Split Database Question - Will this work?

[Jrbeene86]

Hey guys,

So I have an access database that needs to be used by multiple people. So I split the database to a front end and back end. If I were put a seperate front end for each user on our shared drive. Would that cause any corruption issues?



I already have a distribution method, I created a batch file to copy the front end to a folder on the shared drive, rename the file with the username, and then open it.

We shouldn't have more than a few people in at once and it's not a big database.

The reason I am not able to put it on everyones C: drive is because of regulations we have at our company.

Thanks in advance!

Jrbeene

[pbaldy]

If I were put a seperate front end for each user on our shared drive. Would that cause any corruption issues?

It should work; that's what I do in a Citrix/Terminal Server environment. I have my utility put the front end file in a subfolder unique to each user and then run it. The key is to make sure each user is running their own copy, which it sounds like you've done.

[Jrbeene86]

Thanks again Pbaldy, I had some users sharing the front end which was causing huge problems. We also have people using awful connections.

[pbaldy]

I'm not sure this solves your connection problem. People are still running the program on their PC, thus both the program and the data are going across the connection. That's one of the reasons it's recommended to put the front end on the PC; so that the program isn't going across the wire. Your company's policy is increasing network traffic.

Access is very sensitive to connections, which is why it's usually recommended that you not run it on a wireless network. Hopefully yours works okay, but if not I would certainly suspect the connection. There's a lot of info here:

http://www.kallal.ca/Wan/Wans.html

Including:

Ms-access when used in a file share mode DOES NOT take well to any interruption in the connection. In fact, the result is usually a corrupted file (you will have to go to the previous days backup to restore the data). So, one bad connection can blow out the whole mdb file. Since a bad connection can damage the file, even if we did get the speed out of a VPN, the risk factor would be so high as to again make this whole idea useless. This also why you can't risk running ms-access in a file share mode on a wireless network either!

[Jrbeene86]

Pbaldy,

Your awsome...and correct! I had a guy across the country try this and it was still painfully slow. I think I am going to move the front end to sharepoint now!

[pbaldy]

Happy to help! I have an Access/SQL Server application that works very nicely over a VPN, but it was written with that in mind.