Long story short I own an MSP, but have a few friends who work for my competitors. They have a few CPA clients as well but all have a server for hosting QuickBooks files that are opened with multi-user mode. Any time I tell them there are cheaper ways to do this. I have all of my clients using multi-user QuickBooks setups running off a Synology NAS. It took a little configuration but I haven’t really had any issues, and it helps them host machines for clients yet still have access to the databases while there clients are accessing them.
Just wondering if anyone else is using a Synology NAS to store QuickBooks databases.
Everything other than the application itself on the end users machine is on a Synology NAS. It works just fine from my experience with a few different backup systems in place. My main CPA client with this setup has somewhere in the range of 300-400 clients so the cloud just didn’t make sense. There was initial cost for the infrastructure upgrade was high but with getting his clients setup with remote machines it was quickly “paid off”. He ends up marketing much like some of the cloud systems do, and has picked up roughly 50 users in the last few months.
Is this still viable? I’m trying to set this up for a client, and cannot get multi-user mode to work when the datasbase is hosted on the Synology. Care to share any tips if so?
Multiuser mode requires a service to be installed on a server that has access to the file. Most people install it on the same box that hosts the QB application where multiple users will RDP to access it.
That’s what I thought. So, how are people running multi-user off a Synology, unless they’re putting the company files in an iSCSI share to then run the database manager from a Windows machine?
I’m not really a fan of Quickbooks myself, when I brought these companies on as clients they had a dedicated machine set aside for their Quickbooks server. This chewed up a license and is a waste of resources. So I was setting them up with a Synology for Backup for Business, so might as well free up a license and a machine.
The CPA clients I have are the more advanced configurations as a few of them have xcp-ng + xen clusters (Previously ESXi) so they are setup to offer a VM to clients they manage, or hosted quickbooks like other companies. Most of my other clients who use Quickbooks are running a similar setup, but once the Synology goes EOL I will be finding a different solution.
I haven’t purchased a new Synology in a hot minute as they are locking their units down to “Synology Drives” which I don’t support. I personally use TrueNAS Scale in my homelab and in my business environment so this might be the alternative.
I’ve got several clients using TrueNAS, as well, but as I’ve been dealing with QuickBooks since the late 90s, I went through the disaster of multi-user files working fine until they introduced the Database Manager concept out of nowhere and with seemingly no notice somewhere around 2004, at which point multi-user did nothing but crash constantly unless you used the Database Manager and their stupid port designations that conflicted with Windows Server DNS services for a few years until they figured out not to use a range already well-known to be in use, I didn’t consider an alternative universe where the Database Manager is no longer necessary for multi-user access if not being hosted on a Windows machine. I thought there was some indexing/logging of QB database transactions that needed the DB manager to control them so files didn’t get corrupt from users trying to access data simultaneously. So, for a while, for each client who had one, I was setting up an iSCSI extent on TrueNAS and linking them to a “host” QuickBooks Windows machine running DB manager, pointing to the iSCSI drive. But that’s a pain and a bunch of documentation and work every time a “host” machine gets replaced if you don’t massage the iSCSI initiator just right. If the DB manager is truly only necessary if hosting the file on a Windows machine and works fine without it on a Linux-based machine, I’d love to know, but I don’t know how it gets around all the file manipulations for multiple simultaneous users without it.
I don’t use a database manager for this and have never had a single. Even if I ever experience an issue I’ll restore from a backup the day before so minimal data loss. I use simple SMB shares, change the QBW.ini file and make appropriate firewall rules on the local machine if necessary.
That’s the first I’ve ever heard of someone with QB multi-user (simultaneous) access not using the QuickBooks Database Manager and associated Windows services it installs. If the DB manager stops running on any of my client’s QB host machines they’re denied access with QB error codes.
There’s no way I could make them restore all the way back to yesterday - several of my clients use QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise as almost a live Point Of Sale system, churning out retail invoices all day. If they had to revert back to a backup from the prior evening, they’d lose their minds. I back up the QB company files on an hourly basis.
That is fine. Then don’t do this, I’m not telling anyone what to do.
All I am saying is I have done this with clients for years, over 5 years at this point and haven’t had a single issue. This is with several of them utilizing multi-user mode, with multiple users….