I don't know exactly where to post this message.
I just hope it will not be too out of place.
What happened is my A/C version 4 has some problem. It restarted the data base by itself in the middle of the day.
If users wait out about 3 minutes then it is OK. But as you know, 3 minute freeze is a disaster.
I have an SQL specialist on my staff. She advised me that she can use stand-alone SQL on a separate server instead of using SQL Express that we are using now. Our SQL express is free but the standalone is far more powerful and she has that software.

My posting here is to ask for your support to let the Amazing Charts to allow my staff specialist to use the SQL
stand alone. In order to use it, she will need to know theconnection string. It is like a key to connect to the three SQL data bases of Amazing Charts.

I have programmed in Main Frame (IBM) for over 25 years but I am still new with SQL. I just repeat what she said about string connection. I believe if A/C allows her to use SQL stand alone, it will make our software more versatile.

Thank you

Chris Le

Interesting that you should write this. My brother in law is also an SQL "guru," and tells me he can set up the sql server to save the AC data in two different servers simultaneously, but he would need to install the full sql server, whatever that means. I, of course, have no idea what it would entail but I would love to have that degree of redundancy in my office. I already had 1 episode where the power supply for my main server died and I spent 2 days getting a new one. Needless to say, having another backup server with no down time would be extremely valuable.

In the meantime I am buying a second server with redundant power supply and hot swappable hard drives in raid configuration to hopefully prevent this from happening again.

I'm not sure you "need" to replicate the data across multiple servers, for a small practice. It would be overkill.

The issue with your server was a design issue. When ever I "build my own server" I always buy two of the things most likely to fail:
1) Motherboard (identical model)
2) Power Supply (Redundant)
3) Extra Hard Disk (even if you have RAID)
4) CPU Fan

Of the 4, the identical motherboard is most important, because if you have to swap out the Motherboard, you will more than likely have to reinstall the OS and all applications.

When I build servers, I ALWAYS, repeat ALWAYS, separate the OS drives from the Data Drives. So my server:

My OS drives consist of 2 160GB mirrored HDD's.
My data volume consists of 4 x 750gb HDD's (RAID 5)

I use a NAS Drive with 4 X 750gb HDD's (RAID 5) as my primary backup device. I IMAGE both the OS and the Data volumes weekly. I also write the images to DVD for off-site storage.

I hope this helps.

Chris, FYI, to read up on connection strings go to www.connectionstrings.com. With regard to AC4, I'm sure I read somewhere that it will only work with SQLExpress.

"small practice" is a matter of perspective. Who really considers their practice "small" when they have a waiting room full of patient's and a computer screen with a cursor light blinking or dark? One or two days of lost income and upset patients is worth the "overkill" if you ask me.



As for the rest. Sounds pretty good. I am in the process of talking to a new IT person. I will show it to him. For me, security, reliability, and redundancy are paramount.

Well that all sounds pretty complicated, but when we installed AC4 on a server that already had SQL 2005, the installation program did not bother with installing SQL Express and the databases are under SQL 2005.

The beauty of having an Access Jet 4 backend like what I have at my office is that you don't need a typical RAID dedicated backend server, with redundancy that multiplies the hardware costs exponentially.

Just yesterday I was looking at my former 7-year old backend "server", now running as a client. I sports a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 machine with a Prescott motherboard and has a now failing hard drive and it has only a 300 Watt Power source. I swapped out the old 80GB HD for a new 500GB HD and bingo! Another 5 years for that beast...

>>> The issue with your server was a design issue. When ever I "build my own server" I always buy two of the things most likely to fail:
1) Motherboard (identical model)
2) Power Supply (Redundant)
3) Extra Hard Disk (even if you have RAID)
4) CPU Fan

The problem that I see with having extra hardware just lying around, besides taking up space and tying up your money is that all of that hardware will quickly become old, and much of it will never be usable when something finally fails. Why not get the stuff at your nearest Micro Center? Instead of a redundant MB, why not buy a new "barebones" or full Dell server on eBay when something goes wrong? They would be much cheaper...

Al

I have a Dell PowerEdge 3600 server which has redundant power supply and hot swappable drives, raid configured. It's pretty awesome to have confidence in knowing it's HIGHLY unlikely to ever catastrophically fail. Good idea to get a new server.

Chris,

First, that is something I would go right to Jon on. But, I will save you the trouble, because no one is going to give you the connection string to their databases.

I'm not really understanding your question as my knowledge of SQL is very poor. I am probably mistaken, but I thought when AC V4 is installed to your "main"computer (server) it installed SQL 2005, which is a full version of SQL (?). SQL Express is installed on the client machines, those that connect to your main computer in order to access the database.

Can someone comment if I understand this correctly?

Adam,

The "full" version of SQL 2005 is just that. The full version: SQL Server 2005. It comes with SBS 2003 Premium Edition and other server OS. If not, you have to pay for it as it is Microsoft's actual flagship database. SQL Express is Microsoft's free version where My SQL is an open source Sequel database.

SQL Express would install completely to the "main computer" and be the database for AC whether SQL Server 2005 was there. If SQL Server 2005 is there as it is on your computer, then the AC installs SQL Server Express as its own "instance" which are basically separate installs of SQL within SQL Server 2005. It was designed to install this way and so I would install it that way. Some try all sorts of different methods on here and, for some, they have their reasons. I see little reason to do so.

As to the clients, there is no need to install SQL server and you should not. There is the screen, which comes up that asks you if you are going to be using the client as the main computer. That is where you select the second option. While it will work that way, I would recommend uninstalling SQL off any client as it will take up resources and there is actually no reason for it to be there.

Bert,
Thanks for clearing up the issue on the server.

My confucion about the clients: when installing them as clients, (the second option in the AC installation wizard), it goes through a series of screens that make it look like it is installing SQL Express, then it says it failed to install, which is apparently a normal part of the installation process on Vista machines. I didn't do any additional installations above and beyond what the installation wizard does for me.

It's all working just fine, I'm just seeking to understand what the installation wizard actually did.

Just look in your services on your CLIENTS. The only service related to SQL (if there is one there) would be SQL Server VSS Writer, which is no longer needed after 2003 OS. However, it came with XP and as I just checked, it comes with Vista and WIN7 as well.

You can also download Studio Manager for Express, but it will do little good without the sa password.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/detai...;displaylang=en

Thanks for explaining that Bert!

Al, what do you think Dell or any server maker does? They have that "extra hardware" laying around. So when things break, they can ship it out.

My server cost me 1800. and the extra hardware 500. If you can find me a Dell PowerEdge, with:
750gb x 4 Hot Swappable RAID 5
8 GB RAM (upgradable to 32)
Dual QuadCore Opteron Processors

If you can find me a dell Opteron, with those specs, and the warranty, its a good deal.