Tips for OS Upgrades - v15

Terence · Post by **Terence** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:59 pm

Hi,

Looking for any tips or hints you can send my way for upgrading the operating systems on our (wifes practice) server and terminals. I work in IT so know enough to be dangerouse

Current state - Running v15 Network Professional SP1 3 user. We have a small office with 3 terminals and 1 dedicated machine to run ADS (currently 9.0), all machines are running Vista 32bit Business edition. We also have a networked printer and everything hardwired with Cat6 to a gigabit switch. All machines have static IPs, DHCP is turned off. Our staff have user level permissions, not administrator.

Future state - Looking to install Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (x64) on the server (and additional memory for a total of 8GB) and Windows 7 Professional (32 or 64 bit) on the terminals. using the same Medisoft v15 software

Our local VAR has closed up since we originally installed the software and I can't seem to find my install notes. I recall that she had me install 2 hotfixes and then SP1 when I did the install originally. I do have Small Business Server running in a virtual machine and ADS and the Medisoft client seem to be working normally with a backup of our datafile.

Questions:

A. Is there a preference for the terminals to run 32 or 64bit Windows 7?
B. Do I need to install the ODBC or OLEDB drivers from the Medisoft disc?
C. Can I just install SP2 on all the clients or do I need to also install the hotfixes and SP1 first?
D. I saw mention of ADS 9.1 somewhere, is that recommended or required for 64bit servers?
E. Is it preferable to copy over our medidata folder to the new install or restore from backup?
F. Any other ADS or Medisoft folders I should copy over?
G. Any other things I missed or tips?

Thanks so much for any input you can provide!

Terence

Post by **Gavin Walker** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:50 pm

Hi Terence, since you are on Medisoft v15, this is what I recommend.

A. 32-bit Windows 7 Pro with 2GB or more of RAM on the client.
B. Do not install ODBC or OLEBDB drivers. They are not needed in most cases.
C. Install Medisoft v15 sp2 directly. Prior versions of Medisoft are not required nor recommended. All machines need to be on v15 sp2.
D. ADS v9.1 is recommended, but you have to downloaded it from Advantage's website. Use 32-bit ADS even if your Windows server is 64-bit.
E. You CAN copy the Medidata folder to the new server. If you do, you must delete MWDBLIST.* and then re-add the practices back into the practice list when you first start up Medisoft.
F. No, just copy Medidata. Don't forget to share the folder and access the data through the share from the clients.
G. If you will run Medisoft under Remote Desktop Services on the server, then stick with 32-bit Windows to avoid problems. If you are just installing ADS on the server, then 64-bit Windows is OK.

Terence · Post by **Terence** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:58 am

Hi Gavin,

Thanks so much for your reply and answers. I should clarify that I a currently running the server, ADS, and Medisoft software in a virtual machine just for the sake of testing, everything will be running directly on the local machines in production.

We currently have Medisoft installed on the server but it isn't used from there in the normal course of business, the server is actually headless and controlled primarily by me RDPing in to it to check in on it. It is nice to have Medisoft installed there for troubleshooting and for occasional work from home activity.

In the virtual machine, Medisoft seems to be running well on the x64 server OS, are there known issues with running it on x64 or is that just what is supported? I would really like to have it installed on our production server if possible.

Thanks again,
Terence

Post by **Gavin Walker** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 9:49 am

You will occasionally get strange errors running Medisoft v15 on 64-bit O/S. So installing on a 64-bit Windows Server for occasional use or just to look at things is not a problem. I would not recommend it for every day use though. Also, Medisoft doesn't care if it is running on a virtual machine.

Terence · Post by **Terence** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 1:19 am

Thanks so much for the advice, looks like we found our new Medisoft VAR

I was browsing through some other threads and your knowledge is very impressive!