sage – Schulz Consulting

Sage Summit 2020 Postponed

March 18, 2020 by Wayne Schulz

Sage has informed partners and customers that Sage Summit 2020, originally scheduled for May 12-14, 2020 in Orlando has been postponed. According to the Sage Summit U.S. event website the company will issue further updates later in 2020 as to the status of rescheduling.

Important update

Sage continues to monitor outbreaks of Coronavirus (COVID-19). The safety of our colleague, customer, partner, and sponsor attendees is our priority. Following guidance from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we have decided to postpone the Sage Summit U.S. until later this year. We will update you as soon as possible about the new dates of the summit – and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Sage 100cloud Premium ( SQL ) Frequently Asked Questions

January 16, 2020 by Wayne Schulz

Sage 100cloud Premium is a version of Sage 100cloud which runs on a SQL database. The primary benefits to this are (a) more secure data files and (b) faster reporting through external tools connected via native SQL drivers.

With Sage 100cloud subscription licensing there is no longer an additional cost for a user on Sage 100cloud Standard or Advanced to move to Premium ( SQL ).

To make the move to Sage 100cloud Premium you request new registration keys from Sage ( allow up to 7 days for this to process ). You can either contact Sage directly at 800-854-3415 or through your Sage partner.

Frequently Asked Questions About Sage 100cloud Premium

Note: This info is supplemental in nature and not intended to replace Sage’s official supported platforms or the advice of your Sage partner. These FAQ items were generated in 2019 and may not have been updated for subsequent changes to either Microsoft or Sage products. Use this information to supplement and not replace your own technical resources.

Sage OEM Runtime Version of Microsoft SQL

Sage promotes its OEM version of Microsoft SQL Server Runtime Edition as optimally configured.

The SQL Server Runtime license is a license that lets an independent software vendor (ISV) embed the complete SQL Server code into a solution for use only by the ISV application. The customers of the ISV cannot use this SQL Server product to run other applications or to develop new applications, databases, or tables.

The “optimizations” are actually listed on pages 99 and 100 in the Admin guide and it basically saves checking the right components and clicking Next a few times during the install.

“Optimized” is a bit misleading. It really means “configured for basic compatibility with Sage 100 Premium”. The installer defaults to Mixed Mode Authentication (required for Premium and prompts to create a ‘sa’ password) and uses the default collation method (basically it chooses Case Insensitive for you) and default language of English.

Sage recommends tempdb database should be at least 1/3 the size of largest database. Here is more information on best practices for tempdb sizing.

It does not “optimize” for performance since it does not, for example, ask you where to create the Sage 100 databases (like on a drive with more disk space), what setting to use for Database Recovery Model, etc. You have to move/set those things AFTER installing.

The OEM license is running SQL Server 2014 (2016, 2017 and now 2019 are available) and cannot legally use that SQL Server instance for anything other than Sage. If SQL Server is hosted in a data center there are license restrictions on the OEM SQL license.

ISVR licenses/Licensing Mobility Eligibility

The ISVR restrictions are outlined in the ISVR Agreement. It is not currently an option with ISV Royalty Licenses because LM (License Mobility) is a benefit of Software Assurance and ISVR does not offer Software Assurance, only Embedded Maintenance. The End Customer can have the Unified Solution running on Outsourced Servers, but not on shared (Cloud hosted) servers.

Several reports from consultants that the OEM download link only goes to the end-user.

How Many Microsoft SQL Licenses Are Required To Run Sage 100 Premium?

The short (and safest) answer is one for each Named user (not just the concurrent count) of Sage, plus the service account. The official Microsoft response is that any user that could access the environment (even temporarily) should be fully licensed.

Per Sage – Sage 100 Premium requires two licenses; one for the MAS_User account and another for the MAS_Reports account in SQL. You will need more licenses depending on individual needs: Administration, other databases or 3rd party methods of accessing Sage 100 data, etc.

However, the consensus among consultants seems to be:

I’m not sure the exact licensing for the Sage run-time, but as far as Microsoft’s concerned with SQL Server Standard or Enterprise, you either license by the processor core (all physical cores on the box or at least 4 if SQL is virtual) or per-User, and per-User means any user that could ever potentially touch the SQL server for data. If you have more than 30 users, per-core is usually cheapest. If you have less than 30, per User is the way to go.

So for per-User licensing, any Sage user would require a SQL CAL.

Additional Server recommendations:

Sage has the following MS SQL server configuration recommendations.

Server RAM:

A rough estimate for amount of RAM could be calculated as 1 GB for each concurrent user or size of database (in GB) whichever is higher but not less the 32 GB. There are more sophisticated ways to monitor this but minimum should be 32 GB or even 64 GB RAM.

SQL Server Memory Allocation:

SQL Server will allocate all the RAM to itself until the server is rebooted or the service restarted. To prevent the operating system from being robbed of RAM use the “Memory Allocation’ setting.

