(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?
(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.
I work in a large corporate environment. We have held off installing the latest p6 version because IT guys are generally not familiar with the software and i am not knowledge on the MS/SQL etc environment. We currently have the Enterprise/Web version but mainly use the P6 Professional environment. We only use the Web environment to set up the EPS - that is it. I need to spec what we want, - any advise and is there any advantages to using the cloud version, logging in from home would be the only advantage I can think of. My current computer is serving as the server, the IT department said they want to put in on a dedicated server machine - any advice regarding that as well?
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WE should carry on this converstaion offline, John. Send me an email through PP with an address.....
I love the long post. I think your company could help our company and I will pursue that. For our installation we are going to use a particular DBE/MBE for the credit / participation. But I do have one last technical question that I have a hard time getting a straight answer about: Crazy as it sounds - On install white paper for the EPPM specs 6 servers to install? Why(maint. Headache and expensive)? does a "Managed Server Instance" mean an additional server for each of these - that is kind of what it sais: 1. P6 - Application Server Configuration, 2. P6 Team Member - Application Server Configuration, 3. P6 EPPM Web Services - Application Server Configuration, 4. P6 Integration API - Application Server Configuration, 5. P6 Services - Application Server Configuration, P6 Professional Cloud Connect – Application Server Configuration, 6. Database Server Configuration, 7. Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) Configuration, Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) Configuration. (last 2 do not note a server Instance) What keeps them from pulling all of those pieces on 1 or 2 servers instead of 6 as you likely counted from the "Managed Server Instances". In fact we really don’t use the EPPM aspects of the system, seems like a hassle to crank up the web version to change the EPS an OPS which is the only thing we use if for, but you address some of that in your previous post. I assume you were sarcastic regarding that cloud users get "lots of stuff, I was told the functionality is the same. They do get instant changes, but there is little change in the product. I drives my crazy that changing bar size was better in P3 than P3 and that was 10 years ago. Last time I looked at visualizer it seemed like there were no screens large enough to figure it out spatially, didn't seem practical but I guess I should take another look - its been a while, but know many schedulers and I don't think it is used much - yet. JPR
see re-write above.
Mine in italics -
David, thank you for the response. Here are the facts as I see them in my case. It is not really P3e to P16, it is more like p6 8.3 to P16 (or P17)
Practically no difference when you are a P6 Professional user
I work at a government entity that manages 40 projects, creating 2 page executive schedules and reviewing contractor schedules. We have an ongoing maintenance agreement for 7 licenses, which we just renewed for another year. They have had it so long the pricing is likely a good deal.
A “good deal” from Oracle? Tell me how….
We currently use 2 of the licenses every day, sometimes 3. But there is a large project on the horizon meaning might as well keep the 7, I have no idea what would be involved in negotiating fewer regardless.
The licences are perpetual, its the maintenance/upgrade as one annual cost that is the issue. No maintenance means no current version for the licence
I think this puts us past negotiating with Oracle and into what will be installed and how we want to install it. I looked into working off the cloud, but why lose the maint. agreement price. I do not have an IT background, we use the old 8.3 EPPM Web version and really only use that to organize the EPS. 98% of the work we do is in the P6 Professional mode, it would be fine with me if we stayed in that mode and modified the EPS from there.
Only 98% in P6 Professional? What do you do with the 2%?
Or just continue as is - it works. We do not use the other features of the EPPM, I have found the EPPM work to be clunky compared to achieving similar results in the Professional environment.
Correct. Same as everyone else .
What can I say, I worked in P3 for many years, perhaps that is why. I am slightly confused by all of the P6 vs EPPM P6 comparison because we are basically in both.
Its all just marketing. Relax.My favourite P3 feature still missing is "Peak" in histograms and resource spreadsheets.
Even though we mainly use the Professional features now, I guess this keeps our options open.
That’s the Oracle sales pitch in a nutshell. And it always works.
As far as I know we use the SQL database version instead of the Oracle database version simply because more IT people here are familiar with the SQL database.
Fine. I use SQL express on my stand alone P6 on my laptop.
I know if gets even more complicated using Schedule Analyzer - but that is a different topic. It might be nice to pull the projects up online, I currently just back them up if I am going to work on them on a laptop - which has a license from a sub-consultant which I actually work for. When do you see Citrix as a possibility?
