90p Admin

Would it be a useful member benefit for the group to invest in remote setup of various versions of MAS90/200/Sage 100. What I'm thinking is that we all have customers (prospects) who come along and are on version 3.6x and need help (I'm exaggerating on the version) -- however some of these projects can be lucrative if we don't have to spend lots of time hunting down old versions of disks and setting the system up. Does it on any level make sense for the group to invest in a Rackspace type setup where we can have all the versions of MAS that group members could use for testing or support? I'm probably way too broad in my idea here but I would love to have one central place to dial into for a clean version of 4.05 that I could blow away (or save as my version) after the support session is over. Maybe this is just the start of an idea for a group project (and I don't think we can frame these in terms of reaching every single 90 Minds member -- so you might think of whether 10-20% of the group would get a lot of benefit from it?) I suspect we could swing it $$ by being more creative about generating money from vendors -- web ads, etc. ??

Man oh man ... this is such a great topic that I can't believe we missed it for the MotM. It is so fricking annoying to have to maintain images of old versions and the Sage demo image program (which I belong to) only really supports the latest versions. We set this up last year for our Sage CRM demos. Here's a 20K view of how it works: 1. You create a virtual server from a list of blank templates (basically Windows only images with varying sizes of RAM and processor speeds) and configure it however you want (install Sage 100, Sage CRM, MS SQL, etc.). 2. You then save that server as an image. 3. You then kill the active virtual server - literally - you delete the active server. 4. From then on, when you want to access that server, you activate the image. 5. If you want a variation of the base image (for example, you want to load a third-party add-on or set up some specific demo data), you create a virtual server from the saved image. 6. Upon configuration, you save the new server as a new image. It's pretty damn simple. Here's some catches: 1. You are charged based on up-time. You better make sure you turn off (delete) your active servers when complete. If you don't have all your work done for configuration, you save it as a new image and then delete. Do NOT leave it running ($$$$$$$). 2. You are charged based on the base image used for Windows. More RAM = more $$$$. Figure out your base minimum and use that because it adds up quickly. 3. You are charged more if you choose a managed account vs non-managed. Managed accounts are, imo, worthless. You cannot transfer images from one type to the other type so pick wisely. 4. As you start to have multiple variations, it can quickly become a nightmare picking between images. Settle on a naming scheme before getting too far along. You can always clone and rename images so it is rectifiable if you want to change it. Just more work. 5. If multiple companies are using the images, we would need to have some way to tell who launched a server. If Azamba lets a server run for two weeks and the bill is $500, we need to know to bill Azamba for it. There is no way that I know of to police this in a shared environment. I hope that helps.

Maybe we can get Gary Feldman involved to minimize the hosting fees.......

I wonder if Gary could setup a number of these types of sessions. I would consider it money well spent because it probably would save all the active members lots of time.

No harm in asking. He benefits from the group recommending his cloud services. Time for him to show the group a little love back.

@PeterWolf Great info - based on the $$ issues - my guess is maybe this would be something that we'd let each partner decide to participate with. In other words -- have one mutually created group of images and if possible transfer them between servers? Maybe that's a question for Gary. That way we individually don't care who left the lights on as we'd be liable for our own costs. I'd really benefit from this type of setup and especially if we pooled resources on the image setup and best practices. Cost savings to me is not so much a factor as setting up the servers the best and easiest way.

Thumbs up. Great idea

@WayneSchulz - I don't think there is a way to transfer images between accounts. We would have one 90 Minds account with multiple images. Then the problem is that there is no way to record who activated an image - which is a huge hassle for billing.

Yes but you need to have some easy way to copy and clone images. It would be the cheapest way honestly.

Can we buy a server and plop it in DSD's office?

Actually we are about to get 10mb fiber into the office in the next 90 days. If we were to purchase a server I am sure we host it.

A VM box would be great.

Jim loves maintaining this stuff

I think one large VM server at somebody's office who has alot of upload bandwidth is all you need and then a gotomeeting on how to clone and spin up servers. Just name it something like schulz_mas3.71, or azamba_scrm6_05 I server with enough drive and RAM will probably run about $8k.

Plus setup.

We have not really scratched the surface in what I believe our fundraising capabilities are with respect to selling ads or sponsorships to vendors. I think we can easily afford this -- the question is will this be a high enough value? Personally I'm a MAC user - for me to be able to log in and access these virtual machines would be awesome. I'm not sure if anyone else has the same thought - though it would seem this could save all of us at least some setup time if not a lot of server $$.