Multi User Installation

[oracle]

I'm planning to install V8 Multi User on 2 computers this week. So far I have only ever used Catalog or Designer.

Are there any known issues relating to installing Multi User? Is it any different to installing Catalog for example?

The installation will be on machines currently running V7 Catalog or that currently have no Actinic software installed.

Any tips would be much appreciated :-)

[leehack]

Setup is a simple process as long as the network has the minimum spec, which is very low anyway. Main issues i've heard about is the performance once it's installed, rather than the actual installation. Rumour has it, this will need to be changed to SQL in the near future - however this is just what i've heard and nothing definitive to call upon. Allow half a day to set it up would be my best advice.

[oracle]

ok thanks Lee.

[wfl]

Rob

We run a 4 user 851 MU with the db on a network box.

The install works OK but expect speed problems. This and other issues are being addressed by Actinic but don't expect an instant fix.

[oracle]

Are there any installation instructions with the software or is it just a case of install on one machine, then repeat on the next machine?

[dallen]

strongly recommend having the Sites directory on a server, then map a network drive from each desktop to it. Other than that it's a doddle - should take you no longer than half a day max. to get it all up and running perfectly!

Just install the first one - it'll make a sites directory locally first of all - then change it to point it to the networked drive on the serve.

When you install the second desktop just point the sites folder to the one you've just made.

Then you can delete the 2 local Sites folders.

[oracle]

Thanks Guys

[oracle]

Having now completed the installation I thought I'd provide some feedback in case anyone else asks the same questions.

The software arrived without any installation instructions - whether this was because my client bought the software from a third party and not directly from Actinic I'm not sure.

Without any instructions I attempted installation - big mistake! After an hour and a half of installing, crashing and reinstalling I phoned Actinic Support and Dhivya kindly emailed me the installation guide.

Having read through the guide I tried again. Once again I got into difficulty and had to phone Actinic Support. Thankfully I got through to Dhivya and she was very helpful. After another hour on the phone we managed to get it working.

There are a couple of things that weren't too clear in the installation guide:

1) You don't need to map the network drive on the server - only on the client computer (in other words not on the computer where your Sites directory will be stored). This may be obvious to some people but I wasted a bit of time on this because I didn't realise that.

2) When you map the network drive you need to make sure that when you access the drive from the client computer the drive letter is followed by a colon and a backslash, (eg Y:\).

Twice I mapped the drive and it omitted the backslash - however I think that may have had something to do with another unforeseen glitch: having installed the software on the server I then imported the site snapshot. In hindsight it might have been better to install the software on both machines before doing this. The snapshot was of a site that had been upgraded from V7 to V8. For some reason, somewhere in between exporting the snapshot from my PC and importing it into Multi-User an extra Site 1 folder had been created within the Site 1 folder. (I checked the Sites folder on my PC at home and this extra Site 1 folder wasn't there then, so I've no idea how that happened).

Once this had been removed and the network drive re-mapped, everything began to work.

Until this had been done the Actinic software on the client PC (not the server) could not access the shared Sites folder on the Server and kept crashing - to the extent that the software would not function at all and had to be reinstalled each time.

I'm inclined to think that this extra Site 1 folder was created when I attempted to change the Sites directory on the client PC. If I'd had the installation guide to start with I'm sure this wouldn't have happened.

Anyway, what turned out to be a three hour job could have been completed in one hour if I had known all of the above. Hopefully this will help someone else in the future.

One more thing: I guess we've all been left frustrated by Actinic Tech Support in the past but on this occasion I was fortunate enough to get through to Dhivya who was very helpful - thanks Dhivya, I couldn't have done it without you

[fleetwood]

Just install the first one - it'll make a sites directory locally first of all - then change it to point it to the networked drive on the serve.

When you install the second desktop just point the sites folder to the one you've just made.

Installed on first PC and opted to install database for shared access:
Docs\All users etc

How do I then point the sites folder on the second PC to the db installation on the first?
(When installing to PC it asks where you want the db, but I can't see how you refer back to PC1).
Networking is not by forte!

Thanks for any help

[oracle]

Hi Martin,

from memory I think you go to the sites menu and locate the shared docs folder on the other pc from there. Before you do this you need to share the root folder and map a network drive as per the instructions in the installation guide - have you got the installation guide?

Rob

[fleetwood]

Thanks Rob
For any others like me who need stuff spelled out:

File | Sites and click the Sites Directory button, from where you can browse to the shared site.

Now on to next bit...

From the secondary (slave) PC, opening the database on PC (using File | Sites | Sites Directory), opens the following window:

No sites found in target directory

> create example site
> copy existing site

Selected 'copy exisiting site'

Message - Act_Warningpage.html does not exist

On further investigation, I can see that Site1 contains a sub directory called Site1.
I licenced a second site on the master PC, and note that that also contains a sub directory called Site1.
Both Site1 (root) and Site1\Site1 contain the ActinicCatalog database!

What is the purpose of the Site1 within each new site, and is this where I am supposed to browse to ?

To clarify, on non multi user installation, your database installs to:
Site1
On multiuser, Site1 contains the ActinicCatalog.db and also a sub directory, also called Site1, which also contains ActinicCatalog.db

How bizarre!

[george]

Tip: You cannot do certain things even as an administrator eg drag and drop products etc, when another person has an order open.

This boils my head and I hate people who have orders open longer than 3 nanoseconds. Crazee.