FMU & FMS... one machine?

[jasonwood]

What exactly are the benefits to using two machines to host FileMaker Server and FileMaker Unlimited? Performance-wise, I would like to think a brand new Xserve would be able to handle the two of them(?), but what about security concerns?

Can you also clarify my understanding of FileMaker Unlimited? My understanding is that it is basically a more powerful version of the built in Instant/Custom web publishing feature in FileMaker. Is this correct?

Thanks!

[Kurt Knippel]

You NEVER want to run Filemaker Server and a Filemaker client, such as FMU, on the same machine. They will be fighting for the same resources and performance on both will suffer and could lead to file corruptions.

Filemaker Pro's Web Companions allows 10 unique IPs to connect in a 12 hour period, while Filemaker Unlimited allow an unlimited amount of IPs to connect.

[Steve T.]

Sorry, don't know much about Server, but... yeah (sigh), I don't think there really is any difference between regular client FMP and FMP Unlimited except for the 10 IP restriciton being removed and FMP-u comes with stuff like Web Server Connector (which will help on your Xserve rack box if you are going to use Apache to serve the database instead of the Web Companion plug-in).

We used to use FileMaker Pro 4.0 and it worked great with no restrictions (OK it crashed sometimes). When we switched to FMP 5 for some of our db's, we found out the hard way about the IP restrictions from complaining internet users . We went back to 4.0 until we could afford FMP Unlimited 5.5, which we use now. Unfortunately, we have to still use OS9 because of a plug-in, but we want to go completely OS X as soon as we can for increased stability.

As for security concerns, do you mean about people hacking your db's or something else? FMP6 Unlimited will let you hide your CDML code pages to make it harder for people to peep and probe but if you're talking credit cards and stuff, you may want to research Web Server Connector, SSL, and more. I've looked into that kinda stuff but haven't done anything yet.

Ciao for now, ST.