Progress Server (OpenEdge 10b) running on Linux Platform v8.03

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1
--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "vantage803" <bash100@...> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
> I am looking to see if there are any others out there that are running
> Progress OpenEdge 10b (or 9)on a Linux Platform. We have gone thru and
> still working thru issues on getting up and running v8.03. I would like
> to share our experience and with others, and see how everyone else is
> enduring thru their adventures. Please forward me your email and I will
> reply or just post to my topic and we'll see how far this goes....
> Thanks in advance
>
>
> -Joe
>

Joe,
We have communicated outside the forum. Add Slackware to the list of
distributions that work very well. We have been running Vantage 6.0 on
Linux for 3 years and have suffered only 4 hours of downtime (60 GB
disk crashed)in those 3 years. The server has currently been up for
240 days since the last power failure that lasted long enough to
warrant a short shutdown. We also have 8.03 running on a test server
but nobody has really put it through its paces yet.
When it is a tractor "nothing runs like a Deere" but when it is a
server "nothing runs like Linux".
2
Hello all,
I am looking to see if there are any others out there that are running
Progress OpenEdge 10b (or 9)on a Linux Platform. We have gone thru and
still working thru issues on getting up and running v8.03. I would like
to share our experience and with others, and see how everyone else is
enduring thru their adventures. Please forward me your email and I will
reply or just post to my topic and we'll see how far this goes....
Thanks in advance


-Joe
3
We've been running Progress 9.1D on Linux since March 06. We are on
Vantage version 6.1. Runs great - never had a problem. The server has
4 GB of RAM but can handle 16 GB. If I need more RAM, I'll just throw a
few sticks in - no silly RAM limits on Linux. There were some initial
pains figuring out the server setup - we spent considerable time testing
configurations and tweaking the server so that everything worked okay.
Most of the problems come from the lack of support from Progress -
especially for older versions of Progress. I had to use an older Linux
distribution than I would have liked. If I had more time I would like
to install the latest Progress version Epicor supports on a test server
and see if I could get 6.1 to run on it (the biggest issue may be the
6.1 client with the newer version of Progress).


Christopher Gitzlaff
Manager - Information Systems & Technology
Major Industries, Inc.
Phone: 715.842.4616 ext. 323
Email: cgitzlaff@...




-----Original Message-----
From: vantage803 [mailto:bash100@...]
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 1:13 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Progress Server (OpenEdge 10b) running on Linux
Platform v8.03



Hello all,
I am looking to see if there are any others out there that are running
Progress OpenEdge 10b (or 9)on a Linux Platform. We have gone thru and
still working thru issues on getting up and running v8.03. I would like
to share our experience and with others, and see how everyone else is
enduring thru their adventures. Please forward me your email and I will
reply or just post to my topic and we'll see how far this goes....
Thanks in advance

-Joe








[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
4
Hi Christopher,

I am impressed.
I would like to try to do the same.

What flavor of Linux works?
What flavor would you like to try?
How do your clients talk to the Linux server.
Does Samba allow Windows clients to talk with the Linux server.
What about printing.
What about terminal server?
What database is used Progress Linux?
Is the schema the same as with windows?

Thanks in advance,

John Mansfield
General Sheet Metal

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
5
Sorry for the lengthy reply:


What flavor of Linux works?

I use Fedora Core 4, primarily for backward compatibility. Progress 9.1D forces you to use Java 1.3 (ancient) - sun provides Java 1.3 rpms on their site (simple solution).

What flavor would you like to try?

As far as I can tell, Java 1.3 will not run on any kernel newer than 2.6.15 (that is what I'm on). 2.6.17 is available for FC4 but Java 1.3 will not run on it. This locks me into the 2.6.15 kernel. The server runs great so there is no reason for me to change it. If I wanted to build a new server, I may want to move to a more recent version of Linux - I'm not sure if I would be able to.

How do your clients talk to the Linux server?
Does Samba allow Windows clients to talk with the Linux server?

We have 5 servers running Linux. Our standard Linux server configuration allows them to authenticate users against our Active Directory server using Samba. We share the necessary folders using Samba - looks like a Windows share to them.

