Using ProE from a server

[cc-2]

Hello,

all of our ProE users have ProE installed directly on their machine. As you can imagine, everytime we need to update/upgrade (because of bugs in ProE, or new version of PDMLink etc...) my IT must go to every single client and do the installation. It is time consumming, some sites (we have 12 engineering centers worldwide) are slower than others .. and it ends up creating all sort of issue.

I have recently heard that ProE could be installed on a server and each client could run it from there. To make it easy for the users a shortcut could be created on their desktop or sent my emails.

This solution seems a lot more efficient but I have some questions about the reliability:

Can the users still have their custom config.pro ? If so, what needs to be done ?

Does it give additional load on the network?

Does it give additional load (cpu ram etc...) on the server (should we have a dedicated machine for it)

Does it work through a WAN or does it has to be via a LAN

Those are the questions which came up my mind. Please feel free to tell me about your experience as well.

Thank you very much in anticipation

Chris

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[lwh]

First, ProE does not really need to be installed. We just install it once on a test machine and then copy the files to each workstation. This will have much better performance than running it from the server, which of course adds load to the network. I definitely would not recommend a WAN, not even to assign only the licenses.

For Config files there are different solutions: First, learn about the sequence how ProE locates config files, that may already be the solution for You. Another method is using a little batchfile, which copies the user's config file into the working directory when starting ProE. As the config.pro is a text file, where the last setting overrides previous ones, it is possible to append user settings to global or project settings and even add lines created by the batchfile itself.

Such a start script can be really comfortable, see http://www.lwh-brainware.de/en/proe_ex1.shtml for an example.

[gchampoux]

We have been running off a server for our UNIX users for many years.
It is still adequate because there are rarely more than 3 users at any time.
We used to do the same for PC users.
It worked, but as Pro/E grew and our user-base grew, the performance went down unacceptably, and it strained the network.
Now we configure one PC, and then copy it to each workstation.
To speed things up, we ZIP up the entire install folder, and convert it to a self-extracting zip file (.exe).
We use Microsoft's SMS to deploy updates/upgrades, or email a link to the executable.
Installation takes less than 5 minutes per PC.

[dgallup]

We have always installed on the server & just put a shortcut on the users desktop (since Unix days). If you have a decent lan (100+ mbps) it won't bog down. The only delay is a bit longer time to launch Pro/E and the first time in a session that certain dialogs are opened. Once it's in the local machines memory it runs just the same. You are probably pulling larger amounts of data for your models across the same network. Users still have a local config.pro in their home directory.

I would not do this across a slow network or WAN.

[cc-2]

Hi everyone,

thank you for your answers, I have been wondering if PTC had any white papers on that subject. I searched unsuccessfully their website so maybe there is known
Does any of you know anything about it ?

thank you

Chris

[hippe]

Hey everybody,

Please keep in mind that 32 bit and 64 bit computers require separate Pro/E software/installs and 64 bit by default will not install on a 32 bit machine. (although 32 bit will install and run on 64 bit with relative degradation in performance.) 64 bit is the way for the future so you should consider your upgrade path carefully. There are several 3rd party software's available for you to create and install Pro/E on a computer and then allow your IT to schedule and execute deployment onto client machines after hours.