Sorry to bug you guys again but

V5 Question
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I wouldn’t agree with that, its quite the opposite. SambaPOS is easy for users and also easy for those to configure in any way they wish, as long as they are willing to put in the time to learn. There are great tutorials, questions and people in this community who put in a great deal to help people, but none of that will make a difference unless you take a step back and follow guides on here, rather than saying how bad your situation is over and over… :wink: You mention few times about how your old POS “did things better” - if that’s the case, just pay them and use it. But I know you don’t want to do that, you have chosen SambaPOS now (a good choice! :slight_smile:) so please stop comparing how “easy” certain things were in that old system, it doesn’t help anyone help you solve your problem. BTW, SambaPOS is incredibly easy to setup and also reasonabily easy to configure for multi terminal use, if you just follow guides and stop thinking about what your old system did. Then post questions and get (free) advice on here. You want to embrace how well SambaPOS can help your business, you need to accept you either have to learn a bit yourself or get someone more experienced to help you with the basics to at least get you started. If you need someone to do the setup for you, I can provide professional support for a fee and set it all up remotely in no time, just PM me.

OK, Rant over :stuck_out_tongue:

Show your connection string on the Settings > Local Settings > Database screen like I mentioned before. I think you are using SQL LocalDB since you haven’t done any configuration.

Well, exactly! So it won’t “just work”. You have installed SQL Server, but you need to convert or setup your database on SQL Server first. Then you configure the connection string in SambaPOS to connect to your database on SQL Server. I am sure one of those tutorials I linked gave a full run through, or at least combination of a couple of them gives most or all info needed.

So firstly, reply back confirming your current database type (SQ you said) and connection string. If connection string is currently empty, that’s also ok, but we need to know this info so we can advise correctly.

And you say you have 2 db at the moment as each terminal is stand alone, so you need to choose one moving forward - the other you won’t be able to use anymore and you can’t merge either. So we are only talking about the db you want to keep that will become your “master” database for your whole restaurant multi terminal setup.

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They are both the same db. I literally made a backup, then copied it over to the 2nd system. However we will run the main db on the bar pc it will be the server… and the Yes the connection string is empty. I have been able to figure out overcome and conquer everything the restaurant owner and staff wants me to do except link the db between the 2 systems. I’ve spent longer trying to get this db to work than i have on everything else combined. My problem is I’m a very specific person and all of these tutorials are v4 tutorials and even some of the v5 tutorials I follow them exactly then I get to the point where it starts explaining how to convert the db. That’s when it becomes French to me. Seriously these tutorials arent specific enough. They tell you what to do but not how to do it. This is not how I learned networking… things have changed since I was in school.
And then I try to follow the steps anyway and then I reach a point where what I’m doing looks nothing like the tutorial. Yes it happened with the tutorials you posted. I was not able to convert or create a sql db using that sql tool the tutorial told me to download. It said an sql db already exist. But how to convert or get my samba db to sql. From there I then just configure the connection strings on both pc’s to connect to the sql db. That part makes complete sense… what doesn’t make sense is converting the db to sql, then how go get this connection string configured properly. I already have a sql instance created called “samba” now how do I get the db into sql? Then what do I type out specially and tell me what you need screen shots of. I’ll be happy to post them.

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Did you see this document? I tried to explain all steps there.

https://www.sambapos.com/wiki/doku.php/sambapos_database_configuration

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Ok, so they were identical, but the moment you make a change or add a ticket on one, then they are different. Right now you have 2 identical separate databases, but they are not synced in any way. So you choose one of them, and that is your “master” to move forward.

Ok so you are using SQL LocalDB and using the default database configuration. So, there will be 2 files called SambaPOS5.mdf and SambaPOS5_log.ldf in the root of your user profile. That will typically be C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\. But you won’t need to do anything directly with those files, so just leave them where they are. You also won’t need them again once you upgrade to SQL Server.

Pretty much all v4 tutorials work fine for v5 if you can’t find a specific v5 one for your needs. Of course some screenshots might be different, and some processes might have better ways in v5, but generally nothing bad will happen.

That was because you were trying to use CE Toolbox tool to convert a (non-existent) CE database. You are using SQL LocalDB as we determined now, so you can skip that whole step about coverting the database from CE.

The good thing is that SQL LocalDB 2014 and SQL Server 2014 Express are actually the same database engine - the only difference is LocalDB is single user (single machine) and runs only when SambaPOS is open, whereas SQL Server runs as a windows service on your server or main system, and the other systems connect to the SQL server database via the network.

So, let me try to explain briefly your next steps and you also need to check or give me more info on some parts.

So when you installed SQL Server, you followed the tutorial. What did you set the SQL instance name to? Was it samba?

