QB server hiccups

[Paul Nash <paul () nashnetworks ca>]

After an outage yesterday, I am trying to streamline and simplify the St Felix QB setup to make it more reliable and 
easier to administer.

The most critical factor that influences the overall design is the realistic maximum number of simultaneous users.

If we can live with a maximum of two users logged on at any one time, I can simplify the system dramatically, which 
will streamline operations and improve reliability.  

If we need to have more than two users logged at any time, then we need the current setup, with its various woes.  The 
problem are not insurmountable, but the system is more complex.  FWIW, a quick check looks like Shan has been the only 
active user for the past couple of months, but I may be wrong.

Either way, I need to overhaul some parts of the current setup, which was thrown together in an enormous rush.  Once I 
know what parts we are going to follow, I will make appropriate plans and let everyone know.

Yesterday’s problems were caused by the combination of Techsoup and Microsoft.  Licenses that I ordered and paid for 
were not delivered correctly, leading to the QB server shutting down at an inopportune time.  After restoring the 
server, reverting to trial licenses, I spoke to MS tech support, who suggested that we start all over again purchasing 
the TS licenses.  They also suggested that we just buy them directly from MS at full retail price, which is not much 
more that the Techsoup price.

Right now, we should be good for a couple of months, but I want to prevent any similar issues in future, and even the 
regular jumping-through-hoops that I have been doing up until now to keen the current system running.

The first issue to resolving this and improving long-term reliability, is to decide how many simultaneous users we 
realistically need.  The rest will flow from that.

Regards

        paul