Tuesday 13 January 2009

SBS 2008 and QuickBooks 2008 or 2009 Database Manager

Around here, QuickBooks (QB) is probably the number one accounting software we see in small businesses.

As some of our previous posts alluded to, the QuickBooks (blog label search) upgrade from 2007 to 2008 was very painful and in some cases outright destructive. With the advent of QB 2009, which looks to be an incremental update to 2008, things seem to have settled down.

Whenever we are asked about updating the company books to the newest version of QB, or any other accounting software for that matter, we always recommend that the company do the upgrade at year end and the previous year's books are closed. If anything blows up, then very little work will be lost.

When it comes to the new setup in QB 2008 or 2009, the database structure is based on MySQL. So, if there is a need to share the QB company file, the QB Database Manager will need to be installed on the computer where the company file resides.

We have a number of Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard file servers where we have set up the database manager. There are, however, a couple of gotchas when there is a need to get things going on Win2K8 and SBS 2008 too.

We just finished an SBS 2008 setup with a centrally located QB file. The process is essentially the same for it.


SBS 2008 Firewall - QB Database Manager and Network Service

Both QB database manager programs need to be added to the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security Inbound Rules.

From there, after installing the QB database manager Server Only components on the server, make sure to visit the QB Update (Canadian site) site and download the webpatch.

Once the patch has been applied, there will be a need to reboot the SBS box. Keep this in mind if the install is being done during business hours.

After SBS reboots, if at an accounting office client, have a user load up a QB company file and try to switch it over to Multi-User Mode. Do the same for a non-accounting firm client that requires two or more people connected to the QB company file. Make sure to run this test, as the QB 8202 error will not show itself until the user tries this.

QB 8202 error tells us that QB cannot connect properly to the QB Database manager. The first time we received this error, we ran both the Db Manager update and realized we needed to open up the firewall at the same time.

Once the users have demonstrated that they can connect to the same company file together, it is time to move on! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the post. We're just migrating from SBS 03 and found that QBDBM 2007 doesn't work so well. The screenshot was particularly helpful.

Thanks,

Bill Hole
SBSC
Simi Valley, CA

Anonymous said...

Handy post because multi-user just wouldn't go, now we have some different error codes... -6000,0-83 error codes

Philip Elder Cluster MVP said...

Chris,

That code series means no connection to the database manager on the server.

Make sure the QB services are installed and running then verify the firewall is not blocking them.

Philip

Nick said...

So QB Enterprise 8's database manager should run fine on the SBS 2008 x64 platform after applying the patch and opening the ports? Just want to make 100% sure before I upgrade, intuit's site is really no help at all.
Thanks

boma23 said...

re: the -6000 0-83 error

QB page here:

http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/articles/SLN41019

however the ONLY fix in the end for me, after going thruogh theentire thing (plus usual ports etc.), was to simply open the company file directly on the server desktop using the server copy of Quickbooks. Changed it to MultiUser, and the client was OK again.

QB is still not very good networking software. I always install the client software on the server, as simply opening the company file locally on the server seems to fix a myriad of issues in all versions.