Make Access 2007 Database executable or standalone

N

Nied, E

Is there a utility to make a database standalone or can I just place it on a
shared drive and have any number of people use it at one time?
 
T

Tony Toews [MVP]

Nied said:
Is there a utility to make a database standalone or can I just place it on a
shared drive and have any number of people use it at one time?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. You need a runtime. Fortunately the A2007 runtime is
free.

Microsoft Office Access 2007 Developer Edition FAQ
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/developeredition2007faq.htm

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
 
K

Klatuu

Never, ever, for any reason whatsoever, under any circumstance and at no
time put an Access front end on a shared drive, even for a single user. If
you even think about it, you should go to confession.

It degrades performance, increases network traffic, and is almost guaranteed
to eventually become corrupted.

Use the 2007 runtime Tony suggested.
 
T

Tony Toews [MVP]

Klatuu said:
Never, ever, for any reason whatsoever, under any circumstance and at no
time put an Access front end on a shared drive, even for a single user. If
you even think about it, you should go to confession.

It degrades performance, increases network traffic, and is almost guaranteed
to eventually become corrupted.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. Now you don't want to do that given a
choice. But, especially in a Terminal Server/Citrix environment, the
IT department likely won't allow you to copy the FE MDB/MDE onto the
TS/Citrix Server. Then you will have to place it on the file server.

Now you definitely do want to ensure each user has thier own copy of
the FE.

We never noticed any performance degradation. I'm sure it increased
network traffic but that wasn't noticeable. And the FE never got
corrupted on us.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
 
K

Klatuu

I have had experiences in two locations where they used shared, unsplit mdbs
on file servers that performed very poorly and would get some kind of
corruption about once per quarter.

I have not worked in a Terminal Server/Citrix environment, so I can't speak
to that.
 
D

David W. Fenton

I have had experiences in two locations where they used shared,
unsplit mdbs on file servers that performed very poorly and would
get some kind of corruption about once per quarter.
Click to expand...

Tony wasn't suggesting *sharing* the MDB. He was talking about each
user having his or her own front end that was stored on a file
server, rather than on the local PC (or, in the case of Terminal
Server/Citrix, on the host's local hard drive). The situation he
describes is quite common -- my largest Terminal Server-based app is
running in exactly that configuration, with the front ends (and back
end) stored on a file server, and not on the local hard drive of the
Terminal Server (which is, by design, a relatively small drive,
since it's only purpose is to run the Terminal Server, not to store
large amounts of data).
 
T

Tony Toews [MVP]

Klatuu said:
I have had experiences in two locations where they used shared, unsplit mdbs
on file servers that performed very poorly and would get some kind of
corruption about once per quarter.

I have not worked in a Terminal Server/Citrix environment, so I can't speak
to that.
Click to expand...

See David's reply. <smile>

I completely agree with the splitting and individual copies of the FE.
See the "Splitting your app into a front end and back end Tips" page
at http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/splitapp/ for more info. <smile>

And given a choice it should go on to a local hard drive. Local to
the CPU and RAM being used to run the application.

However to say "Never, ever, for any reason whatsoever, under any
circumstance and at no time put an Access front end on a shared
drive," is wrong.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
 
K

Klatuu

Of course Tony would not suggest such a thing. My original comment was
directed to the OP.
 
K

Klatuu

You are correct. There are exceptions to any rule.
My comment was based on the OP's original post. Given the information
provided, I stand by my statement.

At no time did I suggest you were advocating anything unreasonable, Tony.
 
N

Nied, E

Thanks to all for the discussion!

So, if I split the DB into FE and BE, put the BE on a drive, that say 4
users can get to,
I should be ok? I'll be using the package util I download from MS to create
an install disk.
 
K

Klatuu

Yes, it should not be a problem.
It would be best if each user has a copy of the front end on their computer
and the runtime installed on their computer also. It is not necessary to
install the runtime on the server. Access is a file server database engine.
That is, no processing for your application takes place on the server. It
all is on the userss computers.
 
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