Migrating filePro to Windows Server2003 ?

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Tue, Nov 01, 2005 at 10:53:45AM -0500, Dan Snyder wrote:
>    We  have  an SCO server v5.0.6 that is having serious hardware issues.
>    We  have  about  35  users  accessing filePro on this system.  We were
>    hoping the server would last until we migrated to a new ERP system but
>    the  server doesn't look like it's going to make it.  Since we already
>    have several  Windows servers and support resources are easier to come
>    by,  we  are  considering  migrating filePro to a Windows 2003 server.
>    I'd  like  to  get  some  feedback  from anyone that has migrated from
>    filePro on SCO to filePro on Windows.

I'm a little surprised you haven't drawn any replies from this.

Aside from "Unix is *much* easier to manage than Win2k3" (:-), I would
say...

>    What  kind  of problems should we expect (our filePro applications are
>    extremely  simple,  no  related/linked files/tables and no file system
>    access)?

The number one pinch spots are filename lengths (which *may* not be as
much of an issue on the Win32 version as they were on the DOS version;
Ken?) and SYSTEM calls and the like in the code.

>    How  do  client  workstations  access the windows server?  Is it still
>    telnet or is it file sharing (we are using SCO termvision right now)?

Each workstation will access the key, data and index files on imported
filesystems -- it is *not* client server; you need to appraise how much
traffic that's going to cause on your LAN and make sure you have
sufficient bandwidth.

On the Unix side, the client is *on the same backplane* as the data;
that won't be true on a Windows network.

The other alternative, of course, is to port it to Linux (say, SuSE
9.3), instead.  That will entail next to no changes on the filePro
side, except that you'll need to buy new runtimes (you *might* be able
to cross-grade now, although the last time I had a client need to do
that, I don't think you could).

And SuSE should slap onto any reasonably current server hardware with
no thought at all.

>    How  is  printing configured? Any standard printer that the server has
>    access to (we have netcat and ICETCP now)?

Your client programs will be doing the printing, so any printers will
need to be visible to the workstations.  You'll need to do a minor
amount of tweaking on the filePro config file for this.

>    Anything else we need to be worried about?

Naw; mostly it's the bandwidth issue, and the (in your case, you imply
rare) Unixisms in the code.  Maybe Bob Stockler will write a cabe
scanner that checks for those things and sell it to you.  :-)

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
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