Server Problems. Please Help

[Orlando]

I hope you guys can help.

We are running FileMaker Server Advanced 8v4

The system is constantly slowing down and often grinding to a complete halt, we think we have isolated the cause to users performing finds in certain fields, but this should not cause the system to crash surely.

This is causing severe issues as when it happens everyone using FileMaker is affected.

Looking at the server monitoring software we use, the processor is being heavily hit at the times of slowdown, over 60%, and there appears to be nothing we can do.

FileMaker is serving 86 files, all recently converted single table files.

About 100 users.

Server spec is:

Windows 2003 SP1

2x Intel Xeon 3.40GHZ (HT)

4GB RAM

6400 Controller 192MB - RAID 5 15k disks for FileMaker Only. (75% Read / 25% Write)

6i Controller 64MB - RAID 1 15K disks for Operating System. (100% Read)

FileMaker 800MB CACHE

We have run out of ideas of how to resolve this, and it is causing serious disruption to the running of the company.

If anyone has any ideas on how we can improve things then please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

Orlando

[Steven H. Blackwell]

What exact version of the FileMaker Pro client are you running to access these files? What amount of memory is set to be reserved for cache for these clients?

Steven

[Orlando]

We are mainly using FileMaker Pro 8.5 with the developement team using FileMaker Advanced 8.5. The cache for each client is the default of 8MB.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Change the cache to 12 MB.

You may have some indexing problems with a field that is causing the slow search.

Close the files on the Server via the SAT Tool first. Then stop the server completely. Then open the file is FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Pro Advanced. In Define Database...locate the errant field(s). Turn its index off and then back on. Exit Define database and then exit FileMaker Pro. See if that helps.

Steven

[Wim Decorte]

what does the performance monitoring say? What is causing the degradation in performance? The processor? Open threads? Memory?

[Orlando]

what does the performance monitoring say? What is causing the degradation in performance? The processor? Open threads? Memory?

Where would I find out this information? Is it part of FileMaker Server or another application?

[Wim Decorte]

That's part of the OS. You'll find the performance monitor in the Admin tools.

If you haven't worked with them yet, try and find a good book on the subject.

The best practise is too use the performance monitoring to establish a baseline after you install FMS and everything is working well. When things go wrong you can then compare the current data with your baseline and spot the trends & differences, which will give you an indication of what is wrong.

That and what is in the OS event logs.