disconnect from the NT 4 network, and connect to a test network with a Dell Dimension with a 333mhz PII processor with 256MB.

The result... Both applications ran flawlessly!  The user was impressed that a "user" workstation could process the data so fast.  As a stress test, I also ran some database maintenance tools across the network despite the warning that I should do this on a local disk.. no problems!

What was so cool is that several ibays were created and shared out, and once I changed the password for the user in server-manager (same username and domain name as the NT 4 box), they logged in and immediately saw the shares that were mapped with the NT 4 network (I did modify the logon script to match)... how cool is that?

Now, I'm going to progress updating the server since we have funds to upgrade.  I'll be asking for suggestions on new hardware in another thread...

Kevin

[MSmith]

When I'm contemplating adding an SME server to an office network I typically recycle a workstation, replacing fans and installing new identical drives for a RAID-1 install.  The machine on my home LAN is a PII/233 with 192 megs of RAM and the server manager is a trifle slow but not annoyingly so.  Other than that it does its server/gateway chores marvelously and is heavily customized with contribs and LAMP apps running in ibays.

If you DO have database issues you might search for the "Advanced Workgroup" contrib and play around with oplocks.  Disabling opportunistic locking will adversely affect performance a bit (on one ibay only, if desired) but should keep you out of trouble otherwise.