Review: Access Administration Tool Eases Maintenance, Corruption Tracking

Microsoft Access Advisor Zone

December 23, 2002

The FMS Total Access Admin helps you perform tasks such as fixing database corruption and logging off idle users in order to perform maintenance.

FMS released its new Total Access Admin tool for Microsoft Access. The software lets you perform tasks such as closing a database for maintenance or backups when other users have it open and identifying workstations or users who are corrupting a database.

To use Total Access Admin, you start the program and select a database. You can then do the following:

• Prevent new connections to the database in order to prepare a database for backups, compact/repair, or other maintenance operations.

• Automatically disconnect idle users. Logging users out of a database after a specified period of inactivity makes it easier to close the database for maintenance.

• Identify dropped or suspect connections. A dropped connection to an Access/Jet database can lead to corruption. The Total Access Admin tool finds workstations or users who have left the database in a suspect state, helping you track down corruption issues.

• Send messages to application users. You can communicate in real time with your application users by typing in a message; it appears in every instance of your application. This can be helpful when you're sending update or maintenance/log-out messages, FMS says.

Total Access Admin supports any Access/Jet database created with Access 97, Access 2000, or Access XP. It works as a standalone program and must be installed on a system that has Access 97, 2000, or XP installed. The program does not support ADP/SQL Server projects.

A single license will cost US $199, a five-user pack will be $599, and the 25-user pack will be $1,999. For $149, you can add to or upgrade any FMS Total Access Suite. Examples of other FMS Access tools include Total Visual Agent for automating maintenance chores such as backups, Total Access Analyzer for documenting and analyzing Access databases, and Total Access Detective for pinpointing differences between objects and databases.