help with disaster/recovery procedures

[kscheu via AccessMonster.com]

I have an application that has the BE located on a shared windows server and
the front end is deployed to each client workstation as an MDE. The FE links
to many tables from one BE database and also 2 tables from another BE
database which all exist on the same BE server. When the server goes down
for hardware problems, I need to be able to switch the FE to point to a
different server. Can someone lead me in the right direction. I don't want
to have to give the users a new FE in this case. I was thinking about giving
a menu option to switch to secondary server and allow the user to initiate
the switch. If anyone has experience with this, I would appreciate the ideas.
Thanks,
Karen

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[Arno R]

To switch to other BE (another server) does not have to be a problem.
Just write some unlink / relink-code for the linked tables.
You will need to store the different path's to the backend(s) and you can make your menu-option.
Or you could check the links on startup, when bad (server down ??) give the user an option to point to another BE
You could do this for various or even for all your tables since there is more than one backend needed.

BUT someone needs to be in *control* I think...
Of course you need to be sure that only one BE (or combination) is in use!!
You can not let your users link to another BE just like that or when they want to...
So you have to *control* when the menu-option is available and when not.

Also: when the server is fixed again than what?
Backends are going to be moved back ?? When, how ??
When, how is everybody forced to link to the first server again ??

So your procedure's need a lot of thinking and scheduling I guess.
But it is certainly possible that's for sure.

Is it worth it ?? Until now I never had the need for this.
In a case I remember where the 'server was down' I allowed only *one* user to use the backend locally so the work could continue.
Within the hour the server was fixed and the BE could be copied back to the server.

Arno R

"kscheu via AccessMonster.com" <u7307@uweschreef in bericht news:657e15c4cf6f9@uwe...

>I have an application that has the BE located on a shared windows server and
the front end is deployed to each client workstation as an MDE. The FE links
to many tables from one BE database and also 2 tables from another BE
database which all exist on the same BE server. When the server goes down
for hardware problems, I need to be able to switch the FE to point to a
different server. Can someone lead me in the right direction. I don't want
to have to give the users a new FE in this case. I was thinking about giving
a menu option to switch to secondary server and allow the user to initiate
the switch. If anyone has experience with this, I would appreciate the ideas.
Thanks,
Karen

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Message posted via http://www.accessmonster.com

[Lemark23]

The relinking tables code is definantly searchable within this group.
You also have to be aware that you will have to think through the data
problems that switching might create for you.

If your user profile is mostly users looking up data, then you have a
small problem. If your user profile is high data entry, then you have
a bigger problem.

How often will you update the data on your back up server? If you
switch your users from one database to another then whatever data has
been entered since the switch is lost until they move it back. And
then, you have new data on the secondary server that needs to be
updated on the first.

I used to do something similar and I used a database replica on the
secondary server. that way I could switch and investigate any data
conflicts that occured because of the switch.
kscheu via AccessMonster.com wrote:

I have an application that has the BE located on a shared windows server and
the front end is deployed to each client workstation as an MDE. The FE links
to many tables from one BE database and also 2 tables from another BE
database which all exist on the same BE server. When the server goes down
for hardware problems, I need to be able to switch the FE to point to a
different server. Can someone lead me in the right direction. I don't want
to have to give the users a new FE in this case. I was thinking about giving
a menu option to switch to secondary server and allow the user to initiate
the switch. If anyone has experience with this, I would appreciate the ideas.
Thanks,
Karen

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Message posted via http://www.accessmonster.com