Hi SF Team,

As I have mention in the past, I am just a part-time VB.NET programmer.  I am not on here very often, but when I need advice or REAL answers you guys are the ones I come to. That is why I love SF and renew my license every year to have access to this forum. 

My scenario is this.  I have written Win App obviously using SF.  Each database only has to hold up to 500,000 records maximum so that is why I am using SQL Server Express databases.    Currently, I have setup an VPN connection to enable 2 users to connect remotely to the databases within my client's network for running the win app.   In addition, I have serveral small databases running on a single XP box using a single SQL Server Express instance.  Depending on the client records they can connect to any one of the databases they choose.  At the moment, everything is working great.  However, he wants to setup up to 10 remote users.  Therefore, it poses several questions in my mind that I am looking for some suggestions, advice or even How Tos.   I think hosting this stuff on the internet would make my life easier in terms of supporting the remote users and updating changes to the databases, but being a part-timer I have NEVER done any of this before.

1. What is the simplest way to deploy updates to the remote users?  Over internet?

2. If over the internet, would I host the updates on a ftp site that the remote users would download or have some way that the app automatically downloads the update?

3. Should I use a hosting site for the SQL Server Express databases so that I don't have to support 10 VPN connections?

4. If hosting the SQL Server Express databases on the internet is the way to go, do you have any suggestion on who I should use?

5. Also, if am going to host the databases on the internet, how do I make the connection using SF?

Sorry about all of the NEWBIE questions!  But I want to do this the right way and I know you guys will give me the best advice.

Thank you and thanks again for this helpful forum and your great products.

Jeff

Trent can say more about ES, but since you will be moving to a dedicated server you should have RDP access, therefore you will not need your SQL "exposed", ES runs via HTTP via IIS so if you just have your host allow that protocol and RDP for remote access, you should be fine. They SHOULD provide simple firewall requests, if they dont, look for a new host

Before we got our dedicated hardware firewall, I used the Windows firewall on Server 2003 and it was fine, only once we started doing more with the server did I need to go beyond that.

Keith Chisarik

Keith,

It looks like I am going to use Hosting.com (HostMySite.com) which is the hosting site I believe you are using.  They are sending me a quote for the server and SQL Server Workgroup edition 

I am going to have about 30 clients and 10 databases running on the server.  This app is a very low transactional system.  Probably about 1 update per minute to 5 tables.  Do you think I would be able to get away with SQL Server Express to handle this volume of clients and databases?

Also, let me see if I understand what you meant by not having my SQL Server exposed.  Because my clients are using ES to access the SQL Server database, only ES needs to have access to SQL Server and I don't need to exposed the database to the internet for my clients to access the data...correct?

Thanks so much for the help and advice!

Jeff

Jeff,



Yep that is correct. SQL server is not access directly by users (it is access by ES) so SQL Server should NOT be available beyond firewall. ES is made visible via IIS to the outside world. Note you can encrypt the connection via ES, so only your app can get access (because it knows the key setup for ES).



Not sure about using SQL Server Express, but that sounds like real low volume. However, you might want a beefier version just for the admin tools. Hopefully others can weigh in on that issue with more knowledge.

Greg that is a great suggestion.  However, how do I encrypt the connection via ES?

Thanks,

Jeff

It's pretty easy. I don't have the help docs available at the moment and since this is rarely done, I'm working with from a faulty memory board (er...my brain), so you'll need to check the help files. This is setup for each data source, so check that part of the help file. You setup a key and a salt for the encryption in the data source config file, then when you setup the ES data source in the application, you provide the same key and salt. There may also be a flag to set that says it's encrypted. That's it!

When you setup the ES data source, there is simply a property (flag) that indicates whether you want encryption. There are others as well that include compression, etc. These are all in the docs in how to setup the ES server.

Yes, you can always move up to another version of SQL Server as you grow. As long as you are comfortable with the limitations of Express you should be fine starting there (1 GB RAM, 4GB database size limit, etc)

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/features/compare-features.mspx?PHPSESSID=0324345d45ef1bf1f764044e03584cd0

Correct

Keith Chisarik