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TECHNICAL BULLETIN
03.28.90 ACCPAC5 JCR (update 5.1.90)
ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE: ACCPAC Plus 5.1, Computer Associates

Installing WSM
The Windowing System Manager (WSM) should first be installed on the network server.  The network does
not have to be present to install, however, SHARE must be loaded (they recommend running as SHARE
/L:250 /F10000), and FILES should be present in your config.sys file (they recommend running FILES = 250).
WSM Installation notes and recommendations can be found on page 2-4, Installing ACCPAC Plus and Setting
Up Data, from the ACCPAC Plus Windowing System Manager manual.  Server and Workstation share and
file arguments can be found on page 2-17, Planning Your Network, from the ACCPAC Plus LanPak manual.

The WSM is installed by typing A:INSTALL at the C: prompt with the first WSM disk in drive A:.  Please
review "Network Operation" on the following page for configuration when installing to a substituted or
redirected drive.  Once WSM is installed, it should automatically bring you to a menu with an option to Install
Product.  If you are returned to the DOS prompt, check to be sure SHARE is loaded and that no errors have
occurred.  You may run WSM from this point by typing in PLUS.  Press the F3 key to select your option and
I to Install Product.

Installing ACCPAC Plus Products
Insert the "Product One" disk of the product (Order Entry, Accounts Payable, etc) you are installing, and select
Continue from the installation box.  Follow the prompts to insert additional disks if necessary.

Installing the LanPak
Install the LanPak product disk following the instructions above.  The system will then prompt you the
following questions:
     Are you installing on a Novell Network? --- answer no
     Have you read the README.TXT file?      --- answer yes if you have

The Network Activator Installation screen should appear.  The status should indicate that the network units
on this disk have not been installed.  The system will then ask you to Activate the Network. Select YES and
a Host Network scroll box will appear.  Move the arrow key to the entry field, and select IBM PC LAN.
Select YES to confirm your network name and a message will indicate that activation of the network is taking
place.  After installation, the status should show that 4 Network units have been installed and the Host
Network field should display IBM PC LAN.  After activation, select CONTINUE and a message will display
"Completing Activation."  The system will then prompt you (Y/N) to install another program, select NO.
To check the LanPak installation, exit WSM to DOS (press ESC at the Start List and select YES).  Re-start
WSM and the network name should be displayed on the screen header line.

Additional LanPak Installations (Network Units currently installed) Install LanPak product disks using the
Install Program function as defined above.  The Network Activator Installation screen should appear and the
number of Network Units currently installed should not include the units on this disk.  Select YES to install
the units.  After installation, the status should indicate that the Network Units have been added to the existing
Network Units.  Select CONTINUE and select NO if you do not wish to install another product.

Note on LanPaks...
Each LanPak disk contains four Network Units.  You cannot install one LanPak disk twice. Refer to the
LanPak manual to determine the number of Network Units required for each configuration.





Workstation Names...
The Workstation Name identifies each workstation to other users on the network.  To give each workstation
a unique name, the workstation must first be assigned its own Option directory.  This can be accomplished
through the DOS SET command; SET plususer = d:\pathname  where d:\pathname is the drive and directory
containing the user options.  This can also be accomplished by starting WSM with the "/u" command; PLUS
/ud:\pathname.  Once this has been done, you may change the Workstation Name at the ACCPAC Start Menu
by pressing F3 for System Manager and selecting Options. You will see the workstation name in parenthesis
(the default is UNNAMED).  Press enter to change the name.  NOTE: We have received reports indicating
that the Network Name must be unique in the first four characters.  ACCPAC uses that four character prefix
to create work files for various situations.  Problems may occur if they are not unique.

Configuring a workstation using PROFILE.LD4
The PROFILE.LD4 file contains configuration info for each workstation, including support for remote access
and network drive designation.

In some cases the user must access the server through a modem which may cause certain performance
limitations. For these users, Computer Associates recommends an alternate installation method, which includes
the modification of this file. Please refer to Adding a Remote Workstation, pg 4-16 of the 5.1 LanPak manual,
for more information.

When installing ACCPAC, it is recommended that each user use the same drive designation to run ACCPAC.
If your users do require different drive designations to run ACCPAC, it is possible by the modification of
PROFILE.LD4.  Be sure to modify the file on each workstation - do not attempt to modify the file located
on the server.  To modify the file (pg 4-19 in LanPak manual), you must first:

1.  Ensure the file is located on the root of each workstation and is not read-only (for edit purposes).
2.  Set a path to the location of the local profile.ld4 file on the workstation so the system will know
    which .ld4 file to reference.

The file should contain at least two pieces of information (the defaults are listed):
     \ASP   {The location of the \ASP directory on the server
     10     {the number of windows that workstation can have open

Edit the file so that the first line reads X:\ASP where X: is the redirected drive designation to the server's
ACCPAC directory.  For example, if you've issued a command such as NET USE F: \\SERVER\ACCPAC
(where SERVER is the server's machine name and ACCPAC is the name of the resource created on the server
for ACCPAC), the first line should be changed to F:\ASP. Save the changes to the file, ensure your path is
properly set, redirect your drive designation (X:) to the server's ACCPAC resource and you should be able
to run PLUS from that redirected drive.  These steps must be taken on each workstation.

