I've recently changed from OS9 to OSX for my FM Server. I've had nothing but headaches.

1. (I'm just wyning here) How to get into the remote admin is not clear, the manual did not help.

2. (Real problem) Of the 60 or so databases regularly hosted, one always becomes un-hosted for some unknown reason. At least once a day I get call from someone trying to use it, and find its gone offline.

3. (Yet another real problem) I am using 5.5v1. I tried the 5.5v2 updater but when I ran it, it failed -- at the end of the update, it would say "Update did not complete because of an error". After that the server would launch but never start hosting files. I had to reinstall.

4. (More wyning) I must say that FMI OSX versions are crappier than the OS 9 versions. FM 5.5 Pro, Developer, Server are really buggy and unpolished.

I'm really really hoping a new version will comes along soon. We've been running it for quite awhile now, and recently (past week or so) more and more problems are happening. Backups that used to be flawless are no longer working, even though absolutely nothing has changed on the server itself. Server is having problems even opening up at times. The only variable I see is an increase in served file sizes, but who knows what the real issue is. FMI needs desperatly to come out with a stable, robust, and applescriptable OS X solution and quick!

One more whine for ya!

If you are backing up to an external drive (say firewire) and it is not present, FM Server will create a new directory in the /Volumes directory called whatever your drive was and start trying to back up there. Funny how sometimes it won't back up at all and other times it goes behind your back making directories and copying files off to it. We did not realize our drive was not there, since everything worked as normal for a few days until our drive filled to capacity and which point backups failed and files were shuffled around and lost. ACK!

1. How to get into the remote admin is not clear, the manual did not help.

Turn on the allow remote adminstration in the application preferences of the FM Server Config application. [seems like this should be on by default since you can't administer locally.]

2. (Real problem) Of the 60 or so databases regularly hosted, one always becomes un-hosted for some unknown reason. At least once a day I get call from someone trying to use it, and find its gone offline.

Has the file become corrupted? Open or try the recovering the file using FM Pro. Check the sharing status of the file. Check the number of files hosted limit in the application preferences.

Has the file become corrupted? Open or try the recovering the file using FM Pro. Check the sharing status of the file. Check the number of files hosted limit in the application preferences.

Nope, its usable when it is online so it can't be currupted.

Tthe max files is set to 120 which is more then enough. Which reminds me, when I first set the server up, I didn't have it that high, and tried adding files, some wouldn't come up. Turn out it was the max file limit, but it never gave an error message or anything to tell me that. (how about it FMI?)

Eric, this all sounds familiar, here's our fix....we went back to OS9. We set up an old G3 powerbook and everything is back to normal now. It seems FM just doesnt care about these issues. I suspect they may be fixed in the next payed release but after all this time I seriously doubt they will do anything about it in current versions. I can say that if it was'nt for our investment in development over the years with FM we would have dumped them, nothing but dissapointment and a giant step back with OSX versions.

Yes, its a shame. Too bad we have no reason to upgrade. To upgrade our 30 or so user license, would cost tens of thousands of dollars. 5.5 -> 6 there is no point.

Whch reminds me, 5.5vX to 6.0v1 had a bug where when you opened a file from the Finder, FM would launch but not open the file if it had a password. Is that still there is 6.0v4?