VolkerKrambrich

What you want to do: Inside the standard folder for FileMaker Server backups, do create a folder and name any way you like it - "MyCopyForRemoteSite". Now create a schedule in FMS Admin Console to save your database file(s) once a day into that folder, keeping only one version (meaning overwriting the contents tomorrow.) Now you have the folder where to look for data from you system script; that script will first prepare, then push (copy) the data to the remote site. In my scripts. I first copy data to my work directory, then use zip with the options -rj (r traverse directories recursively, j junk, no directories included) and *.fp7 for the file mask. Voila, in the resulting archive.zip are only the files included; no timestamped folders. Make sure to rename the archive.zip or do whatever find appropriate to identify todays' copy from yesterdays'. Regards Volker

Jorge, on an x-serve with MaxOS server, go to terminal, run the commands (fmsadmin...) to check the FileMaker server status, then stop the server. (user and password detection as described yesterday). This advice was given by Steven already. If you do not have the user/password, got to your backup folder (default Macintosh HD/Library/FileMaker Server/Data/Backups/) and check for the latest copies. If you cannot stop the FileMaker Server your databases might by corrupt after you forcefully shut down the service. Now either stop FMS processes via the Activity Monitor and deinstall. You certainly want to stop the whole server for a reboot. After deinstallation the above mentioned Data directory will still be there, but only the files in the Backups directory were closed properly. Good luck Volker

I am not quite sure now wether we're talking about the same thing. 1) You have one physical machine with one virtual machine; win svr 2008 R2 installed on both. From the side of the running win2008 svr on VM viewed, this is a closed, one machine installation. Then you put another VM on the same physical machine. Make sure that the undelying hardware is performant! If you place more concurrently running virtual servers here, they conquer and fight for CPU time. MS Exchange server can be demanding! And if the FileMaker Server in the first machine (which is in fact another piece of of software, fighting for resources on a system that is not designed for realtime processing [the underlying Win2008Svr]) gets interrupted to long, users will experience a loss of connection; just as with inappropriate VMware backups with snapshots. 2) you can install FMS that way, that custom web publishing is supported (you'll need FMSA for IWP). Just as option when installation is finished and you start the setup with the deployment assistant. FileMaker will hook up to IIS or Apache web servers, only those two are supported. It is important that the web server is up and running when you do this deployment. I therefore recommended setting this up first. Yes, you would have all services on one machine – but there is no need to have any other website but the material you need for showing your one layouts' data. If you put the web server on another machine, which is called 2-machine-deployment of FMS, you might run into more trouble with virtual machines. (Currently I am fighting with an installation like this; seems to work with lots of Voodoo and is sure not supported by FMI). Especially dangerous: two VMs on one hardware, sharing the load of FMS "worker" and "master". The only real reason for the 2-machines is either sharing heavy loads on two (physical) machines or separation of functionality over long distance (crossing networks, having DMZs) with the latter being often difficult to get going. Did I get you right? Volker

Hi, what you want to do is basically looking at the number as a string of digits, than beginning from the right end, take three digit, put a comma in front, then take the next bunch of max. three digits and so on. This might need some checking of boundaries, like number less than 1000 etc. To get you started have a look at Brian Dunnings collection of calculation algorithms at http://www.briandunning.com/filemaker-custom-functions/recentlist.php search for "number formatting". If the only place where you need this is the layout, you could also FM built in formatting. Put a merge-field into a text on the layout, like " <> characters." and choose the appropriate number format for that object. Volker

...another reason could be that access via server admin console was restricted to certain IP addresses or the local network. See server "configuration:general:admin console" in the server settings in admin console (for those who have access). Regards Volker

Matt, you were originally writing about a worker that was not in the list – did a 2-machine deployment work the way you describe?? On one machine I can understand the impact of unplugging from the network, but with the relevant webserver on another machine? Wondering, Volker

Well, as said, FMS9 will eventually not work with Win Svr 2008. FMS11 in a one machine deployment works just fine. No adjustments needed. If you want to use Apache instead of IIS, install and configure and test that before any FMS installation. I just ran quite many tests both on the original "hard pressed" CD version without update and with all Microsoft recommended updates (as of 20. June 2010) installed. No problems. But off course, FMS runs as 32bit service. To my knowledge there is no document from FileMaker regarding any patches. When data is so important and confidential, do not share via HTTP! Make sure access is secured to the server room. If that still is not safe enough, you can use plug-ins to encrypt the data before storing it in the database. But be aware of the overhead. Each clients needs to share the plug-in for decryption. Regards Volker

In FMS9 there is a little security hole that you might be able to exploit. Go to the server log and look for the entries where the server started last. In the middle of the part where all the parameters of the current installation and setup are reported you find the information about admin name and password. Regards Volker Re: I am talking about the FMS log, not the MacOS Server.

Hello DrewAngell, the first thing that comes to mind is file corruption. As you mentioned in another thread you are aware of the basic rules of closing down files correctly before moving them from server. In the backup schedule(s), do you check the files' health? What is in the protocol? Turn on the access protocol in server admin, try to connect and look for the event in the log file. If you take the file local on MacOS, can you open the file with full access? If you make a clone as part of server schedule, can you access that clone if taken local? (Here could be the cure: take the clone and import the data). Regards Volker

Thank you Wim for chiming in! Yes, IIS seems to work ok. I put a .php test file into wwwroot and the response shows the FileMaker deployed PHP engine working. No, no other sites. The server is solely dedicated as a WPE companion to publish an interface to the organizations' scientific publications. Volker

Thank you, Steven, (in fact, I thought I was on this forum, but needed to re-enrôle) yes, anonymous acces is on. We can get to the main page through browsers; we can even enter /fmi/iwp which usually results in the IWP homepage being displayed. Here we get an completely empty page returned, i.e. the HTML code consists of wellformed html, with header etc. but no contents besides the tags... Very strange and completely different from any of the problems reported in the forums. I am having the suspicion that parts of the communication between the servers is not betting back to the worker. When building test installation I could construct a situation, where the worker sends the request to the master (...?-dblinks...), but did not get a response. This resulted in the IWP Homepage displayed, stating "No databases present". To cure this, we made the absolute IP-address available to both worker and master, making sure the master's 'selfconception' of being a.b.c.d was shared with his worker partner. This off course puts extra burden on the construction of DMZ and is not the case for the client. We only have the communication establish via dns-names, resolved to the respective addresses. Perhaps I could clarify the problem a little. Regards Volker

Hi all, I found confirmation in this forum that installing on win 2008 R2 is trouble-borne for some of us. I think I have a new issue to report: 2 machines with same server OS. All FMSA runs fine if deployed under either environment. Making one the worker (with ports & versions checked & confirmed), the other one the master, works somehow as expected. Exception: have to enter the worker's ip address since it is located in DMZ. Deployment then works fine. Services on worker get started as expected. BUT connecting to e.g. FMServer_Sample via IWP fails in a special way: it returns a blank page. That is, no error, but a blank page with HTML header information but no data is returned. IIS is working with isapi filters and connections enabled and checked. Using the same constellation, same setting of Firewalls etc. but having both machines on the same network works fine. It seems that this deployment does not work via any kind of routers?? I am puzzled and the client is getting nervous, has any of you an idea? thanks in advance from beautiful summer in very northern hemisphere, Volker