Aloha

1. A Day in the Life of Aloha…
The following is a sequential description of what occurs on an Aloha system throughout a
complete day. The actual order entry and sales process has been omitted to maximize the
more important details.
Back Of House Computer (BOH)
The BOH computer is setup as a server (not dedicated; domain controller is not necessary) and is given a
unique network name (usually including the store number) during Windows installation. The directory
above the Aloha directory (it could be the entire drive, or just a folder created before installation- .i.e
EPOS) is shared as BOOTDRV. The server and all the terminals must log in using a Window’s account
that has access to al BOOTDRV shares. Normally, the back office is idle, with only the Aloha Manager
program (AlohaMgr) and Control Service (Ctlsvr) running. The security key must be attached to a parallel
or USB port on the BOH fileserver.
Master Terminal
One of the terminals in the restaurant is designated as the “Master” terminal and has a special role. This
designation is dynamic and invisible to the end user. The master terminal acts as a sort of arbitrator among
the terminals on the network, and manages some important network communication tasks. The FOH (Front
Of House) will not function unless the master terminal is up. The master terminal is elected during
initialization of the FOH software (IBER.EXE). The logic for this election defaults to the lowest numbered
available terminal.
Transaction Log
As each day progresses, transactions are written to a common log located in the DATA subdirectory on the
file server. The log stores all FOH activity that occurs during the current day in a secure format. The log
always grows, never shrinks, since new transactions are constantly appended to the log. Every change to
the system is reflected in the log. The log provides a natural audit trail for monitoring potential misuse of
the system by employees.
Printer logs
All printing for the current day is stored in printer logs also located in the DATA directory, which function
similarly to the transaction log. Each printer log contains all printing that has been sent to a given printer
on the current day, as well as indicators as to what data has successfully printed. Because of this design,
Aloha cannot “lose” printing. Even if all power is interrupted and every computer reboots, printing will
resume where it left off.
Polling
At user defined intervals, GENPOLL.EXE will run to create polling files for Enterprise.com. These files
contain any new sales and labor information added since the last time the system was polled. These files
are pushed to the data warehouse using the Alohaftp program. After a slight processing time, this new
sales and labor data can be viewed on Enterprise.com. While Alohaftp is connected to the data warehouse,
it looks for any new corporate data updates and, if any exist, downloads them to the store to be processed at
End of Day.
.
End of Day
The End of Day (EOD) process is a simple procedure that closes out the sales for a day’s business and
starts the new day’s business with a fresh log. The EOD process is normally scheduled to occur every day
at a certain time, usually late at night after the restaurant has closed. However, EOD may be run at any
time using the manager EOD function, from either the back or front of house.
1

2. The master terminal performs the End of Day process; therefore the master must be running. No BOH
programs are involved. EOD will not be held up due to servers not clocking out or with open sales. Any
open sales are closed out to cash, and all employees are automatically clocked out. Virtually the only
reason EOD fails is when the file server runs out of disk space or an external reason such as a loss of
network stability or power.
The following sequence of events occur at EOD:
An EOD marker file is created, ALOHADATAEOD, which causes all non-master terminals to go
down until EOD completes.
All open sales are closed to cash and employees are checked out, then clocked out.
A dated subdirectory for the current date of business (as read in ALOHA.INI) is created; i.e.,
ALOHA20040115 (in American date format).
The transaction log is copied from the DATA subdirectory to the dated subdirectory.
All system configuration files for the current day are copied from the DATA subdirectory to the dated
subdirectory.
If the copy was successful, the printer and video logs are deleted from the DATA subdirectory.
The LCK files, all TXT files and various CFG files are deleted.
Various data files are updated based on the day’s business, e.g., the employee file is updated with any
employee passwords which have changed, house accounts are updated with charges for the current
day, and DOB is calculated and adjusted.
Procrecs.exe runs and adds any corporate updates to the database in NEWDATA.
All system configuration files from NEWDATA are copied to DATA (a refresh).
When the entire process above has succeeded, a DONE30 (zero bytes) marker file is created in the dated
subdirectory to indicate that EOD completed normally and successfully.
The EOD marker file is deleted, allowing the terminals to return to normal operation, wherein they read the
data files again in the DATA subdirectory.
After reading the data files, the master terminal attempts to read the TRANS.LOG, and, finding that it does
not exist, creates a new one.
Since the date of business increments each time EOD is run, EOD should never be run more than once per
day. If the user runs EOD more than once per day, the date of business may be incremented into the future.
This has some unpleasant effects, namely that sales will report as the wrong day of business (which is now
in the future). Setting the date of business backwards is an involved process requiring Technical Support,
thus it is strongly recommended that users not run EOD manually, but instead allow the system to run EOD
automatically each day.
IMPORTANT!!! The EOD process should take not longer than a few minutes to complete.
Typically, there are only a few reasons that the EOD could fail:
The hard drive has run out of available space
Network communication has failed. In this instance, EOD will still complete but the dated
subdirectory will be created on the master terminal instead of the fileserver.
Faulty power
The DOB is not properly coordinated with the system date
The master terminal has been shut down
Aloha Manager Program
The Aloha Manager program (ALOHAMGR.EXE) is the program controlling the Aloha’s Back of House.
From the Aloha Manager program, the user can start and stop the Front of House, run reports, configure
POS data and perform other system functions. The Control Server program (CTLSVR.exe) monitors the
2

3. system and makes sure that the transaction log is mirrored in ALOHADATAMIRROR.LOG. The mirror
log functions as a backup in case anything happens to the regular transaction log. For this reason, and
others, Control Service should always be running.
Grinding
The Grinder, GRIND.EXE , is a BOH program which reads the transaction log for a given day of business
and creates a series of openly accessible DBF files which contain all relevant information for the day’s
business. This program insulates other system components from the need to understand the transaction log.
The Grinder normally is invoked automatically by the CTLSVR.exe program within 30 seconds following
a completed End of Day. If the Grinder is successful, it creates a marker file, GNDDBF30.XXX (zero
bytes) in the dated subdirectory where it created the grind files.
IMPORTANT!!! It is imperative to understand that the EOD and the grind are two completely separate
processes! In the event that the grind program is not successful, all terminals, along with the file server,
will display a message saying “Waiting to Grind 2004XXXX”, and they will appear to be frozen. By
definition, there is no way a grind could be automatically launched if the EOD has not successfully
completed.
Typically, there are only a few reasons the grind fails:
CtlSvr has been stopped on the BOH.
The “Disable Auto Grind” flag has been turned on.
The hard drive has run out of available space.
The TRANS.LOG or a DBF file has been corrupted.
The security key is missing
Reports
The report program RPT.EXE generates standard system reports in the store. The report program is
launched from the Aloha Manager program. Reports can be printed on most printers supported by
Windows, and can be viewed on screen before being sent to the printer. During the creation of a current
day report, grind will run to ensure that the report contains real-time data.
Reports can also be viewed in Enterprise.com. The ability to view certain reports can be changed by an
individual’s log in. Data can be configured to be viewed by store, store group, region, or for the entire
enterprise.
3