Installing on Replicated servers or Dropbox

Tabular files placed on replicated servers

Tabular supports setting the Tabular database and return workbook files on a replicated servers (storages) environment however there are few additional configurations that should be considered.

1. The type of paths Tabular should use should align with your server configuration:

• If you have set up Domain-based (DFS) namespaces you should change Tabular path type setting to use UNC paths, ie so for all Tabular users the path Tabular will use will be the same. Your server replication algorithm will then control which user connects to which server based on load or custom rules. Check this help article for information on how to change the Tabular path type setting to use UNC paths.
  

• If you have not setup the domain based namespace, this means that you will have multiple servers with different name eg //server1/Tabular (local server to user1) and //server2/Tabular (local server to user2). As in this scenario you will want user1 to connect to server 1 and user 2 to connect to server 2 we will need a windows mapping that is the same for both users, but mapped to different servers. Both users will have Tabular mapped to the same drive eg Z:/ but one user1 will be mapped to //server1/Tabular and user2 will be mapped to //server2/Tabular . The Tabular path type setting should be set to mapped drive (check link above). If this is not set correctly either some of the users won’t be able to connect to Tabular or they will have slow performance as they will not be accessing the files via their local server (which can be in a different country etc..)

2. Additionally if you have any restrictions on what is replicating its best to discuss that with our support team, so they can explain if that will affect Tabular normal operation.

Tabular files placed on Dropbox

Tabular supports Dropbox for multiple users only with a specific setup. As Tabular relies on windows paths to the database and to the Tabular returns, it will work only in case Tabular files are mapped to the same folder for all the users. So if you have multiple users their Dropbox folder should be mapped to the same path on their PC. So if they both map Dropbox to C:\Dropbox then it will work, but if they map to C:/Users/user1/Dropbox and C:/Users/user2/Dropbox Tabular will work correctly for only one of the users as the paths will be different for both.

P.S. Note that with both replicating servers and Dropbox some limitations will apply. As Tabular is an Excel add-in and use Excel workbooks limitations based on simultaneous changes of the same file by 2 users on different servers apply. Basically last saved wins and the changes of one of the user might get lost. This is limitation of the replication process and users should be aware of that. Also we advise when some processes that modify returns and database like Create/Edit return/Team functionality users should make sure that only this user is currently making changes to the database/files to avoid corruption.