dollar_sign Eclipse Reconciler Service
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Overview

The Eclipse Reconciler Service is used to run the Eclipse System Reconciliation function on the server rather than the workstation. This removes the need for a user to start the System Reconciliation process from within Eclipse and additionally allows the System Reconciliation to run faster as no network infrastructure is involved. The programme runs as a Windows Service which means that it has very specific installation and configuration requirements. This release of the Eclipse Reconciler Service replaces the original version which was sold separately from the toolbox. Existing users should refer to this article.


Setup

As the Eclipse Reconciler is a service it can only be installed on a Windows NT, W2K, XP or Windows 2003 machine, and to install the service you need to be logged on to the server as an Administrator. The ToolBox installation of Eclipse Reconciler merely copies all of the appropriate files to server machine; thereafter you need to perform some important configuration tasks before the service is operational.

1. Drive Mappings and BDE Administrator settings  
 
The NETDIR setting for the BDE Administrator needs to be set in such a way that the server sees the path here with the same path structure as the workstations that run Eclipse, although the same drive letter is not required. To there are two ways to achieve this, but Windows 2003 only allows you to use one of them because of the restrictions that Microsoft introduced on services using mapped drives.  
 
Option A. (Windows NT, W2K, XP Only)  
 
Map a virtual drive on your server to the same share that all workstations running Eclipse use. So just as your workstation sees then share as a drive, so does the server. So if you have shared the folder C:\OurData\EclipseData such that for the workstations, ...\EclipseData is the H: drive, it will also be seen as a drive on the server (the actual drive letter doesn't matter)  
 
Option B. (Windows NT, W2K, XP & Windows 2003)  
 
Create a very small partition on the server for the sole purpose of hosting the small pdoxusrs.net file that the NETDIR setting will create. The partition only need be a few megabytes and because it only hosts a single file, there are not security issues with all users mapping directly to it.  
 
 
Below are some examples of correct and incorrect drive mapping configurations:  
 
Correct  
 
Workstation A (NETDIR = H:\EclipseData\NetFileFolder)  
Workstation B (NETDIR = F:\EclipseData\NetFileFolder)  
Server (NETDIR = J:\EclipseData\NetFileFolder)  
 
or  
 
Workstation A (NETDIR = J:)  
Workstation B (NETDIR = J:)  
Server (NETDIR = Z:)  
 
Incorrect  
 
Workstation A (NETDIR = H:\EclipseData\NetFileFolder)  
Workstation A (NETDIR = F:\EclipseData\NetFileFolder)  
Server (NETDIR =C:\OurData\EclipseData\NetFileFolder)  
 
 
 
Note 1: If you have created a virtual drive on the server for the purposes of the NETDIR path, you should NOT set your data path in Eclipse Multi-Company Utility to this drive. Use real drives on the server not mapped ones. This is because the BDE does not access database files efficiently if they are on virtual drives on the same machine and you will soon start getting error messages.  
 
Note 2: UNC paths are not supported on the server or the workstations.  

2. Installing the Eclipse Reconciler  
 
i) The folder that hosts the Eclipse Reconciler should also contain five 'batch files' (extension .bat) one of which is called Install_Reconciler_Service.bat. Double click this to register the service with Windows and then open the Services Control Manager from your Control Panels Administrative Tools option. Scroll to the HireTrack Eclipse Reconciler, select it, right click and select Properties.  
 
Reconciler2  
 
ii) Go to the Log On tab, Select the This acccount radio button and use the browse button to select the Administrator account. Enter the password for the Administrator account in the Password box (Note: This is the Windows password NOT the Eclipse user name password). Click on Apply to apply the username changes.  
 
Reconciler3  
 
 
3. Configuring the Reconciler  
 
i) The folder that hosts the Eclipse Reconciler should also contain five 'batch files' (extension .bat) one of which is called Setup_Reconciler_Service.bat. Double click this to open the user interface for configuing the programme.  
 
Reconciler1  
 
TimeStyle  
 
·Time - this will run the system reconciliation at the same time every day - e.g. 10:00  
·Interval - this will run the system reconciliation every X minutes. Acceptable values are 0 - 999  
 
Advanced Settings  
 
·Run for ALL databases - this will look at all the databases set up in HireTrack Eclipse Multi-Company Utility on this machine and run a system reconciliation for each one.  
·Override Overdue Days - this can have a significant impact on your availability checking. Only change from 1 day if you know you are using the OVERDUE switch in Eclipse  
·Write Progress to Event log - if checked then info. on key stages of the reconciliation process will be written to the Window Event Log. This option is only useful for debugging the programme  
 
ii) To stop HireTrack Eclipse users being prompted as to whether they wish a system reconciliation to be carried out, uncheck the System Messages box in the configuration program, for each user.  
Reconciler4


4. Starting and Stopping the Services  
 
The folder that hosts the Eclipse Reconciler should also contain five 'batch files' (extension .bat) one of which is called Start_Reconciler_Service.bat. Double click this to tell Windows to start up the service. To stop the service just double click the Stop_Reconciler_Service.bat file.  
 
NOTE: Since you can add batch files to the Windows Scheduler you can then stop the service will your backup runs once a day.