Navision from Remote Locations

Soumyadip

I am trying to access the central database server from remote location, which would be the best option in terms of performance, having a citrix server or using a dedicated VPN connection to connect to the server.

bbrown

Citrix/Terminal Server is the best solution. If connecting over the public internet, use along with a VPN for a more secure connection. Go with private lines if dealing with fixed locations and budget allows.

kriki

Never connect directly to the DB-server. There is a lot of data going from the server to the client. If you work in a remote location, it would be way to slow!

kine

And the system is as fast as fast is the slowest... :-)

DenSter

Brilliant remark Kamil

That means your slowest user could hold up everybody else. You could have a stateof the art system that is built for 500 users, use it only for 10 users and have deadlocks all over the place just because of one remote user ("could", not "will").

Soumyadip

Please Explain Me In Details....

Thank You In Advance....

kine

Because the Navision needs to lock tables or records when updating data, other users which need same data must wait for lock release. If the updating client is slow, the whole process is too long and the time between locking and releasing is long. It means, all must wait this time. => The system could be as slow as slow is the slowest. The slow client is bottleneck and this bottleneck degrade the performance of whole system. This is remarkable mainly if the difference between the "fast" and "slow" is large. Of course, if you eliminate this bottleneck, you will have another one...

The reality is of course much complicated because all this depends on what the client is doing, how much tables is locking etc. But you need to think about that and is good to eliminate such a bottleneck...

DenSter

It's because Navision is a 'fat' client (i.e. the opposite of a thin client). It pulls all the data to the client machine, does the processing and writes the data back to the database. Just opening the Item list could result in enormous data traffic. If you are connected remotely, you are pulling all that data across an internet connection. So say you want to post an invoice, it will start the transaction, pull all the data in, lock all the necessary tables, and keep things locked until the transaction is complete. All other users are now waiting for you to finish.

A better solution would be to connect to a TS or Citrix server, and start Navision there. Typically, the TS/Citrix box is in the same room as the Navision server, so speed is not as much of an issue.

In fact, a TS/Citrix configuration is recommended for bigger installations anyway, especially if you have many older computers in your company.

kriki

A small example.
Let's say that at a certain moment in time 10 users decide to post an invoice at exact the same millisecond. These will all be done 1 by 1.
Let's say that in your supersystem with super clients every invoice takes 0.1 second, so the last will have to wait 1 second before his invoice will be posted.
If 1 of you clients is so slow it takes 10 seconds to post the invoice, the last user will have to wait 10.9 seconds before his invoice will be posted.
Now if the slow client is the last user to post the invoice, no one (except maybe that user) will complain. If it is the first to post the invoice, the second user will wait 9.1 seconds before his invoice will be posted and the users behind him each 0.1 second longer.

Soumyadip

Thanks a lot...
I got it now ...
If I use only TS insteed of TS/Citrix what will be the impact???