Navision (network)

Alex

Hello Folks,

We want to use Navision over more the one
locations (three), and right now we look
for a good solution.
Maybe one is to have one Navision server
and all the client must connect through
a network line 2Mbytes.
The other idear is to connect the other
clients via Citrix.

Have anyone of you some experience in this
area ?

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Best regards
Alex Schubert

ERP & Navision

Dolphin Communication Technologies GmbH
Otto-Hahnstr. 1 c
D-69190 Walldorf
<A HREF="mailto:schubert@dolphinct.de">schubert@dolphinct.de</A>
schubert@dolphinct.de
DolphinCT.de

db

We are implemented replication.
One server (~9 Gb. fdb NF 1.30) and 11 departments connected over Frame relay (64 kbps with CIR 9.6 for data transfer).
Used own developed software. Every department have own server (up to 2 Gb) with up to 5 users. Some tables are two way replicated. Used data transformation.

This is good solution if using different languages.

P.S.:You can check kloster-import too.

mfabian

I think it depends a) of the geographical location, the distance between the headquarter and the outposts and b) on the workload. Direct lines are quite expensive depending on the distance but might be the best solution if a lot of remote-users are working simultaneously and performance is a key issue.
I made very good experience with Metaframe 1.8 which allows the remote users to connect to the server via Internet. This is a very cheap solution as for the connection only local charges (to the next ISP) apply and the through-put is amazingly fast.

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Marcus Fabian
m.fabian@thenet.ch
+41 79 439 78 72

Alex

Thank you a lot !
But the question is, Are these soltions fast enough,
If you use e.g. 20 User over Internet (winframe)?

---

Best regards
Alex Schubert

ERP & Navision

Dolphin Communication Technologies GmbH
Otto-Hahnstr. 1 c
D-69190 Walldorf
<A HREF="mailto:schubert@dolphinct.de">schubert@dolphinct.de</A>
schubert@dolphinct.de
DolphinCT.de

mfabian

I was talking about Metaframe, not Winframe!
However the answer to your question (re: 20 users) is: Yes, it is fast enough. Simply because only keyboard-strokes and mouse-events are sent to the server and screen-output is being sent back.
Look at it from the point of view from the server: He doesn't care whether he receives the requests via LAN or Internet.
From the point of view of the clients it fully depends on the quality and speed of the internet access. If you have 20 Users who share the same 9600 Bd dial-up phoneline, you'll definitely have a bottleneck there but with normal ISDN-speed of 64000 Bd it might be ok.
Of course, if all 20 users want to issue large Reports at the same time you might run into long "delivery times".
The thing I most like about the Metaframe solution is that it's very easily scaleable at relatively low costs. If one 64k line is not enough you can easily open a second and third one according to the traffic.

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Marcus Fabian
m.fabian@thenet.ch
+41 79 439 78 72

John_Tegelaar

One of our clients is using a wireless (radio) LAN connection between their locations (approx. 1 km apart) with a 2 MB throughput. Even though Navision clients run from the (file)server, the speed is okay. There about 10 users at the remote location, and about 15 in the main office. So, this might be a good alternative for your customer too, as a radio LAN is much cheaper in running costs!

For another user we have a project under study to grant access to (a dedicated part of) Navision over the web (Intranet). Analysis so far told us that Citrix MetaFrame is the best solution here. No special tools required at the user-side (the ICA client is available for about every platform thinkable) and up to speed, even with slow dial-up connections. Moderate in initial cost, and easily expandle as needs grow. Our Citrix specialists/advisors emphasized, however, to make sure that the Navision server and the Citrix server are two independent systems. To rephrase them "you'll get a better performance with two separate light-weight servers, than with one heavy-weight that runs both". Needless to say that the Citrix and Navision servers need to have a fast communication link.

John