Need to reset admin account for filemaker server 11

[logicline]

Hello,

i am having issues with reseting the admin password following the instruction in the link below

https://support.claris.com/s/article/What-to-do-if-FileMaker-Server-Admin-Console-password-is-lost-or-forgotten-1503692949732?language=en_US

 

I have the issue of not being able to do the third step, that is

3. Restart the fmsadmin process using the following Command Line / Terminal command

fmsadmin restart adminserver

 

because i get the prompt “‘fmsadmin’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.”

 

I do not ave any singificant experience in Filemaker server beyond viewing tutorials, and the server was being maintained by my father who has passed away and all of the passwords were only known to him and not written anywhere.

 

Could anyone please help with this issue as soon as possible, while there is no immediate urgency to access the server, the sooner that everything is reset and secured the company would be able to have a sigh of relief.

 

Best Regards,

logicline

 

 

[Wim Decorte]

in the older versions of FMS, the 'fmsadmin' executable is not on the known path.  So navigate your command line window to where it is (usually something like c:\program files\filemaker\filemaker server\database server\) and execute it from there

[logicline]

Thank you for the reply Wim,

i had been executed the command fmsadmin restart adminserver from the path as you said, and it did this:

Usage: fmsadmin [options] [COMMAND]

Description:

fmsadmin is the command line tool to administer the Database Server component of FileMaker Server installed on the local machine

You can script many tasks with fmsadmin by using a scripting language that allows execution of shell or terminal commands.

fmsadmin HELP COMMANDS

Lists available commands

fmsadmin HELP [COMMAND]

Dispalys help on the specified COMMAND

fmsadmin HELP OPTOINS

Lists available options

Also see "Command line reference" in FileMaker Server Help;

http://localhost:16000/admin-help/en

Copyright (c) 2004-2010 FileMaker, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

 

Additionally, i had installed firefox and tried to go via it to the server and got messages to update the server and Java.

Java is now v8 update 281 and i used the 11.0v5 (https://support.claris.com/s/answerview?anum=11058&language=en_US) to update the server.

Now when i try to start the Admin Console Start Page on Firefox i get this:

The FileMaker Server Administration Console requires Java 5 or later.
Click here to install Java

 

or on chrome i get this:

FileMaker Server Admin Console is starting. The Deployment Assistant will guide you through the remaining steps required to deploy FileMaker Server. Please wait.

Click here if the Admin Console did not launch automatically.

 

When i click on the link in the chrome message i get a admin_console_init_webstart jlnp file that when i try to start gets blocked by Java with a message of "Your security settings have blocked an application signed with an expired or not-yet-valid certificate from running". As for waiting i waited about 10 minutes and nothing had changed in the window.

 

[Wim Decorte]

FireFox is not a supported browser for the FMS admin console, not for those older versions.

The output from the fmsadmin command line shows that the command is recognized, so you're in the right spot to run it.  I don't recall whether FMS 11 supported the "restart adminserver" command so you may have to do "fmsadmin help commands" to get a list and get help on individual commands.

If you installed Java manually then you likely broke a lot of stuff.  FMS has a very narrow window of supported Java versions, see the list here:

https://support.claris.com/s/article/FileMaker-Server-and-Java-Overview-1503693052471?language=en_US

FMS11 is so old that it is not even listed anymore but it does show that your Java 8 is not compatible.  Uninstalling Java is a pain but you'll have to start there if you hope to bring FMS11 back.

 

Your best bet is to completely stop all FMS processes (what operating system is this?), upgrade the files from the .fp7 file format to .fmp12, get a license for FM19 (basic license will get you 5 users and server) and just install the server fresh on a supported OS.

FMS 11 is so old that it will prove to be difficult to run it on any modern OS and hardware and same with the FM11 clients.

[ggt667]

FYI: I have not used any other browser than FireFox since FileMaker went web for admin panel.

Edited April 9, 2021 by ggt667

[logicline]

Hi Wim,

i had left only a java 6 update 37, i am using a windows 7 64bit with 8 gigs of RAM.

So what you are saying is that i can update the FMS form 11 to 19 and somehow update the files from a .fp7 to a .fp12 and that it should work then?

[ggt667]

Personally I'm stuck at FM18S until access is granted to FileMaker's Apache Thrift service for integrations.

Edited April 11, 2021 by ggt667