losing data

[peder]

I'm having a problem with losing data within records after the server crashes.

Some of the data lost is up to a month old. Any ideas on why and is there a way to recover it?

[Vaughan]

The server should *not* be crashing. FM Server is rock solid and reliable.

Is the machine running anything other than FMS -- like file sharing for example?

[peder]

it is not the Filemaker Server program that is crashing, it is the os (w2k server). It is our file and apps server.

[Vaughan]

FileMaker Pro files should *not* be shared through a network volume. As you are discovering, it leads to corruption.

You need to set up box as FM Host, running FM Server (ideally) or FM Pro.

I can't help you with W2K crashing.

[peder]

It is set up as host with FM Server 5.5.

might this be due to memory cache loss when the server crashes?

[stanley]

Peder:

Welcome to the Forums. You can open your files in FMPro locally on the server (make sure to shut the FMServer down first) and try to "recover." If you get your data back, you'd have to import it into a previously saved clone of the file in order to insure the stability of the file - recovered files are generally still corrupt in one fashion or another.

Although it is too late for data you've already lost, in future you want to make sure you back up as often as possible. In my clients' FMServer solutions, there are automated daily backups made (in the middle of the night) to two different external drives, and a weekly CD is burned as well. The weekly CD is stored off-site in case of a major catastrophe.

-Stanley

[peder]

That is already set up. However, when I go to the backups the data is not there as if the data entered is not getting to the datbase file.......

[stanley]

Peder:

That's strange. What version of FM Server are you using?

-Stanley

[peder]

5.5

[stanley]

Peder:

Do the automated backup files exist? Or is there nothing in the specified backup directories at all? If the files do exist, did they ever have data in them? The one problem with the automated backups is that each backup writes over the previous backup - this is why you've got to also burn backup CDs, or manually transfer backups to another location...

To go back a bit, you wouldn't lose that much data from an OS crash - the FMS cache gets flushed regularly, and everything is stored fairly promptly to disk. As Vaughan pointed out, you really shouldn't be using FM Server on a machine that has file sharing turned on, and a possible reason for your data loss is corruption due to a user accessing the files via OS file sharing, rather than via FM Server...

-Stanley

[peder]

I found that the cache flush setting was not on..... I now have it set to flush every hour.

the files are hidden from file sharing, they can only be seen through the FM Server