August 2004 Edition
Feature Spotlight: Looking at a Slice of History
Q&A with Technical Support: Log Shipping as a Failover Solution
Smart Tip of the Month: Display Employee Name based on the Employee Number
Third Party Software: Windows 2003 - Remote Desktop for Administration
Support Bookshelf: Additional Log Shipping Resources
Feature Spotlight
Looking at a Slice of History
Need to see who made changes to your record in Virtual Ticket? Look at a slice of History. The History button in the Virtual Ticket browser window allows users to see all of the changes which have been made to a record, including all previous values of fields. The history window also displays changes to attached documents. The history window includes information about who made changes to a record and at what time the change occurred.
Q&A with Technical Support
Are there any failover solutions which can be utilized with Virtual Ticket/Job Manager?
Yes. Log shipping can be used as a failover solution with the Virtual Ticket/Job Manager system to synchronize a second SQL server containing your database, which can be brought online should your primary SQL Server fail. Log shipping is the transfer of transaction log files from a production SQL Server to a secondary server on a set schedule. Once these transaction log files have been ‘shipped’ to the secondary server they are restored onto a specified database providing a database which is similar in its state to your online production database. In the event of a failure on your production database, the secondary server in the log shipping configuration can be quickly converted to your primary server and your work can continue. The basic setup of Log Shipping can be found in SQL Server Books Online, located on your SQL Server.
For more information on log shipping, visit:
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16171
Smart Tip of the Month
Display Employee Name based on the Employee Number
In a combined Job Manager/Virtual Ticket database, you may wish to display an employee’s name instead of their employee number. For example, fields which contain information about the CSR and Sales representative on a job or for a customer may display simply as the employee number on a Virtual Ticket field. A MetaScript can be implemented to use the employee number to display the employee’s name on a Virtual Ticket form.
To view an example, visit::
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16172
Third Party Software
Windows Server 2003 - Remote Desktop for Administration
As was possible in Windows 2000, any administrator user can connect to a computer with Remote Desktop for Administration enabled, however, Windows Server 2003 users other than Administrator can be specified for logging into the Remote Desktop. Remote Desktop for Administration (formerly known as Terminal Services in Remote Administration mode in Windows 2000 Server), is now configured in Windows Server 2003 by right-clicking My Computer on your desktop, selecting Properties, and filling the checkbox in the Remote Desktop portion of the Remote tab.
For more information, visit:
http://www.microsoft.com
Support Bookshelf
Additional Log Shipping Resources
Earlier in this edition, we featured Log Shipping in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. The following articles provide a detailed overview of how to configure log shipping and how to bring a secondary server online in the event of failure on the primary server.
Part 1: Setting up, reconfiguring, and monitoring log shipping
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/maintain/logship1.mspx
Part 2: Role changes, role reversals, and positioning the monitor server
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/maintain/logship2.mspx
New MetaCommunications Knowledge Base Articles this month:
16084 – Removing download access from Virtual Ticket WebServer
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16084
16168 – Using Virtual Ticket/Job Manager in a Citrix environment
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16168
16171 – Using Log Shipping as a failover solution
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16171
16172 – Display Employee Name based on the Employee Number
http://www.meta-comm.com/support/knowledge_base/article.asp?id=16172
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