How about the sa password? And did you set it to mixed mode authentication like the tutorial said?

So with those details, here is what I suggest you do next:

  1. Make a backup of your database. Go to Settings > Database Backups > Backups. Click Backup Database. You don’t need to give a description. Your backup will be saved in the default path - you can click Display Backup Location to open that folder in windows explorer.

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  2. Now you are going to connect to SQL Server from SambaPOS and create a new database there. Go to Settings > Local Settings > Database. Click Edit Connection.

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    Then enter the following into dialog that appears:

Data Source: COMPUTERNAME\SQLInstanceName - so if you installed SQL Server using an instance name of samba, and your computer name is SERVER, you enter SERVER\samba. If you didn’t set an instance name, just enter the computer name SERVER.
User id: sa
Password: your password - the password you set during SQL Server setup for the sa user.
Database: SambaPOS5 - you can change this to whatever you like, I suggest this one but you it’s up to you.

  1. The connection string will be tested, and you will get a message either saying it is successful, or an error. If you get successful like below, click Apply. Then SambaPOS will return to the login screen and you will be able to login to the new database with the default PIN 1234.

    If you get an error, post it here and we can advise.
  2. Now go to Settings > Local Settings > Database Backups > Backups. If you see your recent backup in the list (check date/time), then select it and click Restore Database. If not, or if you get an error, you can also try Restore from Zip and locate the zip file of the backup you did earlier. If you get an error message about overwriting database or naming, you can ensure Allow overwriting database... on the Settings tab is checked, or if it is currently checked, uncheck it and try again (I sometimes find this setting doesn’t exactly follow what it says so either one or other should work). If you get an error at this stage, again post it here.
  3. If all goes correctly, your existing database has now been restored to the new SQL Server database. You will be taken back to the login screen, and you should login with your admin PIN. If you got this far, congratulations! Your database is now running off SQL Server.

So, if that all worked, your next steps are as follows. I find personally it’s best to get everything setup working on the main system first before looking to the others so I will suggest in that order:

  1. In Settings > Local Settings > General, make sure you select the terminal name of Server here. I don’t suggest leaving it blank.
  2. Get Message Server running as per the tutorial linked previously. Set it to run as windows service - note the port number given. Go to Settings > Local Settings > Message Server. Enter your computer name (e.g. SERVER) into the Message Server Name field, the Message Server Port you set and check Auto Start Message Server…
  3. Make sure you allow the necessary services though your firewall on the main / server machine. I recommend all the steps in the link I posted earlier, here it is again for easy reference. That guide also repeats about message server setup.
  4. Go to Settings > Terminals. Create terminals for all your other machines. Set the Report Printer and Transaction Printer as necessary for each terminal (may be same for all, I don’t know your full setup and we can deal with those other issues about printing later if you need help). leave other setings at default.
  5. NOW you should have your server / main machine all setup. GO to your first other system, launch SambaPOS. Go to Settings > Local Settings > Database, and enter the identical connection string settings as you did for your server / main machine. If all goes well, the test will be ok and you can click Apply. If not, post here for help. Otherwise, you then just login with your admin PIN, and congratulations your other terminal is now running of the same SQL server database as the main system!
  6. Now, you need to configure Message Server on your other machine. Follow steps in the link from step 3 - Go to Settings > Local Settings > Message Server and set the server machine name and message server port, set to auto start. You should be done with that. Once you close and reopen SambaPOS, you should see the green word Connected at the bottom of the screen - this confirms you are connected to the message server (note this connected has nothing to do with database connection).
  7. Finally, on the other machine, go to Settings > Local Settings > General. Select the respective Terminal Name for this terminal, that you created in step 4. Close and reopen SambaPOS and you should be done.
  8. Repeat steps 5-7 for any other machines.

I hope this made it all clearer and you got everything working! :slight_smile:

3 Likes
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Yes and it’s complete French to me. First of all my samba db isn’t in sql I need to know how to do that. Second of all where do I put my server name my pc user name my file path it just doesn’t make since it’s very confusing. Like I said before this is not how I learned to link 2 pos systems to one db. So sql is completely new to me. I’ve managed to learn samba pretty easy except for this one issue.

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But you just said:

SQ means SQL so your running localDB version of SQL. What you need to do is install SQL Express which you say you have… good. Use the Database Backup module to backup your current LocalDB then change your connection string to connect to your new SQL Server instance and load your backup using the same Database Backup Module.

Then on your 2nd terminal simply set your connection string to connect to the database on the main computer. Here is a great tutorial for solving common connection issues.

