Can anyone tell me the best way to upgrade version 5 to version 8. I have been warned that this will not work, and I am interested in learning the proper way to proceed.

Thank you for your help!

Brenton:

Welcome to the Forums.

What I believe you are referring to is that the file format has changed, and thus you cannot host FileMaker 5 files on FileMaker Server 8. In order to upgrade to Server 8, you'll have to convert your files (currently in the .fp5 format) to the .fp7 format used in FileMaker 7 and 8. This "migration" process can be quite complicated - it really depends on how complex your solution is - and is not to be taken lightly. There is a tech brief regarding migration at FMI's website at:

http://www.filemaker.com/products/upgrade/techbriefs.html

Depending on your skill level, this is a job you may want to farm out to a pro, as the pitfalls can be quite numerous - again, depending on the complexity of your current solution.

Best of luck.

-Stanley

Go to the FM website and download the migration tech briefs and read them carefully. There is a lot of new stuff and new behaviors in 7/8 that you need to understand before starting a migration.

Also, be careful what SBS features you use. Certainly don't use FMS with Exchange Server. That's a performance disaster.

Also know that the upgrade path from SBS to a real domain server might be difficult, so careful if you want to use External Authentication.