On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 5:58 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
> We have not done the upgrade mainly because of the support. We have > thousands of users installed. When we send out an update or install a new > client for VFP9, it is no problem because we can simply send out a prg that > creates the dbf. There is no special administration required as everyone > here knows. > > Question: can we do the same unattended installation with Maria? Most of > our > clients (Healthcare offices) know very little about computers and would not > know where to begin with anything more than clicking on an EXE. > Yeah, no, i don't think so. I'd like to learn that I'm wrong from others on the forum who might support large customer bases like thing, but my experience has pretty much been with one-off custom development and a couple of small vertical-niche apps with high-hand-holding built in. Here are my concerns: 1. VFP installs on the desktop; database server has to be installed on the server (assuming multi-user app with shared data). In any decent office, only an admin should be able to install database software on their servers. Install is pretty simple, and likely has a 'silent' option but I think you'd need at least admin permissions. 2. Backups and admin: VFP can dump its data and be restored from a simple file backup when all the users are kicked out. Reindex requires exclusive access. On a database server, you'll need to do similar things (though reindexing is extremely unusual, there are similar repacking compacting functions for most servers.) You'll either need to be able to script this into your application, or get remote access to perform these functions, though that sounds like a maintenance headache your company might not want to take on. You'll need to make regular backups and explain to the users what to do with them. (Is this HIPPA data? Eww.) 3. Database servers on Windows server require some Windows admin literacy. You'll need to work through what's needed for permissions, service settings (it needs to restart if/when the machine does, and hopefully shutdown gracefully when the server does). If your clients don't know how to do this, well, someone will have to: either "the computer guy" they have, or someone from your staff. I'm sure that Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2012 are all pretty similar ;) In situations where we are supporting clients with Windows networks, we often find ourselves having to explain to their "computer guy" how to do basic admin work, like reading logs. 4. ODBC: you'll need to install the correct drivers for the database on every desktop machine, 32-bit or 64-bit, and then configure them to access the server. Note that VFP only has the correct APIs to speak to 32-bit drivers, so there are some tricks with 64-bit Windows 7 and later. There are probably more issues, but these were the top pain points that came to mind. There are alternatives, too. You could consider hosting their data, for example. But that's a change in your business model. Hosting is not something to jump into without some planning. -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html --- _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/cacw6n4u4y+xsfsp+f-zcdqtnmata3b2mrtnuxd18fcgoepf...@mail.gmail.com ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