Common Database Connection Issues - How to resolve them[quote=“polosrestaurant, post:18, topic:9798”]
Yes and it’s complete French to me.
[/quote]

He wrote it in English…

I am very sorry but we do not have magic wands or hands that we can through the computer and do this for you. But @markjw offered to set it up for you remotely for a fee you might contact him on his offer. I want to point out that I am not a developer I am a user just like you and I had to learn it just like you and Ill be honest it was easy. Advanced configurations can be troublesome sometimes but its fun to work through them.

There is only ONE developer of SambaPOS and thats Emre likewise MOST of us are not developers we are restaurant owners. The tutorials work and work well. Thousands of people all over the place use them.

4 Likes
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I’m just now seeing this post. I’m saying other tutorials were complete French but with what you posted I’m going to try again. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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Thats great but I have to disagree. You have not given us any idea of how to improve them… what part of them do you not understand? I would love to improve mine if you can give me some ideas of what didnt work in it?

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The part where I’m having to convert the db and then put in the connection string. Because it just didn’t explain deep enough what to do. It didn’t explain how to get samba db into sql and then it didn’t explain the connection string other than what to type, and it did not apply to me. What I mean by that is what you had on your screen was not what I had on mine. Like I would follow the steps exactly and then I’m like where did that come from I don’t see that how do I do that. And it wasn’t explained at all. And so I’m lost and don’t know what to type for my pc. But the connection string thing won’t work until I have an actual sql database that isn’t local db. I’m going to try your tutorial and if it doesn’t work I think I’m going to take about a week off and consider reaching out for help remotely or from a buddy of mine who knows a good bit about pos systems and networking.

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@polosrestaurant I assume you did not miss my quite long post above about 20 minutes ago where I explained everything in quite good detail. Since you are still talking about converting the database I fear you missed the post? Sorry to bug you guys again but

Just follow the steps or take me up on my offer :wink:

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You don’t have to convert the database because you are using Local DB not CE. If you were using CE it would say CE on title bar not SQ. Just like the tutorial says that part of it is optional only if your using CE.

Your connection string consists of a few things and its easier to just use the edit button and type them in seperately. The server is your compuers IP address that is hosting SQL server

The instance is the instance you setup when you installed SQL Express and by default if you didnt change it the instance is SQLEXPRESS if your using windows authentication then you do not need to specify a login and password. Its recommended to use mixed authentication mode and enable the SA username and set a password for it. The instructions to enable that were in the Common Problems tutorial I just posted.

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Once you get it connected to your database you can load your previous backup by simply going to Database Backup tool and loading the backup you made. I highly recommend you studying SQL Express. I do not mean from our forum but look at actual blogs or help desk support from Microsoft.

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@markjw thank you very much for summing it up. I’ll improve wiki document by using parts of your post but I can’t login to wiki for a reason now. I’ll do it after solving that.

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@emre thanks :slight_smile: Yeah one issue I did find when researching this topic was that there isn’t a really complete setup guide, most do miss a few parts as they cover a specific case scenario. Good to know my effort can help to make a more complete guide.

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Probably what hangs people up the most is Windows Home or Professional in general by default is not setup to run as a server in a networked environment in fact most of it is setup to protect you from unwanted file sharing and or networking.

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I’m using Windows 7 Ultimate on both pcs. One is 32 bit other is 64 bit. It’s to my understanding that both computers should run the same OS. I was going to put 64 bit on our second pc but it does not have 64 bit drivers so I had to use 32bit. And it’s a bit older and slower so it’s maxed out with 2gb ram. But it runs samba fine with little lag and issues. After reviewing everything on this post I’m going to try one more time. I’ll come back tomorrow or tonight later with an update and any questions.

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Thanks again for all the help. I’ve had some trials and challenges with Samba in the past due to it being completely open source and customizable but through the help of this forum and tutorials out there I’ve managed to conquer those problems and make the owner and staff here happy with my work. Now this is my biggest challenge yet. Please send me good vibes that I’m able to do this!! I won’t to do what I’ve done in the past and conquer this problem and make everyone at the restaurant happy with my service. As much food as I’ve bummed and the owner is writing me a nice big check I need to be able to do this! So I can add it to my list of dragons that ive conquered and put it on my resume so I can try to get other local restaurants and businesses using Samba.

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Make sure your server / main system is the most powerful one with most RAM. Different edition and version of OS is convenient but not essential, nothing to say you could have some on Windows 7, 8 and 10 and all working happily.

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Got 6gb ram in main station. It’s definitely a super pc. It had 8gb but I had to borrow 2gb for the 2nd station lol. The main station is also hard wired. The 2nd station is wireless from about 20 feet away. Once we get this server thing figured out were adding a 3rd station.

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You might have been talking about v3… but since v4 SambaPOS has not been open source v5 is not open source either.

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