We plan to setup client and server for peachtree accounting system.
currently, we have software Sage Peachtree Quantum 2010 Accountant, so could we use this
software for making client and server?
Do you have any ideas regarding this issue?
If the Quantum still uses the pervasive database, it uses the server side database to lock the files, and is very active. Depending upon your latency of connection it may or may not work out. We used Peachtree Compete 2004 and were successful in connecting by VPN, with a mapped drive to the datapath, nut it was very slow, albeit the connections were very slow back then. So this is a no answer answer, just an encouragement to setup a VPN and give it a try. Our last current version is Peachtree apremium, and it will not run this way, nor will it run under terminal services, which is an alternate solution. However, I am told that the latest versions will run under terminal services, as we are considering upgrading to such. Sage's tech support is junk, so do not look directly to them for much help, however there are a lot of good VAR support companies that vary in competence and may be good for some assistance. Good luck.
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I need to take a huge Delphi XE application (backed by proprietary SQL server NexusDB) and begin providing my clients the ability to access the system in new ways:
Thinner Windows client for slow/VPN connections
Mobile/Tablet
Web
DataSnap appropriate for this or is introducing a middle tier the wrong way about providing remote/mobile access? Other solutions/ideas welcome.
(I have XE2 Enterprise but am stuck on XE Enterprise for awhile.)
DataSnap is being aggressively positioned by Embarcadero as a Multi-platform connectivity solution, where servers are written in Delphi, and mobile connectors are available (in XE2 and later) for a variety of mobile device platforms. So the quick answer is yes, it is suitable in general.
Is it suitable for you? You haven't said much that would help me answer that question; You are willing to buy Enterprise or Architect SKUs of Delphi, so I would guess yes.
If it was me, I'd look for a solution that implements a pure simple REST architecture that is available to every system out there, mobile or otherwise, no matter what language or platform, but I haven't got a suggested alternative because it seems to me that SOAP is nearly dead and that there is no universal replacement technology out there that does everything that soap client/server systems do. I'd be tempted to consider "roll your own REST+json" or evaluate Remobject's product offerings too, and select a path that makes sense for you, from a business and technical point of view.
Datasnap is fine, but it's not the only option. It's probably the simplest and most easy to roll out option currently available, and the only one "out of box" ready to go in XE2 if you want apple, android, and a few others, right away.
That depends on your security needs, and the way you're providing data to clients. As I often pointed out, dbExpress-Datasnap has big security flaws (while the DCOM version is not well suited outside a LAN, and does not offer out of the box mobile devices support).
A web application would have less issues because the datasnap-web server connection would be probaby internal, it would be up to the web application to ensure data protection.
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I am looking at hosting a new site on a cloud service. It looks like cool technology, pricing is attractive, and I can scale in case my plans for global internet domination come to fruition.
I have spent a good chunk of time figuring out what back-end to use thought. The site is in ASP.NET MVC, and I have hit a brick wall when it comes to SQL Server. I am not keen on paying the licensing for a small site just starting up. It's great for the day job but I am looking past it for this new site.
SQL Azure looks like it's price is perfect, however the price of their computing scared me off, and Development Accelerator Core is too much risk with its contract stipulations.
I have been checking out all sorts of alternative approaches:
Open Source Databases (MYSQL, Postgres) with Entity Framework
Nosql (MongoDB, CouchDB, SimpleDB, DB40, Cassandra)
Dedicated SQL Server
SQL Server Web Edition
Calling SQL Azure from another cloud
Right now my plan is to host the web server (IIS) and the database server on the same instance (1GB RAM Windows 2008 R2) and then scaling out as needed.
At this point I welcome what others have figured out, what has worked, what hasn't worked. I appreciate any experiences you want to share.
db4o isn't free and their licensing is chaotic, or at least was when I spoke with them last. As a result, I'd stay away.
Don't forget about RavenDB by Ayende & crew. The licensing is about $700 but they say that they will consider waiving the first license fee for startups. I've been dabbling around with it and I've got to say, it's quite impressive NoSQL solution. It's similar to CouchDB but very .net oriented with some one ups on Couch (imo).
Finally, if you join BizSpark by Microsoft, they will give you some free airtime on Azure. Pretty sure some sql love is included with it.
Cheers and good luck mate.
Sql Azure here. You don't need the computing time to use the database, it only exists if you're running an application on Azure.
MySql with EF: so far only real issue I've faced was a bug with a very long running query in the MySql connector / a trip to the issue tracker revealed a workaround that one could use by modifying + compiling the source of the connector ... just until the fix went into the next patch.
db4o: this is in a recent project / already in place when I joined. 2 issues so far:
It doesn't have much support to efficiently aggregate data. As I understand this is usual in NoSql / you just use a different design for it (at least that's what we have done and have worked).
