I recently have been assigned to take over our Police Department server system which is UNIX /AIX. At present we run a substandard grade of Police software which is not user friendly. As you can imagine, I have a multitude of problems at hand. To name just a couple, #1 The administration wants a new windows based application for police software. #2 I have no idea what I am doing with UNIX /AIX, so I am not sure how to get them where they want to be. My first inclination was to scrap the RS 6000 for a Windows 2000 server which is something I have more understanding of. The one choice I do not have is quitting my job. If someone could point me in the right direction, I would probably dance at your next wedding.
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New to UNIX / AIX
- Thread starter jkr762
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Well, it's a nice offer but I'm not planning on any more weddings.
Having said that, could I suggest that you approach this problem from the other end?
Instead of saying -- What server do I want to run this new (at present unknown) application?
Ask these questions:
1 What applications are available?
for each available application
2 Who uses it?
3 Have they got a user group?
4 What do its users think of ?
5 How many users does it have?
6 Go and visit the software house that writes it - could you work with them?
At the moment I do not think you should be asking technical questions like "What database server do I need?".
Ask business questions instead; choose an application that functionally meets your needs and then technically evaluate it to ensure it can cope with the load you will be asking of it.
Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com
Email welcome if you're in a hurry or something -- but post in tek-tips as well please, and I will post my reply here as well.
Having said that, could I suggest that you approach this problem from the other end?
Instead of saying -- What server do I want to run this new (at present unknown) application?
Ask these questions:
1 What applications are available?
for each available application
2 Who uses it?
3 Have they got a user group?
4 What do its users think of ?
5 How many users does it have?
6 Go and visit the software house that writes it - could you work with them?
At the moment I do not think you should be asking technical questions like "What database server do I need?".
Ask business questions instead; choose an application that functionally meets your needs and then technically evaluate it to ensure it can cope with the load you will be asking of it.
Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com
Email welcome if you're in a hurry or something -- but post in tek-tips as well please, and I will post my reply here as well.
- Thread starter
- #3
Hey Mike,
I appreciate your return input. Having been a Police Officer for nearly 20 years palces me in an excellent oportunity to know what a "Police Program" should be able to accomplish. I located a company called International Technology Inc. and viewed a software called Law Enforcement Series. It is a windows based program which covers every need I can dream of for any agency, and the demo appears very user friendly. The program has 8 to 10 seperate titles covering records manag., jail manag., photo management, evidence manag, etc. The most widely used of the system would be the records management and it would require approximately 30 desk top users access at any given time. A user group would be utilized as it is now. The application I have researched appears well suited. I have even had some contact with other similar size agencies who are using the same application. They love it. My problem is that no other agency started with a UNIX /AIX based server.
I am not sure of what my priorities should be to change the applications. It would seem to me that any application I go to would have to be interoperational with Windows NT or Windows 2000 as those are the only two mentioned in the same breath as UNIX anywhere. I am also looking for something to simplify the administration over the system as this will not be my only duties. This is probably not alot to go on, but I did say that I knew nothing about UNIX.
As in many instances, I know what I want. I just don't know how to get there.
John
I appreciate your return input. Having been a Police Officer for nearly 20 years palces me in an excellent oportunity to know what a "Police Program" should be able to accomplish. I located a company called International Technology Inc. and viewed a software called Law Enforcement Series. It is a windows based program which covers every need I can dream of for any agency, and the demo appears very user friendly. The program has 8 to 10 seperate titles covering records manag., jail manag., photo management, evidence manag, etc. The most widely used of the system would be the records management and it would require approximately 30 desk top users access at any given time. A user group would be utilized as it is now. The application I have researched appears well suited. I have even had some contact with other similar size agencies who are using the same application. They love it. My problem is that no other agency started with a UNIX /AIX based server.
I am not sure of what my priorities should be to change the applications. It would seem to me that any application I go to would have to be interoperational with Windows NT or Windows 2000 as those are the only two mentioned in the same breath as UNIX anywhere. I am also looking for something to simplify the administration over the system as this will not be my only duties. This is probably not alot to go on, but I did say that I knew nothing about UNIX.
As in many instances, I know what I want. I just don't know how to get there.
John
Hi John,
<smile> Seems like you have my suggestions pretty much in hand already.
I'm not familiar with the company or the product you mention so I don't have any specific knowledge here.
However... If you want or need to "leverage" your organizations investment in its AiX server that may well be possible.
Forgive me if you know this stuff already.
Software is, essentially], split into two parts.
1. The user interface, also known as The Front End - the part you can see, press buttons in and (sometimes) become impatient with.
2. Some way of storing data, also known as The Back End or the database, and this is the part that may interest you if you need to use your AiX machine.
It's quite possible, common in fact, for these two parts to run on different computers. You might hear software like this being called a "Client/Server Application"
Many software packages appear to run on Windows PCs, and they do -- but just the Front End, all of the data is stored on a separate database server, each PC connects over a network to a single database server -- often a UNIX machine such as AiX.
So - the short answer is: It may be possible to use your existing AiX machine with Windows based software.
