Filemaker Server 5.5

Apr. 12, 2005

Peter Trist

In your followup Kim Kohen mentioned experiencing problems with FMS 5.5 under OS X. As a FileMaker developer who shares responsibility for the smooth and reliable running of ~20 FMS [5.5] units around the country (Australia) we have found the following to be the best an most reliable setup.

The Filemaker Server folder / application should 'live' in the default 'Application' Folder - no where else. Regardless of this, its priviledges must be set to drwxrwxrwx (777) or in layman's terms read/write/execute for Owner/ & Group & Others.

The 'data' folder can 'live' in the FMS Folder or anywhere on the SAME computer. If not in the FMS folder place an alias to the data files [NOT a symbolic link] in the FMS folder. Again, privledges are very important for this folder - they should be the same as those detailed above for the server folder.

The 1st level 'backup' folder should live on the SAME computer, preferably on a 2nd hard drive, but at the very least on a different partition to that of the OS and or data folder. Privledges on this folder MUST be set as above or you WILL get intermittent FMS server run auto-backup results.

From this 1st level backup folder make additional backups anywhere else you like using the backup software of your choice.

Notes: 
I don't know why not doing it this way sometimes 'breaks' the backups, but it does, sooner or later. If for some reason you have to reset the backups;

1. DELETE them ALL from within the FileMaker Server Schedule window.
2. Quit FileMaker Server.
3. Remove & Delete the file
4. ~/Library/Preferences/com.filemaker.filemakerpro.plist
5. Restart FileMaker Server
6. Recreate the backup schedule

Once again I am not sure why, or even if, ALL these steps are required, but I do know that if they are followed I have yet to fail to have reliable backups via FMS.

Hope this is of help to others - we spent a LOT of hours of trial & error working this out.