kilimanjaro Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 (edited) At work we are building a data base for all of our specimens, and we have three computers networked together. I don't know anything about servers or networks, but I was thinking that it might be easier and more efficient to get another computer to act as a sever for the database. In about a year we are going to be expanding our system, by probably 5 more computers. The computer that actually stores the info is also being used normally, and works slower becuase of it, I just added 512 more ram and it is still slower than the other two computers., but it also runs the scanner and the printer. All of these systems are microshaft, and I doubt my boss will be willing to switch, but the campus server is linux, so I thought our server could also. Any thoughts, suggestions, or ideas? Edited July 15, 2004 by kilimanjaro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 I wouldn't definitely look into getting a Server. Make sure the printer and scanner can work with Linux. Be sure to know how to work with Samba, and also look into finding some sort of interface for the database (perhaps web-based). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilimanjaro Posted July 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 (edited) What kind of a system do I need for a server? The printer and scanner can stay on the current machine. What is samba? Will the microshaft systems they insist on using work with a linux server? Can the server be used as a router/firewall for the other workstations? Can I use the server as a standard computer while I am in the office instead of the microshaft systems? And the data based needs to be accessable on the web> Edited July 16, 2004 by kilimanjaro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted July 16, 2004 Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 A server is no different to any other workstation ... except how you use it. For instance you might decide it doesnt need a screen. keyboard etc. which free up respources for X .... As a database server in theory it shouldnt make any difference but in practice if you are developing a database then its easier to develop in the environment you want to work in later. You can use 1 ,2 tier or 3 tier 2 tier DATABASE -------------APPLICATION ON WORKSTATION 3 tier DATABASE -------APP SERVER-----WORKSTATION 1 tier all on one! Its a matter of size of database and where its accessed from etc. If its academic use you might get free Oracle... which rocks... if not mysql is very good... both are in a different league to MS SQL server... Anyway, what samples, how many does it involve photo's/photomicrographs/etc. How do you wanna query, by web form or dedicated application etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland Posted July 16, 2004 Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 (edited) looks like a server would be better. Linux is clearly the best on servers. The trouble is that if you choose a M$ server, you have the right to be wrong. If you choose a Linux server, not. So better be sure. The best way imho, at least it's how I did, is if you have a M$ laptop computer and a Linux desktop at home, you test everything at home before. So almost no risk. And no hurry. Time is money and is the trouble with computer: when you change something, you know when you start, you never know when it will be finish. So if you don't want to spend nights and week-end at work ...... Edit: Edited July 16, 2004 by roland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilimanjaro Posted July 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 This data base is for the plant collection at the herbarium where I work, it is basically just text and it needs to be accessable on the web, open to the public, and from the herbarium computers, unfortunatly they are using microsoft access for the database, will a linux server beable to use the data form access? I guess what I am really asking is: will it make it easier overall to have a dedicated server? And wIll a linux server create more problems than it solves? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted July 16, 2004 Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 It might create a few probs with MS access ... however maybe they want to think about what goes into a customer database and where it should be relative to 'confidential data' like stock prices etc. (should it be in a DMZ?) linking via ODBC is the best bet ... however I havent done this none MS to MS.. (i.e I once did it with .asp ) however the access route really is a big trap... Im not just saying that but if/when it expands things get nasty. I used to use access a lot btw... but I find in every case it ends up creating more work .... think like this, when the database is new its easy to prototype and change stuff and access makes this even easier... however once its full of data and been used in certain ways its harder to change so what happens is you build all this into Access and the way its built as an app makes it hard to port it elsewhere after. The access DB might be working fine internally but if it were used with thousands of customers and starts growing it might be different. Think like this board has a mysql DB behind it and how fast it generates the info on searches etc. when the board was new the DB was prob tiny (ask anon I guess but basically a few KB) now its prob grown to giga's ... and this is just a forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyv Posted July 16, 2004 Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 The access DB might be working fine internally but if it were used with thousands of customers and starts growing it might be different. I wouldn't trust access with 10+ users also the more data the worse it gets. For your needs linux running apache, mysql(or pgsql) and php with webforms for data entry and views. Will handle many connections with ease. You have to decide if it is worth it to have a stable robust solution with initial significant learning investment. FYI my workstation also hosts an intranet search app thats biggest table has over 10 million rows and i don't notice when it is in use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted July 17, 2004 Report Share Posted July 17, 2004 Agreed, but Kilimanjaro is going to need to convince the shop of this. Access typifies MS.... Its easy to start off and looks nice at first then as you try and really use it it falls apart. However many companies are only using the most minimal parts of it with a few users and dont undrstand the scale up issues. It looks nice and its doing a job so they try and modify it instead of a clean start. Big mistake in my experiecne but hard to stop! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilimanjaro Posted July 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2004 Is there any easy way to take the data from access and transfer it to a different setup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyv Posted July 19, 2004 Report Share Posted July 19, 2004 Well you can export tables in access to csv format then import into mysql tables using webmin. Webmin needs tab seperated format to work so you can convert the csv to that format on any decent spreadsheet program even most text editors (find and replace , with a tab). There is a comercial program that can export from access to mysql server directly but i forgot what it is called, there is a free trial but the software only runs on windows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted July 19, 2004 Report Share Posted July 19, 2004 Another way is using ODBC except I think it has to be done from Access since I dont think access is ODBC complient (you cant connect to it) I might be wrong on this part or it might have changed! Anyway this works with Oracle and Access so should work with mysql too. Make a new empty database with a test table to connect to. Connect via odbc and read the table ...as a test create table with the same structure make sure user has create and write perms in mysql append to the table you created.... I doubt this is quicker than Johnnyv's method tho! Doing this tho allows access to be used as a FORM in the interim by replacing the tables with linked tables which are in mysql! You would need a mysql ODBC driver for Windows! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilimanjaro Posted July 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2004 (edited) I have no idea what you are saying to me. I found that OO has a database function, and OO can use microsoft formats, so I wonder if if can use access? What do I need for the processor, ram, hardrive(s), network connection for the server? The workstation systems we have are 1.8 gh processor, 512 ddr, and 40 gb hardrives. Should the server be more powerful, or would this be sufficient, but with maybe a bigger harddrive? Edited July 19, 2004 by kilimanjaro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Flex22 Posted July 20, 2004 Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 I guess that would depend on how much data, and/or how fast of a system that you need to work efficiently. I would definitely find a decent motherboard that can be upgraded at a later date if the need arises. I just completed a mini-server for my home network with the following... S2466n Tyan motherboard 2 x 1ghz amd cpu's only 256mb of memeory currently and an ATA100 hard drive 7200rpm 40gb. Plenty of room for upgrades if I decide to add a few hard drives, faster cpu and memory. It's quite a bit of overkill for what I'm am going to be using it for, but if I decide to start an e-mail server, or something of that nature, I have something that can be upgraded to meet my needs. Flex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilimanjaro Posted July 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 The datbase I am working with will eventually have the information for a 175,000 + plant specimen and be accessable through the internet to anybody who wants to access it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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