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We are setting up a new office and are unsure if we need to set-up a server. Does anyone have any input if we really need one or not? It is a solo practice.
Thanks,
Sandy Peters

Sandy,

I don't feel too strongly about this, but I would have to say yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. A server-client setup is infinitely more productive for more reasons than I could every type here than a peer-to-peer workstation environment. If you are asking as far as Amazing Charts, goes, then sure with just that program you could. I am taking for granted that when you say a server you are talking about a PC that is built to be a server (with much faster throughput and redundancy and will be running server software such as 2003 or SBS 2003. (Vinny likes other software and will probably advise)

Just a few advantages of having a dedicated file server:

- ALL of your data would be at once central place that everyone can access easily.
- The administrator can easily decide who can and who cannot access certain data folders via user policies or user groups.
- Backup programs will be server applications which are made to backup data a lot better than non-server backup applications.
- With a dedicated server no matter what antivirus program you use (we will say Symantec for example)all of your definitions will be downloaded by Symantec or whatever program such as AVG and will be "pushed" out automatically to the users. Otherwise, you are either depending on the users to make sure their antivirus programs are up to date or you are running around doing that.
- There is always that user who is on the Internet too much on eBay, etc. It is extremely easy to adjust times and what sites he or she can be on or none from the server software.
- With a server you can run hardware setups such as mirrored or RAID5, which greatly decreases the chance of hardware failure or being down very long with a hard drive crash
- With a peer-to-peer your Amazing Charts database resides on one computer which acts as a "server" in the set up. This means that the performance of AC depends somewhat on that computer. If the user on that PC is running a lot of programs, thereby using valuable resources, it can affect how your LAN works. It is also much more likely that the particular user on that machine could delete and do something to the AC database.
- Now, a question? How many times in the past month, has your Windows XP or whatever software you are using froze or crashed or rebooted? Exactly. Probably at least ten times. Do you really want AC to be down or your billing and scheduling software to be down while that machine is rebooting. A good server where no one is opening and closing and using software may freeze and require a reboot every one or two months, if that. And, even if you do need to reboot it due to Microsoft updates or slowing performance, you can do this after hours. The design of a good server also makes it much less likely to freeze or crash.
- Server OS also come with software that increase productivity such as Exchange, Public Folders, Sharepoint, etc.
- A dedicated server with server software will allow you to set up a domain, which will allow you much more security. Each user would have his or her account, and you can allow them certain privileges from a simple user up to a Poweruser.

Yes, your original cost will be greater. If you purchased say a Dell or HP (my recommendation) with three or four hard drives for mirroring or RAID5 with a hardware configuration, you would probably be out around $1500. Most OS will come with five licenses so if you need more, an extra five would be around $300. Finally, a good corporate edition of an antiviral program would be around the same, and you may need extra licenses as well. You would not need to pay for more licenses for the server each year, but you would need to purchase more antivirus licenses.

My suggestion for an operating system (around $500) would be Microsoft SBS 2003 Standard Edition. As its name implies, it is for small businesses, it is rock solid, and has numerous features. Its wizards make it easy to install and maintain. It comes with Exchange Server 2003, which in and of itself, would cost you quite a lot, but it comes with it. It would maintain all of your email and also provides each PC with Outlook 2003. This also allows you to access your email from any computer you log onto.

There are other cool features such as Sharepoint and Remote Web Workplace and Outlook Web Access, but I won't bore you with those.

Obviously, if you went this route, you would need to have an IT person to set it up and maintain it. You would need a good firewall/router so it would help if he or she was well-versed or certified in that, too. I would highly recommend that when the domain and server were set up, that the IT person allow you take part so that you will understand the set up and be able to make the small changes you need without calling him or her up at $75.00 per hour.

Sorry about the long post. The short answer is yes. You don't necessarily need to have the top of the line, but if you are going to have a server, you may as well make it a true server.

If you have any questions or want other feedback, feel free to message me or email.

Thanks,
Aslo if the internet goes down can we still use the system does it go "local"?

We're using all Linux servers in-house, although quite frankly any dedicated file server is a good idea. Having a good quality ethernet switch helps, too.

If you'd like help getting set up, let me know :-)

Regards,

V

sanp,

Yes, you can use it locally if your Internet goes down. There aren't many programs which use a dedicated server or peer-to-peer which rely on the Internet solely to run. Your server and clients (workstation) will connect via your switch, and everything on that network works regardless of the Internet. You get to the outside via your router/firewall and your modem

Of course, you couldn't download updates or upload backups. But, technically, you don't even need Internet access at all for AC.

