Hi

I am pitching ideas to a client. I am a long time DBISAM user planning to move to EDB, just waiting for the paperwork to come through from the client with the spec for the first job. One thing they would like is roving access to the database from home, on the move.

I appreciate that a good internet connection would be critical.

If I buy this service http://www.accuwebhosting.com/windows-vps-server-hosting.html how would I

1) Install EDB?

2) Connect to it through a firewall?

Just some pointers to help me get started would be great.

Thanks

Peter

Peter,

Unless you plan to install delphi there you don't really even need to
run the edb install. All you need are edbsrvr, edbmanager and you db files.

1. copy edbsrvr.exe to the computer and set it up (recommended to set it
up as service so it runs all the time)

2. configure edbsrvr - config folder etc.

3. open the firewall for whatever port you're edbserver is listening on
(12010 by default)

4. At this point you shoudl be able to access it remotely using
edbmanager or you app.

The other aspect to think about is whether this is the master copy that
your customer uses all the time? If not and they have the master edb
database on their network you should look into EDB replication so the
online version gets updated regularly.

Raul


On 4/4/2012 7:55 AM, Peter Hodgson wrote:
> Hi
>
> I am pitching ideas to a client. I am a long time DBISAM user planning to move to EDB, just waiting for the paperwork to come through from the client with the spec for the first job. One thing they would like is roving access to the database from home, on the move.
>
> I appreciate that a good internet connection would be critical.
>
> If I buy this service http://www.accuwebhosting.com/windows-vps-server-hosting.html how would I
>
> 1) Install EDB?
>
> 2) Connect to it through a firewall?
>
> Just some pointers to help me get started would be great.
>
> Thanks
>
> Peter
>

Peter

I know nothing about this service:

>> http://www.accuwebhosting.com/windows-vps-server-hosting.html

... though I will have a look at it now [... OK it seems to offer a good service & actually at a similar price to Amazon]

However I use Amazon Cloud services & think they are really good, cheap etc. Super, super reliable. Also you can switch off & on a server & not pay for "off" time, plus there are loads of other amazing features.

The set up process is identical if you use your service or Amazon, as the other post describes. I have been running EDB remotely in this way for some time & am really pleased with the results, although I do not link an application direct to internet, instead I hold a local copy of the DB & use an UPDATE process to replicate between local & internet server.

I have written a short "how to" document about how to set up Amazon cloud (which has bits about opening ports etc. which you could use with any service) which I can post here if you are interested.

(I am not employed by amazon _at_all I promise!)

Adam,

<<I have written a short "how to" document about how to set up Amazon cloud (which has bits about opening ports etc. which you could use with any service) which I can post here if you are interested.>>

I am very interested in what you have written.

Richard Harding

Hi Guys

Thank you for your input.  

I have been working as a self employed consultant for one company for 7 years and have fallen behind in some ways with whats current. Its been fantastic for me as I have been working part time but have been retained as the software I wrote for them is business critical. The last couple of years have been a bit dull to be honest. Working on the same app for 7 years has gotten tougher and tougher.

An opportunity has occurred with a fast growing business in the beauty industry (the office is a bit like Ugly Betty but without Betty lol....).  I would expect this to run for about 5 years hopefully. Looking forward to the challenge!

Adam, I would really like to see your document.  I am not decided on any service rather I am looking at trialling different ideas.

Thanks

peter

Adam,

<< The set up process is identical if you use your service or Amazon, as
the other post describes.
I have been running EDB remotely in this way for some time&  am really
pleased with the results,
although I do not link an application direct to internet,instead I hold
a local copy of the DB&  use an UPDATE process to replicate between
local&  internet server.>>

That's interesting. I am just working on a solution for a similar
scenario as Peter described.
And I talked to Tim concerning a direct link to an EDBServer on a remote
machine. While he told me, it would work fine with a stable internet
connection, the problem is, that an application, using this kind of data
access, cannot run offline.

Thus your hint to use both online- and offline-databases and replicate
them, is very interesting.

I have never used replication, so I'll start my studies today.

Any further hints are appreciated.

Regards Uli

Thanks for the positive feedback, I hope you find my document useful.

Note that it mentions an interesting website development tool "Morfik" ... but this is not really relevant! The key issues covered are setting up Amazon servers & opening ports on them so that they can be used as remote servers for EDB or any other server-side software.

--

Also note that it is possible to set up any server which is linked to the internet as a webserver, so long as you can allocate a fixed IP address to its router which is accessible from outside the business.

Few businesses want to do this, and the cost of a webserver is now only a few tens of dollars per month, so it isn't much of a saving ... but it is worth considering doing it that way too.

Hi Guys

Thanks Adam I will take a look over the weekend. Brilliant.

Ulrich

<<And I talked to Tim concerning a direct link to an EDBServer on a remote
machine. While he told me, it would work fine with a stable internet
connection, the problem is, that an application, using this kind of data
access, cannot run offline.>>

No it cant work off line. But the scenario is just like any network connection, if the network/internet is down normal errors would occurr and have to be handled. I would be interested to see how fast data is returned.  In a theory it should be faster than a web page because the front end is local and the server has only to serve the data and not the web page.

In the UK most people have 6-8mb service and often more. I only have 2mb in the office because I live in the countryside. At my holiday home in Cornwall I have no ADSL at all other than an HDSPA 2 dongle. There I have antennas on the roof for ADSL router anf GSM Gateway for the phone and have 6-7mb over the mobile phone network - works ok.

My broadband router works with HDSPA modem and also ADSL.  I only use the modem but if you were worried about ADSL going down, my router can fall back to a mobile network automatically if the line fails.

Hopefully I will be looking into this in the next few days and doing some tests.

Thanks

Peter

Another thought is that if you host an EDB server on the web of course whoever is hosting will be responsible for the security presumably which would let you off the hook with the client and be less likely to expose the clients network to risk.

Interestingly I was using Ready Hosting 10 years ago with SQL Server and used to connect to it using just the IP address and the SQL Server Manager. It was hopelessly slow and unmanageable then but that was pre ADSL and I was connecting over 128k ISDN.  That actually said more about Ready Hosting than the line speed.

Have a good holiday w/e

Peter

Peter,

I discussed exactly the same stuff with Tim some days ago and I'll do
some tests on a remote server before renting one from a hoster.

Some time ago I tested a virtual server on the Amazon cloud and the
speed was amazingly good, but I used just some small test tables.

Actually my decision will probably be to use both: EDBServer on a hosted
server, local database on the customers' laptops and using replication.
Since the amount of data, that has to be exchanged, is not that large,
it should work this way.

Any better solution is appreciated.

Thanks for the holiday wishes - I'll spend these days with learning the
whole replication stuff. Looks a bit complicated, but I am optimistic.
Anyway no sun here in Munich.

Cheers Uli