I’m wondering if any could suggest what would be the best way to deploy the server for someone like me who is not well-versed in programming but wanna deploy ERPNEXT for a small manufacturing business?
So far, the easiest way I found is to use VirtualBox running the VM created by ERPNEXT awesome team.
Will I face any scalability issues in the future if I use VM?
I guess that depends on your usecase. The VM’s virtual harddrive is of a limited size (don’t know exactly how large/small) which may limit how large you can get. There are ways to make this bigger I assume but those will require some sort of expertise (which you say you may be lacking) to do that.
Also I am not certain whether the VM is production ready in terms of safety if you want to access your ERPNext instance from the internet (rather then just the local Network).
I guess the easiest way to be on the safe side and completely dummy proof would be the cloud offering of service provider’s like erpnext.com or cloude8.com (there may be others I am not aware off).
@vrms Thanks for your help and response.
I was also thinking of the cloud hosting option, but my concern is with customization, specifically regarding custom script reports. My company will need a lot of custom reports, but this capability is disabled by default in the cloud server.
Will it be possible in the future if I wanna move from VirtualBox to a cloud hosting service like Oracle by just exporting and importing the .ova file to the cloud server?
I am pretty certain that Custom Scripts are available as well as Doctype Customizations (custom fields basically) on the cloud hosted version of ERPNext. I am not completely certain what exactly you mean by “custom script reports”.
just a new report seems to be doable as you can see in the screenshot below (which is from an erpnext.com instance
using the .ova file would create a new empty instance. What you’d use is the virtual disk that your instance is running on. I have no idea though which hosting provider for blank servers would allow to bring a virtual dsk image. You also might need to convert is to the matching image format supported by that particular hosting provider.
Also … the security question becomes relevant even more if you host on any cloud server platform. The most common way tp migrate a locale installation to any sort of cloud server would be a fresh installation on that cloud instance where you would restore your database to (which would not allows really any customizations to the core code).
Generally you mention to not have muich techincally expertixe but at the same time to do many customizations (which is a bit contradictory). Maybe it’s worth your while to examine a little whehter the customization you are planning to make are done via the user interface (which, if I am not mistaken equals that they are implemented in the database only and likewise allow to be made on any cloud instance like on aforementioned erpnext.com).
If that is the case any not-so-technical user probably is better of with a hosted instance rather then self hosting (especially if you want to access ERPNext via internet and not solely within your internal company network)
@vrms thanks for the detailed answer and my apology for the confusion with regard to script report.
For cloud user, only Report Builder type is available, which is very limiting in terms of scope. I was referring to Query Report where we can pull data from different tables. This cannot be done on the cloud hosted version.
I see. I’m afraid my knowledge about reporting is way too limited yet to go into more detail with this.
If you can, I would probably stick with a local installation (maybe from the standard .ova file) available to your internal network and not open it up to the internet as long as u have not gained sufficient expertise to securely manage a cloud server yourself (or hire someone to do it for you).
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EDIT: are you certain what u say (“Query Report […] cannot be done on the cloud hosted version.”) is actually true? I can at least select “Query Report” as report Type on my cloud instance (see below)
You can select and actually write the query report, but when trying to save it, a dialogue will come up and says: Only Administrator is allowed to save report.
Hi @Ratanak,
quickly stepping in on the reporting: query reports can only be changed with the Administrator login. Script reports are based on server-side code; both can be easily done with a custom app, which however, is not supported in the cloud version.
Therefore, your options are really using the VM (even the HD can be extended later on) or using the easy install script; you do not have to be a developer to use the easy install script, simply refer to GitHub - frappe/bench: CLI to manage Multi-tenant deployments for Frappe apps
After that, you have all customisation options available, including script and query reports.
so both, Script reports & Query Reports are not available to cloud users (erpnext.com), thus far. correct?
As far as I understand (and considering ERPNext v10 as reference), yes.
So there are a number of sites that guide you through a deployment of a production Frappe/ERP Next installation. These are listed below.
https://frappe.io/docs/user/en/bench/guides/setup-production.html
There are a couple of options for Hardware too. 2nd Gear is a great place to buy refurb production hardware
from off lease corporations. As an alternative Tiger Direct has some options on this too. My advice would be to look at sites like these, and follow the instructions to install ERPNext. If you need further help this forum is a great place.
