Remotely Running a published Microsoft Access Database

Question

Hello All!

I am considering deploying a Microsoft Access database as a published app. I've done it before but its been years and I remember a few of the pain points.

Justification - I have a SQL 2016 Std database I will be using as the backend. All devices on network are licensed with O365 Business Standard. I have enough Server Core Licenses and RDP and Device CALS to cover the connected devices. So, I'm feeling that from a licensing standpoint I'm covered. I like Access in this scenario because all users have a copy and its fully licensed and its easy to code what I need. No need for a highly secure App, just some very simple data gathering. Many of the clients are running on very low horsepower i3's with 4 GB RAM. I also need a tablet environment for this and to keep price down I'm looking at Surface Pro Go type devices that again are fairly low powered.

Obstacles I'm concerned about.

Authentication - When I launch the published App, If I'm on an already authenticated user desktop, will that user need to re-authenicate to the RDP desktop? Again, its been a while and this may be easy.

Installing O365 on an RDP server. - As I recall there was a twist to this. In the past I simply used my O365 License to install the App, but I remember that being a challenge. If I recall I had to have an Open License Contract, which I do, and thenBuy a retail copy of Office 2016 and install that on that server. Not even sure I can still do that?

Running a unique copy of the database on each user desktop - The shortcut for the published app needs to reference a unique copy of the Access Front end and before starting up I need to run a script that cleans any previous versions of the Access Db Front End from the desktop and then installs the latest version on the desktop accessed by that user. As I recall, the Published apps can reference an 'on startup script' and I think I can use some windows wildcards to reference the users desktop. But again, I recall that being very difficult.

If anyone possessing experience in this arena would PLEASE add your thoughts and Ideas regarding this, I would be greatly appreciative.

In parallel I'm looking at learning how to develop a web app to do this to open up access to both Windows and Android devices. Problem there is that I've never done that!

Thx,

Joe

Answer 1

Access is not currently supported here on QnA. They're actively answering questions in dedicated forums here.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_access
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=accessdev

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Answer 2

Hello DS. I guess it could be seen as a question on both topics. I will post there as well, however as to the issue of installing O365 on Terminal Server, Running before and after scripts using wildcards when launching Apps, and passing user credentials to a published app, I was hoping to see if I might get some help here?

Answer 3

For questions about O365 deployment I'd try asking for help here.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_o365Admin-mso_dep365-mso_o365b

as to the scripting questions you could try here.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/topics/winapi-general.html
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/topics/windows-server-powershell.html

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Answer 4

Hi,

Authentication - When I launch the published App, If I'm on an already authenticated user desktop, will that user need to re-authenicate to the RDP desktop? Again, its been a while and this may be easy.

—— Yes, the user needs to re-authenicate to the RDP desktop

Installing O365 on an RDP server

Please refer to the PDF file "Licensing of Microsoft Desktop Application Software for use with Windows Server Remote Desktop Services" and check the document about "Deploy Microsoft 365 Apps by using Remote Desktop Services"

http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/d/4/3d42bdc2-6725-4b29-b75a-a5b04179958b/desktop_application_with_windows_server_remote_desktop_services.pdf
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/deploy-microsoft-365-apps-remote-desktop-services

Hope above information can give you some help.

Thanks,
Eleven

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