Iu2019d like to start a general discussion regarding the use of Business One over Citrix Presentation Server/XenApp. Specifically, how best to design this type of solution and how to overcome any obstacles that may result.
For example, my company is currently working on planning and designing a project to consolidate multiple remote Business One installations back to the corporate headquarters and using XenApp to publish the Business One client to these remote offices. This has already raised a few questions that I was hoping to get some insight on.
First, we are consolidating remote offices running both the 2007A and 2007B versions of B1. How can we publish both versions simultaneously? We envisioned installing at least two B1 servers, one for 2007A and one for 2007B, then we assumed we would have to run the B1 client on the XenApp servers either in an isolation environment or as profiled applications streamed to the XenApp servers. Is anybody else publishing both versions of the B1 client? If so, are there any issues that need to be dealt with?
Second, would you recommend installing one B1 server for each remote office/company to connect to or would you recommend connecting each separate remote office/company to the same B1 server (specific to the B1 version they need to connect to)? There are pros and cons to each scenario. If each remote office/ company has their own B1 server, they can be kept at different patch levels and the servers can be upgraded or rebooted without affecting other users, however this results in additional overhead for hardware (even if running the B1 servers as VMs) and maintenance. If each remote office/company uses the same B1 server specific to their needed version, then administrative overhead is reduced, but all will need to be kept at the same patch level and issues or reboots will affect all connected users. Also, are there issues with add-ons that are site specific, will we need to run multiple B1 servers to achieve this functionality? Are there limitations on the number of users that can connect through one B1 server, taking into consideration that different users will be connecting to different companies/databases simultaneously?
Our original overall design will consist of one SQL server for all necessary databases, one Citrix Licensing/Web Interface/Secure Gateway server, at least two (maybe more) B1 servers running 2007A and 2007B, and at least three Citrix XenApp/Presentation servers running the B1 clients.
If anybody has any questions or comments, Iu2019d love to hear them. Thank you.