SQL Database Backend for Accounting Software

Rick Sharp asks: "At my firm we use a pretty good mix of Linux, BSD and Novell solutions for our networking needs. We don't have any NT servers, and don't intend to start either. However, I was told today by the vendor of our accounting software package (Harper and Schuman) that our program would require MS-SQL 7.0 after the next upgrade cycle, which is only a few months off. Does anyone know if it is possible to use this package with a Linux SQL database. We currently are using PostgreSQL on Linux for some other projects, and I would not like to get sucked into an MS-SQL only solution."

Comments

Re:Options

[phutureboy]

I second this. Either get an NT server or a new accounting package.

There are way too many little differences between SQL databases to transparently move from one to the other, 'specially without the blessing or support of the application's vendor.

IMHO, MS SQL Server 7 is one of the better MS products. It seems to work well as a backend for small-to-mid size web sites. Unfortunately it runs on NT :P

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Could work with Sybase

[Matts]

I'm the developer of O'Reilly WebBoard's NNTP server. I do all the development at home on Linux and Sybase. The product ships on MS SQL Server 7 (or 6.5). It does take a little bit of work to make the two compatible, but not much. However I suspect it's an awful lot easier going from Sybase to MS SQL than the other way around, YMMV. However ultimately I doubt very much the licence for the package will allow you to change db like that - you'll lose all support.

Options

[PhiRatE]

To be honest and up front, I don't see that you have more than two options. Get NT or drop your accounting software vendor. MS-SQL 7 is, from experience, a particularly nasty piece of work.

Although a vast improvement over 6.5, and over the old DBs of the past, this is by no means saying anything worth being said, and both the Open Source, Oracle and IBM solutions are far more effective.

My recommendation would be to inform your vendor that you have no intention of getting MS-SQL 7, and if they want you to upgrade they had better find another solution. Back-ending into an SQL database in these cases is trivial, if your vendor has any sense they will have been using ODBC for some time, or at the very least the standard TDS 4.2 protocol that both Sybase and MS-SQL can talk.

If this is the case, you can at the very least back-end into Sybase, or more hopefully, anything with the relevant ODBC drivers.

If the vendor won't budge on this issue, my personal recommendation would be to drop them and find someone with sense. I wouldn't want people so obviously narrow minded writing my software. But I'm kinda hard-line on that sort of thing, you may well end up having to install NT/SQL-7.

In this case, I can offer one ray of gloomy light. NT is stable so long as its only doing one thing. From experience, if you install SQL-7 and other required software, and nothing else, and do nothing else with the box, and don't try anything tricky, it will remain relatively stable and perform reasonably.