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Microsoft Dynamics GP (Archived)

Store databases on multiple servers?

Posted on by 2,469

OK, all you wizards out there....here's one for you:

Let's say I have 4 GP companies defined on ServerA. Can I set up a 5th company on ServerB? If so, how do I reference the data & log files in GP Utilities when I set up the new company? Can I use a UNC to point to the other server, or do I have to map a drive that points to the server, then use that mapping to reference the location?

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  • bcool Profile Picture
    bcool 2,469 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Store databases on multiple servers?

    I gave up trying to reference the other server :-)

     Tim's approach is what I ended up using....and it works fine. I hadn't noticed that there was also a copy of the DYNAMICS database on the test server, so it was pretty easy to implement this approach. I did have to run utilities to get the test databases up to the current SP, since apparently they had been restored from an earlier backup.

     Thanks to all for your suggestions!

  • Sunbeam De Jesus Profile Picture
    Sunbeam De Jesus 3,930 on at
    Re: Store databases on multiple servers?

    In addition

    you may install 2nd instance of GP in each of the client machine and point this instance to your test sql server using ODBC. the 2 instances of GP will remember the last ODBC that was used, so  no need to select which odbc during launching, just user ID and password.

    you may also create 2 icons GP live and GP test in each users machine desktop. a universal password in the test machine could also help.

  • Mariano Gomez Profile Picture
    Mariano Gomez 26,225 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Store databases on multiple servers?

    I did not say it was that simple - take a look at the following article and verify with your IT department if this is something you want to implement.

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlserverfaq/archive/2009/02/27/how-to-backup-sql-server-databases-to-a-mapped-drive.aspx

  • bcool Profile Picture
    bcool 2,469 on at
    Re: Re: Store databases on multiple servers?

    As an experiment, I tried setting up another database via GP utilities on ServerB, but I get the following message when using a mapped drive:

    Warning...The device 'T:\' (my mapped drive) could not be found. Microsoft Dynamics GP Utilities is unable to determine if there is enough available disk space to create the database. A minimum of 70MB is needed.

     A similar message appeared when I tried using a UNC instead of a mapped drive letter.

  • Mariano Gomez Profile Picture
    Mariano Gomez 26,225 on at
    Re: Store databases on multiple servers?

    As long as in your scenario you are only referring to the actual physical location of log files and data files, then you should have no problems implementing this.

    Now, SQL Server does not support UNC for physical database files, so you would have to work with either a SAN or the very unreliable mapped drives.

  • Richard Whaley Profile Picture
    Richard Whaley 25,195 on at
    Re: Store databases on multiple servers?

    First, let me say that I have never tried this...but let's talk it through.

    You CAN put different db files (data and logs) on different drives.

    You CAN map a drive to a different machine.

    So what if SQL server A on Machine A referred to tables on Drive X of Machine B?  Now, the same SQL server on Machine A would be the controlling SQL server.

  • Tim Foster Profile Picture
    Tim Foster 8,515 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Store databases on multiple servers?

    If the Dynamics and Company database reside on that dev server the create a new ODBC Data Connection to that server.  Your users will have to pick the correct ODBC (make sure the names are easily identifiable) connection when logging in.  Remember to append <TEST> to the company name in the dev environment to produce the message about the company being a test company.

     Tim

     

  • bcool Profile Picture
    bcool 2,469 on at
    Re: Re: Store databases on multiple servers?

    Our IT developers created a test GP database on another server for internal development work. Now, they want it to show up in the list of databases when people log in to GP so they can run tests.

     Unfortunately, we don't have enough room on our production server for this test database, so that's why we're trying to see if we can connect to it even though it's on a different server.

  • Sunbeam De Jesus Profile Picture
    Sunbeam De Jesus 3,930 on at
    Re: Store databases on multiple servers?
    I don’t think you can do this.For one reason you need and it is required that you have one DYNAMICS database in every SQL machine\instance.The moment you need another server, then you need another DYNAMICS database on this server. And if this is the case this is considered separate GP site or license. You cannot use UNC to point from a client to an SQL machine, we are using ODBC.  

    There might be other solution, but first may i know why do you want the 5th company in another machine?

     

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