You need to understand well the various modes involved for the database and the operations. Trying to jump too far ahead easily gets you into performance issues at even small loads. It's more a learning curve issue, using the right bits performs very well.
I have to admit that Chance answer worried me for a moment. When I joined the project with db4o it was already in place, so I didn't look at license considerations at the time. This said, I've always understood that you can use GPL code on web sites. Similar to this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/94346/can-i-legally-incorporate-gpl-lgpl-open-sourced-software-in-a-proprietary-clo/94468#94468, if you don't distribute you can use it. Based on the last comment posted by Chance, I'd say it's likely there was some sort of communication issue there.
orcsweb.com offer cloud servers for US$99 per month. Pretty good deal considering that I was paying US$300 to them for a virtual server.
The thing that sets orcsweb.com apart is their technical service. For US$124 per month, they provide a fully managed service on the server.
So for US$223 per month, I get it all and don't have to worry about the server for all my clients.
Database is thrown in for free: sql express 2005 or 2008. This sounds enough for your initial requirements. We run full blown eCommerce catalogues on this and it is fine. If the website grows, well then you that is good news and you can afford to pay for a sql server licence.
If this sounds like a plug for orcsweb, it is, but I don't get anything out of it... We have had great service from them. My job is to write apps, not run a server. We have about 30 clients and we host them all on our one account with orcsweb. That works out a US$7 per client. Can't be bad.
EDIT:
Important!!:
Please note that the above prices are for a Web Server. It host any number of websites and has a SQL Express installation thrown in.
I may have misunderstood the question, but the answer is still valid because the SQL Express will run your app in its early stages.
Not sure how much data you are dealing with, but are the SQL Express skus an option? They can handle just about anything a web app should be doing with the data while being at the right price point and an easy upgrade path.
Failing that, I'd go with the nosql option as that seems to make quite a bit more sense these days and its designed with the cloud in mind.
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Many people suggest to develop web applications in open source technologies.
And one of the reason is the cost involved in hosting and the licensing of software.
How costly can it be to build and deploy an application in asp.net mvc compared to any other open source technology?
I don't think they're talking about the time required to develop on the Microsoft stack. They're talking about the cost of:
tools (Visual Studio, Resharper);
operating systems (Windows Vista, Windows Server); and
databases (SQL Server 2005/2008).
And yes you could use Mono + Linux but that's a feature-incomplete implementation (at this point) and presents greater risk than the Microsoft-certified solution. Plus MonoDevelop isn't as good as Visual Studio. I think Mono is still fairly limited as a production option.
Microsoft has a program for startups (called BizSpark) that can effectively eliminate those costs for startups (less than $1m annual revenue iirc) but get beyond that and it can get real expensive. Based on some of Jeff's comments I have to wonder if Stackoverflow is deliberately staying below this level (by only accepting a certain amount of ad placements) to avoid this. Note: he hasn't said that. That's just a question that occurred to me.
But compare that to say a PHP or Java development stack:
Dev machine: Windows, Linux (free), Mac or whatever;
MySQL (Free) running on Linux;
Apache or nginx (both free);
etc.
That being said, the concept of using really cheap boxes, while popular, isn't universally better. You'll use a lot more power that way (compared to higher spec servers). And higher spec severs will tend to work out cheaper in commercial licensing costs than buying software for lots of cheap boxes. So you have to be careful in comparing commercial vs non-commercial solutions.
Take a look at Scaling Up vs. Scaling Out: Hidden Costs.
I don't want to get into the issue of the cost of development because there are too many factors to make any unqualified statements. Like any other stack, there are probably things it's good at and things it could be better at.
All the discussions here about cost assume that you're going to buy your own server (which is pretty much crazy for 99% of the world). Third-party hosting services are generally pretty cheap, and it doesn't matter whether you go for Microsoft or Linux or whatever. Let the hosting service deal with all that crap, and go with the stack that is easiest for you to use.
Unless you qualify for BizSpark or maybe the Empower program, you will need to buy licenses for Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio, Windows 7 (or Vista, XP). For a startup that can be cost prohibitive.
That depends entirely on which Microsoft products you license for your project. For example, SQL Server 2008 Enterprise alone costs $24,000. If you can get by with the Express addition, however, it is free.
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/pricing.aspx
Then you need the OS (again several choices) and development tools (yet again more options at different prices).
Summary: If you are building a small app it is not very expensive. There are free versions of most parts of the stack except the OS. And if you are using a hosted solution, the OS cost is even hidden. If you are going large and doing it all yourself, it can be extremely expensive.