Remote access to big projects. Anything across the WAN.
I can wait to make the switch. As a guy who has used P3/P6 for 30 years and is using the new version on a laptop I was hugely dissappointed by the upgrade features, which seemed aimed at the IT installers more than the users.
There have been almost no new features for the P6 Professional user in the last 10 years. The web users (whoever they might be) get LOTS of stuff every release. You want to be on 17 professional for performance. That's about it.
They made some global change modifications I liked, that was mainly it, but that is a different topic. What type of installation would you ask I request from the consultant we hire to install it.
This is a big question, and one that I think you might need some proper help with rather than my throwaway lines at coffee break. I have kind of gathered you supervise contractor plans. Yet you have not mentioned Deltek’s Fuse to do analysis of the plans, or Collabro’s Legare to load the XER files into your database in a way that is compliant with your standards not the contractors’. If things get big I would want both.
What are our options based on a maint. agreement - does it have to be the same?
Oracle sets the rules. I am not up to date with them. They change fastwre than a techie like me can be bothered keeping up to speed
In fact I was so dis-appointed I looked at Asta. I decided my time was better spent learning Milestones etc than visualizer, seams to be the best way to communicate through 11 x 17 size pdf documents which is the industry norm.
You must check our Project Tracker from Willmer…..
Sorry about the long post. John
No problem. Two cups of coffee
David, thank you for the response. Here are the facts as I see them in my case. It is not really P3e to P16, it is more like p6 8.3 to P16 (or P17) I work at a government entity that manages 40 projects, creating 2 page executive scheduls and reviewing contractor schedules. We have an ongoing maintenance agreement for 7 licenses, which we just renewed for another year. They have had it so long the pricing is likely a good deal. We currently use 2 of the licenses every day, sometimes 3. But there is a large project on the horizon meaning might as well keep the 7, I have no idea what would be involved in negotiating fewer regardless. I think this puts us past negotiating with Oracle and into what will be installed and how we want to install it. I looked into working off the cloud, but why lose the maint. agreement price. I do not have an IT background, we use the old 8.3 EPPM Web version and really only use that to organize the EPS. 98% of the work we do is in the P6 Professional mode, it would be fine with me if we stayed in that mode and modified the EPS from there. Or just continue as is - it works. We do not use the other features of the EPPM, I have found the EPPM work to be clunky compared to achieving similar results in the Professional environment. What can I say, I worked in P3 for many years, perhaps that is why. I am slightly confused by all of the P6 vs EPPM P6 comparison because we are basically in both. Even though we mainly use the Professional features now, I guess this keeps our options open. As far as I know we use the SQL database version instead of the Oracle database version simply because more IT people here are familiar with the SQL database. I know if gets even more complicated using Schedule Analyzer - but that is a different topic. It might be nice to pull the projects up online, I currently just back them up if I am going to work on them on a laptop - which has a license from a sub-consultant which I actually work for. When do you see Citrix as a possibility? I can wait to make the switch. As a guy who has used P3/P6 for 30 years and is using the new version on a laptop I was hugely dissappointed by the upgrade features, which seemed aimed at the IT installers more than the users. They made some global change modifications I liked, that was mainly it, but that is a different topic. What type of installation would you ask I request from the consultant we hire to install it. What are our options based on a maint. agreement - does it have to be the same? In fact I was so dis-appointed I looked at Asta. I decided my time was better spent learning Milestones etc than visualizer, seams to be the best way to communicate through 11 x 17 size pdf documents which is the industry norm. Sorry about the long post. John
you have several options
option #1 host the software on a server service such as load springs
advantage
disadvantage
option#2 get the dedicated server your company is talking about
advantages
disadvantages
John,
I have been doing this stuff with P3e to P6 v17 all of this century. Bottom line is that Oracle will persuade your IT department into wanting EPPM (the web version you have at the moment) rather than PPM (the one that doesn't use the web) version of the product, despite the fact that you can think of no reason for wanting any of the web based tools. Resistance is useless. If you are not currently using Citrix, you will as soon as it becomes a central database application, so the logging in from home issue goes away - you use a remote citrix connection to get the full Professional client from anywhere.
Are you the only P6 user? Why would you want a file server version?
Email: PPadmin@planningplanet.com
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