Multiuser Access DB on RDS or Citrix? (1 Viewer)

[uyuni]

I apologize in advance as I am not familiar with either RDS or Citrix.

I have a multiuser Access DB, small size being used by a few people. The client will be moving to Sharepoint, so the DB will not work due to Sharepoint limitations.

I have prototyped it on Azure DB back end, using a free Azure account and there are two issues:
1. The application is quite slow
2. There is a lot of logic in VBA and some of it dealing with SQL reads and writes as well as forms needs to be modified

I know I can rewrite the back end to work with Sharepoint lists, but I also wanted to ask if it is possible to have a multiuser application with an Access back end somehow hosted on RDS or Citrix or some other platform. The goal here is to avoid the front end and back end modifications.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

-v

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Yes, it is possible. The most common issue is that your CITRIX admin will need to be carefully briefed on what user and utility setup you need.

1. Technically, this will be a multi-user application of Access and you will need to see about getting a multi-user copy.
2. The M.U. version is installed for use by general users on your CITRIX host machine (as opposed to being dedicated to one user.) This means the copy of Access will be "Public" and will be set for general sharing.
3. Each potential user of the DB has to have a private account on the server with a private folder for applications.
4. One copy of the BACK-END of the DB will be on the CITRIX machine in a folder set aside for the purpose. It is possible that you would want or need an independent copy of the BE as your development or testing copy to be used locally.
5. The permissions for the BE folder and the back-end DB file must both be MODIFY
6. The FRONT-END of the DB must be copied to each user's private folder. Update it as needed if you make changes. Yes, there will be multiple copies of the FE file on the same machine, one per user who can use the DB. This is necessary to keep the file locking from causing issues.
7. It is IMPERATIVE that the FE file is never shared in the "same physical file is concurrently opened by multiple users" sense - but each user CAN open their private copy simultaneously. (It is this latter option that makes you need the multi-user Access license.)
8. The CITRIX license ain't free, either. BUT if your IT staff is up to it, you can just set up RDP on your server and clients. See link below.

How to use Remote Desktop - Microsoft Support

Learn how to use Remote Desktop in Windows.

support.microsoft.com

Our user @Pat Hartman has used CITRIX jn the past and is very familiar with it. You can use this site's SEARCH facility to look up either RDP or CITRIX and the facility would allow you to put Pat Hartman as the user for the search. I'm sure that Pat will correct me if my list is not entirely correct. She is way more comfortable with such usage than I am.

 

[CJ_London]

Both come with a cost per seat, RD used to be around $15/user/month, no idea what it is now.

I found RD easier to use but Citrix comes with more bells and whistles. Depends if you need them. Benefit of both is there is very little to change. Move the BE to a shared folder and copy of FE to each users profile. Relink each to the BE and that's it, job done. Performance wise both should be fast - almost the equivalent of having the BE on your local machine. The only thing crossing the web is screen refreshes one way and key and mouse actions the other. Another benefit is the app can be run from any device that supports RD (not sure about Citrix) which includes iOS and Linux devices, even some smartphones will support RD

Depending on requirements, you don't need a full office install for each user - for access you can install the runtime version - but make sure your app works as expected. Runtime does not have a navigation window, right click shortcut menus and a limited ribbon. Rename your .accdb as .accdr and open it to give you the runtime experience.

Other things that may matter is how you interact with other apps, printers etc.