4.7 Share server set up

A share server must be run if multiple interviewing stations are to be run. A share server prevents two interviewers from ringing the same respondent simultaneously, or updating the same record of a data set. A share server achieves this by locking the relevant records in the GEIS data sets while the interview is occurring so that only one person can update them at a time. Consult the SAS/SHARE documentation to determine which communications protocols to use and how to set up a share server.

Once a project is ready to start and has been pilot-tested, its files must be uploaded from the project development area on the network server to the share server. This is done by a program such as that shown in Figure 3. It can also be done by running GEIS on the share server and using the back-up facility (see section 10.2) in GEIS to copy the files.

Figure 3: A program to upload files from the network server to the share server.