Ctrix_TS/win2kserver/sql2000/macsql 76.100a or 200.5

[MacolaHelp]

Does anyone use a colocation host for macola sql 7.6.100a or higher? If so, what are you using for communications & log in? I've checked the macola specs & it sounds like you must attach remotely through terminal and/or citrix metaframe. Anyone have experience connecting directly to another location using vpn? I still think you would need a TX or Citrix host at the remote hosting location to allow client access to macola. Can you publish the macola client app to the remote user so they don't actually have to "connect"? If you have experience with this, what are the performance issues related to remote access compared to having it on your LAN?

I have several sites that run citrix or TS, but they have their macola server in house, not at the colocation site. It seems like the administrative issues with updates, backup restores, etc would be a bigger pain if offsite from the headquarters.

 

[kscheeler]

I only have 1 client set up similar to that. They have somewhere between 100 and 150 users in 5 locations in 2 countries. SQL is on a cluster server with Macola on 6 citrix servers all running Macola locally at an offsite datacenter facility. All of the applications the users need from the citrix servers are published through Nfuse.

The IT person hasn't had to go to the site that often since everything is remotely accessible. I don't know if swapping tapes is built into the monthly cost of their datacenter.

Kevin Scheeler

 

[MacolaHelp]

How about printing at the 5 locations? Do they have a print server in location to manage the network printers? Citrix used to (& I haven't tried it for a while) be slow fi the print server was at the remote site (like sucking peanut butter through a straw, we used to say). Wasn't there also some limitation with macola on clustered servers, or was that just for pervasive & not sql? Did any of your locations have the servers on a local LAN at one time? If so, did they notice any performance degradation? Thanks for your insight on this.

 

[kscheeler]

Yes, they have print servers at each site since the number of connections per site is about 25 to 30. Clustered server isn't technically supported but we did the initial install on a test server and then moved over the databases to the clustered server and it's worked very well since. Speed for them is limited to each site's connection to the net.

We only had it onsite for the initial install and test. The end users didn't have access to it at the time. I can connect to it from anywhere and the speed seems great. Again, it depends on your connection speed to the net though.

 

[NJAnalyst]

I would love to have more information on how you clustered your SQL server. We have a 4 processor server with 8gb of ram running SQL server 2000 Enterprise on Windows 2003. We are in two locations with 3 citrix servers for approx. 40 users. We are also using the Exact (IPS) WMS for our warehouse. We are looking at the scalability of Macola and SQL to handle our transaction volume. We have 4 companies in Macola the largest being 132gb and the second being 35gb. That is only 2 years worth of history as well. Any insight would be appreciated.

Jonathan Nelson
Business Systems Analyst
Horizon Group, USA

 

[MacolaHelp]

Thanks for this info, it will help my client make a decision. I've suggested a LAN vs colocation test for macola specifically. I don't really think apps like word, etc should have noticeable performance issues. We are big crystal & FRx users, so I really think we need to know these will perform close to LAN speed, but if we have a citrix box in house to use before we move to colocation, we should be able to get a good idea of what our response times are, right? Will keep you posted on our decision/progress.

 

[kscheeler]

NJAnalyst,

The server my client is using is at the following url:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/solutions/enterprise/highavailability/dl380/index.html

which comes with a shared storage cabinet.

Microsoft Advanced Server was already loaded. I loaded SQL Enterprise on the cluster.

MacolaHelp,

I've never used FRx but basically everything else is done in Crystal and the reports run great on the Citrix servers. All of the servers are connected together using a HP 5304xl L3 Gigabit switch.