Best way to do remote file access? Server setup question.

[mikeh]

Guys,

I have a friend who runs a shipping company. He has 4 separate warehouses. His main office has a file server (its a Windows 2003 server so don't shoot me).

Anyway his remote warehouses have 3-4 computers each (XP) that connect to the main office to be able to use the companies DOS (yep DOS) based Foxpro database.

Now currently the way he does is it is he has his clients log into the Microsoft Remote Web Workplace with their browser, and from there they connect to a desktop system in the main office.

So basically he has 12 computers all running Windows XP in a closet. The three remote warehouses have 4 PC's there that connect to one of those 12 remote PC's at the main location.

So he is basically having his remote locations Remote Desktop into one of 12 computers in the main office and running the database program on the remote PC, but seeing the screen on their PC.

His database is all custom stuff he wrote for Foxpro for DOS and he doesn't want to leave that for now.

Anyway I had set him up with a new firewall recently and was talking about ways to reduce this setup he has and its complexity and management.

My original thought is to setup a VPN server there on site and let the remote clients VPN in and be part of the network there off site. Then let them map the file server's drive and run the fox pro data base application. So in a sense remove the 12 PC's in the main office from the mix since the outside PC's will be running the database program themselves now.

The main issues with this are I wonder if the database access over a remote share through the VPN would be too slow. Or if the VPN connection drops for some reason and you are in the middle of running the database app and working with it, at a minimum you could lose that work, or possibly get corrupted data in the database.

We also talked about the idea of running a vmware server and having a bunch of XP clients running under VM's on this server. So he still uses the same setup, but instead of 12 or so PC's in a closet, he has one server running 12 VM's (might have to limit the number of VM's due to memory requirements). Although this solution doesn't seem very elegant.

But I am curious what you guys think. Basically I am looking for ideas on how he can still use his XP boxes in the remote warehouses, to connect to the main office, and access the foxpro database.

Eventually I am hoping to migrate him to Linux, but I need to take it in small steps, but I think Linux could prove useful for this first step and start him moving towards it more in the future.

Any thoughts or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[Linc]

Guys,

I have a friend who runs a shipping company. He has 4 separate warehouses. His main office has a file server (its a Windows 2003 server so don't shoot me).

Anyway his remote warehouses have 3-4 computers each (XP) that connect to the main office to be able to use the companies DOS (yep DOS) based Foxpro database.

Now currently the way he does is it is he has his clients log into the Microsoft Remote Web Workplace with their browser, and from there they connect to a desktop system in the main office.

So basically he has 12 computers all running Windows XP in a closet. The three remote warehouses have 4 PC's there that connect to one of those 12 remote PC's at the main location.

So he is basically having his remote locations Remote Desktop into one of 12 computers in the main office and running the database program on the remote PC, but seeing the screen on their PC.

His database is all custom stuff he wrote for Foxpro for DOS and he doesn't want to leave that for now.

Anyway I had set him up with a new firewall recently and was talking about ways to reduce this setup he has and its complexity and management.

My original thought is to setup a VPN server there on site and let the remote clients VPN in and be part of the network there off site. Then let them map the file server's drive and run the fox pro data base application. So in a sense remove the 12 PC's in the main office from the mix since the outside PC's will be running the database program themselves now.

The main issues with this are I wonder if the database access over a remote share through the VPN would be too slow. Or if the VPN connection drops for some reason and you are in the middle of running the database app and working with it, at a minimum you could lose that work, or possibly get corrupted data in the database.

We also talked about the idea of running a vmware server and having a bunch of XP clients running under VM's on this server. So he still uses the same setup, but instead of 12 or so PC's in a closet, he has one server running 12 VM's (might have to limit the number of VM's due to memory requirements). Although this solution doesn't seem very elegant.

But I am curious what you guys think. Basically I am looking for ideas on how he can still use his XP boxes in the remote warehouses, to connect to the main office, and access the foxpro database.

Eventually I am hoping to migrate him to Linux, but I need to take it in small steps, but I think Linux could prove useful for this first step and start him moving towards it more in the future.

Any thoughts or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Well, what I *can* tell you is that foxpro for dos runs fine under dosemu on a linux box. Did it that way for a couple years at my last job. That being the case it opens up a whole world of new possibilities for ya. For instance dosemu running foxpro on different accounts on the same server (no extra machines, physical or virtual). They could all share the same data directory or what have you. Your remotes could just vnc into their account (or ssh/telnet for that matter).

[eddie]

freenx/nx might be considered.

[mikeh]

Linc,

Interesting approach on the dosemu. May have to check into that.

The only potential issue I could see with that is printing. I haven't really looked at his database setup, but I don't know if the Remote Web Services redirect his printer output from the virtual PC running the database to a printer in the remote location.

If they do then I would have to have a way for a print on the remote dosemu session going to a printer on that PC's local network.

[mikeh]

Also Linc,

Any thoughts on how persistent the dosemu state for each user can be made?

By that I mean right now if he is connected to a virtual XP machine running the database app, and his internet connection dies or hiccups for a second and he loses the remote access, once he reconnects the machine is still right where he left off. If he was entering information into the database when the connection dropped, he can reconnect and continue.

Would that kind of persistence be possible with dosemu? I was assuming if they were connected to a ssh session to the server, running dosemu to run foxpro and the connection goes, they will lose their login session, and their dosemu session.

And upon relogging into the ssh session they would have to restart the dosemu session.

I am not to hip on dosemu and all its setup so I apologize for the questions.

[Linc]

Also Linc,

Any thoughts on how persistent the dosemu state for each user can be made?

By that I mean right now if he is connected to a virtual XP machine running the database app, and his internet connection dies or hiccups for a second and he loses the remote access, once he reconnects the machine is still right where he left off. If he was entering information into the database when the connection dropped, he can reconnect and continue.

Would that kind of persistence be possible with dosemu? I was assuming if they were connected to a ssh session to the server, running dosemu to run foxpro and the connection goes, they will lose their login session, and their dosemu session.

And upon relogging into the ssh session they would have to restart the dosemu session.

I am not to hip on dosemu and all its setup so I apologize for the questions.

Been a good while since I have done this, but as I recall there are 2 modes of operation for dosemu. One is an xterm-ish type window that dosemu runs in, the other is running dosemu through a shell prompt itself. If you did the latter and used screen you would have complete persistence from connection to connection. If doing the former with the xterm-ish dosemu session and you used vnc to connect, you would also maintain persistence.