On a totally different side of the spectrum, check out the prices at GoDaddy.com for shared hosting (and there are probably other hosts as well). On the 7-buck-a-month plan you get ASP.NET v1.0/2.0/3.0/3.5 and two MS SQL databases. Serious devs will say, "who would use shared hosting?" but seriously, put some hosting up there and hit it hard. You will see that the response times are nice, app deployment is easy (but you do not get full control, so you have to use medium-trust security and other stuff), and you get 1,500 GB of monthly transfer and 150 GB of disk space.
So that's the full MS stack for $7 a month. Of course, everything is shared (even the MSSql instances), but for MANY apps it is a perfect solution. Shared hosting is a joke in certain cases, but colocated servers and all that stuff is a joke for many startups that have no particularly interesting technology needs.
For basic web apps they're strictly talking about Windows itself. Linux is free, so hosting is cheaper for Linux-based hosting than for Windows-based hosting. However, the entire Microsoft stack beyond the initial Windows license is completely free, so long as you stick with the "Express" flavors of all parts. SQL Server 2008 Express is more akin to a straight mySQL deployment than SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition is.
Download: MS Web Platform (free tools)
For enterprise applications, they're talking about the enterprise-class toolsets. SQL Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise edition costs thousands of dollars. Visual Studio 2008 Pro costs hundreds. However, if you're comparing to Linux, you really don't need any of that; anyone who needs that stuff is already working with the Microsoft stack at a heavy level anyway. The Express stack will get most people very far.
I don't know Microsoft's specific licensing policies (I can assume they are pretty reasonable), but I can tell you that developer tools are often more pricey than you'd imagine when you start licensing for your company.
Often when you start buying developer licenses for teams of, say, 20-50 you are starting to talk about millions of dollars up front costs. $100,000 per developer wouldn't be unheard of (not counting the often mandatory annual support fees which can double that number easily).
I wouldn't think this would happen with Microsoft because Microsoft developers are such a wide market, but I wouldn't be surprised if specific MS developer licenses for all your assorted tools--database, MSDN subscription, enterprise servers (which will probably be required by the database or something), ... got to be rather pricey once you started multiplying them by 20 - 50 seats.
If you want to use ASP.NET you need
IIS
A server with Windows (for IIS)
Visual Studio
A work station with Windows for Visual Studio
If you want to use PHP, Perl, Mono, Ruby... you need
A web server that supports the technology wanted. May be Apache, IIS...
An OS that supports your weberver
A workstation with any Linux, Window or mac
So if you chose to use an Open technology, you have the choice to work with what you want.
If you want to use .NET you have to work with Windows.
Recently I have become curious about the Minix OS. http://www.minix3.org/
I am very taken with descriptions of its robustness & reliability features, but I have noticed a distinct paucity of software packages available for the platform.
Has anybody here developed software for (or ported software to) Minix? Anything unexpected about the process?
Minix 3 is a new version; LINUX was prompted on the original Minix.
Minix is really best suited to small systems of embedded systems. If you have an old x86 PC around it should run minix handily, giving you an environment very much like what we called "an amazing workstation" in the mid-80's.
I loved programming in that environment; I'd say go for it, but remember that it is an experimenal environment, not what you want for your day-to-day system.
Coded round robin scheduler and such with nano, SSH connection can be used to code in new fashion platforms and send back the files. Minix is a great way to learn basics about Operating Systems.
I came across this piece while finding out how to contribute to minix. I liked it:
http://prasannakumartsm.wordpress.com/
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I was recently approached by a network-engineer, co-worker who would like to offload his minor network admin duties to a junior-level helpdesk tech. The specific location in need of management acts as an ISP for tenants on its single-site property, so there's a lot of small adjustments being made on a daily basis.
I am thinking it would be helpful to write him a winform app to manage the 32 Cisco devices, on-site. I'd like to initially provide functionality which could modify access control lists, port VLAN assignments, and bandwidth limitations per VLAN... adding more to the list as its deemed valuable.
My initial thought was to emulate a telnet session with the network device; utilizing my network-engineer's familiarity with the command-line / IOS interaction. Minimal time would be required to learn Cisco IOS conventions, myself.
Though while searching for solutions, it appears that most people favor SNMP. That, or, their specific circumstances pushed them in the direction of SNMP.
I wanted to know if I've overlooked an obvious benefit of SNMP. Should I be using SNMP? Why or why not?
