Using Openinsight over hardware VPN

prattspets

I am trying to figure out how to properly structure my network between two retail locations, in respect to Openinsight's functionality. Can Openinsight work over a hardware VPN, like Cisco or SonicWall? In other words, the application would be on a server at location "A", and location "B" would connect through a hardware VPN to the server at location "A". How much bandwidth is necessary for Openinsight to work properly with this type of connection? Are there issues that can arise in Openinsight with a VPN connection? Should I consider using terminal services (RDP) from the remote location to the server location? What has worked for you guys in the past?

Any thoughts and previous experience would be greatly appreciated!

Dan

KevinFournier

The problem is that OpenInsight tends to be pretty big. Every file that OI touches will have to be pulled over the internet, leading OI to feel incredibly sluggish. None of this generally gets cached (though I could be wrong), so the sluggishness will happen every time for every user. I have a client that runs on a 10MBS network still (talk about old-school), and OI is sluggish there too, so VPN can only get worse.

Moreover, I'd worry about the increased possibility of data corruption due to connection problems. Running OI this way basically adds a lot more risk factors overall.

I think it would be better for users to connect to a terminal server on the VPN so that the application is running solely on the server and only the desktop is remote.

prattspets

Thank you for your input Kevin.

Dan

CorbyNagel

To take what Kevin said a step further, if you want to only provide the OI application, you might want to consider looking into Terminal Services RemoteApp. This allows users to click on a icon on their local desktop and it launches like a regular application. But what is going on behind the scenes is the application is wrapped in an RDP session. This provides the user with an application experience without having to connect to another desktop (RDP/TS). We have done testing with this on a few OI applications and overall it was a good experience.

sbotes

Dan,

We are running an OI point of sale application for about 75 concurrent sessions using an app called 2X. It is a Citrix wanna be that works quite well for us. It is also relatively inexpensive. I works by putting wrappers around a RDP session that makes the user appear to be running from their own desktop. It will also provide load balancing across servers. I have no experience running this across a hardware VPN I do not see why it would not work. However, my experience there is limited.

Except at very peak times the user is hard pressed to tell that they are running from a server located across the country. And in fact we have one user that is located in Australia and the servers are in the US. No complaints from them on response either.

More on 2X.

BarryStevens

Dan,

We are running an OI point of sale application for about 75 concurrent sessions using an app called 2X. It is a Citrix wanna be that works quite well for us. It is also relatively inexpensive. I works by putting wrappers around a RDP session that makes the user appear to be running from their own desktop. It will also provide load balancing across servers. I have no experience running this across a hardware VPN I do not see why it would not work. However, my experience there is limited.

Except at very peak times the user is hard pressed to tell that they are running from a server located across the country. And in fact we have one user that is located in Australia and the servers are in the US. No complaints from them on response either.

More on 2X

Steve, what is the pricing for 2X, finding it hard to get the information