What about printing.

We still use a Windows print server (if I had the time or desire it could be moved to Linux using Samba). Printing is primarily a client-side process. There is no printing difference with Vantage on Linux or Windows.

What about terminal server?

We run a Windows 2000 terminal server for offsite access to Vantage - no problems. It is just like any other Windows client.

What database is used Progress Linux?

Progress Linux is used (9.1D patch 9). Progress 10.0B used Java 1.4 the last time I checked. Even that is an old version of Java (not much for 64 bit support).

Is the schema the same as with windows?

There is no difference between the schema or database on Windows or Linux. I moved our database (1.6 GB at the time) from an older W2K server to our new server. Once everything was setup on the new server I pulled the database over, ran the repair (takes about a second), and was able to start the database immediately. Moving databases back and forth between Windows and Linux versions of Progress is easy.

Notes/Frustrations:

Progress will not run behind iptables (Linux firewall). The Progress Explorer Tool connects on one port initially, then jumps all over the place (Progress uses random dynamic ports). The same for the database connections - initially done on one port, then they jump all over. Other than that it works great - I don't touch that server - it just runs. No strange problems. The only time I shut it down in the past year was when a truck took out a power pole in our industrial park - lost power for 3 hours.
6
I have added our answers and reason to the questions asked as well
for review by all!

> What flavor of Linux works?

Epicor has their own recommendations. We used the Debian Linux
distribution, release 4.0 (aka. "Etch").

Debian is the distro that we know best, and are most comfortable
supporting. If you are not familiar with supporting Linux and/or
have no one to assist with Linux support, you should probably use
Windows.

> What flavor would you like to try?

I do not understand this question. We used the distro of our choice.
We prefer Debian over RedHat for its more open (or, less proprietary)
nature, and like the apt/dpkg tools provided for software package
management over such solutions as RPM/YUM/RHN (RedHat Linux) or YaST
(Novell/SUSE Linux).

> How do your clients talk to the Linux server.

The clients are still Windows boxes, and use the same network
protocols as they would if the server were a Windows box.

> Does Samba allow Windows clients to talk with the Linux server.

Samba allows Windows clients to communicate with the server via the
SMB/CIFS protocol, which allows for file and print shares to be
served from the Linux server, much as they would be from a Windows
server.

> What about printing.

The server is configured with Samba/CUPS to provide printing
functionality.

> What about terminal server?

It's used to connect to remote Windows PCs/servers. It is not a
requirement for management of a Linux server, nor is VNC (which Epicor
recommends) unless you want to remote control the Linux server
through a graphical interface. This provides no functionality for
us, since there are no graphical tools that we use to manage the
Linux box, and the only thing we would do once you remotely connected
to this graphical environment is open a text terminal.

Not running a graphical environment on the server frees up resources
(RAM, disk, CPU cycles) that can be better put to use running the
server's primary application. Additionally, Debian Linux can be 100%
managed via command line tools, and requires no graphical tools for
its administration/maintenance.

We use SSH (remote access via an encrypted text-based interface) for
remote access to the Linux server, and use the command line tools
listed in the Epicor documentation to install and maintain their
software.
Additional software (such as Samba) is freely provided by Debian's
online repositories, and are installed and maintained via Debian's
apt/dpkg system.

> What database is used Progress Linux?

Progress.

> Is the schema the same as with windows?

I believe so, but this is a question best directed to Epicor. Even
if there are schema differences, migrating from one platform to
another should not be an insurmountable task.

I know that the Data Base structures are different. We are working
with Epicor now to develop a Dump and Load Kit so that the Data Bases
could be converted between Win32 and Linux Platforms and vice versa.


Hardware we are you using (This is for everyones FYI)

Dell PowerEdge 2950 w/quad XEON 3GHz CPUs (4MB Cache) and 4GB RAM.
Storage is provided by a RAID disk set, partitioned with LVM for
volume management. /usr/epicor is on its own partition/LV, which is
approximately 70GB in size, with around 7.5GB currently in use.

The server tends to run at a low load average, and most of the RAM is
in use.