1. Jason Schultz
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Thursday, 2 July 2020 20:10 PM UTC

Hi. Our current development environment is currently being migrated to AWS cloud. Instead of using PB installed on local workstations, developers will be working on Windows 10 instances within Amazon EC2. We're currently using PB2017R3, but will soon be upgrading to PB2019 (or even the CloudPro bundle). Our current license is the Online variety, so I think we're good there in anticipation of using in virtual/cloud-based. But within the 2019 licensing documentation, under Appeon License and User Account information, it has a note section at the bottom stating the following: 

The virtual machines certified by Appeon include VirtualBox, HyperV, VMWare, KVM, and Virtual_PC.

Do we need to be concerned about AWS EC2 not being mentioned? Will it still work, maybe not officially supported? 

A link to the page:

https://docs.appeon.com/pb2019r2/appeon_license_user_guide/ch01s02.html 

I appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
Jason

 

Jason Schultz Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Tuesday, 14 July 2020 13:01 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

Hi. Thanks again to everyone who responded, I appreciate the input. I did have a revision to my original question/post. I mentioned that developers would be using Win10 instances within Amazon EC2. Instead of Win10, we were also given the option to use Windows Server 2016 instead. Do you recommend using the PB IDE within Windows Server 2016? I noticed within the installation guide for 2019R2, it only mentions Windows Server 2016 for runtime (not the IDE).

I also did a quick look across the developer forum looking for reported issues. The only one I noticed so far was that there was a resize event issue with Windows Server 2016 (but didn't happen on Win10). 

Here's the Install Guide link:

https://docs.appeon.com/pb2019r2/installation_guide_for_pb/ch01s01.html

Any advice would be recommended. Wanted to relay any guidance to our Sys Admin folks.


Thanks,

Jason

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  1. mike S
  2. Tuesday, 14 July 2020 13:18 PM UTC
the vast majority of developers use windows 10 to run the IDE. why would you want to run on something else if you have the option of window 10?



  1. Helpful
  1. Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  2. Tuesday, 14 July 2020 13:34 PM UTC
Definitely use Windows 10 for the IDE if you have a choice!
  1. Helpful
  1. Jason Schultz
  2. Tuesday, 14 July 2020 13:38 PM UTC
Thanks Mike. I totally agree that using Windows Server goes against the grain and is outside the 'norm' for a development environment. My preference is to utilize Win10 (less risk). Our System Administrator team already has instances of Windows Server 2016 built, so I think they were hoping we could utilize those vs. the additional time/labor/cost of spinning up the Win10 variety. Regardless, I wanted to perform some due diligence prior to making any final choices. My personal preference is to use Win10 because it is the safer choice. Being that there might be some grey areas, why risk an issue/incompatibility after the fact. Chances are the time spent troubleshooting/refactoring code/unit testing/etc will take up more time/money vs. the initial cost of the additional Win10 instances (just my opinion), but not my decision.

Thanks,

Jason
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Miguel Leeuwe Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Tuesday, 7 July 2020 14:20 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 2

This is the code you can apply in the datawindow's "other" event, to get around the scrolling bug when working on remote:

CONSTANT uint WM_MOUSEWHEEL = 522

CHOOSE CASE message.number
	CASE WM_MOUSEWHEEL
		// v1 and v2, mjl, 13/04/20: Since win8 and w10 totally ignore the mouse settings when working remotely, I've re-introduced the code to scroll:
		// First check the user isn't "zooming" by using CTRL+mouseWheel:
		IF KeyDown( keyControl!) then
			RETURN 0
		END IF
		// v1 and v2, mjl, 19/05/20: shouldn't scroll when there's only one row:
		if this.rowcount() = 1 then
			message.processed = true // has to be the last command before doing the RETURN 0
			RETURN 0
		end if

		CONSTANT uint SPI_GETWHEELSCROLLLINES = 104
		CONSTANT Long WM_VSCROLL = 277
		CONSTANT Long SB_LINEDOWN = 1
		CONSTANT Long SB_LINEUP = 0
		
		int li_WheelMouseLine, li_index
		int li_lines

		// external: Function boolean SystemParametersInfoW(uint wActon, uint wParam, REF int pvParam, uint fUpdateProfile) Library "USER32.DLL"
		SystemParametersInfoW(SPI_GETWHEELSCROLLLINES, 0, ref li_WheelMouseLine, 0)
		li_lines = IntHigh(wParam) / 120
		this.SetRedraw(false)
		IF li_lines > 0 THEN
			FOR li_index = 1 TO li_WheelMouseLine
				Send(Handle(THIS), WM_VSCROLL, SB_LINEUP,0)
			NEXT
		ELSE
			FOR li_index = 1 TO li_WheelMouseLine
				Send(Handle(THIS), WM_VSCROLL, SB_LINEDOWN,0)
			NEXT
		END IF
		this.SetRedraw(true) // has to be before setting message.processed = true, if not it makes the message.processed = true to NOT work
		message.processed = true // has to be the last command before doing the RETURN 0
		RETURN 0
END CHOOSE

RETURN 0

regards.

 

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Chris Pollach @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Tuesday, 7 July 2020 12:58 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 3

Hi Jason;

  FWIW: I have been using EC2 instances for running PowerServer for the past 8 years with no issues. During that time, I have also installed PB 2017 & 2019 into a EC2 instance as well and run them with no issues either. EC2 remote access is via RDP. RDP is used by many PB developers these pandemic days to work remotely with the PB IDE. So I do not see any major issues for you using this platform from my experience with EC2's.

HTH

Regards ... Chris

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Jason Schultz Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 2 July 2020 20:35 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 4

Armeen,

Thanks for the quick response and the advice. We'll have a better idea after testing, but first wanted to check and make sure no know gotchas with EC2.

Thanks again,

Jason

Comment
  1. Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  2. Thursday, 2 July 2020 21:24 PM UTC
No known gotchas that I have heard about. :-)
  1. Helpful
  1. Miguel Leeuwe
  2. Tuesday, 7 July 2020 14:12 PM UTC
Well ... there is this small scrolling bug, where when working on remote, your scrolling does not reflect your windows settings on amount of lines scrolled per "mouse-wheel-step". But it can be "worked around" by coding the Other event of datawindows.
  1. Helpful
  1. Miguel Leeuwe
  2. Tuesday, 7 July 2020 14:15 PM UTC
Appeon said a few months ago they fixed it, but they didn't.

See https://www.appeon.com/standardsupport/track/view?id=4553

regards
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Armeen Mazda @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 2 July 2020 20:28 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 5

Hi Jason, It should work, but since we haven't tested it so we cannot list it.  If you find it doesn't work, I would recommend considering deploying with PowerServer 2021.  PowerServer 2021 gives you a desktop cloud app, supports all PB features, and can be deployed with leading cloud providers (AWS, Azure, etc.) or even serverless (e.g. AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, etc.).  https://www.appeon.com/bundles/powerbuilder-cloudpro

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