Multi-Location/State installation

Fisherman

All -

We are a mid-sized company with locations in 5 states. We are working on implementing Navision across the company, when we've encountered an issue. Running Navision 4.0 SP1 across our Point-to-Point T1 network is ... well ... slow. I expected as much due to the thin-client design, with all of the objects stored as blobs in the db.

Does anyone have any advice, or articles they can point me towards. We've thought about clustering at the SQL Server level (2000 SP4), so that each location has an instance of the server locally, but I'm unsure if this will get us where we want to be.

Microsoft has told us that they don't think running Nav 4.0 across a T1 is a particularly good idea, either... but they've not provided any alternatives.

Any ideas?

ara3n

Remote desktop or Citrix. Hundreds of clients use it. It works great over internet. Pick on solution. Also you can use clustering for failure but you can't have mulitple instances of server running if connection breaks.

Alex_Chow

Citrix is probably the best solution since remote desktop only supports one session per computer.

The downside to Citrix is that it's expensive. It's so expensive that it's probably cheaper buy a bunch of cheap Dell computers and have each user log in through Remote Desktop.

themave

Buy a good server for terminal server, no need for citrix, but you can use if you want. Will be way cheaper then buying sql servers for each location.

we run 7 remote locations, T1 at corporate office with terminal server, and remotes all have dsl lines at their location, runs without a problem.

but everything requires you have a properly configured terminal server. go to Microsoft site and search terminal server, you will get to plenty of article on how to size and set it up. You can set terminal server up in a cluster for load balancing and redundancy.

Bottom line if you are thinking of running separate sql servers at each location, then you can get better performance for a cheaper price buy going the terminal server/citrix route.

ara3n

ara3n wrote:

Remote desktop or Citrix. Hundreds of clients use it. It works great over internet. Pick on solution. Also you can use clustering for failure but you can't have mulitple instances of server running if connection breaks.

Sorry for remote desktop I meant Terminal server.


DeadLizard. Dell boxes as remote desktops cheaper than citrix? Oh the suport nightmare for the person who is going to maintain those.

Fisherman

A terminal Services server per location on the central network at HQ has been discussed. We had hoped to get them on the same Gb backplane as the database server itself. The only issue is that we're also using ADCS with the Lanham Add-on, and it requires the NAS to be running. Any perceived problems with that setup and Terminal Services/Citrix?

We think we'd definitely need more than one terminal services server because of the number of users, but we may be wrong... I guess a hefty dual 3.2GHz Xeon dual-core system with a couple of Gb NICs would work pretty well... We're a Dell shop, so it'd probably be the Dell 2850.

Mave - Your setup sounds similar to ours (with the exception of the DSL). You haven't noticed appreciable lag or downtime due to the TS? My concern is redundancy from our central location to the others. Louisville (for some reason) experiences a lot of fiber cuts, and we tend to lose connection to our other sites.

bbrown

A couple of comments/suggestions:

Consider building a load-balancing cluster of the terminal servers, rather than a dedicated box per site. This will build some fault-tolerance inot the system.

Use dedicated private data lines.

Fisherman

A good idea - I would want to do that, but it only resolves fault tolerance within my corporate LAN. The WAN (dedicated Point-to-Point T1s) is where we lose connections.

bbrown

There are ways to build fault-tolerance into a WAN infrastructure. The method taken depends on the level of fault-tolerance desired and the available budget.

Fisherman

yeah... unfortunately we can't afford a wheel & spoke WAN, or redundant T1s from different carriers.

bbrown

You could use site-to-site VPNs to backup your T1 network. By the way, how many users at each site?

Fisherman

True.. had not considered that. A VPN/Firewall device across DSL or Cable could maintain a backup connection...

The number of users varies. At some sites, its only a handful who would be using the Navision client - at others, it could be 40 or 50. All of the picks/packs/putaways/movements however will be done on the ADCS/Lanham suite, so each warehouse employee will have a Symbol 802.11 b/g WinCE device running a terminal emulator (VT100) to the NAS.

DenSter

Have you asked Lanham if they have recommendations for your situation? I have had very good experiences with their support staff.

Fisherman

We've been told to refer to our vendor, but I have talked to them on a few occasions.