Anyone ever figure out why FM Server 5.5 on OS X does not back up files sometimes? We have a dedicated dual G4 running FM Server for users. I have also set up a redundant server that is a kind of lab, to do testing before releasing updates. It sits byself in it's own little network (just connected to one other computer via CAT-5 cable).

Anywho ... the lab set up is exactly the same except it's a single G4 tower. They are both supposed to be backing up files to a fire-wire hard drive and various intervals. The "live" DB does this flawlessly (knock on wood!), but the single G4 hardly ever backs up correctly. And I'll go so far as to take the exact files that were just back up to the "live" DB firewire drive, drop in the lab set up, fire up server and schedule a back-up. I tail the Events.log and nothing! About the only thing it does, is change the schedule display to show the next scheduled back up to be a week away as though it had actually done something.

I have had problems backing up large files with FMServer on OSX to a different volume than the one with the original files and for large files on a RAID drive. Filemaker acknowledges this problem and is working on it but no fix is in place. Could this be your problem because you are backing up to a Firewire device? You could check it by backing up to the same volume that has the files.

Sorry, actually in this case I am backing up to the same drive not firewire. Although I have turned off options in the Systems Config to put the disk to sleep when possible and it seems to be backing up now. I wondered why it always worked when I sat there and watched it back up, but when I scheduled at night, it would never do the back up. We shall see if this is the problem!! Hmmm.. shouldn't cron jobs wake the 'puter back up also?

I always turn of sleeping options in my servers, it drives them crazy if the computer or even hard drive, goes to sleep.

Still seeing the problem again, even after turning off all sleep options. (BTW: It would be nice if in OS X there was one place you could go to turn off all the sleep options... monitor or otherwise). I'm wondering now if it will back-up at all, if no changes have been made to the DB. I'll experiment and get back. Does anyone know about this?