Update - BEPS and VMWare

Barr Systems recommends that the Barr Enterprise Print Server (BEPS) run on Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003. In addition, BEPS can be used with VMWare. To use BEPS with VMWare, customers will need to use a USB virtual hub device such as USB@nywhere. This type of solution allows the BEPS security key to communicate with VMWare via IP. At the present time there are no known issues associated with running BEPS and VMWare. However, we are not VMWare experts. Consequently, we cannot provide the OS expertise with VMWare that we do on our regularly supported operating systems. We expect you to be the VMWare expert, but we would be glad to help.

BEPS and VMWare

Barr Systems recommends that the Barr Enterprise Print Server (BEPS) run on Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003. At the same time, we have customers using BEPS with VMWare. To this date, we have been able to fix BEPS/VMWare problems with standard configuration changes. However, we are not VMWare experts. Consequently, we cannot provide the OS expertise with VMWare that we do on our regularly supported operating systems. We expect you to be the VMWare expert.

While we cannot make recommendations to you about the VMWare system, we do not want to discourage you. Just note, if you plan to use BEPS in a VMWare setting, there may be a time in the future when you have a problem that we are unable to duplicate in-house. At that point, we may request you to set up a non VMWare system to test whether the problem still occurs. We will do what we can to fix any problems, but may not have the ability to assist with VMWare specific issues. In addition, we may find programming issues that we elect not to fix. We make these decisions on all operating systems, but this would be especially true for an operating system for which our software was not designed.

Sincerely,
Barr Systems Technical Support

Upgrading BEPS

Before beginning, be sure you are logged on as the local administrator to the PC where the software is installed. Also, you will need to know your domain name and password for the BEPS service, if applicable.

NOTE: Imaging or backing up your PC prior to starting an upgrade is not required, however never discouraged. These steps should serve as a checklist to make sure all your information is backed up and your upgrade goes smoothly.

PREPARATION:
1) Save the BEPS Print Utility "spool.ctr" file. (This can be done by launching Print Utility and click Save as… in the Control file section at the bottom of the window. Save the file to a place where it can be easily found later. i.e.- Desktop).

2) If running an early version of BEPS NJE without the backup configuration option, go to C:\Program Files\Barr\Spooler\NJE Routing and save the NJE routing table which is a Text file. Starting with the 4.1.50 version of BEPS the backup configuration option will facilitate this process and save all your configurations settings automatically.

3) Backup the configuration settings and save them to a new folder on your network. This can be done by selecting TOOLS BACKUP CONFIGURATION BACKUP from the BEPS window.

INSTALL:
1) If using a USB hardware key, remove the key prior to uninstalling the software. Now uninstall BEPS. (NOTE: After uninstalling, make sure the sentinel drivers do not appear in the ADD/REMOVE Programs list. If they do, remove them now.)

2) Install the BEPS software (Do not insert the USB Hardware key) & reboot the PC. After reboot wait till all resources load up, then insert the USB Hardware key. Once the USB key is recognized by the Operating System, reboot again and start the BEPS software.

3) Test

New barrcentral.com in ASP.NET

Barr Central has been rewritten using ASP.NET and there are a few things you should know!

Logins were imported from the old web site.

If your old login does not work that means…

a) You did not have an email address associated with your account
b) You had multiple Barr Central accounts using the same email address

… so create a new account!

There might be errors! *gasp*

I’m sure I didn’t find all the possible ways that creative customers can break my web site so if you do… I should get an automated email about the error but if you want to make sure I see it…

…you can send a message to support@barrsystems.com with “Barr Central Error” in the subject line I will get to the problem!

Thanks,

Jennifer Shea, Business Systems Programmer
Barr Systems, Inc. www.barrsystems.com

Daylight Saving Time (DST) and BEPS

Lately, we have been getting a lot of questions about how BEPS will be affected by the upcoming rule changes to Daylight Saving Time.

The first thing you should realize is that BEPS is a data mover. It does not modify date or time data within your jobs. In fact, BEPS doesn’t know date and time data from any other data. So, as to whether these changes will effect your data, the answer is NO. If the date and time data within your job is correct, then your output will be correct. If the job is not correct, then the output won’t be correct. Thus, the DST changes will not affect this portion of BEPS and you should not worry about BEPS corrupting your jobs.