Cheers!

I have Windows XP peer-to-peer network simply because I have less experience with server software. I like peer-to-peer network because it is so easy to fix.

For example, last month my main computer went down (motherboard failure). It took me less than 15 minutes to redirect all Amazing Charts to another computer on the network, so patient flow was not interrupted. It took me another 2 days to buy a new main computer and install Windows XP/Amazing Chart, etc (I do all IT support myself)

What would had happened if I had a server instead? What happens if main server goes gown? No access to Amazing Charts for several days until a new server is bought and configured?

apricot,
Good questions. No, you would not have to wait several days. First, you would not need to buy a new server. You or especially IT should be able to install a motherboard same day IF there is one you can find.

But, other than the setup and advantages listed above, there is no difference as far as getting up and running. You would simply do the exact same thing you did in the peer-to-peer. You would copy and paste the main AC folder or database to a client computer, thereby converting the computer into a temporary server.

Now, you may be suggesting that you couldn't get to the AC folder, which would be difficult depending on how fried the motherboard was. If it was completely gone, you wouldn't be able to get to the AC folder, BUT, the same problem would arise if your "main computer" went down. I am not sure how you redirected all of the other computers to another computer which would have a different database unless you were able to copy and paste the one from the crashed main computer. Either way it is simply just as quick to move the database from the server as from a client, if not quicker.

Again, I am confused, because if you did simply redirect your clients to another computer, they would be saving all of their data to a different database, not to mention one without patients in it.

Even if you had a fried motherboard on any machine, you should be able to boot to a number of 3rd party disks such as BartPE to access the drives and data.

Finally, I am hoping you have several backups from the day before that you could simply copy and paste the "actual AC folder" onto a client.

For companies with more mission critical data, although AC and billing and scheduling are rather mission critical, they set up a mirror on the server with a hot swappable hard drive. Two hard drives are mirrored, one goes down, you break the mirror and the system never skips a beat. You then "swap" the already formatted good hard drive with the damaged one; and the mirror is remade. It's fascinating what can be done. And, a hard drive crash is a lot more likely that a fried motherboard.

Bert,
I use SmartSyncPro for continuous backup. Two other office computers have back-up folders. SmartSyncPro copies Amazing Charts *.mdb files from the main computer to the backup folders every 15-30 minutes. If main computer goes down I reset the database path to the back-up folder on all office computers.

When my main computer went down I was not even able to boot from CD because it didn't boot. It didn't even read bios. The only one thing that worked when I turned power on was the cooling fan inside the computer. I took harddrive out and connected it to another computer as a slave - harddrive was fine. At first I thought it was power block. I took the computer to an IT guy, and he said motherboard needed to be replaced.

Apricot:

How difficult is it to set up SmartSyncPro? I currently backup AC manually to our other desktop. Unfortunately, I don't get to it every day (courting disaster there) and am looking for a way to automate it since the normal AC system wont let me set a path for the backup files.

Wcoghill,
SmartSyncPro is very simple to install and use. It does automatic backup at certain time intervals - minutes, hours, days, or manually, whetever you choose. It can also synchronize folders, i.e. to copy and update the most recently created files back and forward. It can also do remote backup to an FTP location.

I use SmartPro to copy Amazing Charts from my main computer to other computers and to my USB memory stick. I also use SmartPro at home to copy Amazing Charts from my USB memory stick to my laptop and my home computer, so I have triple backup. I have been using it for almost a year and it works great.

When you set it up make sure you select <Copy Source to Destination>, otherwise it may remove your original database files.

apricot,

SmartSyncPro sounds rather cool. I will have to check it out. We use Mirra backups as well.

If you used a server, you wouldn't be down any longer than you were down on peer-to-peer. You would most likely be connected to the server via a switch which you may be doing right now, unless you have each PC as a node connected to each other. If your PCs were connected to a switch or hub, they would still be able to "see" each other so if you had full copies of AC, then you would simply share one out, and each PC would be able to access it as they could access a shared printer.

I just downloaded the trial version of Smartsync pro and it is very easy to work with. I actually have it set to copy my AC and billing data from my newer server to my old server. Seems like it iwll work nicely. Thanks for the tip.

I have been using SyncToy (free from Microsoft) as one more edition to my backups. Smartsync Pro seems very good, and it is rather straightforward. The only thing that threw me a little was why the scheduling seemed backward. For instance, when you set it to backup for whatever times per day, which may even be once, it would be more intuitive if it asked you what days you WANTED it to work and not what days you did not. Mainly because most backup programs work like that. But, that was the only thing that struck me.