There is, I'm afraid, a longer answer as well. It may not be wise to do so -- don't write it off just yet but there are a number of issues you will have to address first.
Technical Issues:
1. The s/w would have to be already written to do this. One of the most common ways of doing this would be to use ODBC. ODBC is communications software that runs on Windows PCs. It allows software on the Windows PCs to connect to a database running on another machine, perhaps a UNIX machine.
2. UNIX Support. You've said that you're a newcomer to AiX and that could be a problem unless you want to immerse yourself in it for a while so that you can support your machine, or pay someone else to do so.
3. Database Support. Databases that run on UNIX machines are designed to look after many users, sometimes hundreds or thousands and this comes with a cost -- these databases are complex (and costly). See 2 - above.
4. The age of your AiX machine might be a problem. It's not uncommon to find that, whilst your vendor (IBM in this case) is quite willing to maintain your machine as it is they will be unwilling (unable really) to add to it after a certain point. There will come a time when IBM may not make the spare parts for your machine and any stock they have will be allocated to maintenance. (I've not come across this with IBM but it is happening to me now with HP)
5. If they turn around and say -- "yes, it's client server and can work with any database you choose"; you have to ask if anyone else is doing it already, and can you talk to some of them. Client/Server configurations are fiddly, and choosing some database that your supplier doesn't recommend first off *will* be more work.
Financial:
It's an attractive idea to save money by re-using existing hardware but you shouldn't take it for granted that it will actually work out that way.
1. Unix and the databases that run on it are more expensive to buy and run than Win NT or 2000 configurations.
2. The cost of a Win something database server (if that's what your s/w supplier recommends) is likely to be a small percantage of the overall implementation costs. For the number of users you mention (30 or so concurrent users) it may be that you could save money on hardware and software maintenance by looking at a Win something database server.
That's quite a long post for me, I usually just say something like "have you tried X?" I hope it's useful to you or to someone else reading this.
I've implemented several systems that, at a technical level, are similar to this so I'd be interested in hearing more about it as you go through your thought processes.
Regards,
Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com
Email welcome if you're in a hurry or something -- but post in tek-tips as well please, and I will post my reply here as well.
<smile> Seems like you have my suggestions pretty much in hand already.
I'm not familiar with the company or the product you mention so I don't have any specific knowledge here.
However... If you want or need to "leverage" your organizations investment in its AiX server that may well be possible.
Forgive me if you know this stuff already.
Software is, essentially], split into two parts.
1. The user interface, also known as The Front End - the part you can see, press buttons in and (sometimes) become impatient with.
2. Some way of storing data, also known as The Back End or the database, and this is the part that may interest you if you need to use your AiX machine.
It's quite possible, common in fact, for these two parts to run on different computers. You might hear software like this being called a "Client/Server Application"
Many software packages appear to run on Windows PCs, and they do -- but just the Front End, all of the data is stored on a separate database server, each PC connects over a network to a single database server -- often a UNIX machine such as AiX.
So - the short answer is: It may be possible to use your existing AiX machine with Windows based software.
There is, I'm afraid, a longer answer as well. It may not be wise to do so -- don't write it off just yet but there are a number of issues you will have to address first.
Technical Issues:
1. The s/w would have to be already written to do this. One of the most common ways of doing this would be to use ODBC. ODBC is communications software that runs on Windows PCs. It allows software on the Windows PCs to connect to a database running on another machine, perhaps a UNIX machine.
2. UNIX Support. You've said that you're a newcomer to AiX and that could be a problem unless you want to immerse yourself in it for a while so that you can support your machine, or pay someone else to do so.
3. Database Support. Databases that run on UNIX machines are designed to look after many users, sometimes hundreds or thousands and this comes with a cost -- these databases are complex (and costly). See 2 - above.
4. The age of your AiX machine might be a problem. It's not uncommon to find that, whilst your vendor (IBM in this case) is quite willing to maintain your machine as it is they will be unwilling (unable really) to add to it after a certain point. There will come a time when IBM may not make the spare parts for your machine and any stock they have will be allocated to maintenance. (I've not come across this with IBM but it is happening to me now with HP)
5. If they turn around and say -- "yes, it's client server and can work with any database you choose"; you have to ask if anyone else is doing it already, and can you talk to some of them. Client/Server configurations are fiddly, and choosing some database that your supplier doesn't recommend first off *will* be more work.
Financial:
It's an attractive idea to save money by re-using existing hardware but you shouldn't take it for granted that it will actually work out that way.
1. Unix and the databases that run on it are more expensive to buy and run than Win NT or 2000 configurations.
2. The cost of a Win something database server (if that's what your s/w supplier recommends) is likely to be a small percantage of the overall implementation costs. For the number of users you mention (30 or so concurrent users) it may be that you could save money on hardware and software maintenance by looking at a Win something database server.
That's quite a long post for me, I usually just say something like "have you tried X?" I hope it's useful to you or to someone else reading this.
I've implemented several systems that, at a technical level, are similar to this so I'd be interested in hearing more about it as you go through your thought processes.
Regards,
Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com
Email welcome if you're in a hurry or something -- but post in tek-tips as well please, and I will post my reply here as well.
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