updating FMS to 7.04

[jeffer]

Hi,

I've just updated the FMS on our server, and now the server wont startup anymore. I've repaired the privileges and restarted the server a few times.

When you start connecting with the server admin, it doesnt even ask if you want to start up the server. The FM web engine is running though, which makes this an odd problem.

The server is fully updated on MacOS X Server 10.3.9.

Anyone experienced a problem like this?

thanks in advance!

cheers,

Jeffer

[Steven H. Blackwell]

There have been a number of reports similar to this.

You can use the Terminal to start the FMS daemons:

fmserver_helperd start

fmserverd start

There are analogous stop commands as well.

For the WPE use:

sudo SystemStarter start "FileMaker Web Publishing"

There are alos stop and restart commands for the WPE.

HTH

Steven

[CyborgSam]

Is there any info in the log file at /Library/FileMaker Server 7/Data/Logs?

This can be an issue with the permissions in the FileMaker* folders in /Library/Startup Items. Theoretically they should be repaired at startup, I'd manually check them to make sure. In Tiger, the proper permissions for the folders are Owner: system, Read only, Group wheel, Read only, Others: Read only. Items in the folders are Owner: system, Read only, Group wheel, Read only, Others: No access.

[mecchaeric]

So whatever happened, what's the latest? Any fix?

Are there any others that can verify this reported issue or any others. I havent found any other documentation on web, let alone FileMaker's site.

I want to update to FMS 7v4, but am now hesitant.

*Running FMSA 7v3/xServe Dual 1 GHz G4/Mac OS X Panther Server 10.3.9/1 GB RAM

[xochi]

I did the 7v4 update without issue and it's running well.

Note: READ THE README FILE -- it contains some extra steps about manually shutting down server processes before upgrading.

It also explains how you have to update EVERY copy of FMS Admin (the password scheme changed between 7v3 and 7v4).

If you just run the updater w/o following instructions, I can see how it might cause problems.

[mecchaeric]

Man, what problems. I indeed read the Read Me file. However, I'm having issues.

First, I would attempt to access via FileMaker Server Admin, it would tell me server wasn't started, but wouldn't actually let me start it. Yet, fmserverd and fmserver_helperd are indeed running as per Activity Monitor. Yet, databases weren't available.

I repaired perms on startup drive twice and restarted server. That fixed it. However, after another restart, back to same issue. Repaired perms twice again and restarted server again to no avail. Repaired perms three times, restarted and now its working again. However, I noticed Event Log isn't properly logging. It provides date, time and hostname, but no actual action.

To boot, I had issue updating FSA on my workstation, telling me no instance of 7v3 was found. I finally had to physically copy FSA 7v4 from server to my Workstation.

Now, I'm afraid to restart the server, and the Events log isn't logging properly. This 7v4 update is killing me.

[xochi]

Hmm... Are you perhaps in the habit of moving applications around or renaming them after they have been installed?

Sadly, many Mac OS X installers seem to not handle this situation properly, including filemaker. I'd recommend that you leave all FileMaker apps and support files in their default location(s). If you had moved them around previously, you may have created "Frankenapps" that have a bastard combination of old and new components. If so, you may even want to try deleting everything, then re-installing from the FM7 CD and then running the updaters again.

Repairing permissions is a good idea, both before and after each install / updater step.

[jeffer]

After a while we found out what the problem was. Since we use the filemaker webserver, we found out that the webserver and the mail server weren't working as well. After some research, it seemed that the filemaker server 7.0.4 updater ruined the HTTPD config file. It wrote hidden "?" over the whole file, making our server useless.

We replaced the file, added the new filemaker rules and everything worked as normal.

thanks for all the reply's

regards,

jeffer

[xochi]

Wow, weird bug.

Where did you customize your HTTPD file? /private/etc/httpd/httpd.conf ?

If so, you might want to consider customizing the user's HTTPD.conf file, which lives at

/private/etc/httpd/users/username.conf

These user-specific httpd files can, in general, totally override any settings in the master file, and are, in general, not touched by installers and OS updates.

I had a similar problem, every OS update I did would wipe out the customizations I had made in /private/etc/httpd/httpd.conf which sucked... moving the changes to the user's file has made things much smoother.

[mecchaeric]

My httpd conf file seems fine.

Here is my research so far, compared with clone of startup drive made prior to 7v4 update, which I started at ~ Dec 1st 5:15 PM or so:

-I noticed /Library/StartupItems/FileMakerServer and /Library/StartupItems/FileMakerServerHelper directories group was wheel prior to 7v4 update and is now admin. Should it be changed back to wheel? Recursively?

-System log indicates hostname changed from lemon to localhost on Dec 1st at 5:42 PM and then changed back to lemon on Dec 2nd at 3:15 AM. During this time, following line item in System log appears:

=

Dec 1 18:19:23 localhost SequeLink[388] Failed to load configuration file from /Library/FileMaker Server 7/Extensions/Plugins/xDBC Support/cfg/swandm.ini

=

-/Library/FileMaker Server 7/Data/Logs/ and in it, Event.log perms didn't change. Stats running fine.

-/Library/FileMaker Server 7/Data/Databases and it's child directories perms seem unchanged and correct.

-/etc/hostconfig appears unchanged and ok.

-/etc/httpd/httpd.conf appears unchanged and ok.

I'm most curious about the difference in group ownership on the FileMaker StartupItems. Would this even prevent Event.log from logging properly?

I started a paid case w/ FileMaker support, we'll see what they come up with.

Thanx,

Eric