Network Operation
Once the ACCPAC products have been installed on a server, the node must log into the server, share the root
device on which ACCPAC has been installed, and any necessary printing devices.  If the server is also a
workstation, the server should run ACCPAC from his own physical device.





When ACCPAC is initially installed on the server, it creates a series of directories and files from the root,
therefore, the root must be shared instead of any particular directory.  If security is a concern or you do not
wish the users to have access to the entire root, you may install ACCPAC to a subdirectory which has been
substituted or redirected with a drive designation as follows:

1.   Make a directory on your server called \ACCPAC.
2.   Issue a DOS SUBST command to redirect \ACCPAC to a drive designation; SUBST E: C:\ACCPAC,
     Where E: is the first available drive designation
3.   Install ACCPAC WSM and any subsequent products onto drive E: (instead of drive C:).
4.   Run NET_MGR and create a shared resource called ACCPAC with a link path of C:\ACCPAC.
5.   Issue a NET USE command to link to the ACCPAC resource; NET USE E: \\SERVER\ACCPAC,
     Where E: is the redirected drive designation and \\SERVER is the name of the server on which the
     ACCPAC program has been installed, and \ACCPAC is the resource name which was set up in
     NET_MGR on \\SERVER.
6.   Switch to the E: prompt and run WSM.

NOTE: This operation may be preferred, however, once installed in this manner, ACCPAC must always be
run from the new drive designation on both the server and the workstations.  The server is not required to
net use his own \ACCPAC resource (which would slow things down and may cause other problems), but may
instead use the SUBST command to run ACCPAC from drive E:.  To avoid path confusion, keep each user
to the same redirected drive (have them all run ACCPAC from drive E:).
ACCPAC Plus requires each node to have a minimum of 640K RAM.

Avoiding Problems
The following is a brief list of suggestions to follow when installing ACCPAC:

- Make sure ACCPAC Plus has been installed for IBM PC LAN, NOT Novell.
- Make sure DOS SHARE and FILES= are appropriately configured on the server AND workstations
  (refer to page 2-17, Planning your Network, from the ACCPAC LanPak manual).
- If you have assigned workstation names, make sure their first four characters are unique and the
  environment variable has been properly set.
- If you are running expanded memory, make sure your memory exclude command is set correctly.
- Make sure each workstation has a minimum of 640K RAM.

Comments
ACCPAC Plus has been tested with the LANtastic NOS 2.57 and 3.0, and has been added to our compatibility
list. Computer Associates has confirmed the content and accuracy of this document, and they have certified
ACCPAC Plus 5.1 to be compatible with LANtastic NOS.


Vendor Info
Computer Associates International, Inc.
1240 McKay Drive
San Jose, CA  95131
[phone]




TESTING
Computer Associates has a series of tests required for AccPac Plus, as briefly summarized below:

Installation Test Procedures
These procedures tests the various installation configurations for WSM, the products and LanPak.  No
problems were encountered.

Start List Test Procedures
These procedures tests the Start List, which is an initial menu selection of products.  No problems were
encountered in creating, editing or deleting products on the list, and the DOS Programs supported all of the
network-supported DOS functions.  Multiple windows were opened simultaneously (up to 10) with no
problem.

Multi-User Test Procedures
These procedures test the multi-user access to various records within the ACCPAC products.  Again, no
problems were encountered.

Resource Test Procedures
This series of tests allowed us to test the file sharing/creating/editing/deleting aspects of ACCPAC.  No
problems were encountered.

Printing Test Procedures
These procedures tested printer sharing.  The server was configured with a variety of printers, and each series
of control codes worked fine.  NET LPT TIMEOUT was not required on either the server or the workstation,
however, both required that the user appropriately issued the NET USE LPT1 and/or NET USE LPT2 so the
network could recognize the device.  If a user did not issue a NET USE command, ACCPAC would print
either to a local device or a printer error would result.

NOTE: In order to request a device change for a specific report (for example, to generate invoices on printer
already loaded with forms), one must be at that report menu to change the device, or the device will remain
at <DEFAULT>.  Once you have configured a report for a specific device, that report will always print to
that specific device until you change it.  If that device is currently unavailable (not attached, not powered up)
an error message will appear and if that device is currently busy, your print job will be despooled.

Expanded Memory Test Procedures
These procedures test ACCPAC Plus with Expanded Memory.  When it is loaded properly, the initial CA
screen will display the amount of memory available.  ACCPAC uses expanded memory to help optimize certain
functions, such as a search. For these tests, we used a 386 with a total of 2Meg RAM.  We loaded
Quarterdeck's QEMM device driver to address the RAM with the following syntax: DEVICE=QEMM.SYS
EXCLUDE=D000-D800, where D000- D800 is used by the network adapter.

Some initial problems were discovered when running a CompuAdd enhanced keyboard during the memory
tests. A swap to a generic keyboard fixed the problem, and Computer Associates is aware of the problem.