In Object Explorer, right-click the Server and select Properties.

Click the Memory node.

Under Server Memory Options, enter the amount that you want for Minimum server memory and Maximum server memory. Microsoft recommends the Maximum to be set from ½ to ¾ of the Server’s total RAM.

Tempdb:

The tempdb is a temporary global workspace for storing tables and processing queries. If your application is causing the tempdb to grow larger this will cause bottleneck until the tempdb is increased. Instead it is wise to bump up the size of this table.

The tempdb database should be at least 1/3 the size of largest database.

Hard Drives:

Hard drives with optimum speeds should be considered ever Solid State Drives. Also, the .mdf log files are competing for read and write access to the hard drive. There will be separate .mdf file for the data, transaction, and backup logs. To eliminate the competition these .mdf files can be place on separate physical drive letters. The location of these logs can be determine from Server Properties -> Database Settings.

Consultant Provided Additional Recommendations:

· Windows 2012 R2 Server or 2016.
· SQL Server 2014 or 2016 standard
with mixed mode authentication enabled.
Be sure to set the server collation method as SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS (if not, there will be data integrity issues).
This collation method is normally set by default when the server is setup with a default language of US English.
If using a different language setting, be sure to set this collation method as part of the SQL Server installation.
Default SQL data path should have sufficient space for the databases / log files.

Required access:
Full administrator control over the server.
SQL “sa” password.
Remote access using a method that allows us to reboot the machine and reconnect afterward.
We run the services under a Windows login. If there is a password policy that involves expiring passwords, we’ll want a utility Windows login with admin access over the server and a password that does not expire.

Recommendations

Work with your Sage partner to developer a list of current requirements – the information on this page has likely been updated as both Microsoft and Sage release new versions of their respective solutions.
Consult Sage’s Supported Platforms Matrix for Sage 100 which outline the very latest supported hardware and operating systems for each of the Sage 100cloud editions ( Standard, Advanced, Premium)
Most third-party integrations will work without change however you should verify with each ISV whether they are compatible with Sage 100cloud Premium ( SQL )
In order to upgrade to Sage 100cloud Premium all of your Sage modules MUST be at framework. Please discuss this FIRST with your Sage partner.

Sage 100 Package Tracking Site Down

December 10, 2019 by Wayne Schulz

Several users of Sage 100 have noted the functionality which displays package tracking information from within Sage 100cloud Package Tracking Inquiry screen appears to be down.

Update December 11, 2019: Sage has issued a notification that they are aware of this issue.

Clicking on the tracking number icon from within Sage 100 Invoice History presently results in either a ” 404 – File or directory not found ” or “HTTP Error 500 – Internal Server Error. The requested page cannot be accessed…” when clicking on the Package Tracking button in Summary Package Tracking Inquiry in A/R or S/O.

At present Sage suggests going directly to this URL to track shipments until their server returns to normal.

https://iship.com/trackit/track.aspx

30 Ways to Fix Sage 100 “Data is not selected for report printing”

October 8, 2019 by Wayne Schulz

If you are working in Sage 100 or Sage 100cloud and encounter the message “Data is not selected for report printing” while trying to print a form or a report then you should look at this Sage knowledgebase article.

This comprehensive article lists 30 different reasons for the “Data is not selected” message as well as links to specific knowledge articles which can help you resolve any problems.

In some cases you may be recieving the message because there truly is no dataa to print ( if , say, your Sales Order has the “print picking sheet” box UN-checked ).

However, there are some other reasons that Sage outlines where you can also run into this issue unexpectedly and the steps to take to resolve the problem and get your Sage 100 form or report printing as expected.

Some issues that this article covers include:

Report settings have been filtered such that there are no eligible records
Corrupted, damaged, or missing SY_ReportEngine.pvc file
Report Settings for one Sage 100 user have changed
Previously known issue that has been patched in latest updates
Return of Goods Entry print box not checked
Data Corruption
Blank Records in the Masterfile that need to be deleted
E-mail PDF Delivery Option is not selected for vendor
Print Invoices checkbox not checked in AR or SO Invoice Defaults
Damaged User profile
“Default Special Items to Drop Ship” selected in SO Options
Using MultiBin and there are items not distributed to bins
Line items on Sales Order are Backordered or Quantity Ordered is zero (0)
SO_SalesOrderPrint.m4t data file may be corrupted
SY_ReportOption.m4t file contains corrupted values after upgrading to version 2015
Bank Reconciliation and Accounts Payable module not Integrated
E-mail was not selected for customer in Paperless setup
History files have been removed due to Years to Retain options
Need to Rebuild Sort Files for Work Order module
Module code was incorrectly entered
Prospect does not have a Customer ID
Reported issue which Sage Engineering is Currently Reviewing

For a full list of the issues related to this printing message please visit the Sage knowledgebase here – Error: “Data is not selected for Report Printing”