SNMP is great for getting information out of a Cisco device, but is not very useful controlling the device. (although technically, you can push a new config to a Cisco IOS device using a combination of SNMP and TFTP. But sending a whole new config is a pretty blunt instrument for controlling your router or switch).
One of the other commenters mentioned the Cisco IOS XR XML API. It's important to note that the IOS XR XML API is only available on devices that run IOS XR. IOS XR is only used on a few of Cisco's high end carrier class devices, so for 99% of all Cisco routers and switches the IOS XR XML API is not an option.
Other possibilities are SSH or HTTP (many Cisco routers, switches, AP, etc. have an optional web interface). But I'd recommend against either of those. To my knowledge, the web interface isn't very consistent across devices, and a rather surprising number of Cisco devices don't support SSH, or at least don't support it in the base license.
Telnet is really the only way to go, unless you're only targeting a small range of device models. To give you something to compare against, Cisco's own CiscoWorks network management software uses Telnet to connect to managed devices.
I wouldn't use SNMP, instead look at a little language called 'expect'. it makes for a very nice expect/response processor for these routers.
I have done a reasonable amount of real world SNMP programming with Cisco switches and find Python on top of Net-SNMP to be quite reasonable. Here is an example, via Google books, of uploading a new Cisco configuration via Net-SNMP and Python: Cisco Switch Upload via Net-SNMP and Python. I should disclose I was the co-author of the book referenced in the link.
Everyone's milage may vary, but I personally do not like using expect, and prefer to use SNMP because it was actually designed to be a "Simple Network Management Protocol". In a pinch, expect is ok, but it would not be my first choice. One of the reasons some companies use expect is that a developer just gets used to using expect. I wouldn't necessarily chock up bypassing SNMP just because there is an example of someone automating telnet or ssh. Try it out for self first.
There can be some truly horrible things that happen with expect, that may not be obvious as well. Because expect waits for input, under the right conditions there be very subtle problems that are difficult to debug. This doesn't mean a very experienced developer can't develop reliable code with expect, but it something to be aware of as well.
One of the other things you may want to look at is an example of using the multiprocessing module to write non-blocking SNMP code. Because this is my first post to stackoverflow I cannot post more then one link, but if you google for it you can find it, or another one on using IPython and Net-SNMP.
One thing to keep in mind when writing SNMP code is that it involves reading a lot of documentation and doing trial and error. In the case of Cisco, the documentation is quite good though.
SNMP isn't bad but it may not be able to do everything you need it to do. Depending on the library you use and how it hides the details of interacting with SNMP you may have a hard time finding the correct parts of the MIB to change and even knowing what or how to change them to do what you want.
One reason not to use SNMP is that you can do all the configuration you need using the IOS XR XML API. It could be a lot easier to bundle up the commands you want to send to the devices using that than to interact with SNMP.
I've found SNMP to be a pain for management. If you just need to grab a little data it's great; if you need to change things or use if heavily it can be very time consuming. In my case I'm comfortable with the CLI so a Telnet approach works well. I've written some Python scripts to perform administrative tasks on various pieces of network gear using Telnetlib
SNMP has quite a significant CPU hit on the devices in question compared to telnet; I'd recommend telnet wherever possible. (As stated in a previous answer, the IOS XR XML API would be nice, but as far as I know IOS XR is only deployed on high-end carrier grade routers).
In terms of existing configuration management systems, two commercial players are HP Opsware, and EMC Voyence. Both will probably do what you need. I'm not aware of many open source solutions that actually support deploying changes. (RANCID, for example, only does configuration monitoring, not pre-staging and deploying config changes).
If you are going to roll your own solution, one thing I would recommend is sitting down with your network admin and coming up with a best-practice deployment model for the service he's providing (e.g. standardised ACL, QoS queue, and VLAN names; similar entries in ACLs that have the same function for different customers, etc.). Ensure that all the existing deployed config complies with this BP before you start your design, it will make the problem much more manageable. Best of luck.
Sidenote: before you reinvent the wheel writing another service provisioning system/network management system, try looking for existing ones. I know quite a lot of commercial solutions of various degrees of flexibility/functionality, but I am sure there are quite a lot opensource ones.
Cisco has included menu options for helpdesk applications. Basically you telnet to the box and it presents a nice clean menu (press 1, 2, 3). For more info check this link:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2/configfun/command/reference/frf001.html#wp1050026
Another vote for expect.
Also, you don't want to allow configuration of your firewalls via either telnet or SNMP - ssh is the only way to go. The reason is that ssh encrypts its payload, and will not expose the privileged management credentials to potential interception.
If for some reason you cannot use ssh directly, consider connecting up an ssh-enabled serial console server to the firewall's console port and configuring it that way.