FileMaker Server Admin Utility issue

[agutleben]

I recently installed FileMaker Server 7 on a Mac OSX G4 Dual 1Ghz with 2G of RAM. I have everything running perfectly, well almost everything. My issue is when I try to use the FM Server Admin Utility remotely. If I am on the local network, the admin utility works fine from a workstation, and it also works from the local machine (server). As soon as I am off site, I do not have any luck. I get a message the a connection failure has occured. Has anyone run into this issue? I have opened the following ports at the router in association to FileMaker's access:

25003

5003

Any ideas, or has anyone else had this issue? Thanks in advance.

[Martin Brändle]

We have the same issue here with FMS7A on OS X server. Closed ports also came first to mind. However, our network services say that not any of the ports are filtered on our network, we don't have the firewall activated, therefore it must be something different. A bug?

Martin

[DykstrL]

Unless your company has a registered (assigned) IP range (an IP address is assigned to each computer the same as a web server), you have to setup your firewall to redirect the FileMaker ports to the server internal IP address. Then from outside, you use the WAN IP address of your network - that then gets redirected to your server.

If you are using a VPN connection, you have to setup a port redirect to the FM port then to the server IP as the VPN is using another port that Filemaker will not recognize.

If your internal IP addresses start with 192.xxx.xxx.xxx, you do not have a registered IP range.

I hope I haven't confused anyone...

[agutleben]

I have already mapped any necessary server traffic from the public IP to the internal IP of my server at the router and through our firewalls. This has worked for everything else I have setup including remote server administration and FileMaker database access. The only thing that is not working is the FM admin utility. I did not find anything about any other ports, but I am wondering if I do not have a port opened that I need. Allong with that, I do not see a section of the FM server admin to allow for entering an IP unless it is a local IP, or a server using LDAP, which we are not.

[DykstrL]

I think you also need to redirect/open port 2399.

[Martin Brändle]

We have the following config:

2 servers, each 2 network cards

server1 as database server, server 2 as web server (WPE + Apache)

network <- registered IP address1 - server1 - 193.168.0.1 <---> 193.168.0.2 - server2 - registered IP address 2 -> network

All ports should be routed on the network, no firewall enabled on both servers.

I can admin server1 from server2 via the internal network with the server admin tool.

I can't admin server1 from outside. E.g. I can connect with server admin tool, but I never get the password dialog, and after a timeout, the server disconnects. It seems that the password dialog answer is sent to the wrong network card, not to the one where the call came in.

Solution for the above behavior?

Present workaround: ssh login to server1, use the command line admin tool of FMS7 :

/Library/FileMaker Server 7/Tools/fmsadmin

for help:

fmsadmin HELP OPTIONS

fmsadmin HELP COMMANDS

Worked for me recently, when I had to open a DB remotely.

Martin

[DykstrL]

It seems there may be bugs in the admin utility. check this thread:

http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=139670&an=0&page=0#139670

[Martin Brändle]

No, VPN as hinted by Wim Decorte did not help. It must be a bug.

Martin

[agutleben]

Thanks DykstrL. I did come across this post several days ago, and left a link back to here. I have also sent some communication to FileMaker. I will post when I get a response.