MS Database from Linux Server 2

[EITech]

Hello,
I am new to this forum and Linux. I am a database programmer, mostly MS Access. One of my clients is changing their network system to Linux. I can't seem to get a straight answer re: will client machines still be able to run Access (say they still have Windows, or have dual boot systems), if the database file is stored on a Linux server? I've done a bit of research and know that Oracle has a release for Linux now, so am wondering if I need to be planning to change the database to Oracle.
Thanks for any help & information! [sig][/sig]

 

[rycamor]

Before we get into it, you might just want to set up a small dedicated Windows box just for hosting the database files. It can coexist just fine with a Linux network/gateway. It would probably be the easiest solution.

However... if the company is adamant about having NO Windows servers, then YES, it is possible, if the Linux server is running Samba. I am doing this right now with a client's network. Samba is an open-source emulation of Windows SMB network shares. (More info at

http://www.samba.org)

Basically, this means any Linux or Unix server can act as a Windows NT file server. This is transparent to the windows workstations on the network, meaning the user doesn't have to do anything different than he/she would normally do to connect to an NT server. Simply run TCP/IP networking, browse and connect to whatever directories have been shared from the Linux server, and they appear as standard shared Hard drives in Windows Explorer. Thus any shared file for MS Access can be placed on the Linux shared directory.

The setup I used for my client, a small insurance office, cost a fraction of what a standard Windows NT server would have cost (software and hardware). I used a special distribution of Linux called "The Pizza Box File Server" at

http://www.kyzo.com/,

with a completely web-based configuration routine which can really make setup alot easier. Actually, this was quicker and easier than setting up a Windows NT server, in my experience. There are four workstations (with more planned) connecting to an Access database on an old Pentium 90 server with only 16 MB of RAM, and 1 GB of hard drive space, with a 100mb network. File access is at least as quick as from one workstation to another. There have been absolutely zero problems with this server, and it has not been rebooted once since it was setup almost a year ago.

If you use The Pizza Box, it requres a dedicated computer, so you can't run it on the existing main server. However, as you see, the dedicated computer can be a really inexpensive one, depending on your needs. The server software itself fits on 3 floppies (and does 95% of what NT can accomplish with a full CDROM). Otherwise, though, the sysadmins setting up the Linux network should be able to get Samba running on the main server. Bear in mind that Samba is not the easiest thing to configure properly, and sometimes results in painfully slow file access, so if the sysdamins aren't sure about it, I recommend using The Pizza Box system, or just setting up a dedicated Windows box as mentioned before. [sig][/sig]

 

[EITech]

Wow, thank you so much for an enormously helpful reply! Do you think it would be advisable for me to become more familiar with Linux (I know for general purposes it would, but I mean relative to this specific client's database)? Or would working on the database be essentially the same, assuming the sysadmins get things configured correctly. I will check out the Samba and Pizza Box networking options. Thanks again for sharing your expertise! [sig][/sig]

 

[rycamor]

Well, if you are really interested in learning more about the Open Source side of things, then yes; learn Linux. Or FreeBSD. In your specific situation with the client moving to a Linux server, there are a couple of Open Source free databases out there that I think you would enjoy greatly.

The easiest and most popular is called MySQL, and there is a forum for it right in Tek-Tips. You can get it at

http://www.mysql.com,

and it runs on Windows and Linux, as well as just about every other operating system. It is a couple orders of magnitude faster than Access (I have worked with both) and it is an excellent choice for web-based applications. It is more of a traditional multiuser SQL, in the sense that it doesn't include GUI tools, but the good news is that you can use Access for a graphical client to it (via ODBC). Also there are several tools available at the MySQL site for converting data from Access to MySQL.

Also, there is PostgreSQL, which is a little more sophisticated, and has a lot of the capability of Oracle or the other heavy hitters.

I would also recommend you learn PHP (also a forum here).

http://www.php.net

The reason I am gladly sharing all this info with you is I was at one time struggling with Access, VB, VBscript, etc... all the Microsoft solutions. When I discovered the freedom that comes with learning these other solutions, I began to enjoy programming a lot more. I hope you experience the same. [sig][/sig]