Remote Access to softline/sage pastel accounting software

JaimeLopes777

JaimeLopes777

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Hey,

Our accounts department would like to be able to work from home on pastel. I have them setup in the office with 3 machines, a desktop which is the 'server' and 2 laptops that are 'workstations' I'm not hugely familiar with how Pastel works but I assume the 'companies' are stored on the server, as well as a database service (pervasive).

When the 2 laptops are in the office, connected to the LAN they work fine, but when they are out the office and try to run pastel while connected to the office LAN via a PPTP VPN, pastel takes 20-30mins to open up a company and is basically un-usable.

I've read elsewhere that the only way to do remote pastel is via remote desktop which is not feasible as the 'server' runs windows xp (no concurrent TS sessions)
I can only assume that this is because large amounts of data needs to be transferred?

Can anyone shed some light on why Pastel is so slow over a VPN?
Would it perform better using a different type of VPN, OpenVPN or an SSL tunnel?

If running pastel on the remote machine is impossible, then what is the cheapest way to have 3 RDP sessions running on the server? I'm guessing that we would need a windows server machine with client CALS for RDP..?

The only other solution apart from a windows server i can think of is to run a linux distro on the server and run pastel using wine, but i'm not sure if that will work?

Is anyone successfully doing remote access to pastel?
 
Running direct on the VPN is a no no. Your connection is simply too slow and you could at worst case scenario cause data corruption and data loss. To put it simply don't do it.

What you have heard is correct. Your need to use RDP to work remotely.
The reasons for working on remote desktop are simple:

1.) If you get disconnected there is no data loss.
2.) Its faster than VPN file share as data is local. Also see point 1!

The easiest way to do this on your current infrastructure is:

1.) Hack Windows XP registry to allow multiple RDP sessions (*frowned upon, obviously*)

or

2.) Create an alternative RDS (remote desktop services) with licensing for 3 incoming users.

J

JaimeLopes777 said:
Hey,

Our accounts department would like to be able to work from home on pastel. I have them setup in the office with 3 machines, a desktop which is the 'server' and 2 laptops that are 'workstations' I'm not hugely familiar with how Pastel works but I assume the 'companies' are stored on the server, as well as a database service (pervasive).

When the 2 laptops are in the office, connected to the LAN they work fine, but when they are out the office and try to run pastel while connected to the office LAN via a PPTP VPN, pastel takes 20-30mins to open up a company and is basically un-usable.

I've read elsewhere that the only way to do remote pastel is via remote desktop which is not feasible as the 'server' runs windows xp (no concurrent TS sessions)
I can only assume that this is because large amounts of data needs to be transferred?

Can anyone shed some light on why Pastel is so slow over a VPN?
Would it perform better using a different type of VPN, OpenVPN or an SSL tunnel?

If running pastel on the remote machine is impossible, then what is the cheapest way to have 3 RDP sessions running on the server? I'm guessing that we would need a windows server machine with client CALS for RDP..?

The only other solution apart from a windows server i can think of is to run a linux distro on the server and run pastel using wine, but i'm not sure if that will work?

Is anyone successfully doing remote access to pastel?
Click to expand...
 
Then licensing it is... Not sure of the MS options now day's as I tend to use Open Source items more now...
 
Am thinking of an ubuntu machine with 3 virtual machines each running windows (R3k for windows) as windows server 2012 essential is R5k and i've read mixed reports about whether it actually does allow 25 RDP sessions as stated in the features..?
 
The windows server licensing thing is so flippen cryptic, i'm sure they do it on purpose...

Windows server 2012 essentials they say is for up to 25 users (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server-essentials/default.aspx)

BUT for RDP, you still need additional CALs :cry:

"7 Requires an incremental RDS CAL for access, with the exception of using the Remote Web Access feature of the Essentials edition."
 
Hi There,
RDP is the best way to go for this solution. Running on XP is also not necessarily the best option either.
Could you not upgrade to a more modern server environment and then the hack of the registry should not be a problem?
I realise that it is not necessarily the cheapest solution but if it ensures integrity of your most crucial data then you need to balance the capital cost against the loss of cashflow when you can't get the invoicing out.

I would also talk to your Pastel partner and get their input on the best way to go.
Or how about this from sage

Regards

Tim
 
Do all the okes have 10mbit lines at home? Working remotely over anything else might result in serious dispair.
 
PASTEL is not designed to run over a WAN. Use RDP which you can do from windows, linux, bsd or osx. One would have though in the year 2013 they would have adapted their product already to suite more client-server type environment.

Just out of interest sake does anybody know if pastel runs in WINE :D
 
ponder said:
PASTEL is not designed to run over a WAN. Use RDP which you can do from windows, linux, bsd or osx. One would have though in the year 2013 they would have adapted their product already to suite more client-server type environment.
Click to expand...
Dude you'd be surprised. Frankly if accounting software can dump a clean CSV file of all the transactions then I do a small victory dance. Working in a finance environment whilst having a solid IT understanding is like dying a little bit inside every day because you can see the huge gap between what is possible and what is there in practice. Also...god help you if the finance servers are on a different continent.
 
HavocXphere said:
Dude you'd be surprised. Frankly if accounting software can dump a clean CSV file of all the transactions then I do a small victory dance. Working in a finance environment whilst having a solid IT understanding is like dying a little bit inside every day because you can see the huge gap between what is possible and what is there in practice. Also...god help you if the finance servers are on a different continent.
Click to expand...

I can only sympathise as I've tried to help out some people before and only ended up going WTF, why is this so ancient?
Worst cockup I ever saw was some server dudes recommending some MS server solution for their SAP app on the new WAN solution they purchased. If they had spoken to anybody that knew anything about SAP at the time he would have told them they are fscked :D
 
Last edited:
Hi guys just another question about pastel on a network. Didn't want to create a whole new thread for something that could be a one line answer. What's the best way to setup pastel on a LAN? 2 laptops want to work on one set of books not at the same time. Shared directory for the save database? Btw this is a small home office with 2 ppl.
 
Vegeta said:
Hi guys just another question about pastel on a network. Didn't want to create a whole new thread for something that could be a one line answer. What's the best way to setup pastel on a LAN? 2 laptops want to work on one set of books not at the same time. Shared directory for the save database? Btw this is a small home office with 2 ppl.
Click to expand...

As far as know, we had to get a server license from pastel for the desktop, then workstation licenses for the 2 laptops in our setup. You need to share the pastel folder (the one that has all the companies in it) on the network and then map this folder to a drive on each of the workstations. We had to install pastel on the 'server' first and do the authorisation, then install it on the clients and point to the server for authorisation....
 
JaimeLopes777 said:
As far as know, we had to get a server license from pastel for the desktop, then workstation licenses for the 2 laptops in our setup. You need to share the pastel folder (the one that has all the companies in it) on the network and then map this folder to a drive on each of the workstations. We had to install pastel on the 'server' first and do the authorisation, then install it on the clients and point to the server for authorisation....
Click to expand...
Kwl thx dunno what licences they have will find out. Thx
 
JaimeLopes777 said:
As far as know, we had to get a server license from pastel for the desktop, then workstation licenses for the 2 laptops in our setup. You need to share the pastel folder (the one that has all the companies in it) on the network and then map this folder to a drive on each of the workstations. We had to install pastel on the 'server' first and do the authorisation, then install it on the clients and point to the server for authorisation....
Click to expand...

Will it then be possible to have 2 or more people work on the same company file at the same time?
 
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