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Upgrading to ACT 2012 Premium Advice 1

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kurio71

Technical User
Oct 1, 2009
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We're running ACT 2010 Premium with Hot Fix 5 on a SBS 2003R2 server. We're constantly getting Preferences file corruption. My question, is it any better in 2012? Also, what setup specs does anyone recommend for ACT 2012?

Level 1 Support Technician
 
Yes, the prefs file corruptions are more rare in 2012.... although, if properly setup, 2010 was not bad.

As to specs:
1. How many ACT! users
2. How many other users running services on the server
3. SBS has Exchange, which can such all the RAM and cause performance issues in ACT!
4. Web, Lan share, sync, mobile access?
5. How big is the ADF in GB?
7. How many files in Attachments folder (size doesn't matter)

The two most important things for ACT! performance are RAM and HDD speed in RPM... processor is only important with 20+ concurrent users or web

Regards,
Mike Lazarus
ACT! Evangelist
GL Computing, Aust
Join the LinkedIN ACT! Fanatics Group
 
Thanks for the reply Mike. The new server will have 32Gb of RAM and solid state drives. I've tried to answer to questions below.

1. How many ACT! users? 30
2. How many other users running services on the server? Still not sure.
3. SBS has Exchange, which can such all the RAM and cause performance issues in ACT!
4. Web, Lan share, sync, mobile access? Not sure.
5. How big is the ADF in GB? 0.98 Gb
7. How many files in Attachments folder (size doesn't matter)? Is there a default location?

Level 1 Support Technician
 
First point is that you have nearly a 1GB ADF...

Because of that, I'd look at getting SQL server Standard which can handle the larger ADF as well as RAM over 1GB and multiple processors

Attachments are in the database folder, supplemental file folder, Attachments

Regards,
Mike Lazarus
ACT! Evangelist
GL Computing, Aust
Join the LinkedIN ACT! Fanatics Group
 
Hi Mike

How many is many files? There are quite a few email attachments.

The ACT database is now on a separate server, 2K8R2, which has SSDs. Performance has increased and no preferences file corruption yet.

Level 1 Support Technician
 
Had a rash of problems with ACT. When in the Dashboard Navbar, when users click on the columns to view data, the data is often blank. In particular, the Opportunities Navbar in List View is blank though the data can be viewed in the Detail View. Usually I close ACT and rename the the folder in \Roaming\ with the extension .old and open ACT again. This usually fixes the issue but with one user did not. Any ideas?

Level 1 Support Technician
 
That's our problem with ACT. Our users live in ACT and frustrates the hell out of them. It happens on all our workstations which are a mixture of Windows 7 Pro x86/64bit & XP Pro x86 on various hardware. Some users never, rarely and constantly get this corruption. My boss is a programmer and has written a bat file to re-paste the Opportunities Preferences data when our users get this problem. It usually works but when it doesn't I manually "blow away" all the preferences files and replace with a "master" set and change the user specific data.

Level 1 Support Technician
 
 http://www.mediafire.com/?1kwhrbx7h69j5dl
1. Why only opportunity prefs? How do the users notice the issue?

2. what exact build of ACT! - from help | about? Specifically, is it 12.0 or 12.1? Are all systems on same build?

3. Does this most likely happen after a reboot or does it also happen after just closing and re-opening ACT!?

4. You should try to disable simple file sharing on Windows XP Professional and Windows 2003 Server machines:
Windows Explorer - Tools menu - Folder Options
View tab - Advanced Settings section
Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) option
Reboot



Regards,
Mike Lazarus
ACT! Evangelist
GL Computing, Aust
Join the LinkedIN ACT! Fanatics Group
 
Hi Mike, really appreciate the reply.

1. The problem is the data is blank in the Opportunities List View after clicking a column in the Dashboard. The data can be read in Detail View though.

2. The version is 12.1.181.0 Hot Fix 5 of 2010 Premium. All 25 workstations are the same version.

3. As far as I know it's random. Need to ask users that one.

4. I'll check whether Simple File Sharing is disabled.

Level 1 Support Technician
 
Cheers Mike, we're going to 2012 in the future. Also, just logged on to check whether Simple File Sharing was turned on, yes. Turned it off but couldn't reboot to check as the user had files open. Thanks.

Level 1 Support Technician
 
FYI Mike,

Turned off Simple File Sharing on the XP machine, ran our Opportunities fix bat file and rebooted but still same issue. Do you suggest turning of Simple File Sharing on Windows 7 machines? Also, the database hosting server is a 2008R2 machine.

Level 1 Support Technician
 
Mid thread the database was moved to the new 2008R2 server. We're also upgrading to SBS 2011. Also, eventually ACT 2012 Premium.


Level 1 Support Technician
 
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