Fellow Samba-meisters, I'm wondering if anyone can share real-world experience running PC database apps (like M$ Access) with database files shared from a samba server. How well has the record locking proven to work? I will be setting up a small office network for a client w/ a Linux server running samba as a file/print server and 4 or 5 Win95 clients running Office97 apps. This is slightly off-topic, but I was wondering if anyone could offer a comparison of samba-sharing PC db files or using a C/S setup with something like PostgreSQL as a backend. -- Scott D. Webster swebster@carroll.com Etc Services Voice: 201.385.7113 Linux / Unix Consulting Pager: 800.379.2402
On Tue, 2 Dec 1997, Roeland M.J. Meyer wrote:> At 13:31 03-12-97 +1100, Scott D. Webster wrote: > >Fellow Samba-meisters,<Question regarding sharing PC db files w/ samba>> > This is slightly off-topic, but I was wondering if anyone could > >offer a comparison of samba-sharing PC db files or using a C/S setup with > >something like PostgreSQL as a backend. > > I've done both and if you're going to have the RDBMS on thew Linux box > anyway then why cripple it by using a non-native RDBMS? My vote's for > Empress, but PostgreSQL, with ODBC face, is much preferred over Access, on > Linux. You also eliminate the extra networking Samba layers and traffic on > your LAN. > > Look at it this way, you *have* to run Access on a Windows machine, but the > actual data is on an *other* machine (Linux), via a Samba mount. Queries go > across the LAN to hit the Access server, which exchanges *more* packets > with Samba server to get the data. Bottom-line is that you collision light > will *stay* lit forever. Even with 100baseTX, this is not a good topology. > The same data is hitting the LAN 2-3 times before your app gets the point. > > I think that you either want to use Access on a WinNT server or go with a > full client/server solution.Well, the use of Access is a given and I'm using Linux not NT. My client is using Access already. I'm not doing any db programming or development for him, I'm just setting up the server. My options are (a) use Access to manipulate db files shared through samba (w/ record locking) or (b) use Access to manipulate the db over an ODBC connection to PostgreSQL. Does anyone care to comment on the desirability/viability of these options? -- Scott D. Webster swebster@carroll.com Etc Services Voice: 201.385.7113 Linux / Unix Consulting Pager: 800.379.2402
You wrote:> Well, the use of Access is a given and I'm using Linux not NT. My > client is using Access already. I'm not doing any db programming or > development for him, I'm just setting up the server. My options are (a) > use Access to manipulate db files shared through samba (w/ record locking) > or (b) use Access to manipulate the db over an ODBC connection to > PostgreSQL. > > Does anyone care to comment on the desirability/viability of these > options?Sure: Access using file locking works fine, but doesn't scale, while real databases scale, but have a high installation/admin cost. If you don't know what the user is likely to do over an extended period, choosing either will likely be wrong (:-)) Seriously, though, if this appears to be a one-off, according to the customer's expectations, set it up as a single-user file-based database with file locking, but leave him with the expectation that he'll have to convert ($$$) to a real database if he wants real multi-user capabilities. A wise customer will tell you if he's going to want to have lots of users on the db. A foolish one will tell you the opposite. Setting either's expectations correctly will make him sensitive to the costs in money and your time, and in the latter case will motivate him to keep the load down to something that a file-locking based db emulator scan handle. --dave (wearing his dogbert hat) c-b [ I consider giving out file-based Access programs to be rather like giving out free samples of crack cocaine.] -- David Collier-Brown, | Always do right. This will gratify some people 185 Ellerslie Ave., | and astonish the rest. -- Mark Twain Willowdale, Ontario | davecb@hobbes.ss.org, canada.sun.com M2N 1Y3. 416-223-8968 | http://java.science.yorku.ca/~davecb