Hints & Tips to help you with Visual Manufacturing
Topics
Index of Topics
Data Backups - Backing up your Visual Manufacturing Database
Security - Securing your Visual Manufacturing data
Remote Access - How to remotely access your VM data
Reporting - Custom reporting solutions
Backup your Visual Manufacturing Database
Hints & Tips regarding backups
Regularly backing up your data and completing test restores of the backup is the best way to ensure you do not lose critical business information.
Regular backups protect against:
Database corruption - your entire database can become unusable due to virus, errors, power surges, etc.
Hardware failure - a faulty hard disk or motherboard can destroy your database.
Theft / Disaster - a fire, power shortage, or simple theft or malicious conduct can destroy your data.
Why have off-site backups?
Off-site backups protect against Disaster or Theft, and are industry standard for protecting your data.
SQLBase Backups SQLBase backups can be accomplished via Dumps or Snapshots, plus periodic log files. Both dump and snapshots are limited to under 2GB of size. If your database exceeds 2GB, then we recomment
you use our Data Archive Tool
Oracle Backups Oracle databases can be backed up using a variety of methods; each method has benefits and drawbacks. If business up-time is critical, then we recommend a remote replication database solution. If the business can afford to lose some data, then
periodic (daily) Dump files may be sufficient.
SQL Server SQL Server databases can be baacked up using a variety of methods - if business up-time is critical, then we recommend database replication; if your business can afford to lose some data, then periodic backups should be sufficient.
Note: Backing up your data is critical, but it will not increase performance. To increase performance, consider archiving data that is no longer needed. We provide a user-friendly tool to archive data that will improve the performance of Visual Manufacturing. Please click the link to learn more about our Data Archive Tool
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Hints & Tips regarding database security
Please use the following checklist to help secure your data:
Change the default password(s) Make sure your database does not use the following passwords for administrative accounts: sa, Changeoninstall, dba, '' (a blank password), sysadm, or your company name. In over 10 years consulting, I estimate that about 1/3 of first-time clients have this security issue.
Limit access to server In Visual Manufacturing, the user name and password used for Visual corresponds to a database account; therefore if you can see the data in visual the user can also access the same data from the database directly. To help secure against unauthorized database access, you can lock down the user's environment to limit their ability to access critical data.
Limit physical and virtual access across network Network domains, servers, backups, etc. can be physically and logically located to make it more difficult to simply 'wander into' information. Hardware should be suitably located and protected, and domains and shares on servers should also be secured.
Direct Database Access Allowing users to query the database directly can be powerful and dangerous - here are some rules of thumb:
1. Create a new database account, with read-only access.
2. Limit the account to only the data required.
3. For true security, create a reporting database that is a replication copy of the production database. This ensures that bad queries do not impact Visual Manufacturing performance.
4. Ad-hoc queries can corrupt and slow the production database - using a separate database for queries is always recommended.
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Accessing Visual Manufacturing remotely
There are a number of methods to access your Visual Manufacturing system remotely (either via modem or internet connection):
Solutions that allow full access (cannot limit user)
Windows Remote Access or VNC Remote access and VNC allows a computer with a remote connection to use Visual Manufacturing as if they were at their office computer. Depending on network connection speed, the session can be VERY slow. Benefit is very easy to set up, drawback is security is the same as if the user was at their office computer.
Windows Net Meeting Similar to Remote Access or VNC, but with the added benefit that a second user can join the session for training or support. Drawbacks is security and performance.
VPN connection Through a secure VPN connection, a user connects their pre-configured computer to the local network and runs Visual Manufacturing as if it was an office computer. Drawbacks is security is same as for office computer, plus the connection can be very slow.
Managed Web Access
VisualWebTool provides a fully secure, managed environment to access your Visual Manufacturing information via a web browser. Benefits include no pre-configuration of client is needed, performance is faster than remote solutions, and the ability to enforce security on data viewed. For example, a customer could be given access to only customer-specific information, or a sales rep with specific territory information only. Drawback is more setup and higher cost than remote access.
For more information please refer to VisualWebTool
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Accessing Visual Manufacturing data and reports
Visual Manufacturing contains a number of great reports, however sometimes it is beneficial to provide your own sets of reports. Here are some options:
Crystal Reports is great for simple reports where security is not a concern.
Microsoft Access is an excellent tool for complex and re-occurring reports, but is difficult to secure.
Other Custom Reporting Tools There are a number of reporting tools that are excellent, including Cognos, Microsoft Report Services, Oracle, etc. The main issue when using these tools is security.
VisualWebTool provides a fully secure, managed environment to access your Visual Manufacturing information and reports via a web browser. Benefits include no pre-configuration of client is needed, performance is faster than remote solutions, and the ability to enforce security on data viewed. For example, a customer could be given access to only customer-specific information, or a sales rep with specific territory information only.
For more information please refer to VisualWebTool
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