SERVER 18 CRASHING

[John F]

Hello,

I have a FileMaker server 18 installation that’s crashing about once a week. When I look at the event log for the time of the crash. I see client 1 not responding, client 2 not responding etc. until all clients are disconnected.  All databases show as open in the server console. From a client PC no open files are listed for the host. If I telnet to the server from a workstation on port 5003 a connection can’t be established.   Stopping and starting the database server does not help. Restarting the FileMaker service does not restore operation. The server is still communicating with the network. I can open a web page or browse other computers on the network. Restarting the Windows server restores normal FileMaker operation. My environment is as follows:
Windows Server 16 Standard Edition dedicated FileMaker server.
8 GB memory
80 GB RAID disk drive (40 GB free)
Indexing turned off
No third party backup software running
No AV software running
Windows File Sharing turned off for all folders.
Windows Defender Turned off
IPV6 protocol turned off

What we have tried so far:
We replaced the network switch (after the first crash a few weeks ago).
Tested all databases for corruption.
Compacted all databases
Reinstalled FileMaker Server 18
 

Any insights would be greatly appreciated

TIA

John

 

 

[OlgerDiekstra]

Can you open the database on the server itself with Filemaker Pro (client)? (when it's failing).

Have you tried re-installing the OS itself? On other hardware? 8GB memory is about the recommended (not minimum) requirement for Windows, you're running FMS on top of that so adding memory might help. It's possible the system is running out of resources.

Memory is a cheap resource to add, and database servers need lots of it. 80GB diskspace is also minimal. 

[Wim Decorte]

Hopefully the disaster recovery strategy includes not re-using the crashed files otherwise you may be building on one-time or gradual corruption.

The trick is to review the stats.log and the event.log + relevant OS logs to spot patterns.  Could a piece of hardware failing, could be some inefficiency in the solution, could be a bug.  

It's not clear from your description what the 'crash' is.  Is there an event log entry to say that the fms db engine process has unexpected terminated?  Or is it more of a slow hang where everything becomes unresponsive but no process really crashes?

Are there crash dump files in the FMS logs folder?

[John F]

Thanks Wim and Olger for the advice

I downgraded to server 17. It's been over a week and the  server has not crashed again. So I am hoping that the problem is solved...

In answer to Wim's questions
The crash symptoms are:
No server hosted FileMaker files can be opened from any work station on the network.
The list of open host files on every workstation is empty. 
The file status for all hosted files is "Open" in the server console.
No indication on the server console that there is a problem. Other than that all guest were sequentially disconnected because they were not responding.
A telnet session can not be opened to the FM server from any work station
Only a server reboot will restore normal operation

No clues in the Windows Server event logs
No crash dumps
No indication of any hardware failures

The file recovery process indicated no structural changes or errors.

 

 

 

 

[xochi]

Some report of memory leaks in FMS 18:

https://community.filemaker.com/en/s/question/0D50H0000787p8sSAA/filemaker-server-1802217-memory-leak