Hi. I was wondering if anyone has tried to run the Financial Edge from a terminal Server? I looked at the system recommendations as of 7/23/04 but saw nothign about terminal servers. Any infromation would be helpfull.

Good Morning! We have been running Financial Edge on Terminal Server for a little over a year. No problems at all. Makes it nice not having to update all the machines when revisions come out. Ned Forster IS Manager Association of Graduates, USMA West Point, NY 10996

I use "terminal services" from home to access it all the time and find it very acceptable. The drawback is that when you run a report, you can't save it on your home-PC's laptop, because terminal services thinks (acts as if) you are in the office network. I sometimes get around that by putting the reports in a queue that emails them to me. VPN is too slow: I have also tried VPN which is supposed to be more secure and which DOES allow you to run a report and save it locally wherever you are, even print it on a printer directly connected to your machine at home. But our VPN connection slows the process of reporting, clicking through to a location on the network, etc down to a crawl. -PeterF AmeriCares 203-658-9671 [Email Removed]

Thank you for the idea. I never thought of that use of terminal services to save on pc-by-pc support. Do you have to have a super souped-up terminal server to support 4 users at the same time? AmeriCares 203-658-9671 [Email Removed]

We run Terminal Server as a desktop replacement for 15 users currently and hope to expand that to about 60 in the next year. We are supporting FE, RE and MS Office 2003 as well as a few other odds and ends. If you wanted to handle 4 users you would probably be looking at a 1-2 GHZ server with 512MB RAM. We're not using server-class boxes. We have a pair of Dell dual-processor workstations handling the load. Dual processors would not be necessary for 4 users. Ned

This is a great discussion. I use terminal services to access FE from home and it works great. I would like to set up Terminal Server so that I could let 3 other users access FE and RE in the future when we get it. Do you need client software to access a terminal server? As I understand it you can't use XP remote desktop to access a terminal server in application mode. I'm unsure here as I've had no real experience with it. Thanks, Nora Isaac ALS Association, Greater Phila. Chapter

Ned, We are going to go to FE next summer and are just starting to think about maybe having some of our users on Terminal Server. I am excited to find out that some one, who is also in NY state has been using it already. I will be out on maternity leave starting anytime soon until the new year. But I will be in touch with you more about this after the new year. Thanks for the information you have already givne us.

We currently have MS Office 2003, Adobe Acrobat Professional, a pretty hefty Bible program, and RE7 and FE7 installed on a remote access server running Windows 2k3. It has worked great for us. Even on dialup, the experience is not too bad. Most of our remote users, about 35, have DSL, though. For a good TS resource, follow this link: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/terminal/default.mspx  It will give you capacity planning, etc. Sizing may be particularly useful to you at this point. Microsoft's research suggests that you need around 21MB RAM per power user (someone who is on all apps all the time) plus what you need for the OS. For our server, we have a dual P4 Xeon with 2.5GB RAM, which we expect to service 100 users. I hope this was helpful. Also, one BIG thing to keep in mind. Because RE and FE require the users to be local computer administrators, you will have to add each user accout (domain or local) to the local computer administrators group. I don't like this at all! There is in the knowledgebase a way around this, but i haven't been able to make it work yet. Just FYI. Dan Barber Technology Administrator Campus Outreach Ministries

Good Morning Nora, Yep, you need licenses. You can get them at a relatively inexpensive cost through various MS charitable programs. They come basically in packs of 5. Let me rephrase that - Microsoft's licensing for TS under Windows Server 2003 is a bit confusing. We purchased licenses for TS under Server 2003 because we didn't have any XP clients. If you have XP clients you may not have to purchase the licenses. We use the XP RDP client to access Terminal Server all the time. Works for both the Win2K and Win2K3 flavors of TS. Ned

Hi Dan, We have not had to do this. The only reason users need to have local admin rights on their machines is for installation and updates. Both FE and RE work fine once the admin rights are taken away after an install. Since all RE and FE installations are made only via the Administrator's account users do not need to be added the Local Admins group. Like you said - we definately don't want them there - especially on a Terminal Server. Ned

Ned, Thanks for your reply. My users will have XP so that helps, I think. I have a server I'm not using that is a P4, 2 gb ram, single processor system. I'm hoping I can use that as a terminal server. I'll have a max of 4 users. This thread is very helpful. Thanks to all. Nora

Hi Dan, Do you know of any other organizations in Birmingham that uses FE? I'm an Assistant Controller for The Westminster Schools in Atlanta and am relocating to Birmingham - I love what I do and it'd be great if I could find a similar position in AL. Any info or tips would be most appreciated. [Email Removed] Assistant Controller The Westminster Schools [Email Removed]

Gwen, Not that I know of. We have tried to get several other people to convert, but to no avail. I don't know what all the colleges and universities around here use, though. Dan Barber Technology Administrator Campus Outreach Ministries

Gwen, Hi! I'm not from that area, but I do know that Blackbaud posts job openings on their career pages - not just for Blackbaud, but for jobs all over the US -- companies who use Blackbaud products. Hope that helps. Nora IT Manager ALS Association, Greater Phila. Chapter [Email Removed]

We user Terminal Server for user to access Financial Edge from home. The only drawback to this is printing. I have recently tested access to Financial Edge via VPN and have found this to be the easiest solution for my users. Printing is also not an issue for home users anymore. I posted a basic procedure for VPN access in the Miscellaneous forum. The downside to VPN is that anytime I upgrade the server, I have to burn a CD for my home users. We only have 5 home users so this is not a big issue. Norm Dunkin Landmark Chrisitan School [i]--- Edited at 1/7/2005 12:45:32 PM by Norm Dunkin[/i]