[RetailEdge Moderator]

A typical installation will have the Client and Data Server installed on one workstation and the Client only installed on the other workstations. However, there are a few reasons why you might want to install a server on more than workstation.

1. System redundancy. Having the dataserver installed on more than one workstation can benefit you if your main dataserver crashes or if the network connections stop working. In this case, you can simply have the secondary workstations point to its local server, restore the most recent backup. This will get you up and running quickly while the main dataserver machine gets repaired or is brought back on-line. Once the main dataserver is fixed, you can simply make a backup of the RetailEdge data, and restore it into the main dataserver and then have the workstations point back to this workstation for their data.

Note: As with any backup, if there were changes in the data in between the time the backup was made and the time you change the server and restore the data, you may lose this data. You can export, sales, inventory, pos, receiving, and customer information from RetailEdge and import this into the restored dataset to make the dataset more complete.

2. Temporary Off-Line Machines A typical RetailEdge user application is to have workstations that are taken off-line for temporary uses like trunk show sales or purchase order creation at a trade show. If you have a server already installed on the off-line machines, you can simply, have the machine point to its own dataserver, restore a RetailEdge backup into its local data, and then disconnect from the network. You can then make changes to the data and then export these changes to a file that can be imported back into the main store data. This machin can be simply reconnected to the network and then repointed over to the main store dataserver later.

[nattivillin]

The recon system will synchronize data servers in multi locations?

We have 4 stores. Each location has a central server. 2-3 workstations at each location.

If we tie all 8 workstations back to the main server, performance is poor and slow. We tried QB multi-location and that is the only way it can be set-up. I was reading on your recon DB setup and it looks like it will sync the location servers together. I haven't been able to find any info on it in the help section.

[RetailEdge Moderator]

RECON will synchronize data servers from multiple locations. Each satellite location would have a copy of RECON that would talk to the central location. We would not recommend that you run your workstation across a WAN or VPN. The performance although might work for simple operations (like a sale) but for report running or multiple item look ups would probably not be fast enough for you without a really fast connection. As soon as you add a VPN into the equation it would further slow things down.

More importantly, we know from experience that the internet is not as robust as everyone seems to think. So with the RECON client architecture and the RetailEdge database server located in each location when the internet flakes RECON will just wait for it to come back and update your system when it can.

Just call us with any questions you have. It might be easier this way.

The recon system will synchronize data servers in multi locations?

We have 4 stores. Each location has a central server. 2-3 workstations at each location.

If we tie all 8 workstations back to the main server, performance is poor and slow. We tried QB multi-location and that is the only way it can be set-up. I was reading on your recon DB setup and it looks like it will sync the location servers together. I haven't been able to find any info on it in the help section.