Running Access in a Citrix Environment

[rjgriffin46]

Paul, in response to your comments:



2. What struck me in testing was that Access handled the near simultaneous additions and updates properly and even inserted the respective Windows login names for each user into "Changed by" fields. In addition, each user received the different reports they requested as well as their own query filtering and sorting. To me it begs the question: how is this apparant isolation done and if more/all 5 users have the front end open at the same time will it then become unreliable?

4. I was able to compile after commenting out several Dim statements and 1 Set statement in the basAudit module I obtained for change logging. Some quick testing of the resulting Accde file seems positive.

Thanks!

[pbaldy]

It's been quite a few years so I don't remember the specific problems I had. As I recall one of them was a front end table used for saving user input for queries. Users overwrote each other's input. I do recall there being other issues that I couldn't immediately attribute to users sharing a copy of the FE, but they went away as soon as I changed my method.

You seem locked in on staying with the single copy, so go for it and see how it goes.

[rjgriffin46]

Paul:

Thanks for recounting your experience. While I am pretty locked in, I did condition my consent to understanding how Citrix provides the front end to each concurrent user. We do have at least daily automated backup of our Citrix and shared file environments so restores can readily be done by our IT staff. I'm even thinking of asking for a scheduled task/process that off hours copies over the shared front end with a static copy. I might also be a good way of delivering updates. Of course that would fail I suppose if someone didn't close the database.

I am also wondering about the following: Unless the database can't be opened or otherwise stopped working completely, is it possible that some corruption might not be noticed by users right away? Have you any such experience?

Thanks again.

[pbaldy]

I have had instances where the app could be opened, but a particular form/report/whatever would fail. Knock on wood, I haven't had too many problems with corruption.

[CJ_London]

is it possible that some corruption might not be noticed by users right away?

in my experience that is typically what happens. a little thing, then perhaps something else, then a bit more and then bang, everything stops working. So you revert to a backup - and guess what, the corruption started 2 months ago, so your backup is already corrupted. Hence the advice to keep an archive copy of the front end

examples of little things than might happen - a query returns a wrong result, a figure is not as it should be, a link doesn't work first time, some data you thought you had entered isn't there anymore. a control that was one colour is now another. These are all things that have been described to me by clients over the years who have experienced corruption. Sounds grim, but only because users are not using access in the way that is intended. Not sure if you have been pointed in the direction of this thread - but it includes a response from Microsoft about how access should be set up

https://www.access-programmers.co.uk...d.php?t=301484