Is Citrix a good solution for this scenario?

[DaveWalker]

A non-profit with minimal funding has asked me to investigate solutions to the following scenario. I've been pointed toward Citrix as a solution, and was wondering if any of you cared to comment.

All opinions welcome. Alternative solution suggestions also appreciated.

Project Highlights:
-3 to 5 users spread across the country need a lot of control/flexibility to edit and custom query data in a fairly simple Access '97 database.
-Another 10 or so need only to query the DB without a lot of custom control. (maybe via ASP to avoid Citrix licenses?)
-If the project goes well, the second group may eventually need edit capability.
-Some of the above data also needs to be available to the public via the web, but this does not need to be a real time lookup. Creating static web pages from the data once a week would be fine.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[BJJJB]

I wouldn't use Citrix for this. First it's going to increase the cost of the solution and second I'm not too sure that MS-Access is Terminal Server compliant (I stand to be corrected here) but we've had problems with the MS-Suite of applications.

I'd probably plumb for an SQL database if it's to be centrally hosted.

You mention publication on the WEB as being suitable for weekl batch processing but what are the constraints on the data being updated - could it be updated overnight or must it be 'real-time'?

 

[Illuvatar]

On some parts I agree with BJJJB. Citrix is an expensive solution, but, what you want to accomplish can be done with Citrix. MS Access is Terminal Server complient, however there are a few know-abouts. When you use Access XP or Access 2000 then it'll all work fine without security changes to certain files. Because that's what needs to be done in Access 97.
So, the solution will work. Reading about the number of users you like to host, I would advise one server with one processor and 1 gig of memory.
What you can do, is reserve some hardware, and ask a NFR license from Citrix. Then make a good working enviroment so you can convince the management to use Citrix. Also, use the ACE Cost Analyzer found on the Citrix site to fund your reasons. You get great figures and numbers to convince a board of directors or a management.

An alternative way is to distribute the 'read-only' users a copy of the database each night. The "change"-personel can connect to a server eg with CLI Callback and do the work they need. Or, what BJJJB advices, do batchworking.

I hope you can do something with it.

 

[rkoote]

I wouldn't opt for Citrix at all. As long as you have only a handful of users, which can be hosted on one server, I would choose for MS TS only. RDP 5.0 is a serious product, not so smooth as Citrix, but very useful for smaller organizations. If you have a server with a PIII at 1.4 Ghz and around 1.5 GB memory, you can host 25-30 users easily. Citrix licenses cost at least $100 per concurrent user and the cost of TS licenses is not an extra, because you always must buy them. You can better use that money to buy a descent RDBMS, instead of Access 97.

 

[DrAlan]

I am not an expert in MS Access but my experience of it is that it is not the best database to use for multi-user applications. If more than one person is going to use the database application at a time then you can get problems - especially if edits are going on or if the application starts writing files to temporary directories.

Having said that I have seen it deployed over Citrix and it worked pretty well - much better then doing data access over a network.

Good luck!

 

[DaSmee]

A single Citrix server hosting an NFuse site would be very easy to use in this scenario, and I would consider it as an option, it all comes down to cost really. Performance and functionality would be greater using Citrix. Access works on TS at any version level, the difficulties are usually specific to particular db's.