fms 5 and Windows 2003 Server question

[Dan Gronwald]

Since Filemaker website doesn't have any information about Filemaker Server 5 anymore I'm not sure what Server OS is supported by Filemaker Server 5. Does anyone know if fms 5 can run on Windows 2003 server?

thanks in advance,

Dan Gronwald

[email protected]

[Zardoz]

I found a reference just a day or so ago on the www.filemaker.com.au website that indicated that FMS 5.0 was certified for Windows NT Server when it was initially released. The same reference indicated that FMS 5.0 would soon be certified for W2K Server. However, I cannot find this reference again!

As far as I can determine, FMS 5.0 was never certified for W2K Server. The last updater that I could find a reference to was for FMS 5.0v2 which was released 2000/05/25, but I didn't see anything in the release notes for the updater to suggest that FMS 5.0v2 was now certified for W2K.

I think what probably happened is that FileMaker decided not to certify FMS 5.0 for W2K because they were ready to release FMS 5.5, which was logo certified for W2K. I believe the release date for FMS 5.5 was 2000/05/26.

I believe that the only FMS products that are logo certified for W2K3 Server are FMS 7.0 and FMS 7.0 Advanced.

There does appear to be a conflict between earlier versions of FMS (including 3.0, 5.0 and 5.5) and post-NT versions of the Windows server OSes (including W2K and W2K3) which causes the FMS host to "disappear" seemingly at random. The conflict occurs during the UDP discovery phase when a FMP client is first attempting to discover and connect to a FMS. When the conflict happens, no new clients can connect until the FMS service is restarted. The problem seems to be related to random network delays which delay the receipt by FMP clients of UDP response packets from the FMS. If you have remote clients on your network, then this problem may be something for you to be concerned about, although there are reports of this happening in the absence of remote clients as well. However, if your clients are FMP 5.x or 6, then it looks like there is a possible solution involving blocking UDP packets altogether from reaching the FMS. Further details are available in the "It Happened Again: Lost Host on Network" discussion.

[transpower]

Windows Server 2003 can use Compatibility Mode to run applications made specifically for Windows NT or Windows 2K. So, the chances are excellent that FileMaker Server 5 will run in Windows Server 2003.

[Zardoz]

Just a heads up that running FMS 3.0v4 on W2K3 in compatibility mode for Windows NT did not solve the problem of the disappearing host. This problem seems to be related to differences between NT and W2K3 in processing ICMP messages at the WinSock layer, and apparently running in compatibility mode does not restore the original NT behaviour in this respect. This is not to say that compatibility mode will not solve this problem for FMS 5.0, but my guess is that it won't.

I believe TransPower is right in stating that FMS 5.0 will likely work just fine on W2K3. However, one caveat should be added: a low-delay network that can reliably deliver a UDP response from FMS to an FMP client anywhere on the network within 1 second is required in order to avoid generation of the ICMP port unreachable messages. The evidence suggests that if one client anywhere on the network fails to receive a response to one or both UDP packets within 1 second, the FMS host will randomly disappear.

[laker_42]

Yes, FMS 5 can run on Win 2003 server. We had 3 running in production with no problems.

John