[odb-help] Re: ODB on Samba

[Jeremy G Kahn]

I actually use ODB on Samba as well here in Seattle.

It sounds like Greg H's problem may have something to do with 
permissions to write a lock file -- he should be sure that Samba is set 
up so that the ODB user has permission to create new files in the 
directory where the data lives -- not just to modify the datafile 
itself. In the Unix world (dunno about Windows) it's possible to have 
files you can modify, but have those files live in a directory you may 
*not* modify (e.g., by adding a lock file to that directory).

Even so, you *should* get an error if two people are trying to modify 
*the same record*, no? I don't have my set-up in front of me -- it's at 
a different site -- so I can't check this, but it seemed to do the Right 
Thing for me once I had it set up.

I found it easier to install the program on the server as well, but to 
mount the drive (as "O:" for "ODB", of course) so that as far as the 
program was concerned, it was running off a local drive.  I wrote a 
simple batch-file (which lives on users' desktops) that automagically 
mounts the drive appropriately, runs ODB, and then -- when the user is 
done with ODB -- de-mounts the drive to prevent unwitting tampering.

Hope that's useful.
--jeremy

Rich Cowan wrote:

> 2) ODB data on Linux
>
> You might be aware that the Linux world has settled on a standard
> file server program to replace "Windows 2000 server" and the name
> for that Linux software is "Samba."  Two ODB users have installed
> their ODB data files on a Samba Server. (The ODB program software
> should not be installed on your server, just the data file.)
>
> It worked for one user, but not for the other.  I am wondering if anyone
> has the answer to Greg Heller's question about an error when multiple
> ODB users tried to access the data file on SAMBA.  As you may
> know Access/Jet databases create an "LDB" file in the same folder
> where the actual database file (the "odb" file) resides; this is the
> problem that Greg was having:
>
>>> I can get either computer to open the ODB with the database saved on 
>>> the samba server while the other does not have it open.
>>>
>>> If one computer has the odb opend i get the error message:
>>> Unable TO Open Database
>>> Eror #3050. Couldn't Lock File
>>