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Need help with server advice...

Tags:
  • Windows Server
  • Business Computing
  • Macintosh
Last response: in Business Computing
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July 15, 2014 6:26:35 PM

I have a small services business with 10 employees. We run a mac file server with mac desktops and laptops. We run quickbooks on windows 7 in vmware fusion and our CPA uses RDC to remote in. Now we need to allow a second person to access quickbooks at the same time (we have a second license).

I am told that using two RDC connections will not work unless I upgrade to windows server and buy an RDC license for each user. True?

Someone else recommended I use a quickbooks hosting service. But most do not include the premier "professional services" version we use and its a bit of a rip off at $100 + month for two people, plus setup fees.

Is another option to get a windows VPS service ($30-$50) and install quickbooks on the VPS and set up two RDC connections? Is this possible / fairly straight-forward?

Any other ideas?

Many thanks
Bill

More about : server advice

July 17, 2014 10:35:42 AM

bill1880 said:
I have a small services business with 10 employees. We run a mac file server with mac desktops and laptops. We run quickbooks on windows 7 in vmware fusion and our CPA uses RDC to remote in. Now we need to allow a second person to access quickbooks at the same time (we have a second license).

I am told that using two RDC connections will not work unless I upgrade to windows server and buy an RDC license for each user. True?

Someone else recommended I use a quickbooks hosting service. But most do not include the premier "professional services" version we use and its a bit of a rip off at $100 + month for two people, plus setup fees.

Is another option to get a windows VPS service ($30-$50) and install quickbooks on the VPS and set up two RDC connections? Is this possible / fairly straight-forward?

Any other ideas?

Many thanks
Bill


First, yes, Windows Server does support 2 concurrent RDP sessions. Windows 7 only supports one out of the box, although there is an unsupported work-around to get more than one session. I don't recommend that for your business.

Second, you don't need to get a hosting server. You just need to configure Quickbooks for a multi-user network environment. That will involve getting a copy of QB for another machine (for you, I guess it would be running Fusion), and then configuring both copies to access the same company file. See this link from Intuit for more info.

Edit: Talk to a local computer services computer if you don't feel comfortable setting this up yourself.
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July 17, 2014 5:10:03 PM

2Be_or_Not2Be said:
bill1880 said:
I have a small services business with 10 employees. We run a mac file server with mac desktops and laptops. We run quickbooks on windows 7 in vmware fusion and our CPA uses RDC to remote in. Now we need to allow a second person to access quickbooks at the same time (we have a second license).

I am told that using two RDC connections will not work unless I upgrade to windows server and buy an RDC license for each user. True?

Someone else recommended I use a quickbooks hosting service. But most do not include the premier "professional services" version we use and its a bit of a rip off at $100 + month for two people, plus setup fees.

Is another option to get a windows VPS service ($30-$50) and install quickbooks on the VPS and set up two RDC connections? Is this possible / fairly straight-forward?

Any other ideas?

Many thanks
Bill


First, yes, Windows Server does support 2 concurrent RDP sessions. Windows 7 only supports one out of the box, although there is an unsupported work-around to get more than one session. I don't recommend that for your business.

Second, you don't need to get a hosting server. You just need to configure Quickbooks for a multi-user network environment. That will involve getting a copy of QB for another machine (for you, I guess it would be running Fusion), and then configuring both copies to access the same company file. See this link from Intuit for more info.

Edit: Talk to a local computer services computer if you don't feel comfortable setting this up yourself.


Thanks for the response! So are you saying I would need to install QB Database Server in vmware on the main mac server and then install copies of QB in vmware on each user's computer? So for two users, I would need two licenses of QB and Vmware, correct?


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July 18, 2014 7:52:55 AM

bill1880 said:

Thanks for the response! So are you saying I would need to install QB Database Server in vmware on the main mac server and then install copies of QB in vmware on each user's computer? So for two users, I would need two licenses of QB and Vmware, correct?



I believe you only need to buy one more copy of QB, and then you can run that on VMWare Fusion on the 2nd Mac. The two copies would then both access the same company file. I don't know what the "QB Database Server" might be. I would suggest calling Intuit to confirm the exact items needed.
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July 18, 2014 9:49:51 AM

2Be_or_Not2Be said:
bill1880 said:

Thanks for the response! So are you saying I would need to install QB Database Server in vmware on the main mac server and then install copies of QB in vmware on each user's computer? So for two users, I would need two licenses of QB and Vmware, correct?



I believe you only need to buy one more copy of QB, and then you can run that on VMWare Fusion on the 2nd Mac. The two copies would then both access the same company file. I don't know what the "QB Database Server" might be. I would suggest calling Intuit to confirm the exact items needed.


thanks. I'm going to run some experiments today and see what might work. I tried calling intuit and ended up in tech support hell somewhere over in asia. they tried to up-sell me the "enterprise" version and could not answer my questions.
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July 18, 2014 10:55:19 AM

bill1880 said:
2Be_or_Not2Be said:
bill1880 said:

Thanks for the response! So are you saying I would need to install QB Database Server in vmware on the main mac server and then install copies of QB in vmware on each user's computer? So for two users, I would need two licenses of QB and Vmware, correct?



I believe you only need to buy one more copy of QB, and then you can run that on VMWare Fusion on the 2nd Mac. The two copies would then both access the same company file. I don't know what the "QB Database Server" might be. I would suggest calling Intuit to confirm the exact items needed.


thanks. I'm going to run some experiments today and see what might work. I tried calling intuit and ended up in tech support hell somewhere over in asia. they tried to up-sell me the "enterprise" version and could not answer my questions.


From that Intuit link on how to setup for network access, it does seem relatively easy. It even links to the QuickBooks File Doctor which supposedly will set up the file permissions for you.

You might want to setup a file share on one of the Windows PCs, and map a network drive to it from both PCs. Then point QB to that network drive. This may only require the two PCs. If that doesn't work, you may need to setup a third Windows PC to act as the host. Again, you don't need anything more expensive than Win7. It just needs to host the file share.
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