That being said, there are areas external to your job data where BEPS does use and display date and time information. It’s used as job metadata in the form of header fields, it’s displayed in the spool window, it’s used for scheduling and routing, it’s used to trigger retain purges, it’s used in the banner and trailer pages created by BEPS, and so on. In these instances where date and time data are used by BEPS, the software gets its information from the local system’s clock as reported by the operating system or from the host or mainframe. So, if the date and time are correct on the PC and the host, then there will be no problem.

With this in mind, we strongly recommend that you update your PC’s operating system so that the new DST rules are applied automatically. That means you should go to the Microsoft Update website at http://update.microsoft.com and download the necessary updates. Please note that the DST updates were not listed as critical updates, but were optional the last time I checked. So please be sure to check all available updates for your system. In addition to the operating system, you should also update your Java client software if you are using the BEPS Web Interface. To download the latest version, go to the Java website at http://www.java.com. Finally, if your system interacts with a mainframe, you should contact your host provider to ensure that the host is prepared for the DST changes.

Again, there a no changes required to BEPS in order to accommodate the new DST rules.

One final word about the new DST rules. All of the hype surrounding this boils down to setting the clock. The reason for the patches to the operating system, Java, etc. is simply to change the clock automatically at the right time. Even if you don’t get these patches, you can still set the clock to the proper date/time manually. The point is, this is not a situation like Y2K where the clock was actually broken.

I hope this helps.

Have A Great Day!

Alan McKinney, Senior Support Analyst, Barr Systems, LLC
http://www.barrcentral.com/ 352-491-3100

Job Accounting uses SQL

BEPS Job Accounting uses SQL instead of Microsoft Access. For customers who need to install SQL, we will redistribute SQL Server Express 2005, including Reporting Services and SQL Studio. Microsoft has really done a good job with SQL 2005.

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) provides reporting that easily rivals Crystal Reports. We use Reporting Services internally for our enterprise reporting solution. We were using Crystal Enterprise, but licensing is fairly expensive and the functionality of SSRS is a much better match for our needs.

The new Beps SQL-based print accounting includes the server name, so reporting can be summarized on a single SQL server in a single report, but grouped by Beps server.

The SQL server can be on the Beps system, or some other server. Our technical support department is not going to support SQL, but our Professional Services Division is available for customers who do not have database expertise.

Ron Van Aken, Chief Operating Nerd, Barr Systems, LLC
http://www.barrcentral.com 352-491-3100

BEPS 5.0 is Getting Close

The next version of BEPS (5.0.x) is in the later stages of development. We are beginning to test and will show it to our partners and Overseas Resellers soon.
Here are just a few changes:

• Major architectural changes affect the way data moves between modules: Stability is improved; More printers; More jobs in the spool; Print speed is improved.
• Job Accounting uses SQL instead of MS Access.
• Enterprise Extender can connect NJE and RJE simultaneously.
• AFP printing to Windows GDI has been removed.
• TCP/IP inputs are more robust.
• Most printers bypass the Windows GDI.
• Optional scripting support for FilePort.
• Optional Page Modification module can be used with FilePort Scripting.
• Optional IPDS output support.

We originally were going to release this code thread as 4.2.x, but we decided the changes were too significant for an incremental dot release. So we decided a new major release would be commensurate with the amount of changes.

Ron Van Aken, Chief Operating Officer, Barr Systems, LLC
www.barrcentral.com 352-491-3100

Tolerance For Downtime

We get quite a few calls from distraught users with down systems. Sometimes these users have no plan for the occasion. We try to help resolve these situations as much as possible, but unfortunately sometimes not much is possible. Without a backup contingency plan, the user can be left with only a vague idea of how the system was configured. Since it can take weeks to get a complicated system tuned to perfection, the user may be faced with spending those weeks of tweaking again.

This begs the question: What is your tolerance for downtime?

1 hour: You should have a well-tested warm backup and a process for cutting over.
4 hours: You should have backup hardware and do a regular configuration backup.
1 day: You'll need good documentation on how your system is set up.
1 week: You should have lot's of free time and a psychic systems engineer.
2 weeks: No forethought required.

There are a few things you can do:

• Backing up your BEPS configuration is fairly straightforward. It takes just a few minutes, but could save you days.
• Microsoft makes a Printer Migration tool that will help backup and restore Windows printers to another system, or the same system if it has to be rebuilt.
• We also can provide backup hardware.

The rest is just about measuring your tolerance for downtime and planning accordingly.

Ron Van Aken, COO (Chief Geek), Barr Systems, LLC
http://www.barrcentral.com/