Install FileMaker Server on Windows 11 on Apple Silicon

[MonkeybreadSoftware]

You like to have a FileMaker Server on the go with your Macbook (Pro) M1 or M2?

Install Parallels and let it install Windows 11. Within the ARM version of Windows 11, you can install FileMaker Pro 19.5 and it seems to work fine. Since there is no native version for ARM64, the application runs in emulation within Windows. 

You can also install FileMaker Server. Running a FMS on Windows 11 and not Windows Server 2016 or 2019 is not really supported, but can work. The installer will complain about missing Internet Information Services and Application Request Routing. But you can go on one of the Microsoft websites and download the Application Request Routing installer and install it manually. I used the "Install this extension" button on iis.net/downloads/microsoft/application-request-routing website.

Once this is installed, the FileMaker Server installer runs through without complains. After a restart, we can open the console and see the server running:

 

MBS FileMaker Plugin works fine and you can use the function SystemInfo.WindowsMachineInfo to query the machine info. This will tell you the architecture:

{
  "ProcessMachine": "AMD64",
  "NativeMachine": "ARM64"
}

The current process uses AMD64, e.g. x86 instructions, but runs in emulation on a native ARM64 CPU.

Good to know that we can have a test server locally on the go to try things. On the long run, we hope Microsoft will provide Windows Server for ARM CPUs and Claris can provide their server for Windows ARM. Best would be one installer to install the right version for the current Windows variant.