Client shutdown after backup

[kerrin]

Hey there.

I have server 5 on NT4 and everytime a automatic backup runs quite a few users get disconnected/lose their connection from the server and the have to re-open the databases.... Anyone know what could be going on here? This happens not only on NT4 workstation clients but also, win2k or XP.

Regards,

Akart

[Kurt Knippel]

Just to be clear here, what do you mean by an "automatic backup"?

[DykstrL]

When FMS does it's backup of the open files, the file being backed up at that time is temporarily not accessible until the backup is complete. If a user is connected to that file, they can get either a 'lost connection' message or the squiggly connection pointer until the file is accessible again. If the user tries to launch a script on the server file, they usually will get the 'lost connection' message.

I think FMS is designed this way to protect the integrity of the data during the backup and to prevent any possible corruption.

I suggest that you schedule backups during times the files are not being used - preferrably, or during low usage times if they are being accessed 24/7.

[kerrin]

I mean using the FM Server Backup Scheduler.

Kerrin

[kerrin]

Thanks for the reply.

A shame there is nothing that can be done. Most people get a sqiggle line but others get disconnected. Hopefully this will be resolved in a future patch so that all users receive a sqiggle line.

It wastes alot of time when usres must log back in to the system, opening the 30+ databases again.

I would like to be able to backup at night time but if the server goes down we lose alot of data and recovering the larger files takes 2 hours at best.

The woes of an FM admin.

Kerrin

[Vaughan]

There is nothing to fix: the only other way to back up databases is to down the server completely. Either way the users get disconnected. The system that FM Server uses is ideal. Just schedule the process for a quiet time.

As for opening the 30+ databases, have you tried giving the users an opener script that does all of that stuff automatically? Search the forums for "opener file" for more info.

[kerrin]

Not all users get disconnected. They get a sqiggle and then they can resume work again. However the users that are disconnected must re-open filemaker (which opens all the databases automatically via script) however this is still time consuming and at the least annoying.

Some clients can be in the middle of a replace, loop script or opening databases and still resume after the backup finishes.... I don't think Filemaker intended for clients to be disconnected at all.

Kerrin

[Vaughan]

"I don't think Filemaker intended for clients to be disconnected at all "

So when are the backups scheduled to run?

[dkemme]

I have FMS backup every hour on the hour on my twenty file solution that serves to about 15 machines and have never had a client disconnected. I don't understand why your situation should be different?

[Anatoli]

We have even more guests 50 or near. Sometimes I see in the FM server log, that inactive user was disconnected, but I cannot figure the pattern. Totally random occurrence.

[kerrin]

We process the previous days banking before 11am and we process orders before 3pm, then we import a few hundered orders after 3pm so we run a backup at 11am, 3pm and 9pm.

This leaves two opprtunities for clients to be disconnected during the day. I have put out a memo to ask the problem users not to click a scipt/button just before or during backup. Hopefully this will reduce the "lost connection" problem.

Kerrin

[kerrin]

Can you tell me a bit about your network set up.

What brand of hubs/switchs and NICs are you employing?

Kerrin

[Guest]

In the past i wrote a script "close and open fmp server" that told fmp server to shut down, back up to tape and restart at 2am. This time around, I moved to OSX with mirrored drives and run seven fmp server scheduled backups, one per day of the week at 2am to seven folders named monday, tuesday etc. I use retrospect to encrypt to a file and i burn the file to cdr and take it offsite. It is unlikely that both hard drives will crash simultaneously so that fmp should chug on, data intact. The only gothca would be if someone deletes all records or formats "the" hard drive.

[dkemme]

Be careful running FMPS on or backing up to a mirrored drives. When your solution becomes very large FMPS can run into errors when trying to backup.

[Guest]

Oooh. This i am not happy to hear. Do you know why FMPS runs into trouble? So far the data is only 150 megs. I can attach a external firewire drive for backup. How big can the backup get before i run into trouble?

[jasonwood]

There is nothing to fix: the only other way to back up databases is to down the server completely. Either way the users get disconnected. The system that FM Server uses is ideal. Just schedule the process for a quiet time.

It would be nice if FM Server would simply "inform" the clients that it is temporarily unavailable. Users might see a friendly message informing them that the database is temporarily unavailable, and prevent them from trying to access scripts or other things which could cause the connection to close completely.

When Server is done, the connections could resume immediately.

[Vaughan]

From memory I think you can: in the backup schedule script thingy, there is an option to send a message. It cannot prevent the frorm trying to run scripts though.

Of course, only users logged-in will get the message!

[dkemme]

I have two files that are too large for backup to a drive other than the one hosting the files, one with 332 Mb and 89,000 records, the other is 81 mb with 26,000 records. Seems to be worse with databases with images rather then text data.